Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 284
December 10, 2014
Pun control
The Chinese government is forbidding the use of puns in state-supported media. Alexandra Petri objects. (If you are one of those, like Chinese communists, who can’t stand puns, do NOT read her punitive words after the jump. I invite you, though, to respond in kind in the comments.) From Alexandra Petri, Chinese media banning puns? [Read More...]
December 9, 2014
The Cranach hour of music
When we blogged about the Wittenberg Nightingale, the all-Lutheran online radio channel, the number of listeners shot up into the stratosphere. So founder Lori Lewis said that as a gesture of thanks, she would set aside a block of programming and bill it as “brought to you by” the Cranach Institute! The hour will be [Read More...]
John the Baptizer
The great figure of Advent is John the Baptist. We think of him as that harsh, say-it-like-it-is prophet who ate insects. But what he preached was repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Which he conveyed by baptism. From Rev. James Douthwaite, St. Athanasius Lutheran Church: Advent 2 Sermon: Here’s what often gets overlooked or unsaid [Read More...]
Woes of both the public and the private sectors
Conservatives are skeptical about the government and look to the private sector to solve our problems. Liberals are skeptical about the private sector and look to the government for solutions. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers says that our problem is that BOTH the public sector AND the private sector are dysfunctional. From Lawrence Summers, People [Read More...]
College Football Playoff controversy
This year we will have a college football championship playoff, eliminating all of that controversy over end-of-the-season ratings. So we thought. But there is still controversy about which four teams were selected to play. Earlier last week, Texas Christian University was ranked #3, going on to defeat Iowa State by 52 points. But when the [Read More...]
December 8, 2014
Blog drama
In the earlier days of this blog, we were renowned for the high level of discourse and the friendliness of our commenting community. We had lots of different opinions and different sorts of people participate–conservatives and liberals, Lutherans and Pentecostals, feminists and gays, Muslims and atheists–but with a few exceptions everybody got along. (Remember Little [Read More...]
“No Sacraments, No Protestantism”
Reformed pastor Peter Leithhart says that Protestantism requires a high view of the sacraments. He focuses specifically on baptism and its role in a key Protestant teaching: the assurance of salvation. Peter Leithhart, No Sacraments, No Protestantism | Peter J. Leithart | First Things: A few weeks back, I published a brief essay on Protestantism [Read More...]
Republicans gain another senator
Incumbent Senate Democrat Mary Landrieu lost her run-off election in Louisiana to Republican Bill Cassidy. Part of the reason is that she was abandoned by fellow Democrats, who are now doing to their party what the tea party has done to Republicans, refusing to support the ideologically impure. Now Republicans will have a majority of [Read More...]
Rescue attempt fails
Al-Qaeda in Yemen threatened to execute an American journalist they held captive, so American commandos launched an attempt to rescue him. The operation failed. The captive and a South African hostage were killed. From American Hostage Luke Somers Killed in US Rescue Attempt – ABC News: American journalist Luke Somers was killed Friday during a [Read More...]
December 5, 2014
The all-Lutheran music channel
The multi-talented Lori Lewis has launched an internet radio channel devoted to Lutheran music. That is to say, to 16th and 17th century sacred music with lots of hymns, chorales, and Bach. The channel is called Wittenberg Nightingale, after an epithet for Luther from the poet Hans Sachs, and is a spinoff of Lori’s Katie Luther [Read More...]
