Joe Carter

Blowouts and nail-biters—in Round 3 there was no in between. Blowouts: The Brothers Karamazov sailed past Moby-Dick , The Lord of the Rings not-so-humbly beat Pride and Prejudice , and Pilgrim’s Progress swept away Charlotte’s Web —each by a margin of 2 to 1. One Hundred Years . . . . Continue Reading »

As Jason Kottke says, ” This is probably the best way to see the Sistine Chapel aside from getting on a plane to Rome.” You may have seen this already but if not, it’s worth a look. . . . . Continue Reading »

Science requires the collection and interpretation of data. Consensus, therefore, requires that there be no significant dispute on either the data (e.g., its relevance) or it interpretation. The debate over whether there is a “consensus” about anthropogenic climate change has tended to . . . . Continue Reading »

“American libertarians seem to have a fondness for federalism that strikes me as odd,” says Rick Hills , a law professor at New York University, “So why do American libertarians think that federalism is consistent with their commitment to individual liberty?” Why not, . . . . Continue Reading »

Compared to the tempestuous beginning of upsets, blowouts, and close-calls, Round 2 proved to be quite tame. The powerhouse books trampled their competition without much effort. (The lone surprise was that the low-brow favorite Hunt for Red October trouncing the literary champ, Herzog .) Each of . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on the Evangel blog, Gayle Trotter reviews Mary Eberstadt’s new book, The Loser Letters : The Loser Letters, Eberstadt’s first published work of fiction, draws on a long satirical tradition from Juvenal to The Screwtape Letters. Eberstadt’s protagonist, a young woman named A. . . . . Continue Reading »

When the Tiger Woods scandal broke the initial reaction divided people into two groups: those who asked, “Would he get dumped by his wife?” and those who asked “Would he get dumped by his endorsement sponsors?”In Washington, D.C., most people were interested in the latter. . . . . Continue Reading »

First Things editor Joseph Bottum considers the recent health care legislation : Instead of falling—or rising, if the left proves correct—on the great wave of Armageddon, we must wait, in this trough of exhaustion, to learn what happens next. Our apocalypse is a slow one; it smothers us . . . . Continue Reading »

Does music shape not only our souls but the laws of a nation? Roger Scruton believes so : We know of music that is good-humoured, lascivious, gentle, bold, chaste, self-indulgent, sentimental, reserved, and generous: and all those words describe moral virtues and vices, which we are as little . . . . Continue Reading »

And then there were 32. After a brutal round of upsets, blowouts, and close calls we have narrowed our list of 64 in half. [caption id=”attachment_14086” align=”alignright” width=”150” caption=”Click to Download Round 2 Brackets”] [/caption] . . . . Continue Reading »