Month: May 2005

What do you know about your moral intuitions? Take a quiz and find out something about yourself. I took it, and the results were as follows:

Your Moralizing Quotient is: 0.67
Your Interference Factor is: 0.60
Your Universalizing Factor is: 0.75

So, what does this mean?

Your Moralizing Quotient is an aggregate measure of your tendency to condemn the actions described in these scenarios as morally wrong. A score of 1.00 indicates a fully moralising position. A score of 0.00 is a fully permissive response.

Your Interference Factor is an aggregate measure of your tendency to judge the actions described here as being the legitimate target of societal interference in the form of prevention or punishment. A score of 1.00 indicates that you think that every act described in these scenarios is subject to societal interference. A score of 0.00 indicates that you think that these acts are essentially a private matter, and that societal interference is inappropriate.

Your Universalizing Factor is an aggregate measure of your tendency to judge moral wrongdoing in universal terms. A score of 1.00 means that every time you have determined one of the acts depicted in these scenarios to be morally wrong, you have universalized the judgement of moral wrong doing; that is, you have indicated that the act is wrong regardless of prevailing cultural norms and social conventions. A score of 0.00, on the other hand, means that where you see moral wrong in the acts depicted in these scenarios, you have not once universalised the judgement of moral wrongdoing; that is, you have indicated that whether an act is to be thought of as wrong is largely a matter of social norms, and that it is quite possible that what is wrong in one culture may not be wrong in another. A score of -1 means that you saw no moral wrong in any of the activities depicted in these scenarios, and so it is not possible for this activity to determine the extent to which you see moral wrongdoing in universal terms.

The results are pretty dead on as they describe me. How about you? Take the quiz and see for yourself.

(h/t Marginal Revolution)

That’s what I did when I read this headline from the Boston Herald.

Centrist Dean urges Mass. Dems to Unify

That’s centrist Howard Dean…Scream Dean…Ha ha ha ha ha.

Talk about an oxymoron! My nostrils still ache from the snort.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

Overheard, just outside the Kremlin wall…

Bush: “Sorry, Hu. It’s me and Vladimir for dinner tonight. I mean, I like you…LIKE YOU, understand? That’s all.”

Jintao: “Yes, I noticed you were holding his carnation as well as yours. George, I don’t understand! Who took you out for that early morning swim in the Yangtze? Don’t you remember…the mist hovering on top of the calm water, the cool of the air, our talk we had…you, you promised me that it was real. You know…you said I was your special little china doll.”

As you can see, it’s clearly starting to ‘get’ to Laura too.

Just moments later, Putin asked…

“Do these suit pants make my butt look fat?”

And later that night…it was dinner and a movie.

To be Continued.

It’s up and live today. I’m going to read it awhile before I pass judgement. If you want an early review, read Michelle’s take.

UPDATE: LA Weekly trashes Arianablog:

This Web-site venture is the sort of failure that is simply unsurvivable, because of all the advance publicity touting its success as inevitable. Her blog is such a bomb that it’s the box-office equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one.

Time Columnist Joe Klein gives his reasons why Hillary should stay in the Senate and give up a run for the White House. 

Via AFP:

“Germany was responsible for the outbreak of World War II. We must all live with the consequences.”

— Prime Minister Tony Blair, in an interview with BILD stating that while Germany was entitled to consider its own suffering in World War II, it must never be allowed to view itself as the victim of the conflict.

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

Tired of only hearing about the terror campaign in Iraq? Arthur Chrenkoff provides proof of ‘other’ news in part 27 of his ongoing report about the stories the mainstream media chooses to ignore.

Weeping while watching Star Wars? Puhleeze.

Director STEVEN SPIELBERG wept at a premiere of pal GEORGE LUCAS’ final STAR WARS movie EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH.

JURASSIC PARK film maker, Spielberg was so moved by the eagerly-awaited conclusion of the sci-fi saga, he burst into tears at its screening last week. But he’s unashamed by his tears, insisting fans will also cry at the end of the film, because its moving conclusion marks the end of Lucas’ epic story.

Spielberg says, “I saw it about a week ago, and it’s absolutely amazing. “It’s the best of the last three episodes. It’s the best way you could possibly imagine for George to finish it off, it has a tremendous ending and it’s very dark. You’ll cry at the end, it’s wonderful.”

Are we really supposed to believe this?