It occurred to me, after more than a year, that I’ve never actually posted the basic ethics alarms we all should have installed and in working order, ready to sound when we are in, or about to be placed in, situations that are rife with ethics peril. Here are ten basic ones; there are lots of other useful ethics alarms to have, but these will serve you well. When one starts buzzing, it’s time to step back, thinks, and perhaps most useful of all, talk to someone whose ethical standards and reasoning you trust: Continue reading
ethics
It’s Come to This: The Schoolboard Shooter Spin Competition
The frightening incident in which a man held a Panama City, Florida school board at gun point (he was ultimately shot and killed by a security officer) is somehow being used…or is being perceived as being used…to discredit both the Right and the Left in ultra-polarized America. Yet it has absolutely nothing to do with either. Continue reading
Anatomy of an Unethical Class Action Lawsuit, Badly Reported, Exposed by a Blogger
Here is how the Washington Post begins its story about the most recent assault on McDonald’s by the people who want to control your eating and parenting habits:
“The D.C.-based nutrition watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest has helped a California mother file a class-action suit against McDonald’s, demanding that the burger chain stop marketing toys to children. The woman, Monet Parham of Sacramento, claims that the marketing of Happy Meal toys has interfered with her ability as a parent to provide her two children with a healthful diet. Here’s a quote:
“I am concerned about the health of my children and feel that McDonald’s should be a very limited part of their diet and their childhood experience,” Parham said. “But as other busy, working moms and dads know, we have to say ‘no’ to our young children so many times, and McDonald’s makes it that so much harder to do. I object to the fact that McDonald’s is getting into my kids’ heads without my permission and actually changing what my kids want to eat.”
This is fairly typical of the hundreds of news stories on the web about the lawsuit. Over at Popehat, Patrick, the wittiest of the site’s witty staff, performs a crushing dissection of the lawsuit, the story, and the media’s incompetent reporting of it. You see, he writes..
“…Monet Parham is really Monet Parham-Lee. Monet Parham-Lee is the name that Monet Parham uses professionally. Monet Parham-Lee is represented in the suit by attorneys affiliated with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Meaning Ralph Nader. Monet Parham-Lee is an employee of the California Department of Public Health. Monet Parham-Lee works in the “Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Section” of the California Department of Public Health. Meaning that Monet Parham-Lee is tasked, professionally, by the State of California with ensuring that Californians eat their vegetables. The power that the State of California grants Monet Parham-Lee evidently is not enough. Monet Parham-Lee is taking the law into her own hands, to ensure that not only her own children eat their vegetables, but that everyone else is forced to make their children eat vegetables.” Continue reading
Ethics Hero: Ex-Washington Redskins Holder Hunter Smith
The Washington Redskins and their fans thought they had made a last second comeback to tie last Sunday’s NFL game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All they needed to do to send the game into overtime was to make the extra point, the virtually automatic seventh point of a touchdown that is successfully kicked in the pros about 99% of the time. It wasn’t to be, however: the ‘Skins long snapper snapped the ball high, the holder couldn’t hold it, and the game was lost.
After the game, the holder, Redskins punter Hunter Smith, told reporters that it was his job to catch errant snaps, and that he took responsibility for the loss. “If anybody needs to lose their job it’s me,” he said in the locker room. “I certainly accept blame.”
Sure enough, the Redskins, who are having yet another in a long line of disappointing seasons, fired him. Continue reading
The Final Proof That Michael Vick Doesn’t Get It
In the finale of “Animal House,” after the expelled Delta House members have sabotaged Faber College’s parade causing wanton destruction, mayhem, panic and riots, the fraternity’s president approaches the dean (who is lying in the ruins of the stands toppled by the Delta House “Deathmobile”) and hopefully asks for “one more chance.”
I thought of this classic moment when I read that Michael Vick, the serial dog-abuser now seeking redemption by winning football games for the Philadelphia Eagles, had told an interviewer that he really missed owning a dog and hoped to have one as a pet some day. Continue reading
Ethics Observation of the Week: the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto
Dissecting a Washington Post op-ed in which Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius argued for the constitutionality of Obamacare, Wall Street Journal wit and political commentator James Taranto argued that the two Obama officials…
“…can’t even muster a coherent argument in favor of ObamaCare as a matter of policy. The op-ed opens with what is meant to be a heartstring-tugging anecdote: Continue reading
Baby Jesus Ethics
Perhaps it was the story about the camel falling over during the Nativity Scene rehearsal, but I have begun to have ethical qualms about the use of real infants to play Baby Jesus in Christmas scenes and pageants. This morning, Fox News featured another one, with Mary and the gang holding a five-month-old child outside in sub-freezing temperatures. “He’s very warm, ” Mary said of the star of the show (I guess a Christmas pageant is one show where the “star” is literally a star; Baby Jesus is, what, the leading man? A key prop?). “Jesus” was wrapped up like a mummy, though his face looked cold. Was it really necessary to have a real child? Continue reading
Rush, E-Cigarettes and the Niggardly Principle
Rush Limbaugh was enjoying himself hugely yesterday, as he usually does, relating one more way that he has devised to tweak America’s Enemies of Freedom.
The radio talk show king’s topic was electronic cigarettes, those increasingly popular devices that deliver a nicotine jolt while emitting faux “smoke” (it’s only odorless water vapor), all while looking like a real cigarette—the tip even glows red when you puff it. Rush keeps the things handy, he explains, to provide a balm to his nicotine cravings when he is in public places, but even more so, it seems, to annoy anti-smoking zealots. Rush gets a rush when he pulls out the plastic devices and observes reflexive coughs and frowns from those in his vicinity who regard cigarettes as the equivalent of rotting cats. Continue reading
The Ethics Of Refusing To Help Wikileaks
Do private corporations have an ethical obligation to allow Wikileaks to use their services? MasterCard, Visa and PayPal stopped processing Wikileaks donations. Amazon kicked the site off its server. Twitter stopped its tweets; Facebook stopped its interfacing.
Columbia University Professor Tim Wu rhetorically asked them:
“Since when are you in the business of deciding who is and who isn’t a good civil disobedience movement?”
Before I address the Professor’s question, let’s make some distinctions. Continue reading
Ethics Quote of the Week: Dolphins linebacker Karlos Dansby
“He’s just taking after the head coach, man. It all trickles downhill. That’s how I look at it, it trickles downhill. The head coach, he opened a can of worms over there and now he’s got to fix it.”
Dolphins linebacker Karlos Dansby, commenting on the outrageous conduct of New York Jets trainer Sal Alosi ,who intentionally tripped a Miami Dolphins player on the sideline during a game Sunday. Alosi was suspended without pay for the rest of the season, including the playoffs, and fined an additional $25,000.
Dansby is exactly right. Continue reading
Ethics Alarms 