Report: Atkins Had Heart Disease History

Posted on February 11, 2004 by Steve

You know, when I was a young man, hypocrisy was deemed the worst of vices," Finkle-McGraw said. "It was all because of moral relativism. You see, in that sort of a climate, you are not allowed to criticise others -- after all, if there is no absolute right and wrong, then what grounds is there for criticism? ... Now, this led to a good deal of general frustration, for people are naturally censorious and love nothing better than to criticise others' shortcomings. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy and elevated it from a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of all vices. For, you see, even if there is no right and wrong, you can find grounds to criticise another person by contrasting what he has espoused with what he has actually done. In this case, you are not making any judgment whatsoever as to the correctness of his views or the morality of his behaviour -- you are merely pointing out that he has said one thing and done another. Virtually all political discourse in the days of my youth was devoted to the ferreting out of hypocrisy.

Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age


The days of Lord Finkle-McGraw's youth are upon us. Today's most popular story is the non-news that diet guru Dr. Atkins
was obese
.

Sure, savor the irony when multimillionaire executives are charged with embezzlement and priests practice what they preach against. But it's going too far when an indiscretion from 1925 can eclipse decades of segregationist politics.