Joe Carter

Can you spot the differences between these two news stories? Associated Press (Aug 6): “ Psychologists Reject Gay ‘Therapy’ ” The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through . . . . Continue Reading »

No, that headline didn’t come from The Onion (or Lark News ) but from this Fox News story on how—are you ready for this?—some evangelicals are encouraging young people to marry . Despite the eye-rolling headline and being thirty years late in noticing the “evangelicals are . . . . Continue Reading »

In the latest edition of First Things , Reuven Brenner has a must-read article on our current fiscal predicament : Fundamentals seem to cluster in foursomes. Classical alchemy had four elements, and classical medicine had four humors. Though it’s neither alchemy nor medicine, economics, . . . . Continue Reading »

A new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Expenditures on Children by Families , finds that a middle-income family with a child born in 2008 can expect to spend about $221,190 ($291,570 when adjusted for inflation) for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise that child over the next . . . . Continue Reading »

An intriguing new Gallup survey reveals that the religious identification for most states tends to match the immigration patterns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The distribution of Catholics across the states, for example, is heavily skewed toward the New England and Mid-Atlantic . . . . Continue Reading »

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Joseph Bottum reviewed Thomas Pynchon’s new novel Inherent Vice : “Inherent Vice” is the closest to beach reading that Thomas Pynchon has ever produced. Of course, take-to-the-beach best sellers are nearly always genre fiction: thrillers and . . . . Continue Reading »

Skeptical about the dire claims made about climate change? Harbor mistrust of scientists or government officials? Think we should be wary of taking radical, urgent action to control a complex system like our climate? You obviously have some psychological issues you need to work out : Psychological . . . . Continue Reading »

You’ve probably heard the decades-old tale about how the band Van Halen included a provision in their backstage concert rider that stipulated that brown M&M’s were to be banished from the band’s dressing room. I had always assumed it was another arbitrary and outlandish demand . . . . Continue Reading »

Economist Arnold Kling reframes an ideological metaphor : Think of three points on an ideological triangle: 1. Point L, where you believe that markets are effective at processing information and solving problems. This position is to take a radically pro-market view, and to let markets fix their own . . . . Continue Reading »

In his post on Michael Crichton , Joseph asked, “Was there ever a popular writer more in love with the gadgets of science—and more suspicious of science itself, or, at least, of scientists?” Crichton’s complicated feelings about science reminded of Francis Bacon’s claim . . . . Continue Reading »