Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 341

Noah, the Kabbalah, and Gnosticism

If you’ve seen the movie Noah, you might have wondered about where the filmmaker is getting all of that extra-biblical stuff.  Adam and Eve as beings of light?  The angels imprisoned in matter?  Blessings from the skin of the serpent in the garden?  Brian Mattson shows that all of this and more–down to the names [Read More...]

GOP establishment wooing Jeb Bush

A number of Republican leaders and donors–motivated by pragmatism and looking for a candidate who is moderate enough to actually win the next presidential election–are trying to persuade Jeb Bush to run.  Of course, these are the same win-at-any-cost pragmatists who gave us Mitt Romney and John McCain. Whatever the virtues of Jeb Bush, the [Read More...]

Corporations with “values”

Liberals are generally deriding Hobby Lobby’s claim that its religious freedom is being violated by the Obamacare contraceptive mandate.  How can a corporation, they ask, have a religion?  But companies liberals love–such as Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and Whole Foods–make a big point of asserting their “values” (being “sustainable,” helping the environment, treating people [Read More...]

Finding the Holy Grail?

Some historians, on the basis of manuscript and carbon-dating evidence, claim to have identified a particular chalice as the Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper.  The gold and jewel-encrusted vessel is built around a more humble cup that has been traced to the Middle East in the years between 200 [Read More...]

Life’s happiness as a U-shaped curve

When you’re a child, you are happy, but you become less so during your teenage years.  Then you get more and more miserable.  But in your 40′s you bottom out.  Then you keep getting happier.  When you are old, you are happier than you ever have been.  Not only that, the older you get, the [Read More...]

Classical education goes to the movies

Classical education does quite a bit with aesthetics and encourages deep reflection on works of art.  Thanks to James Banks for alerting me to a new website entitled FilmFisher.  It features movie reviews by classical educators and their students, as mentored by the classical educators.  The discussions of the films–which thus far include Noah, 300, [Read More...]

You can now give to as many candidates as you want

The Supreme Court struck down the limits to the number of candidates a person is allowed to give money to and the total amount you are allowed to give.   Left standing is the limit a person can give to one candidate–$48,600–but the law had limited total giving to $123,200.  That meant that a donor wanting [Read More...]

Dark matter and spiritual matter?

Our increasingly weird science now affirms that there is a reality that we cannot see, feel, or perceive in any way.  And yet it makes up 85% of the universe, which it basically holds together.  What does that remind you of? Please note that I am not asserting an equivalence of dark matter and the [Read More...]

Higher taxes if you had wealthy parents

Taxing the wealthy isn’t enough, some are saying.  Let’s tax people who had wealthy parents.  Since children of affluent parents have all kinds of advantages when it comes to educational accomplishments and social mobility, so, the reasoning goes, when they grow up, it’s only fair that they pay higher taxes.  From Yo Jeremijenko-Conley and Dalton [Read More...]

Why many Germans favor Russia

Prime minister Angela Merkel, Germany’s Iron Lady, is leading efforts to stand up against Russia’s incursion against the Ukraine.  But she is doing so against the tide of public opinion in her country.  Many Germans are sympathetic to  Russia out of resentment for America’s eavesdropping on them in the NSA surveillance program! From Anthony Faiola,  [Read More...]