Joe Carter

A daily roundup of intriguing items on culture, politics, and religion. Culture » Sign of the Times: In honor of same-sex marriage becoming legal in Vermont, Ben & Jerry’s has renamed its Chubby Hubby ice cream flavor “Hubby Hubby” for the month . » When technology . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday I wrote that in order to advance a religiously informed public philosophy, it was useful to clarify what was meant by a religious belief . In the comments section Barry Addington notedthat the mission of First Things is not to advance a religiously informed public philosophy “if the . . . . Continue Reading »

From Fred Sanders : Two sisters sit at home, talking. The younger sister does needlework and arranges flowers picked from the garden, as she passes the time until her boyfriend comes to visit. The older sister, on the other hand, is trying to make some kind of sense out of her wasted life, having . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the world’s largest book publishers isn’t happy about what Google and Amazon are doing to the publishing industry : Arnaud Nourry, chief executive of French publishing group Hachette Livre, said unilateral pricing by Google, Amazon and other e-book retailers such as Barnes & . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a visceral reaction of disgust whenever I see this ad by the World Wildlife Fund, though I can’t exactly explain why. [caption id=”attachment_7319” align=”aligncenter” width=”500” caption=”Click to Enlarge”] [/caption] Tasteless or . . . . Continue Reading »

When I saw this headline at Christianity Today — Breaking: Translators Regret TNIV, Will Overhaul NIV —I thought my buddy Ted Olsen was making a joke. But it’s true! Zondervan, the world’s biggest Bible publisher, admits it made a mistake: “Some of the criticism was . . . . Continue Reading »

For decades, George Will has been one of the most thoughtful voices in the conservative movement. In his column today , however, he shows a surprisingly lack of prudence by calling for the withdrawal of troops from the mainland of Afghanistan to the coastline, a flawed strategy and a complete . . . . Continue Reading »

Ludwig Wittgenstein believed that the proper task of philosophy was to make the nature of our thought and talk clear. The problems of philosophy were illusory, he believed, and arose as a misunderstanding about language. While I think he greatly overstated the case, I think Wittgenstein was on to . . . . Continue Reading »

[caption id=”attachment_7287” align=”alignright” width=”150” caption=”The cover of Beck's latest book “] [/caption] The late film critic Pauline Kael is often quoted as having said, in the wake of Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Maybe not: It’s commonly said among English writers that a haiku is a syllabic poem with lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively. This is not, in fact, true, and thinking through why it is not raises some interesting questions about language and poem forms. . . . . Continue Reading »