Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Friday, April 07, 2017
Choose Carefully
Would you prefer your kids and family be killed by a Russian barrel bomb, an American JDAM bomb, or Syrian gas? Asking for a friend.
I've been struggling with this sort of thing. Is it better for a child to be immediately choked by sarin or to die over a longer period of time because of deregulation of industrial effluent or to be blown apart rather than smothered? Why are we more moved by the death of a child instead of the death of a mature person with the investment of many years of study, training and worthiness? Is our response to our children purely biologically driven or is it ecological/evolved because people who don't protect their children die out as a group? Was it cruel of Assan's parents to let him grow up? Was it cruelty to his nation to teach him to kill children? Is it okay if they're not one's own children? Would it be better to keep a suffering child alive than to smother him or her?
Is it better to be a gormless president who hangs on to ideas from the Fifties -- but is consistent -- or rather a president with "neck-snapping reversals"? Oh, look, a squirrel!!!
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I've been struggling with this sort of thing. Is it better for a child to be immediately choked by sarin or to die over a longer period of time because of deregulation of industrial effluent or to be blown apart rather than smothered? Why are we more moved by the death of a child instead of the death of a mature person with the investment of many years of study, training and worthiness? Is our response to our children purely biologically driven or is it ecological/evolved because people who don't protect their children die out as a group? Was it cruel of Assan's parents to let him grow up? Was it cruelty to his nation to teach him to kill children? Is it okay if they're not one's own children? Would it be better to keep a suffering child alive than to smother him or her?
Is it better to be a gormless president who hangs on to ideas from the Fifties -- but is consistent -- or rather a president with "neck-snapping reversals"? Oh, look, a squirrel!!!
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