I really believe that if you make something that is illegal perfectly fine to do, there will be less of it. I do realize that is a little bit vague, so a good example would be how many people think that if marijuana use is made legal, then there will be less abuse of it and the number of users would deplete. My theory was definitely proven to be true with the way that they changed things in Portugal. 

Who knew that there were actually rules and some kind of code for this type of thing...? It doesn't seem like a very complex thing, but apparently it is. It seems as if they are trying to make a moral code for killing people... ironic right?

I definitely do agree with Jay-Z having A LOT of power. I really do believe that he could do whatever he wanted and it would be accepted by most people, regardless of what it was. Of course, not everyone is always happy, but he can surely appease plenty of people.

I am not entirely sure if either of these are possible... they have been working on universal healthcare for some time, and there has been an ongoing fight against it. Beyond that, though, bringing costs under control is something that is so widely utilized will be very hard to do. I believe it is something that is much easier said than done.

(I just realized that I posted this as private... but I posted it on time I swear!) I definitely agree with this point. I remember when we used to start using Powerpoints in school back in the elementary days, and it was the plain black and white, and it focused more on information than format. However, starting in high school, it started to be more about whether or not the presentation was aesthetically pleasing. I never would have connected it to commercialism, but now that Tufte has brought it up, they do have striking similarities. 

I am curious to see what else is in this article, seeing as this fact seems completely false. It is hard to think that we are "probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on earth" when we see violence everywhere, stretching from homes in a normal and quiet neighborhood to the huge OWS protest. I do not see how he came to this conclusion that it is so peaceful, but I guess I will soon find out. 

It is crazy that this random group of men would get into this study and devote themselves like this. It definitely takes true devotion to accept the complete invasions of privacy that occurred and extensive research done on them. I can't wait to find out what comes of this study...

I really do wish that more people out there could read this type of article... it really is a reality check. It deeply saddens me to not only know this new information given to me about how it is in the world of Niger, but also to know that people like Carmen really do not know how good they have it. I myself have never truly been exposed to a type of environment like Dahara's, and I am so very thankful, but many people do not have the gratitude that I do for being raised in a generally clean and safe environment where people actually work for the well-being of children and where complications are minimal, and it bothers me to know that SO many people take it for granted. 

Winning hearts without converting minds is definitely a difficult thing to do... but it is a form of manipulation. I do believe that people come into arguments, discussions, etc. with their own moral opinions, but due to a slight amount of manipulation (whether the person manipulating is sneaky about it or not) the opinion can change. So, this could lead to a new question... is manipulation, especially in this sense, immoral? Should people just let others have their own opinion and NEVER question why (knowing that "they can't come up with any compelling reasons")?

No one can say what is morally worse or better than something else. It makes sense that people are trying to make universal "principles" about how to think morally, but no one really can. I agree with some of these, but I do not agree with the fact that there is a test that measures moral senses.