Those links to other websites on the left are seldom accessed, I suppose because most blogs accumulate them on a quid pro quo basis: link to me, and I’ll link to you. Ethics Alarms doesn’t do that. If the link is there, it’s because I use the site to identify ethics issues or as an information resource. I don’t remove links because a site has removed mine or refuses to link to this one; I don’t take revenge on bloggers who write nasty things about me, either.
This isn’t personal, it’s just ethics.
I’ve been meaning to highlight some of the links for a long time, so readers might be moved to check them out. I assume you are familiar with the news aggregation sites, right, left and center, that I use the most: Mediaite, Politico, Drudge, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Google News, Think Progress, memeorandum, and Fark (great for teacher scandals!), as well as the ones that I don’t use, because they are either too biased to trust or have proved untrustworthy, like Breitbart, Buzzfeed, Gawker and The Daily Kos. (I am close to abandoning the Daily Caller as well.) Here are eleven links you should explore; I’ll have other lists of links for you now and then:
This is the fascinating daily politics and media column by the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto, a conservative, a wit, and very disciplined mind. I haven’t been using it as much as I once did, in part because there’s an ethics problem: the column is behind a paywall, but everyone knows how to trick it. (If you paste a passage from the short section the Journal gives you before it fades away into Google, you will get a link to the whole column.) I presume that the WSJ knows about this and permits it as a promotional strategy, but that could be a rationalization, so I’m not sure. His posts are worth paying the paywall toll, though.
This is a unique blog mostly by cartoonist/progressive Barry Deutsch, who once hung out here. After he removed himself from Ethics Alarms, he deleted the link to here: Alas!allows one “conservative blog” on its links, then rotates it off. Yes, this tells you a lot, but Barry is a good writer and a thoughtful man, as well as prolific and wide-ranging in his interests with an open mind, though I detect that it may be closing over time. If Ethics Alarms followed the same policy as Alas!, this would be its leftist blog. (Obviously this blog looks conservative to Barry, since almost anything would be Right from his vantage point. He also doesn’t think the news media is biased.)
The best government ethics commentary site on the web, bar none, courtesy of blogger Robert Wechsler
This is a relatively new site, specializing in the most pervasive of all ethics issues. I don’t check in on it enough.
Mark Draughn and I often disagree, but he has an excellent ethical analysis process, and writes well. One of my favorite blogs.
Lenore Skanazy’s ongoing examination of what constitutes ethical parenting.
Another quirky blog and a group effort; my interest is usually sparked by libertarian/ lawyer/ satirist/ free speech specialist Ken White, a past Ethics Alarms Blogger of the Year.
Law professor Jonathan Turley‘s topics range far afield from the law, and his posts are scrupulously even-handed. He also makes almost as many typos as I do, for which I am grateful.
The whole libertarian site is fascinating, but the Reason blog is a consistent source of lively ethics commentary.
Dr. Steven Mintz, an ethicist, contributes thoughtful and erudite essays on societal and business ethics issues.
The site has multiple experts posting, touches on politics and government frequently, is one of the best ethics blogs, and a ridiculously small number of lawyers are aware of it, which has ominous implications.
Ethics Alarms 
Thanks for this.
I read two long articles that I didn’t really have time for, and I plan to do it again. Many times. Thanks.
I’ll have to check out some of those. And thanks for the shout-out.
This is a joint and collaborative effort at making people think, Mark, and you do it as well as anyone. The more readers you have, we all benefit.
I have checked many of them out since I started posting here, I find them interesting, and I appreciate you making them available.
Barry wrote in to say thanks for the link, and to concoct some explanation that he didn’t dump Ethics Alarms right after he left here in a snit—it was a coincidence!—and then ask for nominations for another “conservative blog” to take its place. As always, he was relatively polite about it, but Barry banned himself from the blog, and when you do that with an announcement here, you can’t just come back at your whim. When you ban yourself with a “This blog is no longer good enough for me!” farewell like Barry did, you have to request reinstatement, and it’s my call. Barry, as he always was, is welcome back, after he 1) apologizes and 2) asks.
Would such apology require, in it’s content, an acknowledgement that your discussions aren’t some right-wing driven political forum but actually are unbiased and apolitical.
It’s just unfortunate that much unethical conduct seems to come from the Left these days (mostly driven by the fact that we have a Left-wing administration).
Nah. All I ask is a sincere admission that they were grandstanding, that dramatic exits (“Good day, sir!) are cheap shots, and a promise to eschew such conduct going forward.
I see I need to get another blogsite up and running. (Xanga folded on me!) That would give Barry Deutsch a legitimate excuse for wanting to come back here, by George!