Joe Carter

On Tuesday I mentioned Mary Eberstadt’s new book The Loser Letters . On Tuesday, March 16, she’ll be discussing her new work at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.: Eberstadt will discuss the two levels on which this satire operates, one religious and one . . . . Continue Reading »

Can a computer program produce classical music compositions that rival the works of Bach or Mozart? Emmy was once the world’s most advanced artificially intelligent composer, and because he’d managed to breathe a sort of life into her, he became a modern-day musical Dr. Frankenstein. She . . . . Continue Reading »

The Dutch parliament is currently considering legislation that would allow assisted suicide for anyone who has reached the age of seventy and has merely grown tired of living. In today’s On the Square feature I trace the recent history of euthanasia in the Netherlands that lead the formerly . . . . Continue Reading »

Randy Michaels may be the CEO of the Tribune Company but its obvious that he’s an editor at heart. All editors have certain words and phrases they prohibit; being able to prevent writers (including oneself) from abusing the language is one of the perks of the job. But Michaels may have set a . . . . Continue Reading »

The Washington Post asks , “Does President Obama’s next Supreme Court nominee need to be a Protestant?” If Justice John Paul Stevens decides to call it a career after he turns 90 next month, the Supreme Court would for the first time in its history be without a justice . . . . Continue Reading »

For centuries, the Hippocratic Oath, including the admonition against abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia, formed the core of Western medical ethics. While the Hippocratic ideal has been eroding for decades, the most direct challenge has emerged in the Netherlands, with the cultural and legal acceptance of the right to die… . Continue Reading »

There is a demographic of Americans that is of particular concern to the federal government. Forty-three percent of them not only own their own homes but also have more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. Nearly . . . . Continue Reading »

Novelist and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein offers her list of five best novels of ideas —Saul Bellow’s Herzog , Thomas Mann’s The Holy Sinner , Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince , Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams , and George Eliot’s Middlemarch : George . . . . Continue Reading »

Victor Davis Hanson on the American desire to have it both ways : Among elites there is almost a “Don’t touch or disturb that!” mantra. The law of the hothouse orchid reigns. Once our grubby ancestors created our infrastructure, we wish sometimes to ridicule and — use — it, . . . . Continue Reading »

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