The Burr in the Burgh

Some days I just think we'd be better off with a benevolent dictator to govern us. Or as Plato advised, a philosopher king. Why do I utter such weirdness? Because it is so aggravating to read stories like this one. A poor, clearly troubled, young girl surfs the net and finds a web forum with all sorts of information about how to "check yourself out" so to speak. Someone will witlessly defend this monstrous website on the basis of free speech. Freedom is a wonderful thing. But it will only work so long as the populace are first self-governed by internalized precepts of virtue. Otherwise, freedoms - such as we enjoy - will lead to debauchery, moral chaos and death. Or in other words, without a more firmly established social contract, our lives will become solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short (cf. Thomas Hobbes in The Leviathan). My opinion is that the American Experiment is failing precisely for this reason. A society formed and informed by clear ethical guidance can do well when given extensive liberties. But a society that largely and increasingly rejects all objective standards of goodness will become quite unsafe. To sum it up, the majority of Americans are not "good" enough to handle the freedoms they are given. Forced to choose, I'd rather live under tyranny than anarchy.

I have decided that from this day forward I will only refer to pizza by the last two letters: za. Let it be spoken. Let it be done.

And I thought fish tacos sounded bad. Now I'm reading about fish ice cream in Taiwan. Some of the popular flavors are: pineapple shrimp, wasabi cuttlefish, strawberry tuna and mango seaweed, all in stark colors from orange to green to black. Now, I enjoy eating ethnic foods and trying new things, but this just is not right.