Everyday Ethics

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Recently, Senator Todd Akin made some questionable comments regarding the prevalence of pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.”  In an earlier post, I argued that while Akin’s comments were biologically ridiculous, they don’t obviously imply a deeply flawed moral character.
Akin has now apologized for his comments, claiming that he used “the [...]

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Representative and candidate for Senator Todd Akin recently made a truly ridiculous comment about the frequency of pregnancy due to rape, which has caused a flurry of discussion regarding Republican nominee for President Mitt Romney’s position on abortion.
Akin, who has long-expressed opposition to abortion even in cases of rape, was seemingly attempting to [...]

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With apologies for the badly rhyming title, the current debate spurned by Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s comments about the proper structure of marriage has led to a serious backlash from both gay-marriage supporters and defenders of either Cathy’s comments, or his right to make them.  Clearly, this is a good place for some philosophical analysis, [...]

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Yesterday, a Georgia chapter of the Ku Klux Klan had their request to “adopt” a portion of state route 515 denied.  While my initial reaction to this decision was “well of course they were denied, it’s the KKK,” a closer examination of the arguments given for the decision somewhat tempered my support for this ruling.  [...]

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Last time, I offered several arguments against allowing same-sex couples to get married.  In the interest of fairness, I now want to offer a couple of arguments in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, to see if they survive a similar level of scrutiny.
One might wonder why we should bother with such an activity, since we [...]

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North Carolina recently passed Amendment One, a constitutional prohibition on same-sex marriage. They are not the only state to seek legislative action to prevent same-sex marriages–in fact, 30 states currently have laws on the books prohibiting them. However, what is somewhat unique about North Carolina’s approach is the fact that they opted to [...]

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Ozzie Guillen has built a reputation as someone who says what he thinks, consequences be damned.  That trait showed itself again during a recent interview with Time magazine, where Guillen spoke favorably of Fidel Castro, stating that he “loved” and “admired” him.  These comments were not well-received in Miami, a city that is literally filled [...]

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In two previous posts, I considered what I take to be the most controversial elements of the Stand Your Ground law, now infamous for its role in the Trayvon Martin shooting, and then offered a couple of arguments in favor of that law.  Before focusing more directly on ethical issues in the Trayvon Martin case [...]

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In a previous post, I outlined what I take to be two key components of the now infamous “Stand Your Ground” law permitting individuals who believe they are in imminent danger to defend themselves without fear of criminal punishment.  This law, it seems, was a contributing factor in the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, a [...]

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Last week, the nation was shocked to learn of the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old black male who was shot to death on the streets of Sanford, Florida.  What makes this case particularly noteworthy is that the shooter, George Zimmerman, has not been arrested or charged with a criminal act.
Why, you ask?  Because [...]

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