Category: US

By micoots
27/01/2017 0

No, Trump isn’t censoring government agencies

The media is aghast that President Trump is requiring approval for website posts, clamping down on the use of social media, freezing grants, and forbidding federal agencies from issuing news releases. Censorship! Information control! Orwellian thought police!
Well, it turns out, as even the New York Times now admits, this is routine practice during the transition from one administration to another. The same orders were handed down when the Obama administration replaced that of George W. Bush. As..

By micoots
26/01/2017 0

“The crowd is untruth”

In our discussion of yesterday’s post The Problem with Crowds, Stefan Stackhouse linked to an essay by Søren Kierkegaard, The Crowd is Untruth. That essay is shockingly profound,, with great resonance for today.
The Danish Lutheran/proto-existentialist takes a theological, as well as ethical, view of crowds. He points out that the Bible says, “Love thy neighbor”; not “love the crowd.” He deals with “the daily press” and its creation of an abstract “public” that assumes an authority over what we ..

By micoots
26/01/2017 0

Trump’s immigration edicts 

President Trump has issued executive orders that provide for the building of a wall on the U.S./Mexico border; will cut off federal aid from “sanctuary cities”; and that will beef up border control enforcement.
He has also prepared an executive order that will temporarily halt the admittance of immigrants from countries with a history of terrorism (specifically, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia). The current refugee program is being frozen until “extreme vetting” procedures can..

By micoots
25/01/2017 0

The problem with crowds

In a column in which he explains why he didn’t go to the Inauguration, Jonah Goldberg says that it wasn’t because he is a conservative never-Trumper. He says that also doesn’t like to go to sporting events or arena concerts. He just doesn’t like crowds. But from there he raises some bigger points: Crowds can become mobs. The unit of American politics is the individual, not the crowd. The experience of being in a crowd is losing one’s individuality in a bigger corporate unity. And then he quotes ..

By micoots
25/01/2017 0

Fake News 

Both sides of our political divide are accusing the other of spreading “fake news.”
Rev. Tim Pauls, writing for LCMS News & Information, says that of course making up facts and believing whatever we want to is going to be a problem in a culture that rejects objective truth.
He gives some striking examples and some insightful analysis from a Christian perspective. He then gives some Biblical texts that address this issue and suggests how Christians can handle it.
From Tim Pauls, Fake News – LCMS ..

By micoots
25/01/2017 0

China pushing Communism to replace failing Democracy

China says Western democracy has reached its limits and has started to deteriorate (alluding to Donald Trump’s victory without saying so). Global Communism will take its place, with China supplying new universal values.
When I have referred to “still-Communist China,” some readers have said, in effect, are you kidding? China has become capitalist, what with all of their entrepreneurs and wealth-building. But orthodox Marxism teaches that societies must go through a capitalist phase in order for ..

By micoots
24/01/2017 0

What Trump has done so far

(2) The U.S. has now pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the vast and complicated free trade pact with Asian countries, Canada, and Australia (not including China).(3) A hiring freeze for the federal government is now in effect.After the jump, 18 more things that the new administration has done in its first 72 hours.Critics are saying that Trump has broken his promises in not doing various things that during the campaign he said he would do on his first day. See this scorecard. But a da..

By micoots
24/01/2017 0

When Jesse Jackson was pro-life and why he changed

In a tribute to the recently-deceased Nat Hentoff, Carl Trueman describes an encounter on a train between the pro-life leftist and Jesse Jackson.
From Carl R. Trueman, Strangers on a Train | Carl R. Trueman | First Things:
There is one passage in Speaking Freely (177-78) that offers disturbing insights into modern political culture. Hentoff quotes a certain politician on abortion: “What happens to the soul of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? ..

By micoots
23/01/2017 0

Mathematical proof of God’s existence?

The great mathematician and logician Kurt Gödel, who died in 1978, left behind a series of equations that purport to prove the existence of God. As I understand it (and I don’t understand the math!), the equations test the validity of St. Anselm’s ontological argument for God’s existence, which defines God as the greatest being [Read More…]

By micoots
23/01/2017 0

Many gods were invoked at the Inauguration service

The traditional Inauguration Service at the National Cathedral was an interfaith service featuring Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Baha’is, Native American religion, Jews, and Christians–including Catholics, Orthodox, mainline Protestants, and evangelicals–who aren’t bothered by syncretism. After the jump, a list of the participants, with a link to a story about the event. UPDATE: For a description of the [Read More…]