courage

Pennsylvania’s and Delaware’s Disgrace: Risking the Poor to Balance the Budgets

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

Delaware and Pennsylvania, facing state budget deficits that would require political courage and citizen sacrifice to address, has taken the craven route of other states (with more sure to follow) by legalizing casino gambling.

In Pennsylvania, State Republicans, the majority party in the state senate, had opposed the expansion of gambling , but capitulated when faced with the reality of having to choose between cutting jobs and services or raising taxes. Instead, the Republicans joined with Democrats, those champions of the weak and powerless,  to victimize the poorest people in the state for profit. Continue reading →

Was Brit Hume Unethical?

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking about Brit Hume’s controversial remarks on Fox News about Tiger Woods for two weeks now, trying to identify what was wrong with them. Not whether I agreed with them, or whether I would have said something similar myself, but what was wrong with them: did his comments suggesting a Christian path for the troubled golfer constitute a breach of professional ethics, or ethics generally? Continue reading →

Ethics Hero Emeritus: Miep Gies, 1909-2010

/ Jack Marshall / Leave a comment

Miep Gies, the last surviving participant in the inspiring story of Anne Frank, died last week, a month short of her 101st birthday.

One of the most important objectives of thinking about ethics, and challenging ourselves to find the most ethical courses in the dilemmas and conflicts we read and hear about every day, is to be ready if and when a time comes when lives depend on our ability to determine the right thing to do, and to have the courage do it. I have no idea how much or how often Miep Gies thought about ethics. But when her time came, she was ready. Continue reading →

Ethics Alarms and the Brooklyn EMTs

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

The astounding indifference to both human life and their duties displayed by the EMTs in yesterday’s incident in Brooklyn relates directly to the title of this blog. Why…why…didn’t their ethics alarms go off when they knew that a young, pregnant woman was fighting for her life a few yards away? What could have dulled their senses of duty and humanity, disabled them, to this extent? Continue reading →

Ethics Quote of the Week

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

“Nice try, Ted Alvin Klaudt, of Walker, S.D.”

The South Dakota Daily Republic, in an editorial commenting on former state lawmaker Ted Klaudt’s warning to South Dakota’s media this week that they cannot use his name without his prior authorization.

Klaudt claimed that he name was protected by his recent copyright of it, a transparent attempt to avoid news media mention of Klaudt’s 2007 sentencing to 44 years in prison for four counts of second-degree rape. The ex-legislator was convicted of touching the breasts and genitals of his two foster daughters while conducting phony examinations on the girls on the premise that he would help them sell their reproductive eggs.

He apparently wants to have the sole legal right to call such conduct “Klaudting.”

Ethics Alarms salutes the Daily Republic for having the courage and wit to immediately challenge Klaudt’s efforts to muzzle the press.

Self-Castration Ethics

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

Ouch.

A Colombian man whose wife refused to have sexual relations with him castrated himself to remove any temptation to become the next Tiger Woods.

This is in some ways admirable, don’t you think? Continue reading →

The Ethics of Dithering

/ Jack Marshall / Leave a comment

At some point, delaying  an important leadership decision stops being resposnible, and begins being unethical.

The White House put out word today that President Obama’s decision regarding troop levels in Afghanistan is on the verge of being revealed. When it is, a few things are certain. If his decision is to increase troop levels to the degree requested by the Pentagon, Obama’s pacifist Left supporters will be furious. If it is to withhold more troops and prepare for U.S, withdrawal, supporters of an aggressive war policy on the Right will go on the attack. If it is anything in between, neither of these camps will be happy.

It is also certain that nobody will be able to tell if what the President has decided is the “right” decision. Continue reading →

Rep. Cao: Profile in Something or Other

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

Wow. One lone House Republican voting for the reviled Democrat healthcare bill.  Talk about conscience! Talk about courage!

Well, maybe. The vote by Louisiana Republican  Anh “Joseph” Cao could have been a truly ethical act, or a completely  cynical one. The fact that it is almost impossible to tell which explains a lot about the funhouse mirror version of “ethics” in use of Capitol Hill.  Continue reading →

Age and the Judge

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

U.S. District Senior Judge Malcolm Muir recently turned 95.  Many articles in the media celebrated his long and distinguished career, but none made the observation that should be as obvious as it is indelicate. Judge Muir should not be on the bench. He should probably not have been on the bench for the past decade. It is irresponsible for him to continue to be a federal judge. Continue reading →