Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 351
February 25, 2014
The myth of ‘settled science’
Charles Krauthhammer says there is no such thing as “settled science”: “The debate is settled,” asserted propagandist in chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. “Climate change is a fact.” Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge. Take a non-climate [Read More...]
February 24, 2014
“Scare the living daylights out of nonbelievers”
Final: The Rapture is another end times movie. It’s billed as a “Christian horror movie.” The purpose, according to filmmaker Tim Chey, is to “win people to Christ” by scaring “the living daylights out of nonbelievers.” After the jump, I excerpt a story about the movie with various quotations that I put in bold. I [Read More...]
The Lego Movie
From the other extreme of Final: The Rapture, I found myself watching The Lego Movie last weekend. I know. It’s a toy movie. It sounds like you need to see it with a 7-year old. But it is a very funny, creative, intriguing movie. Its theme is, basically, the two different ways of playing with [Read More...]
Split California into six states?
A measure that proposes to split California into six states–since the one has so much diversity that it is “ungovernable”–is actually making headway, with officials giving permission to start getting signatures on a petition to put it to a vote. They only need just over 800,000 signatures. I’d think they could get that in California. [Read More...]
February 21, 2014
Downton Abbey
Yes, I’m a Downton Abbey fan. Of course I am. I also liked Upstairs Downstairs, which pioneered the British period piece about early 20th century aristocrats and their servants. This season’s finale of Downton is this week. (Why do British series have such short seasons? Another of my favorites, Sherlock, had just three episodes!) There [Read More...]
“America is unraveling”
Deroy Murdock plumbs new depths of pessimism about our government and our political system. Does he have a point? From “The United States of Decline,” at National Review Online | Print: America is unraveling at a stunning speed and to a staggering degree. This decline is breathtaking, and the prognosis is dim. For starters, Obama [Read More...]
Gender diversity and language
You thought it was complicated using “non-sexist” pronouns, avoiding the generic “he” for “he or she” or using “they” as a non-gendered singular? Consider the travails of a binary language in a world of 58 genders. From Genderqueer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Some genderqueer people prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns such as one, ze, [Read More...]
“The final episode of the cold war”
Violence is intensifying in the Ukraine, as a truce between pro-Western protesters and the Russian-dominated government fell apart. The protesters are getting weapons and more regions of the country are rising up. Read George Will on the relationship between nationalism, democracy, and communism and on the significance of what is happening in Ukraine. He calls [Read More...]
February 20, 2014
Discovering the novel “The Hammer of God”
Tullian Tchividjian tells about discovering–along with some other evangelicals–the great Lutheran novel The Hammer of God.From Now I See That Which Is Done – Tullian Tchividjian: In my interview last week with my friend Rev. Dr. Matthew R. Richard, I mentioned that one of the books I have read and re-read many times in the [Read More...]
Music and Politics
Music streaming site Pandora is claiming that it can tell how their listeners will vote according to the music they like. They plan to use this information to sell political advertising. Why would candidates buy advertising to attract voters who already are likely to vote for them? At any rate, after the jump, read how [Read More...]
