Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 99
February 6, 2017
Super Bowl post-mortem
What a great Super Bowl. New England was down by 25 points late in the third quarter, but came back to force the first overtime in Super Bowl history, whereupon Tom Brady marched his team down the field for a winning touchdown. This was the biggest comeback ever in the championship series. Although I was [Read More...]
February 3, 2017
Conform to reality or subdue reality?
Justin Taylor quotes from C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man. Peter Kreeft calls these lines “the single most illuminating three sentences I have ever read about our civilization.” Read those three sentences after the jump. Then consider what Kreeft says about them and my point about how one of these ways of thinking can now be found [Read More...]
Trump will retain Obama’s LGBT policy
As conservatives are giddy and liberals are panic-stricken over various policies put into place by the new administration, President Trump reminds us that the conventional political lines don’t apply to him. He has announced that he is keeping in place President Obama’s non-discriminatory policy for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals. In a statement to that [Read More...]
“An intellectual superstar”
Princeton’s Robert P. George is one of our most prominent conservative thinkers, so it’s interesting to see what he has to say about President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. George, who has worked with Gorsuch, calls him a worthy successor to Justice Scalia. Gorsuch, he says, is an “intellectual superstar.” From Robert P. George, Supreme [Read More...]
February 2, 2017
The Superbowl and vocation
The Superbowl is this weekend, time for the obligatory polls about whether or not God gets involved in the outcome of sporting events. One-quarter of Americans believe that he does. About a half believe that God rewards faithful athletes with health and success. Certainly, the easy answer is that of course God doesn’t care about [Read More...]
The anti-Trump “resistance”
Democrats have gone into full resistance mode, with Democratic Senators boycotting confirmation hearings to prevent a vote on President Trump’s candidates. (Republicans suspended the rules and approved Treasury Secretary candidate Steven Mnuchin and HHS Secretary candidate Tom Price anyway. See this.) Meanwhile, a self-described “alternative left” has emerged that is pressuring Democratic elected officials not [Read More...]
A problem with self-driving cars
Automotive technology has advanced to the point that self-driving cars are already on our highways, though under experimental conditions. And they may someday be feasible for the general public. One problem, however, is that it is very difficult for the sensors on self-driving cars to detect bicycles. Question: Some technologies may be feasible–for example, getting all [Read More...]
February 1, 2017
The Marburg Colloquy online
Did you know that a transcript survives of the Marburg Colloquy (1529), in which Luther and Zwingli debated the presence of Christ in the elements of Holy Communion? Did you know that it is posted online? This meeting, attended by virtually all of the major figures of the early Reformation, was an attempt to settle [Read More...]
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee
President Donald Trump has nominated Colorado appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Antonin Scalia. Reportedly, Judge Gorsuch is from that same mold: eloquent, learned, articulate, and an “originalist” when it comes to interpreting the Constitution. He is the author of a book against euthanasia and supported [Read More...]
“Pregnant people”
The British Medical Association has issued guidelines saying that to avoid offending the transgendered, health workers should not refer to “pregnant women.” Rather, say, “pregnant people.” After all, a biological female–no, that wording is forbidden too; we must say “assigned female”–who identifies as a man can have a baby. And since we must go by [Read More...]
