Joe Carter

John McWhorter reviews Amy Wax’s Race, Wrongs, and Remedies and finds the book is “depressing because it is so persuasive.” There is a school of thought in America which argues that the government must be the main force that provides help to the black community. This shibboleth is . . . . Continue Reading »

Meghan McArdle raises an interesting point about the limits of taxation : [I]sn’t there some upper limit on tax brackets for the wealthy? When the Bush tax cuts expire, that top rate will go to 39.5%. Then there’s the 2.9% Medicare tax, and the 0.9% Medicare surtax we just enacted. . . . . Continue Reading »

“If one were permitted to make all the ballads,” said the eighteenth century Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher, “one need not care who should make the laws of a nation.” If he were transported to our time, even Fletcher would be surprised by how much music influences our culture. He would be even more amazed”and thoroughly appalled”by the degenerates who write our nation’s songs… . Continue Reading »

Need something cool 2do @night? U shud come 2 grad skool and get your learn on. (Via: Geekosystem ) . . . . Continue Reading »

Why do conservatives Christians spend so much time concerned about sexual politics? Whether fretting over same-sex marriage or teenage fornication, it seems—to our friends as well as detractors—that we are obsessed with policing eros . The common assumption is that our motives are similar . . . . Continue Reading »

First Things ’ senior editor David Goldman will be on CNBC’s Kudlow Report tonight around 7:35 p.m. EST . . . . Continue Reading »

Joseph Bottum’s On the Square column (which, by the way, now appears every Monday) considers the problem of freeloaders and the church : Lately, however, I’ve become interested in the question of much freeloading on the churches has cultural consequences. It’s a simple proposition . . . . Continue Reading »

At the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things, Eleanor Bourg Donlon wonders why they don’t make vampires like they used to : The real problem with so many of these [new vampyre] films is actually they are both too serious and yet not serious enough. In the midst of taking themselves so . . . . Continue Reading »

At WORLD magazine, Mindy Belz points out an interesting fact I hadn’t hear before: Many Americans are surprised to learn that private property is a near-unknown in modern Israel. According to the Israel Land Authority, 93 percent of the land in Israel is in the public domain—either . . . . Continue Reading »

Patheos has an excellent interview with sociologist and historian of religion Rodney Stark. As with anything from Stark, it’s difficult to choose just one section to quote. But here’s the core of his claim: When I was very young, there  was a Protestant mainline and they were the . . . . Continue Reading »