Tag Archives: recklessness

Ethics Quiz: Should Shannon Stone’s Family Sue the Texas Rangers?

One Thursday, a 39-year-old firefighter named Shannon Stone leaned over a stadium railing at a Texas Rangers game to catch a ball flipped into the stands by Ranger outfielder Josh Hamilton. Stone’s son, 6-year old Cooper, was a big Hamilton fan, and the devoted father made an extra effort, catching the ball but falling over the railing down to the concrete 20 feet below. He went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital, and died.

The railing where Stone fell is 33 inches, seven inches more that the legally required 26 inches. Is it dangerous? Well, it was dangerous this time. Your Ethics Quiz: Should the Stone family sue the Rangers? Continue reading

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Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Business & Commercial, Family, Journalism & Media, Law & Law Enforcement, Sports, U.S. Society

Ethics Dunce: Mercedes Colwin

Fox legal analyst Mercedes Colwin just spectacularly and irresponsibly misinformed Sean Hannity’s radio audience, and added to the widespread and incorrect belief that it is somehow unethical for an attorney to represent a client the attorney knows is guilty. (It is not.) Compounding her reckless mistake, she noted that she had been “a judge,” thus giving apparent credibility to her utterly erroneous characterization of how criminal defense works. This was also misleading: Colwin was an administrative law judge, which has nothing whatsoever to do with criminal justice. Continue reading

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Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Comment of the Day, Ethics Dunces, Gender and Sex, Journalism & Media, Law & Law Enforcement, Popular Culture, Professions, U.S. Society

Custer, Gettysburg, and the Seven Enabling Virtues

On July 3, I always reflect on Custer’s grand heroism when his country needed it most, and how strange it is that he is best remembered for his worst blunder, when his greatest achievement was so much more important. I also think about how his life is a cautionary tale, reminding us of how easily our strengths can become our weaknesses, if we fail to understand how best to use them, or recognize when they are leading us astray. Continue reading

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Filed under History, War and the Military

Jerk of the Year: Donald Trump

I dream, a futile dream, I know, that there will grow a national consensus, in the fake of the fiasco of The Donald’s last 60 days, that he is the Jerk of the Year, and that this consensus will lead to national resolve to treat Trump the way all jerks need to be treated, to give him the treatment that is also the one thing he couldn’t endure Continue reading

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Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Business & Commercial, Comment of the Day, Ethics Dunces, Etiquette and manners, Government & Politics, Journalism & Media, Leadership, Popular Culture, Professions, U.S. Society

The ACLU Gives Us a Lesson in Principles

Sometimes bad people are connected to vital values, and it is impossible to protect one without helping the other. That’s when we find out exactly how much we care about core principles. The A.C.L.U. has passed its test with colors flying. Continue reading

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Filed under Around the World, Citizenship, Government & Politics, Law & Law Enforcement, Professions, Religion and Philosophy, U.S. Society

Terry Jones’ Next Irresponsible Protest: Legal? Sure. Stupid? Yes. Ethical? Of Course Not.

Like Fred Phelps and his cult’s putrid disruptions of veteran funerals, Rev. Terry Jones is an example of how America is bound to permit irresponsible as well as responsible speech under the protection of the First Amendment. Continue reading

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Filed under Around the World, Citizenship, Etiquette and manners, Government & Politics, Law & Law Enforcement, Religion and Philosophy, U.S. Society

Unethical U.S. Presidential Candidacies: Is Trump’s the All-Time Worst?

Donald Trump’s revolting candidacy, as yet unannounced, cannot fairly be called the most unethical presidential candidacy, but it is early yet. It may well prove to be one of the most harmful. As the United States faces some of the most difficult challenges in its history, Trump has chosen to use the nation’s process of deciding on its leader for his own ego gratification and self-promotion, without preparation for the job, deference to fair campaign rhetoric, or acknowledgment of his own fatal flaws as a candidate. Continue reading

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Filed under Around the World, Business & Commercial, Government & Politics, History, Journalism & Media, Leadership, Popular Culture, U.S. Society, War and the Military

Global Warming Advocates Flunk Ethics, and Credibility…Again

The UNEP, having failed to erase the history of its bad prediction, neatly reissued the same projection, pushing it ahead to 2020! Then, the media dutifully publicized this frightening “scientific prediction,” never mentioning that the previous identical projection was a bust….because, you see, that would make us less likely to be properly alarmed. Continue reading

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Filed under Around the World, Business & Commercial, Environment, Government & Politics, Journalism & Media, Leadership, Professions, Research and Scholarship, Science & Technology, The Internet

Unethical Quote of the Month: #1 American Asshole, Rev. Terry Jones

Rev. Jones richly deserves the asshole label, indeed the U.S. Champion, Gold Plated, #1 Asshole label, because nothing else adequately describes his reckless, self-promoting, hateful, irresponsible, deadly, virtually treasonous conduct—all completely legal, of course. Continue reading

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Filed under Around the World, Citizenship, Ethics Quotes, Etiquette and manners, Government & Politics, Law & Law Enforcement, Quotes, Religion and Philosophy, The Internet, U.S. Society, War and the Military

Oprah’s Dangerous Breach of Diligence and Responsibility

Morrissey correctly diagnoses the ethical problem: “Seeing as how Oprah’s most successful “product” these days is cultivating and grooming personalities into credible and trusted sources, a great deal of responsibility comes with that task.” Continue reading

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Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Health and Medicine, Journalism & Media, Popular Culture, Professions, Religion and Philosophy, U.S. Society