Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 432

There’s a new sheriff in town

Remember when the United States used to be “the world’s policeman”?  We don’t do that anymore, for some arguably good reasons.  But the USA used to be the go-to world power, the defender of freedom, a force to counter tyranny and social disorder.  But we’ve declined from that role.  The world’s policeman is now France.  [...]

$1.2 trillion in automatic cuts might kick in

Remember the “sequester,” the automatic budget cuts that were supposed to go into effect on January 2 but were kicked down the road to March 1?  The result of last year’s agreement on the national debt and the recent “fiscal cliff” deliberations?  Since the cuts would hit Republican causes (the Pentagon) and Democratic causes (social [...]

Eugenics in Israel and America

You’d think the people who once were targets of racist eugenics would not practice that on others: Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent. The government had previously denied the practice but the Israeli Health Ministry’s director-general has now [...]

Lutheran pastor rejects Baptism, Lord’s Supper

I don’t expect non-Lutherans to believe what Lutherans do.  I do expect Lutherans to believe what Lutherans do.  Especially Lutheran pastors.  Rev. Dan Delzell, the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska,is a regular writer for ChristianPost.com.  As we blogged earlier, last year he wrote a piece denying what Lutherans believe about the Lord’s [...]

Superbowl XLVII

The day may come when reckoning time according to the birth of Christ will give way to numbering our years according to the Roman numerals of the Superbowl.  That’s basically what the ancient Greeks did when they counted their years according to what Olympiad it was.   Anyway, we need to recognize our de facto national [...]

The “grace” vs. “holiness” debate

Christianity Today has set up a symposium discussing the following question:  Do American Christians Need the Message of Grace or a Call to Holiness?  As usual, no Lutherans were asked to participate, and the whole debate is maddening for a Lutheran to read, not just because of its false dichotomies but because of what is [...]

Those cute, fluffy killing machines

I like cats.  I like dogs too, but I appreciate cats.  But those cool, purring, graceful creatures are formidable killers.  One estimate is that cats kill as many as one out of ten birds.  From ABC: Cats are responsible for the deaths of 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals every [...]

The government efficiency argument

Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein  says that “How government is run, more than what exactly it does, seems set to be the main battleground of American politics in coming years.”  He then cites articles from the New America Foundation that say the government’s approach is to build a  kludge (“a clumsy, inelegant, difficult to extend, [...]

Paying dues to the synagogue

Churches rely on offerings to meet their financial needs.  Jewish synagogues, on the other hand, charge their members dues.  Lisa Miller tells how this works and how some synagogues are trying to change this practice to attract more members: From Young Jews rebelling against paying dues – The Washington Post: Traditionally, when an American Jew [...]

Obama as the liberal Reagan

E. J. Dionne, Jr., says that President Obama–in his goals, tactics, and leadership style– is the liberal Reagan: To understand how Barack Obama sees himself and his presidency, don’t look to Franklin Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln. Obama’s role model is Ronald Reagan — just as Obama told us before he was first elected. Like Reagan, [...]