Dear visionaries, In talking about government schools, whether we should have to pay for asphalt that covers streets we never drive on is not a good counterexample. Of course we agree that collective societal action cannot be one vast time-share arrangement. The question is actually what criteria should we use to determine what kind of …
Another Crouton in the Salad of Pluralism
Dear visionaries, Morning, everybody. Time for that morning dose of vitriol! Gary was answered well on the statistical matters by Dale. Our discussion of this whole topic was not precipitated by the discovery that kids were coming into government schools at a “higher rate” than they were “pushing them through the doors of private schools.” …
Catching Kids
Dear visionaries, Gary has issued a ringing defense of the establishment school system, as though we in the private sector have been kidnapping children from them. But the actual problem, the real problem, is that the government schools are chasing people away. If you want to defend the ideals of what your school system ought …
Public Schools, Government Schools
Dear visionaries, John’s post (with regard to the substance of it) was right on the money. As we are fond of saying in our circles, theology comes out your fingertips — and whatever comes out your fingertips is your theology. Please remember that the issue that prompted all this debate was the fact that our …
Cole Porter, Ethicist
Dear visionaries, Susanna wrote: “Alternative visions like slavery, Doug?” To which I respond: Sure, given relativism, why not? Susanna needs to stop opposing slavery and racism as “her personal preference” (binding on no one) and start opposing it for principled reasons, as I do. Abandon your principled defense of relativism, which cannot be distinguished from …
Alternative Visions
Dear visionaries, I am concerned about the growth of absolutist fundamentalism on this list. Susanna listed a whole bunch of things that I am apparently “guilty of” that she appears to think are bad in every circumstance. Where is relativism when you need it? Let’s all work harder at embracing alternative visions! “Apologetics in the …
The Slavery of Relativism
Dear visionaries, Susanna has outed me. Was that nice? I ask you. First things first: she says, “In my ‘simplistically relativist’ world some things are always wrong . . .” I do not want to say that anything was wrong with your history courses, but something was seriously askew in your philosophy and ethics study. …
Busy Pants Liberals
Dear visionaries, Joanne finds that what I have written in the past on the Confederacy is “morally repugnant.” I see that I will have to begin abbreviating. BWS? By what standard, henceforth BWS? Having a fixed standard of right and wrong found in the Scriptures enables me to admire that which was noble about the …
Stuff
Dear visionaries, Jon opposes the death penalty for various reasons, but one of them is that the innocent have sometimes been punished. But this is no reason for opposing the death penalty — it is an argument for judicial reform. We don’t want the innocent spending the rest of their lives in the slammer either. …
Audio Reading of Post
Whose Truth?
Dear visionaries, Jennifer asked: “And whose truth are you speaking of? Yours, Ted’s, Charles Manson’s, Martha Stuart’s, Joe Blow’s, Jane Doe’s? Are you the sole arbiter of what’s true?” I don’t object at all to this question — because it is the same question I have been posing since I began posting to this list. …