Monthly Archives: June 2011
How the Lack of Ethics Cripples Democracy, Reason #1: Ethical Leadership Is Neither Encouraged Nor Rewarded
The fact that we are irresponsible is the reason we have irresponsible leaders. The solution is not more invective. The solution is changing our own selfish attitudes, and electing leaders who can be trusted, not to do what we want, but to do what we need. Continue reading
Trapped in “The Ethics Zone”
Roy Thomas is the hapless victim of a false accusation, crushed by a brutal law that will allow the individual at fault not only to benefit as a result, but to suffer no negative consequences at all for her actions. When law and happenstance collide to create injustice, only intervention by someone with courage and principle can set things right. Unfortunately, in the harsh dimension that has ensnared Roy Thomas, there is no such hero, no such rescue. Continue reading
Unethical Quote of the Week: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Clinton’s sweeping extinction of process as an essential aspect of governing intentionally obscures the core American principle that not only must we do the right thing, but we must do it the right way. Continue reading
A Psychic Ethics Train Wreck in Liberty County
When you are challenged to prove how an individual’s ignorant, uninformed or naïve beliefs can be harmful to others, remember this story. Continue reading
Clearing the Ethics Palette of Despair, Finding Hope
Patrice Roe, a dear friend, a wise woman and an occasional reader here sent me this story, about a father who gave his life to rescue his Down Syndrome son under remarkable circumstances. Today it was just what I needed to read, to clear my ethics palette of some terrible tasting tales that generated too many toxic thoughts. It reminded me that out beyond the greasy ethics smog of Washington, D.C. there are people who do the right thing when it matters, more than we know. Continue reading
When Business Rejects Ethics: the Sorabella Story
Carl Sorabella needed his employer to be flexible so he could care for his wife, battling terminal cancer. He was fired. This should not happen in an ethical society. Continue reading
Sorrell v. IMS Health: Legal, Ethical, and Unjust
It cannot be the Court’s job to fix lousy legislation drawn up by lazy, conflicted, corrupt or stupid elected officials. Those officials should not be permitted to shrug off the disastrous results of their slovenly work habits by saying, “Don’t worry, the courts will clean it up.” The most important reason to have judges on the bench who decide cases based on the laws as they are written is that it forces both legislators and their constituencies to be serious about the hard work of self-government. Continue reading
Ethics Dunce: Ex-Washington Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman
I’ll be stunned if Jim Riggleman gets another chance to manage a major league baseball team. By placing his own welfare above that of his team, he proved that he cannot be trusted as a manager, a leader, or an employee. Continue reading
Comment of the Day: “Ethics Hero and Dunce: A Tale of Two Windfalls”
A reader named Lawrence Reliford argues that Stephen McDow had every right to spend the money erroneously deposited in his bank account, and in the process evokes—let’s see—six rationalizations, three misconceptions, two bad analogies, one wonderful Malaprop and a partridge in a pear tree. Continue reading →
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Filed under Citizenship, Comment of the Day, Etiquette and manners, Finance, Law & Law Enforcement, U.S. Society
Tagged as accountability, fairness, greed, honesty, integrity, lost property, misconceptions, rationalizations, Robin Hood, Stephen Reginald McDow, stings, The Golden Rule, theft