Yesterday was the annual March for Life in our nation’s capital: Thousands of bundled-up abortion opponents rallied Monday on the Mall, encouraged by recent federal and state GOP wins and hopeful about proposed measures that would further tighten bans on federal funding for abortions.The Youth Rally and Mass for Life, hosted by the Archdiocese of Washington, marked the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Annual events tend to focus on mobilizing the young,… Read more
Packers and Steelers go to the Superbowl
January 24, 2011 By Gene Veith 96 Comments
Both of the division championship games were surprisingly alike. One team absolutely dominated in the first half, but then in the second half the other team showed life and came within striking distance. But the Packers from Green Bay, Wisconsin (pop. 100,353) defeated the Bears from Chicago, Illinois (pop. 2,896,016). Also the Steelers from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (pop. 312,819), defeated the Jets from New York City, New York (pop. 8,214,426). So it will be a small town Superbowl, a rust belt Superbowl. I… Read more
Two different reasons to be civil
January 24, 2011 By Gene Veith 140 Comments
Michael Gerson asks, “Why, other than upbringing, should we be civil in the first place?” He cites two different and competing reasons: In the Western tradition, one answer has been rooted in epistemology – the limits of knowledge. Citizens, in this view, should not be arrogant or intolerant about their political, moral and religious views because no one has the right to be certain of his or her views. What our public life needs is more ambiguity, agnosticism and detachment…. Read more
Cooking the books on health care reform
January 24, 2011 By Gene Veith 6 Comments
Democrats are saying that the Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare would add to the deficit. Saying that our only hope of controlling the deficit is to have health care reform, they cite numbers from the non-partisan Congressional Budget. Charles Krauthammer exposes the way the Democrats are cooking the books: Suppose someone – say, the president of United States – proposed the following: We are drowning in debt. More than $14 trillion right now. I’ve got a great idea for… Read more
Tiger Moms
January 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 182 Comments
Chinese kids are so successful, says Amy Chua (who also wrote a book on the subject), because their mothers are willing to browbeat, shame, and control their children in the pursuit of perfection. And, she argues, this is a good thing. Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can’t. Once when I was young—maybe more than once—when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me “garbage” in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked… Read more
Default blocking of all internet porn
January 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 40 Comments
We blogged about this a while back ago, but Great Britain is going through with it, requiring internet providers to block pornography on the internet unless adults specifically ask for it. Our discussion, though, missed the point, focusing on whether or not this was technologically feasible and how easy it would be to get around it. But there would be no need for an adult to get around it, since he would merely need to ask for access to this… Read more
Law & Gospel at the movies
January 21, 2011 By Gene Veith 22 Comments
Anthony Sacramone discusses the movie Black Swan, which is about a ballerina’s tormented pursuit of perfection. He then draws out the Law/Gospel connections: The film is not subtle and Nina’s inner life, her delusions and paranoid fantasies, trace the borderline of camp. But what is really missing is a way out of this false dilemma between “perfection” and “failure.” Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, and so in order to achieve it one must always subordinate the self… Read more
Why not Christianity?
January 20, 2011 By Gene Veith 142 Comments
A British journalist asks why many of her countrymen are overlooking Christianity and converting to Islam instead: So why is it that the young folk revolted by contemporary excess don’t simply make for the local CofE, or Catholic church, and rediscover the religion of their grandmothers, rather than getting their spirituality via Islam? It is, I think, something to do with the real malaise of contemporary Britain which I wrote about in a little essay in The Spectator concerning the… Read more
House votes to repeal Obamacare
January 20, 2011 By Gene Veith 72 Comments
The House of Representatives has repealed Obamacare. But don’t get too excited either way. The bill will have to be also passed by the Democratic-held Senate and survive a veto by the President. But still. . . Swiftly honoring a campaign pledge, newly empowered Republicans pushed legislation to repeal the nation’s year-old health care overhaul through the House Wednesday night, brushing aside implacable opposition in the Senate and a veto threat from President Barack Obama. The 245-189 vote was largely… Read more
When Christmas was Epiphany
January 20, 2011 By Gene Veith 18 Comments
The Lutheran Witness, under the new editorship of my former student Adriane Dorr, has gotten to be a really good magazine. If you are one of the many former subscribers who stopped taking it, renew your subscription. Anyway, a recent issue has an article on Epiphany that was quite an epiphany for me. We had discussed the origins of Christmas. Epiphany, it turns out, was celebrated long before Christmas in the church. Actually, the birth of Christ was one of… Read more
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