Knowing that my mom remembers is bad enough.

Ann Althouse has a post on the shocking incident in Florida where two teenage girls film themselves torturing a gopher turtle to death and then posting the video on Facebook. Althouse has worked hard over the years to moderate and manage her commenting community and while things occasionally get out of hand, it is by and large one of the more well-behaved communities of which I am aware.

There are, among the commenters, affirmations of how unacceptable this behavior is, speculation about the link between adolescent torturing of animals and later criminality, speculation about the link between such behavior and the likelihood of earlier childhood abuse, a lesson in logic, lots of personal testimonial vignettes of how the commenter's parents taught them about the importance of being kind to animals, recollections of childhoods in Florida when gopher turtle stew was a dinnertime staple, comments on First World Problems, etc.

I liked this comment though. High morality often has earthy roots.

I am glad the childhood behavior which led my parents to correct me is not documented on Facebook or Youtube. Knowing that my mom remembers is bad enough.

Forget theology, first principles and detailed arguments on knife-edge ethical issues. It does often come down to "Do Mom or Dad know and what would they think of me if they did."