Matthew Schmitz

In a review of a book on the life of pro-life leader Ellen McCormack, Michael J. New explains why she decided to vie for her party’s presidential nomination: During the 1970s, many rank-and-file Democrats were pro-life. But going into the 1976 election cycle, no major Democratic presidential . . . . Continue Reading »

Daniel Silliman tackles a problem familiar to this editor: Is it “Evangelical” or “evangelical,” majuscule or miniscule, capitalized or not? The problem encompasses other terms like “deist,” “atheist,” and “charismatic.” In the chart . . . . Continue Reading »

This should be obvious. As Anna Williams points out below , the only person who holds the blame for today’s shooting, whatever its motivation, is the shooter himself. No idea or cause, however noble, is immune from excess. John Brown killed in the name of freedom. George Tiller’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Initial reports of this afternoon’s shooting at the Family Research Council say that the gunman acted after “expressing disagreement with the conservative group’s policy positions.” Most assume the disagreement came from the left, and on the issue of same-sex marriage. If . . . . Continue Reading »

This has been a bad summer for the whiz-bang TED set. First Jonah Lehrer falls, then Fareed Zakaria, and now sociologist  Philip N. Cohen takes Hanna Rosin to task for her wildly misleading TED talk. Basically, it seems that Rosin cobbled together a bunch of  bogus or exaggerated . . . . Continue Reading »

Anti-Muslim violence seems to be on the rise, with the new know-nothings committing at least seven acts of violence this month alone: In Hayward, California on Friday, August 3, four teenagers threw lemons at a local mosque, striking one congregant. In North Smithfield, Rhode Island  on . . . . Continue Reading »

Via the ever-valuable  J.L. Wall , history professor Anders Henriksson’s complete, brief history of the world , compiled verbatim from papers written by his students. A gruesome sample: The Reformnation happened when German nobles resented the idea that tithes were going to Papal . . . . Continue Reading »

When it comes to Ayn Rand, I agree with David Bentley Hart’s magisterial condemnation from our March 2011 issue: Ayn Rand always provokes a rather extravagant reaction from me, and probably for purely ideological reasons. For instance, I like the Sermon on the Mount. She regarded its . . . . Continue Reading »

Rachel Marie Stone’s review of a new book on breasts for Books and Culture points to some troubling environmental data about BPA, which appears in most plastic products: The mammary gland is “the most sensitive organ to known harmful industrial chemicals.” Substances like  . . . . Continue Reading »

Before its demolition in 1993, Kowloon Walled City was the world’s most densely populated settlement. An ungoverned 6.5 acre tract on the edge of Hong Kong, it was home to 33,000 souls—-which comes out to an eye-popping population density of 3,249,000/sq mi. Kowloon Walled . . . . Continue Reading »