Friday
13 October 2017

— perfectly calm after yesterday’s near gale.

Good Morning All,

The responses to the gun-control survey are not exactly flooding in yet. I have two thus far. I’ll keep hoping!

In the meantime, with Harvey Weinstein presently making headlines in the same manner as Presidents Clinton and Trump, and comedian Bill Cosby, I was reminded of a discussion among the eleven kids in my 12th grade class in 2012. I do not remember how we got on to what constituted a sleaze bag, but we more or less agreed he or she was a slimy, dishonest person, not to be trusted in human relationships. 

The girls wanted the she taken out of that definition, to which some of the boys gleefully agreed, but we decided that for discussion purposes we should keep it ecumenical.

That evening, not being in the mood for grading essays, I put together a sort of Sleaze-bag Qualifier Sheet with a few red herrings tossed in to spice the pot.

These were the instructions: Do not put your name on this paper. Read the following statements, then circle the number that indicates the extent to which you agree with it. N.B. Even if you have not always been a model of saint-like honesty, please be honest here!

1= Strongly Disagree 2 Disagree 3 Yes & No 4 Agree 5 Strongly Agree

Here are the statements. Beneath each one are all the votes and the average.

A. Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.     
22333444445             3.5

B. Honesty is the best policy.                                              
22333444444             3.4

C. White lies/fibs to aid others are justifiable.                     
22344445555              3.9

D. Sex outside marriage just isn’t the huge crime it's made out to be.      

 12244444455              3.5

E. You can’t make an omelet without cracking some eggs.         
  22333444455             3.5
   
F. The ends justify the means.                                       
12223334455             3.1

G. Borrowing your friend’s homework in a pinch is okay.             
 22233344445             3.3
   
H. Lending your friend homework is okay.                 
22334444555             3.7

I. Breaking the speed limit on empty highways is okay.                        22222333555             2.9

J. Rubbernecking at traffic accidents is okay.                       
23333344455              3.1

K. Fantasizing about specific members of the opposite gender is okay.        
 23333333355              3.3

L. Thinking about committing a sin is as bad as committing that sin.                  
   11122223334              2.1
 
M. Eating meat is okay.                                                         
11223445555              3.4

N. Using animals in medical research is okay.                     
11223344555              3.0

O. What people don’t know won’t hurt them.                        
 12222223455              2.7 

P. Recreational sex is okay.                                                    
  12223333345              2.8

Q. Working “black” is okay. (Avoiding taxes.)                                             
23344444455              3.8

R. I’d do anything to protect my family.                             
22444555555              4.1

The discussion of the results the next day was lively to say the least, though not necessarily where I had anticipated the sparks would fly.  They spent time on why lending your own homework was somehow more acceptable than borrowing someone else’s. 

I was surprised that speeding on deserted highways got such a relatively low approval rating. And of course I was disappointed that honesty as the best policy barely made it on the approval side of the ledger (and did not get a single 5), and I looked hard around the room to try to divine who my four Machiavellians were.

Anyway, if this poll encourages you to take two minutes and send along your gun-control answers, so much the better!

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron

P.S. I’ll include the gun-control poll again, so you don’t have to go back to yesterday.

P.P.S. One Bheka snap of Johs & Helen in Jordan (Petra in the background) and one from Johs of Holly and me having a small snack to keep our strength up before going to see Hamlet. (If the second picture cracks you up, that’s okay. It certainly cracks me up.)