Checkered Premises

The abortion of a pregnancy is every woman’s right. Rights are special subclass of moral principles. Moral principles are identified and recognized by rational thought about human action. A right (meaning an individual right, which means the right of an individual) is a moral principle entitling an individual to act in a particular way in the presence of other people. Rights concern what individuals must be allowed, by others, to do, morally speaking. When I say "I have a right to do X", I mean "If you try to stop me from doing X, you should be stopped, by force, and the government should assist me in stopping you. Your actions against me should not and shall not stand." To violate someone's right is a grave moral error, with serious, dangerous, or even fatal consequences. With that in mind, in the context of a woman being pregnant, how might individual rights apply? A woman, before she becomes pregnant, is an individual. Does becoming pregnant change this? No...

Have you ever gotten yourself dead set on a mission? A case where you find it near impossible to give up doing something? I know I have. It generally involves a disagreement with a number of people on the Internet, people who seem to all be making the same error. And I take it upon myself to correct them all. To stamp out the error. After a while, though, I realize I may be embarrassing myself. I start to feel like a fish on a hook, and all the stupid  or erroneous  is just drawing me in. I end up a sucker. The solution, ultimately, is to admit I can't win. It's also to admit that I've been fixated  on a particular goal, and I've stopped paying sufficient attention to other things which require attention. I'm reminded, here, believe it or not, of Dr. Death. As portrayed in the NBC series, Dr. Christopher Duntsch is a man who lives by committing to missions. His first mission (as a young man) is to succeed in football. But he's terrible at it. He confuses his lef...

In order to understand human nature fully, we need accurate portrayals of unexcused human evil. Today, all too frequently, we see dramatic antagonists motivated by a malevolence explained by early-life circumstances. What we don't see nearly as often are villains explained by nothing other than their own errors of thought, and their unwavering, unyielding commitment to those errors despite nearly overwhelming evidence. The evil man's mantra is: "There is no way I'm wrong about this." The evil man cannot (without great personal cost) admit his own error. The degree of evil is the importance of the uncorrected error. Self-deception is the act of accepting a false belief which serves to flatter one's own image or situation. It can be as minor as "I'll call him back tomorrow" when one actually has no such intention, or as major as "He deserved to die" after committing a murder. It can be as modest as "I have more important things to do...

Here I review three portable LED lights. They are the  Slonik 1000-lumen headlamp , the  Anker Bolder LC90 flashlight  and the  Nicron N9 flashlight . I purchased all of these. All three are quite good, but there are differences which might make you prefer each over the others. All three emit white light only, and all make a constant, flicker-free beam, in addition to "strobe" and SOS patterns. Each of these uses a single 18650 lithium-ion battery. These batteries make very bright light possible compared to AA batteries. The Anker and Slonik both allow you to charge the battery in-unit with a micro-USB cable. The Nicron does not — you'll need an external charger. The Anker and Slonik both include a battery. The Nicron does not. The build quality on all three units is excellent. These are solid products. Slonik Headlamp The Slonik is a headlamp. It fits comfortably on the head with an elastic strap. It's easily adjustable to point from straight up to straight down, an...