In milder moods, he has described the notion of fetal pain as a "fallacy"; when goaded by his critics' "lazy" thinking, he has pronounced it a "moral blunder" and "a shoddy, sentimental argument".
It was in this calm but unhesitating tone that he said that Vietnam was "the most disastrous political, moral, diplomatic blunder in our national history," and called for an end to the draft.
The current administration and its neoconservative allies, he argues, have made energy independence part of the war on terror, a moral and tactical blunder.
In a statement, Dr. Sahlins called Dr. Chagnon's election last April "a large moral and intellectual blunder on the part of members of the academy" and added, "so much so that my own participation in the academy has become an embarrassment".
But almost the entirety of the Israeli settlement of the West Bank has been a moral and strategic blunder of historic proportions; and whereas it is difficult to gainsay the use of force against terrorists, the sowing of southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the final hours of last summer's war was an act of genuine malignity.
Treating these governments as our "great friends" in the region is a profound moral and political blunder that keeps us at odds with most of the region's people.
And should he ascend to the throne of Albany, Cuomo the younger will surely avoid the blunders and moral pitfalls of Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.
Ignoring the extent of civilian casualties and the damage they cause is a moral failing as well as a strategic blunder.
But, in a remarkable blunder, the bill handed the Democrats the moral high ground and seemed to open up a split between the red shirts and Ms Yingluck's party, Pheu Thai.
Step by step, the visitor is drawn into a new role: that of a (blundering, naive) investigator, realising and assuming his moral responsibility (Gomez 1974, p. 335).
