Ascribing Morality Where None Exists

Andrew Sullivan says:

A reminder of the vast financial risks they take to save and improve lives...

From the linked article:

We did it, naturally, because we expected to make a profit out of it in the end.

Who would have thought that pharmaceutical companies, like all companies, are simply attempting to maximize their profits? If lives are saved as a result, that is a positive side effect, but profit is the guiding principle.

Quote of the Day

Dan Rhiel, on Karl Rove:

Especially given his comments on Fox News tonight, until this is resolved, it seems impossible to trust Rove as an objective analyst.

I Hate Telus

So, their website kindly informs me that they're available Monday to Friday, from 7:30 a.m. I call them up, go through a ridiculous series of keying in numbers (including telling them twice that I would like to speak English), and finally get the message that they are not open yet. Apparently, they open at 8:00 a.m. That sort of useful information should really be put on their website.

Everything Wrong With Politics

Everything wrong with politics is summed up in this article in the Washington Post (and especially the ensuing comments):

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.

Except it's not a King quote.

To back this up, we are provided with a quote from Theodore Parker:

Parker said in 1853: "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice."

Why would Obama attribute the quote to King? Because King would often say:

"How long? Not long." He would finish in a flourish: "Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

In summary, Obama's rug quotes King, who was inspired by Theodore Parker's imagery. Of course, if the quote were to have been attributed to Parker, we would undoubtedly be reading a story about how Parker never actually said that, and that instead the quote was from King. And this is why I am seriously considering abandoning politics.