Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 367

Canada is claiming the North Pole

Canada is asserting its sovereignty over the North Pole.  It is claiming that the Canadian continental shelf that extends under the Arctic Ocean goes that far and more.  Canada will be bringing in scientists to testify at the UN to make its case. This would make Santa Claus a Canadian.  Which, I suppose, explains why [Read More...]

NSA is monitoring online games

Apparently terrorists, military operatives, and spies in real life also like to pretend that they are terrorists, military operatives, and spies.  So the National Security Administration (NSA) and the British equivalent (GCHQ) have been monitoring online games and spying on gamers. From Report: NSA spying on virtual worlds, online games – The Washington Post: American [Read More...]

Working on Sunday

Daniel A. Siedell relates the Sabbath, the Gospel, and Vocation: Amazon has just announced that the United States Postal Service will now be making deliveries for the retail giant on Sundays. This has spawned much hand-wringing in the media about the “excesses of consumer demand” and our “desire for instant gratification.” And so it seems [Read More...]

What the NSA can do with cell phone data

He knows when you’ve been sleeping.  He knows when you’re away.  He knows if you’ve been bad or good.  So be  good for goodness sake.  Apparently, Santa Clause works for the NSA.  He also knows who you associate with.  And where you are. This story from the Washington Post (after the jump) tells how the [Read More...]

Signs of being divorce-proof

Here are five bits of social science research that would indicate a person is unlikely to get a divorce.  The post completely leaves out more important factors, such as not believing in divorce and the role of Christian faith.  Still, the list of factors, while on the shallow side, is interesting and amusing.  (But please, [Read More...]

Churches, sects, denominations, and non-denominations

Sociologist of religion Peter Berger (an ELCA Lutheran) discusses the phenomenon of the Sunday Assembly, which we blogged about yesterday.  He said the fact that atheists too are gathering together following the pattern of religious activities demonstrates the almost universal human need to worship (or the equivalent) and to join together with others who hold [Read More...]

The worst obligatory sex scene of the year

One of the banes of contemporary literature, in my opinion, is the obligatory sex scene, in which the aesthetic pleasure of fiction is interrupted with a blow-by-blow description of its characters’ sexual experience.  Setting aside the moral issues of a work aspiring to pornography, these scenes are almost always very badly written, even when attempted [Read More...]

Republicans are now playing nice on the budget

Republicans in Congress tried to cut the deficit by letting the government shut down, being willing to dive over the fiscal cliff, and sequestering expenditures, but those measures didn’t go over very well politically.  So now Congressional Republicans are going along with the Democrats, and they are close to an agreement on a budget deal.   [Read More...]

Sunday Assembly

If you were travelling through Dallas, Chicago , Nashville, Grand Rapids, or other cities in America, Great Britain, or Australia, you might come across a congregation called Sunday Assembly.  That would not be what it sounds like, some offshoot of the Assembly of God.  This is an assembly of atheists.   They meet on Sundays in [Read More...]

A lawsuit against pro-life religions

A woman had a complication in her pregnancy that would normally (by today’s standards) be treated with an abortion, but she was in a Catholic hospital that did not give her that option.  So she is suing the hospital.  But that’s not all. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is handling her case, is also [Read More...]