Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 366
December 17, 2013
Armwrestling and vocation
A Lutheran pastor, Guntars Baikovs, originally from Latvia but a St. Louis seminary Ph.D., has become the Super Heavyweight champion armwrestler–in both arms–in Australia. After the jump, read a news story about him. Notice how he works in a plug for vocation: “In our society we celebrate achievements. That’s good, we need to nourish our [Read More...]
Pro-life victory in Europe
The European Parliament shot down a sweeping pro-abortion law, which would make abortion on demand a human right and require all public health entities to provide abortions with no conscience exemptions. The measure failed for the second time. Grass roots pro-life groups reportedly mobilized public opinion against it. (Have you noticed that supposedly secularist Europeans [Read More...]
Judge rules against NSA surveillance
A big legal setback for the NSA surveillance program: A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the United States is likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found that the program appears to violate the Fourth Amendment [Read More...]
December 16, 2013
The disease of having too much money
A teenager who killed four people in a drunk driving accident was given probation after a psychiatrist testified that he was a victim of his parents’ wealth. The term for this syndrome–the bad effects of having too much money–is “affluenza,” deriving from “affluence + influenza.” This wins the 2013 prize for the Cranach new word [Read More...]
DNA encodes two languages, not just one
Scientists have discovered that DNA contains not just one but two languages, superimposed over each other. They knew about the one that determines how proteins are made, but the other embedded language “instructs the cell on how genes are controlled.” We sure are lucky that random processes led to the evolution of these two languages! [Read More...]
Terrorist targeted Wichita airport
A white, non-Arabic American who converted to Islam by reading jihadist sites on the internet was planning a suicide car bomb attack on the airport where he worked in Wichita, Kansas. Fortunately, his co-conspirator was an FBI agent. I’m scheduled to fly into that airport later this week! Last time I was on an airplane, [Read More...]
December 13, 2013
Church government by the pastor
Continuing our earlier discussion about denominations and non-denominations, we need to consider another factor: church government. Some denominations define themselves not by their theology but by the way they are governed. Presbyterians have a system of elders (presbyters, in the Greek). Episcopalians have bishops. Congregationalists have voters. Other denominations have some variation or combination [Read More...]
Baby Boomers agonistes
It’s almost too easy to make fun of us Baby Boomers. But satirist P. J. O’Rourke, who is one, has a book coming out in January entitled The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn�t My Fault) (And I�ll Never Do It Again). An excerpt printed in the Wall Street Journal had [Read More...]
How the FBI uses hackers and malware
The FBI has some new crime-fighting technology in its collective utility belt. FBI-employed hackers can now infect suspects’ computers with malware that will allow investigators to download whatever they might find. This process, which still requires a court order, takes wiretapping to a new level. From FBI’s search for ‘Mo,’ suspect in bomb threats, highlights [Read More...]
December 12, 2013
Who else should be Person of the Year?
Time Magazine announced its Person of the Year for 2013: Pope Francis. That’s a good and fitting choice. But it is the custom of this blog for you the readers to nominate who you think should be Person of the Year. So who else should it be? (We will adopt Time Magazine rules, according to [Read More...]
