New Word

schadenfavre: the emotional state of feeling an intense, devilish, and slightly malicious pleasure at finally, finally seeing Brett Favre's career end, whether it be through injury or a horribly disappointing season.

Bring on the schadenfavre!!

New Words

Perfidiot (noun) : deceitful and untrustworthy idiot. One who lies or is mendacious, but does a poor job of it, either in concealing their scheming or in carrying it out.

Perfidiotic (adjective) : being like a perfidiot, bearing the characteristics of a perfidiot.

The Pope And The Male HIV-Positive Prostitute, Ctd

Andrew Sullivan asks us to make sense of the Pope's gaffe regarding homosexual, HIV positive sex and condom use. I oblige.

The thing here is that the Church commits itself to acting in a Kantian way – by taking a categorical imperative, a moral imperative, and following it to the T. Within Kant, we are faced with this situation: Kant harbors a friend who has a killer chasing him. When the killer comes to the door and inquires about the location of Kant’s friend, Kant, who has placed a moral prohibition on lying, is required to tell the killer the truth – namely that he is sheltering his friend, even if this results in his friend’s death – because of the absolute prohibition on lying. The Church acts in an identical manner when it comes to condoms and homosexual sex.

Now, it’s hard not to see the ‘Killer at the door’ situation and say, “Hey, there’s something not right here.” And that is what the Pope did, with regards to condoms and homosexual, HIV positive sex. The Pope mentioned a case that makes common sense, a case that is so purely obvious – and a case that, under the Church’s guidelines and Kantian-type morality, is still morally wrong.

There is no room for common sense or compassion when it comes to this Church’s moralities. There is no nuance and there are no exceptions. And there are no ‘less evil’ or ‘less immoral’ acts. Things are black and white, either moral or immoral And in my opinion, for the Church to maintain any moral relevancy, it will need to start viewing the world a little more grayly.  

WWNJD?

What Would New Jersey Do? Alec Slater explains:

WWNJD?

1. find out what you want and then figure out a way to make a cut off getting that thing to you.

2. offer no apologies for anything

3. make sure you know it's in the room and know where it's from.

4. Make woman out of her.

5. make a man out of you.

6. make many promises of which it will keep only a few

7. rock you

Indeed.

A Pithy Political Pretext

A maxim I heard, that I will not take credit for. It's in response to the saying, "A conservative is a liberal who's been robbed."

"A liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."

There are, of course, a few other words we can use in place of 'arrested.' But the original saying deals with crime, so arrested it will stand.

Not Philosophy, but, hey.

While tilting back a glass of red Bordeaux, an aroma floated up into my awaiting nostrils. It was the rough, somewhat barnyard smell of dark poultry meat, a smell that conjures up visions of grey meat that falls apart at the merest touch, and feathers plastered together lifelessly that resemble nothing more than toothpicks and sticks.

Then, the epiphany - Of course Coq au Vin makes sense. Drowning a cantankerous old capon (tough and bitter, and spiteful to the hilt) in red wine and braising it slowly is brilliant. The aroma of the wine and the taste of the stewed chicken are made for each other. Grape and fowl - disparate items, yet idyllic complementarians.

A Prescription

The Good Life: There is a feeling, a pure intoxication towards life, a joy, revelry, unbridled enthusiasm, and will to meet and overcome any challenge. It comes before sports games, it comes before battles, it comes from any pep talk or speech that brings people to their feet shouting and jumping and gnashing their teeth. It is energy, a frenzy in a sense, that drives those people to accomplish whatsoever they put themselves too. A will to risk all offset by a deep visceral desire to gain it all. This energy, if this energy can be summoned and brought up throughout a daily existence, towards any and every activity, a frenzy towards every act of life - that is a life, that is the life.