Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 94
February 28, 2017
Academy Awards fiasco
Hollywood was feeling good. The Academy Awards show featured continual Trump-bashing and the “Oscars So White” controversy was put to rest, with black people well-represented in all categories and winning lots of awards. But at the grand finale, the announcement of the climactic “Best Picture” award, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced that the [Read More...]
February 27, 2017
The Pope on salvation by works
Catholics, Protestants often say, believe in salvation by good works. This engenders the reply from thoughtful Catholics, no we don’t! You have to have grace. In fact, we even believe in justification by faith, just like you Lutherans do, as proven by the accord we signed with liberal Lutherans. Since there is now no real [Read More...]
The USDA inspects for ideological purity
The Christian owner of a meatpacking business had some pamphlets lying around in the breakroom that opposed gay marriage. When some inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture saw them, they demanded that they be removed. Otherwise, they said, they would not inspect the plant, which would then not be allowed to operate. The inspectors [Read More...]
The travails of pro-life Democrats
Who do you think said this? “Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old. When history looks back at this era it should recognize this generation as one [Read More...]
February 24, 2017
How our politicized media would review the Narnia books
Our media is highly politicized across the spectrum, obsessed–pro- or con- or somewhere in between–with the Donald Trump phenomenon. No one can escape it! And in print, on screen, and online pundits are interpreting non-Trump phenomena in Trumpian terms. My former student John Ehrett, of whom I am proud, has a hilarious piece in The [Read More...]
Why conservatives need Edmund Burke
In another in our series of my-former-students-who-are-making-me-proud-by-their-writing, Gracy Olmstead explains why today’s conservatives need to pay attention to Sir Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism. Burke, in criticizing the French Revolution, showed why social reform must “conserve” what is good in the society. Rather than raze the society to the ground and start over from ground [Read More...]
In praise of the American farmer
American agriculture has virtually eliminated world hunger. And American farmers preside over an industry that has become an economic powerhouse. Kevin D. Williamson tells all about the success of American agriculture, what it means for world trade, and how farmers–with their use of technology and innovative techniques–have become the best example of capitalism at its most [Read More...]
February 23, 2017
Are evangelicals responsible for Milo?
How did the gay, profane, iconoclastic Milo Yiannopoulos get to be a poster child for conservative Republicans? Was this due to a surge of pro-gay tolerance? Or have conservative Republicans lost their moral compass?Ben Howe, writing in the Atlantic, blames evangelicals, especially evangelical leaders who taught that Donald Trump’s moral failings should not prevent him from getting [Read More...]
Trump on bathrooms, immigration enforcement
President Trump keeps doing what he was elected to do, thereby sending his opponents into a frenzy. He has rescinded Barack Obama’s rule mandating that transgender students must be allowed to go to the bathroom of their chosen gender, rather than their biological sex. And he has started enforcing immigration laws. So far he is [Read More...]
Pluto might get promoted back to “planet”
The recent space probe to Pluto revealed it to be no mere frozen rock but a complex world. Now NASA scientists involved with that project are proposing a new definition of “planet” that would restore Pluto to its former planetary status. Possible problems: The new definition would also make the Earth’s moon a planet. Also [Read More...]
