Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 417

God is present vs. God is present for you

I hope you had a happy Quasimodogeniti, the Second Sunday of Easter with perhaps the coolest name in the Church Year (which comes from the Latin for the first words of the Introit of the day from 1 Peter 2:2:  “Like newborn infants. . . .).  We had another powerful sermon from our pastor, Rev. [...]

Zero TVers

The television industry is worried about a growing new category called “Zero TVers.”  Not to be confused with people who don’t watch TV at all, these viewers will watch programming.  But not what’s broadcast or cabled onto a TV set.  They watch on their computers or, instead of on huge HDTV screens, on their cellphones.  [...]

Death of the Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher, the only female Prime Minister of Great Britain, who held office from 1979 to 1990, died yesterday of a stroke at age 87.  Mrs. Thatcher was the British equivalent of Ronald Reagan, with whom she worked closely, standing up to the Soviet Union and challenging the welfare state with free enterprise policies that [...]

Chaplain wins Medal of Honor

A Korean war chaplain who died in a POW camp will receive the  Medal of Honor later this week.  Read the exploits of Father Emil Kapaun after the jump. By reporter Sharon Cohen: In the cold, barren hills of Korea more than 60 years ago, two teary-eyed soldiers stood in a prisoner of war camp [...]

Corporations that own your DNA

Did you know that you don’t own your DNA?  Different companies hold the patent to about 41% of your genes.  That means whenever those DNA strands are tested by a doctor, the company collects a royalty.  Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear a case that will potentially rule on whether  human DNA can [...]

The end of [fill in the blank]

Carlos Lozada writes about the publishing trend of books that announce “the end” of something.  Here are some recent titles: The End of America The End of Sex The End of Men The End of Money The End of Lawyers The End of Work The End of the Free Market The End of Nature The [...]

Finding Your Vocation in College

Anthony Sacramone asked me to write something on “How to Find Your Vocation in College” for the I.S.I. website he edits, so I did.  I also took the opportunity to answer the conservative pundits who are saying that college students should all go into technology so they can pay off their student loans and forget [...]

The porta-Church

I have to hand it to the Orthodox in this case, with their strong sense of “sacred space.”  This is the property, remember, of what was “the Red Army” not that long ago, in what was formerly the officially and aggressively atheist Soviet Union.  From the Guardian: The Russian military unveiled an unlikely new weapon [...]

Is libertarian economics what’s killing the GOP?

Most diagnoses of what ails the Republican party have been focusing on social conservatism, saying that Republicans need to stop opposing gay marriage and abortion if they want to start winning national elections.  But now some are arguing that the Republican commitment to libertarian economic policies–that is, a commitment to an untrammeled free market–that’s really [...]

From spam to bacn

I have learned a new word, though I’m quite familiar with the reality.  From  BBC News – Why your inbox fills with bacn instead of spam: Bacn is becoming what spam once was – the nuisance that fills up your inbox and makes it hard to pick out the important messages you have to read [...]