Joe Carter

Adam Kirsch on a new book that “shows how Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan prompted the American establishment to look beyond longstanding divisions and see Catholics, Protestants, and Jews as kin”: When you consider how much blood has been spilled over questions of theology, there is . . . . Continue Reading »

Rod Dreher talks to Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith about his new book What Is A Person? What is a person? And why does it matter how we answer that question? Every social science explanation has operating in the background some idea or other of what human persons are, what motivates them, . . . . Continue Reading »

“I just want to show society what people born after 1960 think about things,” said novelist Douglas Coupland, “We’re sick of stupid labels, we’re sick of being marginalized in lousy jobs, and we’re tired of hearing about ourselves from others.” The Canadian writer’s attempt to show what his peers thought became the popular novel, first published in 1991, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture … Continue Reading »

In the latest issue of Dappled Things , Matthew Alderman interviews Andrew Wilson Smith , one of the “rising generation of classical sculptors”: Matthew Alderman: What distinguishes traditional art and sculpture from contemporary art and design? Andrew Wilson Smith: In my mind the idea . . . . Continue Reading »

Geographic Travels has put together a map of locations identifying where, according to tradition, the 12 Apostles of Christ died. Blue markers represent commonly accepted death locations while yellow markers represent disputed locations. View Where the 12 Apostles Died in a larger map (Via: Kevin . . . . Continue Reading »

A new study finds that metaphors can shape the debate about how best to fight crime : Psychology Assistant Professor Lera Boroditsky and doctoral candidate Paul Thibodeau have shown that people will likely support an increase in police forces and jailing of offenders if crime is described as a . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday Fox announced that it would be cancelling its long-running crime-stopping series America’s Most Wanted . If you’re anything like me your reaction to the news will be sense of shock: “You mean, that’s still on the air?” Indeed it is. Although the series which . . . . Continue Reading »

Can someone more versed in economic issues explain why we are having a faux-debate over the debt ceiling? Here is my understanding of how the debt ceiling works: Congress votes to spend money that the government doesn’t have and then tells the Treasury department to borrow the money (in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Because there are some pragmatists who are still open to arguments about whether torture (or, to use the current euphemism, “enhanced interrogation techniques”) can be effective, I thought it was worth highlighting this article by Barry Ritholtz . As Ritholtz notes, “Virtually all . . . . Continue Reading »

In the latest addition to my Jane Austen Theorem*, William Deresiewicz explains how Jane Austen taught him to be a man: I was 26 when I read my first Jane Austen novel, “Emma,” the story of a spoiled young lady in Regency England who fancies herself a matchmaker. A graduate student at . . . . Continue Reading »