Thirty Three Things #2

October 12, 2012 By Joe Carter

1. How to Fix One of the Problems With Our Republican Democracy The problem with democracy is not that politicians kowtow to financiers and lobbyists; it’s that politicians kowtow to their own consituents, spending other people’s money along the way. In other words, their incentives are all wrong. Effective reform should supply better incentives. So if I could make just one change in the American political system, it would be to give each voter two votes in every congressional election.... Read more

The 50 Best/Worst Childhood Fads

October 12, 2012 By Joe Carter

They were the best of fads, they were the worst of fads—all at the same time. The faddish objects of our childhood were sometimes loved and sometimes hated but they were hard to ignore. Here are a list of the 50 best/worst from the 1960s to today: 1. Beanie Babies What made it the best: You and your friends loved collecting them. What made it the worst: Old ladies loved collecting them too. 2. Bratz Dolls What made it the best: 559 different... Read more

What Does Beauty Taste Like?

October 12, 2012 By Joe Carter

“De gustibus non disputandum est,” the Romans used to say: Concerning taste, it is not to be argued. But concerning taste—the physical sense, not the aesthetic sentiment—Carolyn Korsmeyer argues that it is not as philosophically inconsequential as once believed: For centuries it was commonly asserted that beauty could only be apprehended by means of the senses of vision and hearing. . . . This is a typical sentiment, for the vast majority of philosophers writing about aesthetic taste dismiss or even... Read more

The Parable of Botox

October 11, 2012 By Joe Carter

Several years ago I encouraged my friend Hans Madume—a physician, theologian, and bioethicist—to provide me a justification for condemning cosmetic surgery. We would often discuss the differences between therapy and enhancement and since the latter triggered my “yuck” reflex—and because I’m an advocate of Leon Kass-style “wisdom of repugnance” theorizing—I figured a knock-down case could be made against it (at least by someone as smart as Hans). To my dismay, he always refused to provide an easy answer, choosing instead... Read more

Your Emotions Are A Gauge, Not A Guide

October 11, 2012 By Joe Carter

God designed your emotions to be gauges, not guides. They’re meant to report to you, not dictate you. The pattern of your emotions (not every caffeine-induced or sleep-deprived one!) will give you a reading on where your hope is because they are wired into what you believe and value — and how much. That’s why emotions like delight (Psalm 37:4), affection (Romans 12:10), fear (Luke 12:5), anger (Psalm 37:8), joy (Psalm 5:11), etc., are so important in the Bible. They... Read more

Why Food Insecurity Was One of the Most Important Causes of WWII

October 11, 2012 By Joe Carter

During World War II the U.S. consented to feed the world, says George Russell, and then taught much of it how to feed itself: Today’s world of plenty is a relatively new phenomenon. There is only one generation left that remembers hunger as a possibility in the industrialized world, and they are quickly dying off due to old age. World War II took a world that we would barely recognize and remade it into the modern life that we experience... Read more

Human Anatomy Terms That Sound Like Things You Would Go See On A Vacation

October 11, 2012 By Joe Carter

Aortic Arch Corpus Callosum Islets of Langerhans Bowman’s Capsule Cranial Vault Semicircular Canals Medullary Pyramids Brodmann Areas Crypts of Lieberkühn Prussack’s Space Fissure of Rolando McBurney’s Point Anterior Horn Alcock’s Canal Hesselbach’s Triangle Loop of Henle Renal Columns of Bertin Text via The Science Creative Quarterly; Image via GOOD magazine Read more

The Most Beautiful Phrase in English?

October 10, 2012 By Joe Carter

Is the most beautiful phrase in English . . . cellar door? The claim that cellar door is beautiful to the ear — in opposition to its prosaic meaning — has been made by and attributed to a wide variety of writers over the years. . . . The fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, who was also a philologist, might well be the linguist she had in mind. He mentioned the idea of cellar door’s special beauty in a speech in 1955 and is... Read more

The Dirty Bathroom Theory of Schools

October 10, 2012 By Joe Carter

In a famous article in a 1982 issue of Atlantic Monthly, James Q. Wilson and George Kelling proposed the “broken window theory” of crime prevention: [D]isorder and crime are usually inextricably linked, in a kind of developmental sequence. Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. Wilson and Kelling argued that vandalism and low-level disorder could be used to gauge... Read more

Obama the Anti-Orator

October 10, 2012 By Joe Carter

Last week, Buzzfeed created a supercut of the 236 times that President Obama used his favorite verbal crutch during the first presidential debate. “Obama spent more time speaking but not more time talking,” quipped James Poniewozik, TIME magazine’s TV critic. “You could have held a whole other debate within the time he spent on “Aaaahs” and “Ummms” and thoughtful pauses.” As horrible as his debate performance was, it’s hard not to feel sorry for the President when both his critics... Read more