Joe Carter

There have been some great television shows that have explored the theme of war and combat ( M*A*S*H , Battlestar Galactica , F-Troop ). But I have to agree with the brilliant TV critic Scott that the ongoing series that runs on The History Channel isn’t one of them : [T]here are some shows . . . . Continue Reading »

“What if you die overseas and I’m not there,” my mom said when I told her I had joined the Marines. I laughed and said that even if I were a civilian and died in the United States she most likely wouldn’t be there. Still, she worried that one day she would get a call saying that I’d been killed or was dying far from home. My mother worried for nothing. Instead, over a decade later, I was the one who got the dreaded phone call… . Continue Reading »

1. Sam Kean on the periodic table : In some sense, what you might have suspected from the first day of high-school chemistry is true: The periodic table is a colossal waste of time. Nine out of every 10 atoms in the universe are hydrogen, the first element and the major constituent of stars. The . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is greatest children’s toys. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.] Although the topic for last week was faddish objects from childhood , the . . . . Continue Reading »

The July issue of Playboy ’s Portuguese edition features an unlikely cover model: Jesus. Our Lord also makes an appearance within the magazine, posing beatifically next to semi-topless women. The imagery has an ostensibly literary purpose: As Robert Quigley notes, Last month, Nobel literature . . . . Continue Reading »

Near the top of my long and ever-growing list of pet peeves is articles titled, “The Conservative Case for [Insert Radical and/or Libertarian Proposal Here].” It’s an iron-clad rule that before you even read the article you can be assured of two things: (1) the case is not . . . . Continue Reading »

Unless the middle school in Shenandoah, Iowa, is training junior gynecologists, it is unclear why its eighth-graders need to be taught how to perform female exams and to put a condom on a 3-D, anatomically correct male sex organ. The representative from Planned Parenthood, which provided the instruction, justified the curriculum by saying, “All information we use is medically accurate and science based.” For them, sexual education can be denuded of all moral content as long as research studies and reams of statistics back up their claims… . Continue Reading »

Clearly, we have too much time on our hands in the office. We put our heads together and came up with a list of what may be the ten worst hymns of all time. Here are the hymns with video links. Take a look and a listen, and let us know what you think! [Note: The criticism applies only to the hymns . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week I mentioned the peculiar form that patriotism can take in Germany . We Americans aren’t so different though, for we too have a peculiar relationship to the term “patriot.” In America, to question someone’s patriotism is considered an insult, while to praise their . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Roger Callois on the difference between play, work, and art: A characteristic of play, in fact, is that it creates no wealth or goods, thus differing from work or art. At the end of the game, all can and must start over again at the same point. Nothing has been harvested or manufactured, no . . . . Continue Reading »