Keith Burgess-Jackson

The Tour de France begins in four days. Here is a video clip of some of the Tour’s mountains.

Thomas Sowell explains why the immigration bill was defeated. Not everyone who opposed the bill was a Republican, obviously, but many were. The immigration debate showed very clearly that the Republican Party is a coalition rather than a monolith. The law-and-order types (such as yours truly) opposed the bill. The business types (such as President Bush) supported it. Democrats, too, were split. Labor unions, for the most part, opposed the bill, while professionals (including journalists and academics) supported it. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

No, the title does not refer to Hillary Clinton (although I suppose it could). It refers to the Vatican’s “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road.” See here for law professor Robert T. Miller‘s column. Would it be unseemly of me, a mere atheist, to take issue with Professor Miller? Most of us take traveling—especially driving—for granted, but we shouldn’t. It’s frighteningly dangerous. Tens of thousands of people lose their lives every year in accidents. Many more are maimed for life. Whenever I drive, I see people talking on cellphones in their vehicles, oblivious to others. This is irresponsible. The Church is simply reminding people that everything we do, whether we realize it or not, has a moral dimension. If the guidelines prompt even one person to drive more carefully, it will have been worth the time and effort it took to prepare the document.

I’ve never been happy with the fans’ selections of players for the All-Star teams. Twenty years ago today, while I was visiting my parents in Michigan, one of my letters to the editor appeared in The Detroit News. Here it is:

If anyone thinks that the fans should select baseball’s all-stars, he or she should look at the results so far.

It is nothing less than criminal that Cal Ripken Jr. is leading Alan Trammell by nearly 800,000 votes. Ripken’s only claim to fame is a consecutive-innings streak. Trammell meets or exceeds his statistics in nearly every offensive and defensive category, and is a team leader to boot.

This is the best argument yet for returning the all-star vote to the players, managers or sportswriters. The fans are incapable of distinguishing mediocrity and [sic; should be “from”] excellence.

Keith Burgess-Jackson, Tucson, Ariz.

Alan Trammell got no respect. He was overshadowed by Cal Ripken when it came time for the All-Star game, and he was robbed of the Most Valuable Player award in 1987 by George Bell of the Toronto Blue Jays, who was nothing more than a goon. I watched Alan Trammell play shortstop for two decades. He did things to win games that didn’t show up in the box score. He was a winner.

The essential defect of the ‘ideal utilitarian’ theory is that it ignores, or at least does not do full justice to, the highly personal character of duty. If the only duty is to produce the maximum of good, the question who is to have the good—whether it is myself, or my benefactor, or a person to whom I have made a promise to confer that good on him, or a mere fellow man to whom I stand in no such special relation—should make no difference to my having a duty to produce that good. But we are all in fact sure that it makes a vast difference.

(W. D. Ross, The Right and the Good [1930; repr., Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1988], 22)

Note from KBJ: Ross is arguing as follows:

1. If ideal utilitarianism is true, then it makes no difference how the good is distributed.

2. It makes a difference how the good is distributed.

Therefore,

3. Ideal utilitarianism is not true.

This is a valid argument (an instance of modus tollens), so, since the ideal utilitarian rejects 3, he or she must reject 1 or 2. In other words, the ideal utilitarian must either deny that the theory has the stated implication (this is called “grasping the bull by the horn”) or accept the implication, painful though that is (this is called “biting the bullet”). Those who are not already committed to ideal utilitarianism have a third choice: accept 3. Ross accepts 3.

Here.

Environmentalism is not only the new religion; it’s a death cult. See here.

To the Editor:

Re “The Grand Collapse” (editorial, June 30):

You were right to label the Senate defeat of immigration reform as “appalling,” but for the wrong reasons. The legislation was simply not the comprehensive reform our nation needs. Such reform should reflect the needs of the nation, and not the illegal immigrants, who lawfully have no status whatsoever.

We as a nation should prioritize and choose whom to allow in, and not be bullied by those employers or illegals who would break the law for their own personal gain. We cannot choose whom we allow in if we cannot somehow control illegal influx; this must be the No. 1 priority.

Local ordinances prohibiting illegals from living and working in cities and towns have been successful, but we need all cities and towns to do this, since the federal government seems incapable of controlling the borders.

Jack F. Bukowski
Marlborough, Mass., June 30, 2007

Note from KBJ: Bingo!

Here.