Fearless Philosophy Blog Post of the Month (August 2005)
August turned out to be a very busy month for news and commentary. Scanning the blogosphere, I found so many great posts on so many different topics. The Carnival of Liberty once again turned out to be a great resoruce in selecting The Fearless Philosophy Blog Post of the Month. I failed to link the last carnival, Carnival of Liberty VIII hosted by Dan Melson of Searchlight Crusade. The latest edition, Carnival of Liberty IX is now up at Resistance is Futile! with the site’s founder Gullyborg hosting. OK, now that I have that all taken care of, let’s take a look at my picks for this month.
Third Place goes to Chris Byrne of The Anarchangel with his post: Wal-Mart and the free market. Much of people’s complaints against Wal-Mart are unfounded in my opinion. Chris does a great job of explaining how Wal-Mart participates in the free market in this post. Chris explains this the best in the following excerpt toward the end of his post:
“If you don't provide better service, and better selection; then yes, Wal-mart is going to put you out of business; and I don't see how that's a bad thing.”
To people who do not understand capitalism and free markets, that statement might sound very cold but isn’t that what competition is all about: giving people what they want?
Second Place goes to Kevin Boyd the Louisiana Libertarian (this is completely off topic, but if you’re out there Kevin, let us know you got yourself out of the hurricane okay if/when you read this post). Turns out that Pat Robertson isn’t the only leader of the Christian Right to say something stupid this month (is anyone really surprised ?) What Robertson said pales in comparison to what Dr. James Dobson said according to Kevin’s post: James Dobson compares embryonic stem cell to Nazi Germany. Can we go one week without someone making some reckless comparison to Hitler, The Third Reich, or the Nazis? Kevin made the following point:
I couldn’t agree more! I do not care how you feel about embryonic stem cell research; comparing this possibly life-saving research to that of Nazi experiments on the Jews is beyond the pale. Furthermore, this notion that a clump of cells has a life which is equal to my wife’s, my children’s, my family’s, my friends’, or my own cheapens the idea of what life is in my judgement. Thanks for calling Mr. Dobson out on this one Kevin.
And the winner is…
The Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month goes to Kid Various of The Idiom with a post titled: Why Casey Sheehan Died. Please don’t be fooled by the title, like you I am very tired of hearing about Cindy Sheehan’s protest in Crawford. She has made her point and her 15 minutes are up. The focus of the Kid’s post isn’t about Casey Sheehan per se, but more of a reminder of why we are fighting this war on terror to begin with (much like I did in my snarky post titled: Peace on the Enemy’s Terms). Here is one of the nuggets of pure gold from this month’s winning post:
Previous Winners:
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
Third Place goes to Chris Byrne of The Anarchangel with his post: Wal-Mart and the free market. Much of people’s complaints against Wal-Mart are unfounded in my opinion. Chris does a great job of explaining how Wal-Mart participates in the free market in this post. Chris explains this the best in the following excerpt toward the end of his post:
“If you don't provide better service, and better selection; then yes, Wal-mart is going to put you out of business; and I don't see how that's a bad thing.”
To people who do not understand capitalism and free markets, that statement might sound very cold but isn’t that what competition is all about: giving people what they want?
Second Place goes to Kevin Boyd the Louisiana Libertarian (this is completely off topic, but if you’re out there Kevin, let us know you got yourself out of the hurricane okay if/when you read this post). Turns out that Pat Robertson isn’t the only leader of the Christian Right to say something stupid this month (is anyone really surprised ?) What Robertson said pales in comparison to what Dr. James Dobson said according to Kevin’s post: James Dobson compares embryonic stem cell to Nazi Germany. Can we go one week without someone making some reckless comparison to Hitler, The Third Reich, or the Nazis? Kevin made the following point:
These remarks are outrageous to say the least. It trivalizes the Holocaust and the crimes of Nazi Germany. In addition, it makes Dobson look as moronic as the left-wing bloggers who constantly compare Bush to Hitler. But then again, these remarks should not come as a surprise to those of us who see the religious right as nothing more than the counterparts to Daily Kos's commenters and the Democratic underground on the left.
I couldn’t agree more! I do not care how you feel about embryonic stem cell research; comparing this possibly life-saving research to that of Nazi experiments on the Jews is beyond the pale. Furthermore, this notion that a clump of cells has a life which is equal to my wife’s, my children’s, my family’s, my friends’, or my own cheapens the idea of what life is in my judgement. Thanks for calling Mr. Dobson out on this one Kevin.
And the winner is…
The Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month goes to Kid Various of The Idiom with a post titled: Why Casey Sheehan Died. Please don’t be fooled by the title, like you I am very tired of hearing about Cindy Sheehan’s protest in Crawford. She has made her point and her 15 minutes are up. The focus of the Kid’s post isn’t about Casey Sheehan per se, but more of a reminder of why we are fighting this war on terror to begin with (much like I did in my snarky post titled: Peace on the Enemy’s Terms). Here is one of the nuggets of pure gold from this month’s winning post:
Historically speaking, there have been only two restraints on the use of nuclear weapons. The first restraint is the feasibility of separating out enough fissile material and other technical requirements needed to actually construct a working weapon.Congrats to all of this month’s winners!
The second is the fact that, even taking into account the beneficial effects of deterrence throughout the Cold War, nuclear weapon states have never actually used them because of a deeply held moral restraint. Neither the U.S. (in Vietnam or Korea) or the Soviet Union (in Afghanistan) used nuclear weapons, even when such use would cause little fear of a retaliatory strike. Similarly, Israel has not used nuclear weapons against her Arab adversaries, nor had India during the nearly 25 years in which it had a nuclear monopoly vis a vis Pakistan.
After the events of September 11th, it is clear that we cannot rely on restraint number 2 to protect us from the enemy.
Previous Winners:
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
posted by Stephen Littau at 12:51 PM
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