Joe Carter

We Americans are fat. [Audience says: How fat are we?] We Americans are so fat that now even our babies are obese . Almost one-third of 9-month-olds are obese or overweight, as are 34 percent of 2-year-olds, according to the research, which looked at a nationally representative sample of children . . . . Continue Reading »

My tummy hurts. Ergo, there is no god. This argument may be absurd, but it’s not intended as a reductio ad absurdum. Although in simplistic form, this enthymeme encapsulates one of the primary atheological arguments”the argument from evil. The structure of the argument becomes more obvious once we include the unstated premises … Continue Reading »

In the December 2009 issue of  First Things Mary Eberstadt explained how pedophilia chic went out of style . Sadly, not everyone got the message in time. As Jennifer Grant at her.meneutics explains: The most recent issue of Vogue Paris (or should I say l’issue de janvier/février ?) . . . . Continue Reading »

The folks at  Electric Literature test to see if if any of last year’s door-stopper novels are also bullet-stoppers. (Via: Tablet ) . . . . Continue Reading »

Casual sex doesn’t exist , says biological anthropologist Helen Fisher: Question: Can casual sex trigger love? Helen Fisher: I think that all three of these brain systems can interact with one another, particularly when you have sex with somebody. Any kind of sexual stimulation of the . . . . Continue Reading »

In an interview with RSA Journal , Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University, explains how the Catholic practice of confession helps motivate people to make better long-term decisions: Matthew Taylor: This is the kind of insight that drives me to reconsider . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Days of Auld Lang What? You know exactly when you’ll hear it, and you probably won’t hear it again for a year. The big clock will hit 11:59:50, the countdown will begin—10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4—and the sounds will rise: the party horns, fireworks and shouts of “Happy New . . . . Continue Reading »

At the beginning of 2010, I compiled a list that included 1,034 predictions for the coming year. I later went through and narrowed it down to the top 500 that I was absolutely certain would happen. Even after cutting the list down, though, I only managed to achieve a 67 percent accuracy rate. . . . . Continue Reading »

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour has issued one of the creepiest statements ever issued by a state government : The Mississippi Parole Board reviewed the sisters’ request for a pardon and recommended that I neither pardon them, nor commute their sentence. At my request, the Parole Board . . . . Continue Reading »

Max McLean’s one-man show, “ Mark’s Gospel ,” a word-for-word dramatic recitation of the entire Gospel of Mark, is now available online in its entirety. Justin Taylor has collected all sixteen videos in this post . As Taylor notes, “All said, it runs about an hour and a . . . . Continue Reading »