Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 95
February 22, 2017
Do foreigners have constitutional rights?
The Supreme Court has taken up a case that will decide whether or not foreigners–even those outside of American soil–have constitutional rights. On the one hand, how could they? Non-citizens cannot have the same privileges as citizens. Foreigners in this country will be treated according to this country’s laws, which means no one will be [Read More...]
The fall of the gay right-winger
Conservatives used to have moral qualms about homosexuality, but Milo Yiannopoulos had become a right wing celebrity. A strong supporter of Donald Trump and defender of the alt.right, Yiannopoulos enflamed college campuses with politically-incorrect mockery of feminists, leftists, and speech codes. The militantly gay Yiannapoulos was an editor for Breitbart News and was invited to give [Read More...]
Parents who regret having children
A new category of victims has emerged in feminist and other progressive circles: “regretful parents.” These are mothers and fathers (but mostly mothers) who are coming out about regretting that they had children. This “breaking of a taboo” against admitting the feeling seems related to the attempt to normalize abortion. Not wanting a child is [Read More...]
February 21, 2017
What the Reformation did for preaching
Evangelical theologian Timothy George has written a fascinating and illuminating post entitled “How the Reformation Recovered Preaching.” Prof. George shows not only historical facts about how the Reformation put the sermon back into the worship service. (Before, sermons were only given on special occasions, and often outdoors instead of in the sanctuary.) Drawing deeply on [Read More...]
Intersectionality
If you are going to understand and navigate the complexities of oppression, victimhood, and political status hierarchies, you need to understand the concept of “intersectionality.” The conventional categories of identity politics are race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, class, age, etc. In each of these categories, some identities are privileged while others are discriminated against. But [Read More...]
Starving patients to death
Euthanasia laws have a way of expanding. Once a society accepts the concept that sick people should be “put out of their misery,” the benefit can be applied ever more broadly–to those who are not terminally ill, just depressed; to people who cannot give consent; to the mentally handicapped; to children. What begins as a humane-sounding [Read More...]
Trump’s appointment do-overs
President Trump seems to have chosen some well-qualified replacements for his original picks for Labor Secretary and National Security advisor. After the fast-food tycoon Andrew Pudzer failed to win confirmation in the Senate, Trump has put forward Alexander Acosta, a law school dean and former assistant attorney general who has extensive expertise in labor law. [Read More...]
February 20, 2017
What’s the true meaning of Presidents’ Day?
Happy Presidents’ Day. What are we really celebrating today? Originally, it was George Washington’s Birthday, honoring the Father of Our Country. Then Abraham Lincoln, another great American, was thrown in. Once the holiday was moved to Monday, to give federal workers a three-day weekend, Presidents’ Day became completely unmoored from the date of Washington’s birthday. Now we use [Read More...]
And now the conservative Generation Z
Forget Millennials. A new generation is coming of age: Generation-Z. It’s being heralded as the most conservative generation since 1945. One reason, according to Charlie Peters, a member of that generation in Great Britain, is their love of freedom. Not long ago, that impulse led young people to embrace the causes of the Left. But [Read More...]
The death and new life of “Jane Roe”
Norma McCorvey, who went by the name of “Jane Roe” in the infamous Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, has died at the age of 69. After winning the Supreme Court case, McCorvey became active in the pro-abortion movement. But the kindness of a pro-life demonstrator at an abortion clinic led to her [Read More...]
