I’m dreading tomorrow. I have a lively, interesting and strange life, but in almost two years since Grace died, I have concluded that 1) I really hate being single, 2) I didn’t tell her how much I loved her enough, 3) I see no possible path to ever having serious female companionship again, and 4) it is amazing that I had the four serious romantic relationships I did have, since all of them were started by the women involved, because in that realm, I am and have always been the ultimate weenie.
The compensating factor is that I have known, admired and loved an amazing group of brilliant, talented, powerful, funny, strong, tough and challenging women over the years—my mother and younger sister qualify—and all of them either married someone else, or scared off men so much that they never married at all.
But enough whining: Last night I was musing about how to find more reliable, non-ideological news aggregators. There may not be any. Ann Althouse likes memeorandum, which I have come to realize is as partisan as the old Drudge Report. Mirabile dictu, I woke up this morning and without even searching for it, stumbled over an article from last spring titled, “10 Great News Aggregator Websites You Should Check Out in 2025.” I use some of them, including #10, which despite its ostentatious leftward bias is great source of marginal news, but I was not aware of many of the others, including The Morning News, #8.
Longtime reader Fred spent a couple years being my ethics story scout, and while many of you regularly send me links and suggested stories (and I am duly grateful), I’ve never felt like I have been close to covering my dauntingly vast (and important) topic since Fred went on other pursuits.
Now please, make some noise. I’ll be listening…
Ethics Alarms 
Well, there’s this for the day before Valentine’s Day: Winter Olympics athletes’ village runs out of condoms in just THREE DAYS as one competitor moans: ‘They promised us more will arrive’ | Daily Mail Online
Kind of brings an entirely new perspective to “the Olympic spirit,” not to mention, “The Wild World of Sports.”
Interesting how the organizers’ objective is to facilitate absolutely as much sex as possible but to, at all costs, prevent pregnancies. They talk about a concern for the health of the athletes, but seem to have no concern whatsoever for their mental and emotional health. That’s hook up culture, I suppose.
Hey man. The world of women and love is a crazy one. All men feel a bit confused at times. I’m sure the loss still hurts you a lot.
I don’t have any good advice here, as my relationship of ten years recently ended (I think).
For the open forum, I recently visited a new Chick Fil A, and they have two lanes for the drive thru, one for regular users and another for mobile users. The mobile users only have a QR code to scan. The workers are standing on the other side, forcing anyone who doesn’t want to use a QR code but use the “quicker” mobile side to flag down a worker or just go inside. I find that incredibly annoying.
I vaguely remember you saying something about how smart phones should not be required for basic tasks (I think). If that was you, I agree.
We had to put our 11 year old Golden Retriever to sleep yesterday. I so much hate having to make that kind of decision, and we always second guess ourselves. I’m sure many pet lovers reading this will understand the feeling.
I know that we did the right thing, although he seemed to be otherwise healthy, the cancerous tumor had grown to the point where it was affecting his quality of life. This is the 3rd Golden Retriever we’ve lost to cancer; one would think we’d have learned our lesson by now. I don’t think I could go through this again.
May your doggie rest in peace chasing squirrels, cats, and cars in Doggie Heaven.
jvb
“I’m sure many pet lovers reading this will understand the feeling.”
My sincere condolences! I posted THIS 77 months ago; the last sentence rings true to this day.
PWS
Oh no. I’m so sorry. I’ve gone through that trauma six times, and I can make myself cry by thinking about any of them. And so many people don’t understand…
Thanks to all for your kind words. It means a lot. Our vet sent us the following quote after our previous Golden, the inimitable neighborhood favorite son, Tacoma passed away.
Sadly, our vet was out sick yesterday, but she did call us during the procedure, which made it a bit easier for us as we were in a ‘foreign’ facility with a group of compassionate strangers.
“We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only certain immortality,
never fully understanding the necessary plan.”
Irving Townsend
I know I’ll get over this and return to my normal curmudgeonly state, but its going to take a while. Perhaps watching a leftist network news program this evening will snap me out of it.
Dang. I’ve lost beloved dogs in the past, too. It’s never easy. Yes, you did the right thing. Yes, you are still going to be feeling bad for a bit. Experiencing pain is the risk we take when we choose to love. It’s how we know the love was real.
Take care, friend.
A couple of years ago in the lead-up to a mid-February Hallmark holiday, I published an essay about the best romance films produced by Classic Hollywood.
Nearly every entry on my list also qualifies as an ethics film. (I guess those are the most interesting.)
Here is an answer from Quora.
https://www.quora.com/Will-the-white-liberals-in-Minnesota-fight-against-ice-go-down-like-Vietnam-as-one-of-the-only-time-the-United-States-was-defeated/answer/Sara-Kopper
nd, for the latest news bulleting from the Olympics:
https://babylonbee.com/news/fraud-suspicions-arise-as-somali-team-wins-734th-gold-medal-at-winter-olympics?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email
As a heads up, there’s a Braver Angels national conversation about ICE on Thursday, February 19th. If you’d like to respectfully express your concerns about illegal immigration and what policies you think are necessary to deal with it, you can sign up at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-debate-ice-registration-1981202637421?discount=BRAVER.
Here are key parts of the description:
“You probably haven’t experienced anything like a Braver Angels Debate. This is a highly structured conversation in which a group of people think together, listen carefully to one another, and allow themselves to be touched and perhaps changed by each other’s ideas. When done well, everyone walks out a little closer to the truth, more aware of the validity in opposing views, and with tighter community relationships.”
“On January 7, 2026, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent named Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good in the course of ICE’s deployment to Minneapolis to conduct immigration enforcement operations. Three weeks later, on January 24, ICE agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, another Minneapolis resident.
“In the hours and days following each event, video footage capturing the shootings from different angles proliferated, sparking protests in Minneapolis and other American cities. Events in Minneapolis have sparked a national conversation about ICE, President Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics, and the limits of federal authority. Were officers’ uses of force legal? Are ICE immigration raids in major metropolitan areas justified? Are protesters unlawfully obstructing federal agents in the execution of their duties? Should ICE be abolished, or is it necessary?
“What do you think? We want to hear all perspectives on this matter of pressing public concern.”
Thanks, EC. I hope some of the participants here will be involved.
No V-Day talk? Might I recommend some reading material? I finished “Anna Karenina” this week. I also read “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway, “Emma” by Jane Austen, “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and “My Antonia” by Willa Cather.
I am heading into “David Copperfield”. Remember me as a peacemaker!