Or, does anyone with a basic knowledge of ethics want to tell me whether the point I'm making here is valid or not? I pretty much lay out both of the important terms to know, so you don't have to know anything about the topic if you want to critique me anyhow. I welcome any and all input!

( ethical egoism vs. utilitarianism, or, why Dani thinks she's clever with her examples and also sneaks in a Firefly reference for the fangirl professor )


Hey, that's 770 words in an hour. Not too shabby. If only I could maintain a rate like that while writing fiction!

It looks like the planetarium has been taken off the list of things I could possibly do with my night... so instead of finishing my homework now, I'm going to watch the first episode of Leverage and put off the homework. According to Mill's revision of utilitarianism, I'm giving up the higher pleasure of finishing an intellectual pursuit for the lower pleasure of television.

Mill can suck it, by the way.

After all, if I really got that much satisfaction out of finishing my homework, that would be reason enough to do it now... but I don't, so it isn't, so I'm not.

This is probably not what my teacher had in mind for me to take away from this reading...

So for Ethics our big thing is a final project where we have to present one of the ethical cases from chapter 13 in light of each of the ethical viewpoints we learn... and I'm in a group covering abortion and personhood with two pro-life women with five children between them.

Lucky me, I already have my arguments honed from endless fighting with my mother on the topic. This is going to be... I'd say fun but that would probably be lying. It'll be something, that's for sure.

I almost jumped down Ian's throat in Western Civ when we were talking about the women's suffrage movement in England. He said that force-feeding women on hunger strikes was an acceptable thing to do when he'd just said that the women had to take responsibility for their own actions as fr as getting thrown into prison was concerned and I basically called him a hypocrite in front of everyone. That was kind of a rush. I get all flushed and loud when I get emphatic about things, and the fact that I'm badly sleep-deprived just made everything about ten times worse. He told me that he was actually scared of me for a second. I had to apologize.

He's fun to debate with though. We don't agree on ANYTHING, so it's a neverending source of banter which mostly stays friendly. I let my claws slip out a little sometimes, and then I feel vaguely guilty about it, which is stupid.

This week I get to write about Jeremy Bentham and utilitarianism, which is a huge step up from female genital mutilation as far as paper topics are concerned.

I asked Alyssa to write a recommendation for Wells for me and she agreed. That's one down, one to go... I'm not sure how to get in touch with Dr. Aikman. I should probably email him, if I can find the syllabus for last semester's class...

I have such a headache right now, but I know for absolutely certain that if I go to sleep now I'll be awake at 2 again and, uh, fuck that, no thank you. So I guess I'm just going to read Extras and maybe try to write a little until I can take my last Lunesta and pray that it works.

You're my only hope of turning this paper in without some gaping logical flaw I may have missed!

This is my paper. The question taken directly from the assignment sheet: "Should outsiders be telling African women what initiation practices are acceptable?" Please tell me if this adequately answers the question without being too obviously biased toward "this is a disgusting and horrifying thing to do to a woman's body".

It's really short, only 603 words. She asked for 2-3 pages, I made it two full ones and I can't elaborate more without pulling in specific examples which she told us we wouldn't have to do, so... would you be content to receive this paper in an Ethics class?

( and thank god for Xanax because I'd be a wreck right now without it )

Aaaaand I officially did NOT make it through this without crying about it. I went down to have my mom read it through and she's like "you know why this is done and all the problems it causes" and I was like "yes, I fucking know, that's why I have no faith in myself arguing this position, logically I know it's sensible but deep down inside I don't want this to happen to any girl ever again, ever." And then I started crying. So I guess the paper wins this one. Frustrated to tears even with Xanax calming me down. Emotional stability? What's that?

So as much fun as my first paper for Ethics was, is how much fun my second paper is not going to be.

It's about female genital mutilation and whether Westerners have the right to impose their moral code onto African coming of age ceremonies. Apparently there are African women willing to defend the practice? I think they must be fucking insane, but I can't exactly make that my thesis statement.

Just thinking about it is making me sick to my stomach. I think I'm going to need a stiff drink or a couple of Xanax before I can tackle the topic with any pretense at equanimity. There are only a few things that inspire this much of a visceral disgust reaction in me, but man, it just had to be this, didn't it?

:( I'm going to be putting this off until much later in the week. I just don't want to think about it right now. I'm seriously so distressed that I have to write a paper about this that I have a stress headache. Overreaction much, I know, it's just... really, really upsetting to me.