{"id":86459,"date":"2023-11-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=86459"},"modified":"2023-11-17T07:27:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T13:27:14","slug":"clarity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=86459","title":{"rendered":"Clarity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since I have the place to myself for the moment, I figured it’d be time to do a little intellectual spring cleaning. Call it “20-odd Theses”, if you want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t care what you put on your pizza. Pineapple? Shrimip? Kale? Put whatever you want on your pizza. And I’ll do the same. Keep your nose outta my food. I’ll do the same for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same goes for hot dogs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re not a lawyer, the “Oxford Comma” is an affectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, and to the extent it matters, this blog, stand for a few things I think are worth upsetting the apple cart for, above and beyond the above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I support free speech. Not just the gauzy, “Question Authority” bumper sticker type that disappeared from every Subaru in Marcy-Holmes when Barack Obama was elected. The real thing – Communists standing on soapboxes, Nazis (pardon the redundancy) marching parades, Klansmen jabbering away freely – and all the good people confronting, refuting, and best of all mocking and taunting them back to the stone age. Because defending speech you agree with wouldn’t need a Constitutional amendment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human freedom and dignity, and the inalienable, unabridgable <\/em>right to defend it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole panoply of small-“l”l liberalsm (aka movement libertarian conservative) thought. You say it’s obsolete? Then so is my Christian faith. I’m not burying either of them for the sake of false polity, much less temporal swings in public mood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moral order. All humans are equal before just laws and God alone. Beneath that, it’s all about talent and merit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The injunction to be kind to “love one another as God loves you” and to be charitable to oen’s fellow human is not a contradiction to the above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploiting and swindling that sense of charity is a moral crime carried out by moral algae. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Humanism, fundamentalist chanting points aside, is not a contradiction. Western civilization sprang from Judeo-Christian Humanism – applying the principles of both faiths to civil society. Not “theocracy” – but a society guided by generally-accepted principles drawn from that faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth is a virtue. Supporting truth is a calling. Upholding truth over lies is a mandate. Good and evil both exist, and being incisive, critical and honest about the differences is Right and Good vs, Wrong and Evil. Being honest about the differences is a colossal burden and supreme good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the subject of good and evil, truth versus lies? It’s a fact:<\/p>\n\n\n\n