Do Not Speak To Me

My looks have not changed for about the past 12 years. So, occasionally, people will stop me on the street and say "HEY! You're Deirdre! Remember we took a class 8 years ago...?" ...and I draw a spectacular blank but say something polite and warm.

This morning was different. I've had a horrendous cold for the past week and am, for all intents and purposes, incapable of speech. Too much stuff going on in my throat!

So this morning, at 7:30am on the bus, it went down like this:

Him: HEY! Aren't you Deirdre!?!?!
Me: *hack*Yeessss??
Him: We had a class together 10 years ago!
Me: Uhhmmmnnnghgh? *ahem*
Him: A computer media class!
Me: *cough* *hack* I think...I remember that class...
Him: So how have you been!?
Me: Goo*cough*ood.
Him (sensing I don't want to talk and getting sad): ... Well...nice seeing you.
Me (highly uncomfortable): **incomprehensible**

Dear sir: I am sorry I came across as an insensitive and stuck-up old classmate. But, really, it WAS your fault. Truly.

Double Effect - Morally Evil Means

I was reading Alison McIntyre on DE (Double Effect) and the DDE (Doctrine of Double Effect) and the following struck me: there is some slippage into equivocation when it comes to moral evils and physical evils.

Effects of an intentional act may be non-harmful (pleasant/useful/etc.) or harmful, and means employed may likewise be harmful or non-harmful. But harmful means should not be identified with morally evil means. Alison McIntyre claims that the DE “expresses a prohibition on harm intended as a means to a good end.”[1] Under this interpretation of the DDE, “instrumental harming”[2] is prohibited. However, the classical formulation of the DDE certainly permits instrumental physical harm: what is prohibited is the use of morally evil means. The surgeon causes harm by slicing into human flesh to effect a good result – and yet this does not constitute morally bad means unless one grants that physical harm is the equivalent of a moral evil.

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[1] Alison McIntyre, “Doing Away with Double Effect,” Ethics 111, no. 2 (January 2001): 219-55.

[2] Ibid.          

So. There.

Sgorbi

"Sgorbi" is the plural form of the Italian word "sgorbio" and means "meaningless scribbles." If you are here looking for more than meaningless scribbles then, honey sugar pie, you may be in the wrong place. But perhaps not. One artist's scribbles may be worth boo-coo bucks to someone else!