Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 273
January 27, 2015
The new culture war?
The liberal Catholic columnist E. J. Dionne says that the old culture wars are fading, but that a new culture war is taking shape. The new one has to do with battles over immigration and poverty. Complicating those controversies, he says, is that the Roman Catholic church of Pope Francis takes “liberal” positions on immigration [Read More...]
Greeks reject austerity
The economy of Greece has been a basket case, with a national debt that is more than the gross national product, leading to a European Union bailout that has imposed an “austerity” program of slashed government spending, higher taxes, and lower wages. But now the Greeks have voted to end the austerity, going so far [Read More...]
A new Lutheran blog at Patheos
Rev. Jordan Cooper’s blog, Just and Sinner, has moved to Patheos. An AALC pastor (a confessional body in fellowship with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod), he is a fixture at Pirate Christian Radio and Issues, Etc. He is a convert to Lutheranism and tells his story here. This makes three Lutherans on the Patheos Evangelical [Read More...]
January 26, 2015
Taking someone else’s punishment
What would Jesus do? Take your punishment to free you from condemnation. A Saudi blogger has been sentenced to 1000 lashes for criticizing Islamic clerics. So seven religious freedom advocates, including the well-known conservative scholar Robert P. George, are offering to take the floggings in his place. From Princeton professor and others offer to take [Read More...]
Bob Dylan and his interview with AARP
Bob Dylan gives his first interview in three years to the AARP magazine, in which he talks about virtue, God’s leading, and his new album of Frank Sinatra standards. As a teenager, I could never, in my most fevered adolescent imaginations, conceive of that sentence or any part of it being written about Bob Dylan. [Read More...]
Anti-terrorist ally overthrown
The United States lost another ally in the war against Islamic terrorism. The pro-American government in Yemen–which helped us fight the ruthless Yemeni al-Qaida and allowed our drone attacks–was overthrown by Houthi rebels. The Houthi are Shi’ites, meaning they oppose the Sunni al-Qaida and ISIS, but are allied with Iran. Still, they oppose the drone [Read More...]
January 23, 2015
An actor speaks of faith & calling
Whether or not Selma is fair to LBJ, it’s supposed to be a powerful movie. (I haven’t seen it yet. Can anyone comment on that?) And I’m told that the actor playing Dr. King, the Nigerian/British actor David Oyelowo turns in an amazingly good performance. It turns out, Mr. Oyelowo is a zealous, committed Christian [Read More...]
Finding the lost texts of classical antiquity?
The writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans helped form our civilization, and their rediscovery sparked the Renaissance. But many of the writings of the formative thinkers of the classical age have been lost. We only have one-third of the writings of Aristotle, and they were enough to create Western thought, shaping the very way [Read More...]
Republican lawmakers cave on fetal pain bill
The Republicans now control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The pro-lifers who helped win them their majorities were promised a vote on a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, when the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, as well as in many cases surviving outside the womb. The bill passed [Read More...]
A king dies, but the new king has dementia
Saudi Arabia is trying to hurt the American domestic oil industry by pumping so much oil that it drives down prices so as to make fracking unprofitable. And yet, that helps Americans with low gasoline prices. Saudi Arabia is the center of arch-conservative Sunni Islam, but has been a key American ally against ISIS. Saudi [Read More...]
