Reg writes:

That is what the civilized world hopes for. And behind all of this, in the background, are the religious zealots and power grabbing bigots that nobody seems to be talking about. They are like woodworms in a library. By the time anyone reacts to them all the books will be damaged. Then they will bring in a pedestal and put one book on…[Read more]

Reg,

Are you sure Walter isn’t dipping into his own prescription there? The less strung-out would just use fly paper or trap them in jugs of sugar water.

Strega,

I meant to add as punctuation: All this fine mess is ultimately what Hamas hath wraught. Lots of IDF members would much rather be planting a tree or building a gazebo addition.

@jakelafort – it doesn’t take a lot to destroy the feeling of “I feel your pain”.  All it takes is if we don’t approve of someone, so for some reason, they are not “deserving” of our empathic concern.  A set of people we don’t approve of is hated out-group members.

Strega wrote:
But that’s not what stops us from randomly killing annoying people. We don’t think “I want to throttle you but I’d better not because it’s wrong”.

Well, this is true I agree.  There’s no such thing as moral obligation, having to do things because it’s the morally right thing to do.  We follow moral principles because we don’t like…[Read more]