Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 380
October 16, 2013
Women’s hands & ancient art
Look at your hands. If you are a man, chances are that your ring finger is longer than your index finger. If you are a woman, your ring finger and your index finger are probably about the same length or your index finger is slightly longer. Right? This very minor difference between the sexes was [Read More...]
October 15, 2013
“Evangelization” and “Evangelism”
Pope Francis has said that he is against “proselytizing.” But he is also speaking on what his predecessor started, the “new evangelization.” After the jump, some of his remarks on the subject. He is advocating “dialogue with those who do not share our beliefs,” which he has been doing, and projecting “God’s mercy and tenderness.” [Read More...]
Punitive Liberalism
If you watch old movies, read books from the first half of the 20th century, and are old enough to remember the early 1960s, you will recall that New Deal liberalism was a cheerful, optimistic creed, pro-American and working for economic prosperity. After all, liberals from Franklin Roosevelt through Hubert Humphrey were progressives, which gave [Read More...]
Hitting retirement age
When you are young, you want to get older, looking forward to milestone birthdays–16 (I can drive!); 18 (I can vote!); 21 (I can drink!). After that, you don’t particularly want to get older, and the milestones acquire a negative connotation–30 (hippies won’t trust me!); 40 (but what have I accomplished?); 50 (welcome to the [Read More...]
October 14, 2013
Pop sociologist embaces Christianity
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of Outliers and The Tipping Point, works of what has been called “pop sociology” that turn social science research into bestselling books of personal and business motivation. His latest book is David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. In the course of studying underdogs and how [Read More...]
States fare differently under Obamacare
More quirks in Obamacare: The same policy from the same insurer with the same coverage costs $1,800 per month in Virginia, but it costs only $285 in adjoining Maryland. This is because Maryland mandated that all policies cover, among other things, gastric by-pass surgery for obesity. Virginia did not, requiring those interested in that surgery [Read More...]
Midwestern virtues vs. Hollywood star power
Sportswriter Thomas Boswell sees two worlds colliding in the National League playoff between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers: When the Dodgers meet the Cardinals on Friday with the Gateway Arch framed in center field to start the National League Championship Series, we’ll see a clash of baseball worldviews and a collision [Read More...]
October 11, 2013
Duty and Vocation
Reflecting on the beards of the Red Sox made me think about the Victorians and a concept that was a major preoccupation of that era but that is hardly talked about anymore today: Duty. This is not the same as virtue or morality. Rather, it is the obligation associated with a particular vocation. The duty [Read More...]
Get offended
The management of this blog is taking no position on the controversy over the use of Native American references as names of sports teams. This post simply draws your attention to the recent “Style Invitational,” a regular feature in the Washington Post that sets up humorous challenges and asks readers to send in entries. Last [Read More...]
Don’t make eye contact
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” we might say when trying to get through to a child we are trying to discipline. “He looked me straight in the eye,” we might say of someone trying to sell us something. “Keep eye contact,” we might remind ourselves in a job interview. According to the [Read More...]
