David Mills

“You’re not becoming a vegetarian, are you?” said a friend who was actually scowling at me, when I ordered a salad at lunch. I wasn’t, as it happened, but only eating lightly because we were going to a banquet in the evening and I wanted to take full advantage of the free . . . . Continue Reading »

The old newspaper clipping shows two families, one descended from a white man and a black woman and the other descended from two white people, with the text, “Interesting researches by the Carnegie Institute disprove the popular notion that a ‘pass-for-white’ person married to a . . . . Continue Reading »

For those of you who like this kind of thing, an image for which I wish I could think of a use: At a lecture this evening, the moderator said that she hoped to “tie together some of the irons we have in the fire.” . . . . Continue Reading »

I am pleased to introduce two friends who have recently joined the list of regular writers for “First Thoughts.” We are honored, touched, moved, pleased as punch, happy as clams, and tickled pink to have them. Readers of the magazine may recognize Mark Barrett, as he has been quoted . . . . Continue Reading »

Our good friend Fr. Edward Oakes, S.J., with the editor and me a member of Evangelicals and Catholics Together, has written a very good review of David Hart’s The Experience of God . “One would be hard put,” he says, “to find a more thorough and a more devastating refutation . . . . Continue Reading »

Reading good literature will make you better in dealing with people, according to a new study published in Science. The study found that after reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social . . . . Continue Reading »

“I had drifted away a little bit. This book has brought me back into the fold. I was so incredibly struck in writing these stories by the incredible power faith had in people’s lives, it has made a profound impact on me in my belief. That’s been the completely unexpected . . . . Continue Reading »

Sinead O’Connor offers an argument for what is effectively chastity in the way young women present themselves in public, and in particular in relation to the way one misguided young woman, Miley Cyrus, presents herself in public. In an open letter prompted by Cyrus’s claim that one of . . . . Continue Reading »

Anyone who understands logic could see this kind of thing coming, but it’s still a shock. A Belgian transsexual woman chose to be euthanized , which is to say, killed by a doctor, when her operation didn’t work out. From the  Daily Mail story Wesley Smith reports: Nathan Verhelst, . . . . Continue Reading »

• Donna’s doesn’t look right without the flower shed sticking out along the street, where flowers were always sold, even at three in the morning, by young Filipino men who had holy cards taped up on the door of the tiny little room they used as an office. In the bodega itself, Donna, or . . . . Continue Reading »