Word: oughtness
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...secret since. Just as Lott did, the entire Reagan Administration openly supported Bob Jones University in its claim for charitable tax status despite its rule forbidding interracial dating. There is a rarely acknowledged random element in what becomes a big news story and what does not. But moral outrage ought to aspire, at least, to some kind of consistency. The tendency in Washington is the opposite: a new moral norm (don't smoke marijuana; pay your nanny's Social Security tax; don't get misty-eyed about segregation) sweeps into town like a hurricane, knocks a couple of people down...
...seriousness, we naturally recognize that the Russian Church’s claim to the Danilov Bells contains more than a measure of legitimacy. Nevertheless, there is something irresistibly comic in the Church’s implicit demand that because we can send men to Mars, we ought to be able to dismantle the Lowell House Bell Tower and send the bells back to Russia in time for the 700th anniversary of Saint Danilov’s death, three months from...
...your offspring decide to enter the world of journalism, well, with Thurmond keeping the South Asians out, there ought to be some openings there...
Second, it does not necessarily follow that all inherent or genetic traits ought to be permissible. Antisocial behavior is inheritable. Alcoholism is inheritable. We properly do not consider these appropriate behaviors in our society. No matter the degree of genetic influence, behavior is not determined by genetics, and humans always have a choice. From both the Old and the New Testament, Christians believe that there is a right and a wrong choice when it comes to homosexual behavior. Given this perspective, love the sinner but hate the sin makes perfect sense...
Smoking is an unhealthy habit, and it is certainly in the interest of the government to make people aware of its long-term consequences. However, the paternalistic attitude implicit in the cigarette tax ought to make governments wary of imposing drastic increases in cigarette taxes, or any sin tax for that matter. In the event more local governments, including Boston’s, decide to raise cigarette taxes, they should guide their decision not by attempting to punish smokers, but by reasonable estimates of what will internalize the negative consumption externality of smoking...