Archives for June 18, 2009

While people contrast Bush and Obama, they do have some things in common. Both men were elected President. Both men have ninja-like reflexes. Bush demostrated his skill by deftly dodging shoes hurled at him. Obama showed his lightning reflexes by smacking a fly. Perhaps this is a good sign for him-after all, a hero once got his start by killing flies.

While some folks think the death of the fly was cool, PETA folks are not amused. While not strongly condeming this murderous act, PETA did decide to send the President a device for capturing bugs without harming them. Rumor has it that he already tried it on Joe Biden during one of Joe’s notable off topic adventures.

Now, it might seem silly to be upset by the death of a fly. Mainly because it…well…is silly. That said, I somewhat agree with PETA. As a general moral rule, I try to avoid harming living things and damaging non-living things. My principle is that it is right to avoid doing harm.  This is based on the notion that destroying and harming things creates negative worth and that seems both immoral and irrational. I’ll even take effort to help out other living things. To use a serious example, I have two rescued cats (Zax and Ash) and an adopted dog (Isis). To use a silly example, I rescued a bee from the pool this morning. Though bees probably do not think much, I’m sure they do not enjoy drowning. I know I would not, so I rescued it out of sympathy.

Of course, I don’t cross over into the realm of madness when it comes to this. I fully accept that I can harm others to protect myself or others in legitimate circumstances. Since my principle is based on a notion of value/worth, I set the bar lower for creatures of lower worth. So, it would take a great deal for me to be justified in killing a human being. A person would, for example, have to be trying to serious harm me or some innocent person. In the case of flies, I believe I am justified in killing them when they try to bite me or seriously annoy me. Interesting, shortly after I rescued the bee, another bug landed on me and stung me. That little bastard got a quick trip to bug hell.