About envy, I could go on. Envy caused the September 11 attacks; envy disrupts American education by injecting extreme cultural relativism and multiculti education into it and thereby greatly impeding any effort to pass on the best culture to the next generation; envy causes as much of the corporate embezzlement and Enron-type rip-offs as greed does; envy can dissuade a person from pursuing the one who would make him happy as a spouse; envy caused European socialism and anti-Americanism; and envy caused the Canadian health care system to go socialist, with the eight-month waits to see a specialist and the unavailability of GPs one would expect from such a system.

When it comes to envy, the message is "Mind your own business." Life is short and rich. You'll miss it and cause terrible destruction to yourself and others if you indulge in this vice.

Aaron Haspel tells Philosoblog to get around to reading Envy, by Helmut Schoeck. I'm on it. Envy II will appear soon, since Schoeck will doubtless have some things he'd like me to tell you. (By the way, if you want books such as this, buy them from Liberty Fund. They are excellent and very inexpensive, since sold not-for-profit.) [UPDATE: Aaron's got a word about Schoeck.]

Philosoblog's continuing series on moral relativism will resume soon. In the fullness of time we will have occassion to examine the philosophy of John Adams, as well. The most concise and pithy essay on gun control possible is also in the pipeline.