This is an entry in the “Acrostic Contemplations.” con•stan•cy – “the quality of being faithful and dependable.” “Constancy” is a word that I learned from and only ever hear in the Eucharistic prayer. As we offer to God the gifts of bread and wine that we have brought forward and […]
Ethics
16 posts
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke […]
Whenever I hear the word priorities, I think of Ron Weasley (in the movie version, at least) saying that Hermione, who privileges learning above all else, “needs to get her priorities sorted.” The comment is a bit subversive, it is very amusing, but I have a more serious challenge today. […]
A Prayer for Sound Government, from The Book of Common Prayer, pp. 821-2. O Lord our Governor, bless the leaders of our land, that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth. Lord, keep this nation under your care. To the President […]
It starts, as it often does on my blog, with a Bizarro comic: It makes me think and wonder. On the one hand, it does seem that the last twenty years and the overwhelming success of the internet has brought about a change in our behavior, a move towards the […]
I don’t usually post the speech I give at the Medals Ceremony, but this time the message was a bit different. Good afternoon scholars, Parents, and friends, trustees, President Erickson and Provost Pangborn. Congratulations to you all! Each one of you has played a significant role in getting to this […]
What is “fair”? This post is not about “the Buffet rule,” but it is. That is to say, the proposal itself is obviously fairly complex and I think does deserve consideration (but Annenberg has found that this argument is fundamentally flawed in that “— on average — high-income taxpayers pay higher rates […]
With an opening like this, you have to read the rest. HT to Lucas L. Zombies are a strange source of ethical inspiration, but as I mentioned to io9′s Lauren Davis, if academic ethicists get to spend all day talking about trolleys, I see no reason we can’t banter about […]
How is this for a moral dilemma? (See the comic below.) Oddly enough, I was thinking along these lines just yesterday when I read a story about the new black hole discovered which mentioned how many millions (hundreds of millions?) were spent to bring us this discovery. Is that really […]