Joe Carter

Emoticons are a form of informal punctuation, akin to the more formal exclamatory (!) and interrogative (?) punctuation marks. Although they are not yet suitable for formal written works, there is nothing wrong—assuming that, like the em dash, they are used sparingly—in sprinkling them . . . . Continue Reading »

The “Shakespeare was a Catholic” theory gets a boost from an unlikely source: the Archbishop of Canterbury . Dr Rowan Williams discussed the themes with Simon Russell Beale, the great Shakespearean actor, in one of the most eagerly-anticipated talks of the Hay Festival. Little is known . . . . Continue Reading »

Every once in awhile the ACLU defends actual civil liberties and makes me think that maybe they aren’t so bad after all. But it doesn’t take long before they go and do something to remind me why the organization is deserving of contempt : The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing . . . . Continue Reading »

Four children ages 9, 7, 5 and 3 from a homeschooling Catholic family in Notre-Dame-des-Bois in Québec, Canada have been ordered into public school for socialization and non-phonics reading instruction. As Lydia McGrew explains : This case from Canada, which one would like to think . . . . Continue Reading »

Daniel Gordis wonders whether young rabbis are turning on Israel : If you asked a Jew at any other time in the history of our people whether or not he had enemies, the notion that he should consider the possibility he did not have enemies would have occasioned a blast of the mordant humor that has . . . . Continue Reading »

Legendary Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield on the poor choices students make in selecting their college courses and majors : In colleges today, choice is in and requirements are out. Only the military academies, certain Great-Books colleges and MIT (and its like) want to tell students what they . . . . Continue Reading »

The peak oil crowd may be headed for the same fate as the dinosaurs : Are we living at the beginning of the Age of Fossil Fuels, not its final decades? The very thought goes against everything that politicians and the educated public have been taught to believe in the past generation. According to . . . . Continue Reading »

There are three groups of people who consistently have a detrimental affect on American politics: Republicans, Democrats, and pollsters. Of this trio, the most nefarious are the pollsters. While politicians have the ability to create public policy, pollsters have the power to craft public opinion. Although opinion polls are often treated as if they were harmless detritus of the news-cycle, they are powerful tools … Continue Reading »

In an examination of the possible causes for the recent (and unexpected) drop in crime, the esteemed criminologist James Q. Wilson includes this surprising suggestion : There may also be a medical reason for the decline in crime. For decades, doctors have known that children with lots of lead in . . . . Continue Reading »

A new study finds that graduates of Protestant Christian schools have different traits than those who attend Catholic and non-religious private schools: More Catholic school administrators ranked the university as the top priority, while more Protestant school administrators ranked family as the . . . . Continue Reading »