Accidental Blogger

A general interest blog

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Category: Ethics, Morality & Religion

  • Catholic Cardinal Francis George: Gay Pride = Klan Rally? (Norman Costa)

    The real news was not the agreement on escorts and crossing guards, but a large sign put up by Cardinal George, in front of the Church.

  • Can Gross National Happiness = Gross National Irony ? (Sujatha)

    So much for the concept of Gross National Happiness, a concept developed and promoted as an index of well-being by the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2005. While efforts to quantify it were widely publicized and discussed, nobody seemed to take the Bhutan government to task for its treatment of the ethnically Nepali Lhotshampas and…

  • “Sunday Morning” on Sunday Night (Norman Costa)

    I found the poem so alluring….Each time I read it, I enjoyed it that much more, but…I was less and less certain of what Stevens was trying to do, to say, to get across. I think it is a religious poem,…Christian…, but he seems unsure about what he believes. No matter. I still enjoyed…it.

  • Step lively, you wretches …

    Without additional commentary on the nature of the GOP presidential candidates, here is just one "idea" proposed by the current front runner Newt Gingrich whom some are calling the Newtron Bomb. It's a fact, because he has told us so, that Republican primary candidate Newt Gingrich is first and foremost a historian, so it's no surprise when he buttresses…

  • To Hint Of Religion, Or Not To Hint Of Religion (Norman Costa)

    For the non-believer, should a hint of religion in a poem, or even an obvious reference, detract from the appreciation of the poetry?

  • Why Renaissance Babies are ugly (Elatia Harris)

    Elatia explains:  The Warburg Method teaches us that devotional art is not only not always beautiful, but rarely beautiful — because it is deeply coded and the untutored eye doesn't always get it. Is not intended to get it. This is true across civilizations, not just true in the Western painting tradition.  As the blogger…

  • Afghan rape victim sentence reduced, stays in jail (Norman Costa)

    Afghan prosecutors announced that a young rape victim, jailed for adultery after reporting the crime and pushed into marrying her attacker, would have her sentence reduced from 12 to 3 years. She would remain in jail — with her child from the rape — for not reporting her attack fast enough.

  • The Thanksgiving “Turkey Pardon”: A dark parody

    Justin E.H Smith at the New York Times Opinionator blog.

  • Joe Pa = Il Papa? The similarities are eerie.

    This would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago but Penn State University saw no way out other than to clean house, a house that had been made into a citadel of national repute and a cash cow by some of the same people who have been given the axe. Penn's head football coach Joe Paterno, one of the two people let go this evening by…

  • Neurological Basis of Really, Really Bad Behavior (Norman Costa)

    “…[A]longside neuroscience,…research in genetics is identifying the genes which give rise to antisocial and aggressive behaviour…. The way the rest of us develop moral rationality is utterly dependent on a functioning brain. But if in a criminal we find key components of their brain are damaged subtly enough for them to function otherwise normally, we…