- Conscience and coercion.
- Out of sight, out of mind, part 1
- Out of sight, out of mind, part 2
- “Chamber of Commerce conservatism.”
- Happy birthday, Heidegger!
- Green goes goofy.
- Experience versus theory.
- Short and Sweet
1
Savvy Democrat strategist William Galston says, among other things, that Democrats are increasingly losing the center. (HT Walter Russell Mead) That’s getting pretty rough after losing the Catholic and Jewish votes.
I don’t know whether the effect is measurable, but the Obama administration’s extremism in defense of abortion (and related sexual matters), including trampling on the conscience of individuals and religious charities who oppose abortion, richly earns the loss of everyone’s vote (which is not to say that those votes have any ideal place to go, though it does explain why I tend to end up voting for Republicans, who at least pay lip service to virtue).
I have participated in negotiations for stronger religious/conscience exemptions to odious law. I’ve generally felt sullied by the possibility that such compromise pushed the law to passage – that without the exemption, the law might have failed. But I’ve never seen anything quite as calculated as this Administration’s proactive creation of a parsimonious religious exemption that it had to know would, if implemented, destroy many private-sector charities.
Since I do not single out this administration for scorn very often, I hope you won’t dismiss this as partisanship, and that you will take a look at the Witherspoon Institute analysis of the mandate and the parsimonious religious exception.
2
For many observers, the lesson of this case is simple: We need to abolish the death penalty outright. The argument that capital punishment is inherently immoral has long been a losing one in American politics. But in the age of DNA evidence and endless media excavations, the argument that courts and juries are just too fallible to be trusted with matters of life and death may prove more effective.
If capital punishment disappears in the United States, it won’t be because voters and politicians no longer want to execute the guilty. It will be because they’re afraid of executing the innocent.
But then he argues that simply abolishing the death penalty could be a sorry alternative to fixing the system that is so wrong so often.
Abolishing capital punishment in a kind of despair over its fallibility would send a very different message. It would tell the public that our laws and courts and juries are fundamentally incapable of delivering what most Americans consider genuine justice. It could encourage a more cynical and utilitarian view of why police forces and prisons exist, and what moral standards we should hold them to. And while it would put an end to wrongful executions, it might well lead to more overall injustice.
This is not “Put ’em away. Let ’em rot. We don’t want to see or think about them” conservatism.
3
I have made no secret about disliking Walmart, a destroyer of small, local businesses. But I have frequented Amazon.com, usually for items I knew would be hard to find locally, not for a lower price. My last major purchase, for instance, was a Fiskars Momentum reel mower, which Lowe’s, Home Depot and Menards did not stock locally. I even checked one or two of their websites to see if they stocked them in Indianapolis, since each had them available by web. (I know: Lowes, Home Depot and Menards are Walmart writ small.)
But stories like those emerging about Amazon.com (here and here) make working at Walmart sound like an earthly paradise.
I repeat for the sake of Amazon.com, which I assume is monitoring what criticism is being spread on the web: You don’t have to have an insanely low price on the merchandise I can’t find locally. It’s good enough that you have what I want and will deliver it at a reasonable price. Treat your workers as if they were members of the same species as your executives. I don’t want to be complicit in worker illness or death.
4
I, a Chamber of Commerce member and occasional participant, have nevertheless been known to contemptuously refer to “Chamber of Commerce conservatism.” By that, I normally meant socially liberal, economically conservative. (Occasionally, it included “scapegoating lawyers,” too, as if lawlessness was conservative.)
Now it turns out that the Chamber’s economic conservatism may be perverse, counter-productive and – truth be told – not really conservative. (HT Doug Masson)
5
It’s the birthday of our more personable cat’s namesake, (Martin) Heidegger. (HT Writer’s Almanac)
Our son got him from the pound and named him. Then he got a girlfriend who was allergic to cats, and when they were getting toward wedding day, the cat (and the carpet full of cat dander) had to go.
Cool cat. Fun daughter-in-law. Two grandkids. What’s not to like?
6
Since I watch little TV, I was unaware of a newish series of FedEx ads. A cyberfriend shared one, but this one tickles me more than his did:
7
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. (HT Fr. John Hainsworth in an old Paradosis podcast)
8
Today’s poem at Writer’s Almanac (copyrighted, so I link to it).
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Bon appetit!
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 