Virtue Quest

Quick link to a BBC story on how the EU and various other national and international bodies are considering internet access a fundamental human right.

In the fourth paragraph comes a crucial distinction:

“The right to communicate cannot be ignored,” Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

Now, the right to communicate, I think, can be argued as a fundamental human right. And, as a correllary, the right to ordinary means of communication. But much of the article blurs this distinction, and speaks of internet access as if it was a human right in and of itself.

So, anyone living before the late 1980s was deprived of a fundamental human right? One cannot be fully human without the internet?

I don’t think so.

First off, gotta say, some days it’s good to be Catholic. Here’s a report on Pope Benedict having lunch with the poor of Rome. My favorite part:

The poor — around 200 people — and the Pope enjoyed a meal of lasagna, meatballs, lentils and mashed potatoes. Candies brought by the Pope formed part of dessert and there was a toast with sparkling wine.

That’s right: Catholics know that the poor need good vino!

Next, just so’s you know, my recent post about faith wasn’t meant to say “My God can beat up your god” or anything like that. Yes, many of us (including myself on occasion) fight for some kind of victory and try to cover it with the banner of truth. But I don’t think we should let the antics of the childish distract us from the value of seeking what is true.

More on new year’s resolutions: psychologist Jim Taylor advises such things as developing good habits and overcoming bad ones, especially growing in courage and faith. Hmm… sounds vaguely familiar….

For the economics file: some links on a move to restrict payday loans, which usually charge exorbitant interest rates. Also, tangentially related, an article on why banks want us to use our debit cards like credit cards.

Okay, that’s all for now!

Some practical insights from The New Haven Register: Make the new year a clean, fresh start.

And, credit where credit is due, Peter Singer also advises Aristotelian practicality and realism, as opposed to Platonic mind games.

This may be the last time you ever see me recommend anything by Peter Singer, whose sole virtue seems to be his logical consistency. But, being the main voice of the “personal consent as the sole criterion of goodness” camp, I cannot respect his premises. The good is not something I make up in my mind, or that I simply “prefer”. What is good is based on what is. Being precedes goodness, and defines goodness. A rock and a snake and a woman and an angel, because they have different natures – different ways of being – have different goods; but they all share the fundamental good of fulfilling their actual objective nature.

In other words, a diet of all ice cream all the time will make you fat and miserable, no matter how much you “like” ice cream. And murder kills, not only another human being, but your ability to relate to other people – no matter how “worthy of death” you may deem your victim.