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The commodities bubble

November 10, 2011 By Gene Veith

Economics columnist Steven Pearlstein describes how high finance is distorting the commodities market and warns that speculation and “financialization” is blowing up a big bubble: Silly you. You actually thought companies existed to make products and profits. You thought houses were meant to provide a place for people to live and office buildings a place for people to work. You thought food was meant to be eaten, oil and gas to be turned into energy, and metals to be turned… Read more

Theologians of the Cross

November 9, 2011 By Gene Veith

44 Comments

Another non-Lutheran discovers a Lutheran insight. Carl Trueman, professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, posts about theologians of the cross as opposed to theologians of glory. He explains it pretty well, I think: One of the things that is so striking about the current revival of interest in Reformation theology, broadly conceived, is the absence of perhaps the most glorious contribution of Martin Luther to theological discourse: the notion of the theologian of the cross. . . . At the… Read more

The Occupy ideology

November 9, 2011 By Gene Veith

20 Comments

I went into Washington yesterday and stumbled upon the Occupy D.C. folks. They were in a little green space on Pennsylvania Avenue, which they have filled up with tents. I was surprised to see how few of them there were. Estimates have been a couple of hundred–which in itself is an unusually tiny demonstration by D.C. standards–but even that number seems high, based on the little tent village that I saw. Also, they don’t really look like 99% of America! … Read more

Gay adoption laws vs. Christian agencies

November 9, 2011 By Gene Veith

76 Comments

Some states already require adoption and foster care agencies to give children to gay couples. That includes Christian ministries, which, in many cases are shutting down their operations rather than compromise their convictions. Now a proposed law before the Senate would make nondiscrimination against gay adoptions, including by religious agencies, a national policy: Adoption and traditional marriage proponents said legislation introduced Monday by Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to prohibit adoption agencies from barring homosexual couples from adopting a child… Read more

Local Election Day blues

November 8, 2011 By Gene Veith

18 Comments

Where I live, we are just voting today for local elections. We just have a state senator to pick and a number of county offices. But for the last several months we have been subject to getting multiple automated phone calls a day conducting polls, demonizing opponents, and scaring us into voting for particular candidates. Opposition research, negative campaigning, and hyperbolic rhetoric have trickled down into local elections. (The last robocall I answered insinuated that one candidate’s support of the… Read more

Both sides are wrong

November 8, 2011 By Gene Veith

40 Comments

Robert Samuelson is an economics columnist who has tended to be sensible over the years. (The Washington Post classifies its columnists online as either “tending left” or “tending right.” Samuelson shows up on neither list.) He makes the case that both liberals and conservatives are wrong on the economy: Let’s banish the budget fictions of left and right. The supercommittee — the 12 members of Congress charged with devising a plan to close mammoth deficits — cannot succeed without public… Read more

The fall of Citizen Cain?

November 8, 2011 By Gene Veith

172 Comments

A woman, Sharon Bialek, has come forward with details about how Herman Cain, currently running for president, groped her. She is not even one of the three women who filed sexual harassment claims against him and won settlements from the National Restaurant Association that he headed at the time. Here are the sordid details. Some conservatives are skeptical about the charges, while others think they ring true. Here is what the conservative blogger the Ace of Spades had to say:… Read more

The discovery of pro-life women

November 8, 2011 By Gene Veith

84 Comments

The Washington Post’s Lisa Miller discovered something that really seems to have surprised her, that the leaders of today’s pro-life movement are actually women, and young well-educated women at that. She seems to have assumed that only men would be against abortion, that all women were surely on the pro-choice side of this “women’s issue.” She gets her head around the issue: Recent news stories about the new vitality of the antiabortion movement and its legislative achievements — more than… Read more

Parents vs. peer-ents & the new style of protest

November 7, 2011 By Gene Veith

72 Comments

The president of MTV, Stephen K. Friedman, explains the Millennial generation’s way of protesting, as evident in the Occupy Wall Street movement. That’s interesting in itself, but what struck me was the concept of “peer-ents” as opposed to “parents.” What many believe to be OWS’s greatest weakness may be its greatest strength. At MTV, we consider it our job to understand the millennial audience. And a refusal to limit itself to a list of demands may be part of the… Read more

From hope & change to fear & loathing

November 7, 2011 By Gene Veith

10 Comments

Ruth Marcus (classified as a “left-leaning” columnist on the Washington Post opinion page) looks at the Democratic strategy for re-electing President Obama: Forget hope and change. President Obama’s reelection campaign is going to be based on fear and loathing: fear of what a Republican takeover would mean, and loathing of whomever the Republican nominee turns out to be. Of course the Obama campaign will attempt to present the affirmative case for his reelection, citing legislative achievements, foreign policy successes and… Read more