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Article Roundup--December 1
Don't have anything stunningly profound to write about at the moment, so let's go to the ol' standby: random assortments of news articles around the web...
Already spreading around the blogosphere: LDS Marine and Bahraini princess divorce after five years. I'm not one that believes that any one particular marriage has no chance of succeeding due to this or that...but I wonder how likely it is that a devout Mormon and a devout Muslim could have a successful relationship. Would one or both of them have to be (or become) 'un-devout' in order for it to work? (I have no idea how 'devout' either of the two above are/were...I'm speaking generally)
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Don't look now: "Blog" is the word of the year...and why not? They're simueltaneously informative, insightful, compelling, witty...and therapeutic! (for those of us who desperately need an outlet to tell other people what we think...)
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Society's new definition of 'fidelity': Here's an article on faithfulness in relationships--note that people who have four different sexual partners are considered 'faithful' (compared with eight for the 'unfaithful') Ah, yes--relative morality strikes again... (link courtesy of OpinionJournal)
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The Wall Street Journal has an article about deer overpopulation (registration required, but you can read an excerpt at Asymmetrical Information) Interesting quote:
Animal-rights groups such as the Washington, D.C.-based Fund for Animals applaud hunting's decline. That group wants hunting outlawed, and advocates non-lethal methods, such as birth control, to decrease deer overpopulations. But birth control, so far, doesn't really work, say most wildlife managers.
I can only assume they mean sterilization, otherwise I'm not surprised it's not working... ("I don't understand...we did the condoms-and-bananas demonstration with them three times, but it just doesn't seem to be sinking in...)
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Infant euthanasia in the Netherlands. (I told you this would start to happen...)
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Finally, the offbeat articles for the week:
Man arrested for dumping dirt in a forest
and straight out of Chief Wiggum's Guide to Police Work: Man tries to turn himself in after robbery, told to 'come back tomorrow' by police...
December 1, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink
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Comments
Relative morality? That sounds awfully judgmental -- aren't there other reasonable explanations? Like perhaps divorce and widowhood?
The story says that the median age of respondents was 50. And the number of sex partners was "total lifetime sex partners."
By age 50, one relative of my wife had been widowed (widowered?) twice. And he remarried after each time. So he had at least three sexual partners. Are you saying that he was less than faithful because of the number of partners that he had? Or that to call him faithful is only possible under "relative morality"?
Posted by: Kaimi | Dec 2, 2004 2:09:25 PM
You're right...there's no telling when or in what circumstances the average four relationships occurred.
Still, the impression from the article is either the people polled or the pollsters consider a person with four lifetime partners 'faithful'...seemingly only in comparison to the 'unfaithful's eight. Judgments based only on comparisons with worse behavior (not by itself) fit in right with the 'relative morality' concept.
People use relative morality all the time when it comes to sex: "Sure, I have sex without being married...but it's okay because I'm not 'promiscuous'", "Sure, I have sex all the time with many different women, but at least I'm not GAY..." and so on...
Posted by: The Baron | Dec 2, 2004 2:48:08 PM
