Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 392

From Moral Majority to Prophetic Minority

Russell Moore–identified as one of those mythical “Lutheran Baptists“–is the new spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention on social issues. He is taking a different approach from the conventional political activist on the “Christian right.”  He says that Christians have lost the so-called “culture wars” and that the loss of Christian cultural dominance may actually [Read More...]

Wikileaks, Rand Paul, and abortion

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is championing Edward Snowden and his NSA revelations, says that Republican libertarianism–and specifically Rand Paul along with his father Ron–are the “only hope” for American politics.  He praised their principled stands against drone assassinations and (wait for it) abortion! I’m astonished that the seemingly leftist Assange who is accused of [Read More...]

Christians in Egypt

In Egypt, the military rulers and the democratically-elected Islamists they overthrew are engaged in a bloodbath.  At least 600 people have been killed so far.  The Islamists are taking the opportunity to target Christians along with their property and their churches.  Houses and businesses owned by Christians are being spray-painted with red graffiti to mark [Read More...]

Triumph of the Will

In my book Postmodern Times, I write about how the will has replaced reason in contemporary thought.  In my book Modern Fascism, I discuss  the great filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s celebration of Hitler, The Triumph of the Will, and argue that the phrase encapsulates the philosophy of Fascism. I also contrasted this worldview with that of [Read More...]

Rule of Law vs. Rule by Decree

We have discussed the president’s bad habit of ignoring or even altering laws that he finds inconvenient.  Charles Krauthammer catalogs just how many times and to what extent he and his administration have done this. From Charles Krauthammer: Can Obama write his own laws? – The Washington Post: On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder, a [Read More...]

The two paths for Democrats

We talked about the two paths for Republicans.  Apparently there are also two paths opening up for Democrats.  Two columns in the Washington Post cite a growing schism in the Democratic Party between old-line pro-union economic liberals and big business Democrats who favor Wall Street.  What the two factions have in common is social liberalism [Read More...]

Pay per emotional response

Chris Taylor at Mashable discusses how Google Glass (a set of glasses connected to Google) will change advertising.  According to the patent application, the technology will track gazes, charging advertisers for what ads  the wearers look at and for how long they do so. But that’s nothing:  These glasses are also looking back at the [Read More...]

The Chris Christie path vs. the Rand Paul path

Washington Post political columnist Chris Cillizza has written an interesting column saying that the Republican Party must choose between two different paths, as represented by two likely presidential candidates:  the moderate pragmatism of New Jersey governor Chris Christie; or the purist small-government principles of  Kentucky senator Rand Paul. Mr. Cillizza casts the Rand option in [Read More...]

Lack of belief as an identity

Brendan O’Neill himself does not believe in God, but he has written a piece entitled How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet – Telegraph Blogs.  After rehearsing the various ways atheists have become obnoxious, he offers a rather penetrating analysis of why that is: So, what’s gone wrong with [Read More...]

Social mobility requires social capital

You know the American Dream, that in this country if people work hard and grab their opportunities they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and find material success?  Or, put another way, that America is a land of social mobility, where poor people can newly-landed immigrants with a just dollar in their pockets [Read More...]