Dog Poop

The other day, I saw someone out walking her dog. The dog had just defecated, and she was bending down with a plastic bag to clean it up. No big deal. We all probably see similar scenes all the time. But, for whatever reason, this got me thinking about how much things have changed in…

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Mistletoe

One of the standard tropes in movies, songs, television shows, books, basically in all of media, is kissing under the mistletoe at Christmastime. If popular media is any guide, half the world got their first kiss under some mistletoe (while the other half got it playing Spin the Bottle). It’s so common that it makes…

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Capacities, Rights, and Essences: Part 4 – Bringing It All Together

There are three common bases for moral reasoning that drive me crazy: capacities, rights, and essences. They bug me because they don’t, and can’t, work even though they dominate the popular discourse. They are different in most ways, but I believe their appeal is what they have in common. I will look at each one…

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