Nathaniel Peters

An article in the Foreign Affairs by the former chief economist of the Venezualan National Assembly shows how the populist socialism of Hugo Chávez has hurt the very poor it was intended to help. A sample: Although opinions differ on whether Chávez’s rule should be . . . . Continue Reading »

Many might wonder how musicians and scholars can take an obscure medieval manuscript and turn it into a living performance. An interview on WNYC with Benjamin Bagby, co-founder of the ensemble Sequentia , provides insight into this process. The interview also contains clips of Sequentia’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Today for students at the Roxbury Latin School, where I spent the last three years of high school, is Exelauno Day. Exelauno is a recurring Greek verb from Xenophon’s Anabasis meaning “to march forth.” And so, every March 4th, or a day close to it, is Exelauno Day. This morning, the . . . . Continue Reading »

The point of teaching is to clarify, to bring the truth to light so that the student might understand it. Unless the truth is not that something is , only something that might be . In this case, the teacher might seek to “complicate,” “contextualize,” . . . . Continue Reading »

In the most recent issue of First Things (subscription required), Gilbert Meilaender argued against a proposal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to create a system, “in which organs of the deceased would be taken for transplant, with their consent presumed, unless before death they had . . . . Continue Reading »

Some articles of note from today include the following. A piece in the New York Times reminds us that not all black Americans are, in fact, African-Americans, and argues that the former term is therefore preferable to the latter. An article from Christianity Today reminds us that the Pew . . . . Continue Reading »

The feminists are killing the English language, says David Gelernter in the new edition of The Weekly Standard . The vitriol and bombast in his writing does not help his argument, but the main point behind it is sound: The intelligentsia has decreed that standard English requires gender-sentitive . . . . Continue Reading »

According to today’s New York Times , Stanford is waiving its $36,030 tuition for families earning under $100,000 a year, and waiving the $11,182 room and board fee for families earning under $60,000 as well. Last summer Stanford—with over $17 billion, the third-largest university . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s Wall Street Journal , Amir Taheri argues that the Pakistani election delivered a loss to more than just Pervez Musharraf: The Islamist parties failed to garner votes despite intense campaigning. This is but the most recent defeat for Islamist political parties, and that is good . . . . Continue Reading »

I can’t remember how it happened exactly, but yesterday I decided to write an essay about bees—bees in the history of Christian culture, to be more specific. Modern preachers rarely mention them, but Origen, John Chrysostom, Lactantius, Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Augustine all spoke about . . . . Continue Reading »