A personal e-mail links to today’s story in the NY Sun about a United Methodist Church proposal to divest its pension plans from companies that do business with Israel. My correspondent asks me: how can anyone call that proposal “nice”? It is a disgusting proposal, which I had not known about, and it reminds me of the ancient proverb: Corruptio optimi pessima. A loose translation applicable to the present discussion is, “The corruption of the nicest is the worst.” Unless it is self-critical, niceness can be a vice. It can lead to stupid, thoughtless deeds, such as voting “yes” on such a mad proposal.