Florida Summary

Late in 2009 Eleanor received a mailer for a vacation package from Caribbean Cruise Line, the one with the commercials featuring Carmen Electra, for what appeared to be a pretty good price. It's important to realize that this isn't the reputable Royal Caribbean cruise line (I wish I'd have known then they were an impostor piggybacking their brand). Intrigued, we gave a call to get more details and to see what the "catch" was. The rep did a good job convincing us there wasn't one: we were to get a week long vacation with 4d/3n in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 3d/2n on a cruise to the Bahamas, then finish with 2d/2n in Orlando, FL. They'd give us a rental car for the trip and free food and drink. We'd just have to get down to Florida. We'd also get a second hotel stay for 3d/2n in one of three cities that we could use or gift to someone. Sounded damn good, and I chalked the price up to introductory discounts used to get a new company the satisfied customers and word-of-mouth buzz to develop a customer base. However, our critical thinking caps weren't on and we didn't ask about the fine details. Never do the rationalizing for the company.

Should we consume meat?

Noted utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer argued that we have a moral obligation to be vegetarians. From a paper I wrote last year for an environmental philosophy course, I noted that his reasons for arguing so are:

...that the principle of equality of interests, grounded in morality, demands that we cease not only our consumption of animal flesh, but also our support of it. For if we don’t, then we are no better than either those who held slaves or turned a blind eye to the act of slavery. According to Singer, this is a natural consequence of his earlier premises; namely:

1. The interests of a being are what is important to regard equally with others
2. This equality should apply to all sentient beings capable of suffering
3. We ought to strive for this equality
4. It is an animal’s interest not to suffer (or be killed and eaten)

Since animals do suffer in the meat factories that provide us with meat to eat, this goes against their interests, and it follows that we ought to no longer eat them or allow others to do so.

I disagree; even given the veracity of those premises we are under no moral imperative to cease the act of consuming meat. Such an act, stemming from the predilections of man's nature, are amoral and not subject to such moral scrutiny.

In the interests of time, I refer you to my paper to get a better synopsis of Singer's arguments and my counter-arguments. So, do you think it's compelling that an argument on moral grounds can obligate us to refrain from the tasty carcasses of animals?

Hello, World.

I had originally envisioned my ramblings to be expressed through a comic, Brain in the Machine, a philosophical jaunt into existentialist territory via a zombie who has awakened to his plight as a seemingly "mindless" creature of service. He'd interact with his brethren to try and free them from their necromancer dictator with the help of a human and a penguin. Cue comedic high jinks and intellectual banter! And well, the name had such a good pun as an acronym, BitM, that it was almost too good.

Well, clearly that didn't happen. Instead, what you will get are infrequently posted discourse, rants, reviews, and meditations on physics, mathematics, philosophy, and things that I dislike or think are stupid. Or awesome.