Joe Carter

When I was putting together the list of books for the Tournament of Novels, I kept stumbling across titles that I had seen before, but had never considered reading. Shamed by my sense of having missed out on so much great literature, I started adding these novels to my reading list. The first one . . . . Continue Reading »

Like most American boys who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s I was fascinated by space exploration. I drank Tang (even though it tasted horrible), took pilgrimages to Houston’s Johnson Space Center, and viewed Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff (both the book and the movie) as a New . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday Ryan posted an excerpt from Kevin D. Williamson at NRO on the legitimacy of targeting American citizens because of their terrorist activities: Surely there has to be some operational constraint on the executive when it comes to the killing of U.S. citizens. It is not impossible to imagine . . . . Continue Reading »

This afternoon First Things is joining with fifty other religious and human rights organizations and leaders to protest the recent massacre of Christians in Nigeria, as well as persecution and slaughter of Christians and other minorities living under Shariah rule. The protest will take place at the . . . . Continue Reading »

When it comes to higher education, many conservatives talk about Great Books programs as if they are a panacea for all that ails the liberal academy. But anyone who has actually read those texts will likely agree with Patrick Deneen’s contention that “a curriculum of great books . . . . Continue Reading »

On Easter Sunday a magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook the US-Mexico border, killing two people and injuring 233. Southern California Earthquake Center, relying on all that science stuff, says the cause was a tectonic shift between the Pacific plate and the North American plate boundaries. But . . . . Continue Reading »

Samuel Arbesman defines the area between facts that are permanent and those that change rapidly: When people think of knowledge, they generally think of two sorts of facts: facts that don’t change, like the height of Mount Everest or the capital of the United States, and facts that fluctuate . . . . Continue Reading »

Because it was something I had on my “bucket list.” I think everyone should have a list of things they want to do before they expire. — Patricia Edwards explaining why she robbed a bank(!) in Deland, Florida. When people speak of their low self-esteem, they imply two things: first, . . . . Continue Reading »

Joseph Bottum has an op-ed in USA Today on the media and abusive priests: There are two parts to the scandal that has obsessed Europe in recent weeks. The first part — the most evil, disgusting part — is over. Every group has a small percentage of members with sick sexual desires. By . . . . Continue Reading »

Speaking of resurrection, Newsweek has an excerpt from Lisa Miller’s new book, Heaven, that ask why religious believers are so skeptical that we’ll have bodies in heaven. As Miller asks, “If you don’t have a body in heaven, then what kind of heaven are you hoping for?” . . . . Continue Reading »