Back in September, I wrote a piece called, “Only 1 Step from Autonomous Warfare.” It was a moral analysis of a semi-autonomous killing of a top Iranian scientist. That semi-autonomous weapon system used facial recognition. Since then, I’ve found out […]
Read moreYear: 2021
Omicron Turned My Christmas Plans Upside Down
For the second year in a row, my Christmas plans got changed at the last minute. Last year, I started feeling sick the evening of the 21st and got a positive COVID test on the 24th. (It was not fun […]
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Covaxin: A Vaccine We Can All Get Behind
For the last year, the main two COVID vaccines in the USA have been Pfizer and Moderna. Now, Bharat Biotech and Ocugen have applied for approval of their Covaxin vaccine by the FDA. Covaxin got emergency use authorization from the […]
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Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter
One disadvantage of moving more away from Patheos is that I lost my regular email list. If you want to keep up with me, you’ll need to subscribe to my weekly newsletter which should come out on Monday or Tuesday […]
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A Prayer Journal for Patrons
All those who currently support me via Patreon and have done so for 3+ months at the $12 a month or more will get this prayer journal (minus the watermarks) for Christmas. If you supported me recently or do so […]
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Aquinas: Some Sins Worse Than Sexual Sins (Updated)
This week, Pope Francis noted that sexual sins or sins of the flesh are not the worst kind of sins during an interview on a plane. There have been three mistaken reactions to this. First, many secular sources assumed he […]
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Were Moderna & Pfizer’s HEK-293 Tests Immoral?
Much of the Catholic discussion around the ethics of vaccines has focused on the remote connection with abortion. There has been an implicit assumption that all testing on HEK-293 is unethical. But as not all remote cooperation with evil is […]
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Us, Not Them -Aussie Bishops on Those With Disabilities
Tomorrow is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. (Obviously, some of us – particularly the blind, Deaf & autistic – prefer identity-first language but most disabled people prefer person-first language.) The Church celebrates it on the closest Sunday (i.e. […]
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Fetal Cell Lines ≠ Aborted Baby Parts
I wrote a post over on Patheos In the discussion around vaccines tested on fetal cell lines there is what appears to be a small matter of terminology but actually points to a significant difference both ontologically and morally. This […]
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Fetal Cell Line Testing & Church Teaching
Despite claims to the contrary from some circles, the Church has never taught that medicine being tested on fetal cell lines is a significant enough moral issue to skip that medicine. I wrote this up in a semi-academic piece that […]
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