If you try to repress those awful urges to kick the dog and pummel your spouse, well, they will just keep coming back stronger and stronger. Clearly, abstinence doesn't work. What we need is to manage domestic violence. A little, now and again. Maybe give the kids a turn, or something to beat on that is smaller than they are, so that they aren't completely out of the loop. Certainly do it in a safe way - nothing sharp, no firearms. Safe Violence. That's a slogan for you. We probably need to manage drunk driving and make sure murder and rape also don't happen _too_ often... maybe if we tax them? Nudge nudge.

Or we can reverse course. There are some targets of violence that are inappropriate. Start there. Start with not harming the innocent, with giving doctors and pilots jobs they can do safely - lifestyles that are sustainable, and legislating morality in all sorts of places.

So true. If I were, I'd be mouldering since 1745. I'd also be a better satirist. Still, I think I got my point across. No? Oh well, I tried. I guess I'll have to keep trying, because people still think that arguments like the one in the column get them out of having to decide between right and wrong.