[The following comprises two pieces that first appeared at the old Palace Of Reason in early 2004. They’re relevant to our current national discourse…such as it is. Sorry, the embedded links no longer work. Something to bear in mind as you read: a judge in Hawaii recently ruled that “the spirit of aloha” …
Category: ethics
Feb 21 2024
Killers Part 3
When force is made the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. – Ayn Rand If you’ve read the previous two pieces in this little series, you’ve probably got the idea that I don’t much like governments. You’re right about that. The State, the human organization defined by its monopoly privilege of using …
Feb 20 2024
Killers Part 2
An ancient principle of the law holds that he who aids or abets the commission or the concealment of a crime is as guilty of that crime as the perpetrator of the criminal act. Clearly, the abettor must condone the crime. Equally clearly, the abettor and the perpetrator share certain convictions, whether about the …
Feb 19 2024
Killers Part 1
The civility cherished by the civilized men had finally been defeated by their ideas, although they did not know that this was the cause. After years of preaching contradictions and of evading principles with an anti-ideological shrug, these men were astonished to see the nation conclude that man cannot live by principles, that reason …
Oct 02 2023
What Can And Cannot Be Taught
Among the questions that every responsible man must address during his lifetime, this one has a special resonance for both parents and teachers: When I ask whether ethics can be taught, I mean by someone standing up in front of you and speaking, as in a classroom. Someone speaks about the virtue of …
Sep 06 2023
The Bioethics Scam
As one who loves words and delights in their proper use, it offends me when words used to express important concepts are twisted away from their public meaning to serve a political agenda. For example, we’ve seen the word justice brutalized by the addition of one modifier after another, none of which have any …
May 29 2023
Evil Policies Part 2: Underlying Motivations
The previous piece on this subject evoked some unusually revealing responses. As I remain unwilling to condemn anyone by name, I’ll say only that some of my Gentle Readers aren’t very Gentle after all. They expressed a willingness to countenance deliberate harm to innocents for the sake of a good tactic. That’s not on, …
May 27 2023
Evil Policies
I have something to say that a lot of people, possibly including you, Gentle Reader, are not going to like. You could be one of them, so make sure you’re securely seated and your seat belt is fastened. The end does not justify the means. That’s it, friends. Just seven words. Easy …
Dec 20 2022
Coexist Or Duke It Out?
It’s getting to be time to decide: This is happening right now and the lady sitting next to me is glaring daggers while making passive aggressive comment[s] under her breath I have a 8 hour flight with a short connection. The 1st flight only served a small cracker pack and the 2nd …
May 29 2022
Virtue And Its Nature
The contemporary aversion to philosophy – and to most philosophers, come to think of it – has the same emotional foundation as the contemporary aversion to poetry. Sarah Hoyt once wrote that the decline of civilization begins with open-mic poetry nights. She had an excellent point. It would apply with equal force to open-mic …
May 03 2022
A Time For Perspective
Geez, I get to write about what I want so seldom these days… Yes, yes: Politico has leaked a draft Supreme Court opinion, purportedly written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, which strikes down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The majority opinion in that case was written by Associate Justice Harry Blackmun. Of …
Jan 03 2022
Threatening Or Heartening?
I’m in the habit of sending out “Happy New Year” notes to my friends, cordial acquaintances, and other regular correspondents. Those who reply usually just echo the wish, perhaps with a few words of personal news attached. However, this year one friend, whom I’ll call Smith, included in his response that he’d decided to …
Dec 22 2021
Fear Alone Provides Insufficient Test Subjects
What Felix Rex implies is that the forced vax campaigns provided billionaires’ scientists billions of non-consenting human guinea pigs upon which to test potential life-extending technology. They must’ve anticipated that fear alone wouldn’t turn all of humanity into Howard Hughes type germaphobes, hence the gradual forced campaigns were already planned for when fear no longer …
Nov 10 2021
Which Is To Be Master? (UPDATED)
My most recent novel, In Vino, provides the culmination of several themes threaded through the Onteora Canon. One of the most important of them is expressed compactly in this passage: [Ray] glanced around the table. All the glasses were empty. No cheese and only a few crackers remained on the tray he’d prepared. …
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