Ethics Bob

Check out EthicsBob.com

2010-08-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

I've moved over to WordPress. Follow me at EthicsBob.com.

The guards who watched the beating in Seattle should be fired...and their defenders

2010-02-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Television news this week showed video of a girl in Seattle being brutally kicked and beaten by other girls while three security guards stood by and made calls on their cell phones—apparently calling for help. No move to help the victim. The outrage was compounded by unnamed officials who defended the guards’ (non-) conduct as proper.

Jack Marshall in his ethicsalarms.com blog has an excellent analysis of the guards’ behavior, likening it to the Nuremberg defense (“just following orders”).

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors got it right in 2007 when they ordered closure of the Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. The hospital had been the venue for a series of egregious mistreatments of patients, but when a woman was left writhing on the floor of the emergency room for 45 minutes before dying of a perforated bowel, that was the last straw.

Behaving without humanity, even under orders, ought to be a firing offense. The guards should have been fired. So should the “officials” who defended their conduct. Just like the bystanders and their higher-ups at MLK-Harbor Hospital were.

The unethical federal budget

2010-02-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Is it ethical to make a commitment that you know you can’t keep? Heck, no! Some employers used to promise retirement benefits that they didn’t set aside money for. The government decided to outlaw such unethical behavior: now the law requires employers who promise retirement benefits to set aside funds to pay when the benefits come due.

Sadly the government isn’t about to do what it’s required employers to do. The government has promised Americans that they’ll be covered by Social Security and by Medicare, and—if they’re poor—by Medicaid. The costs of these “entitlement” programs are growing steadily as:

1. the baby boomers are just starting to come under Social Security and Medicare. (The first boomers, born in 1946, become 65 next year, then an avalanche in the next ten years.)

2. life expectancy is increasing—babies born this year have a 50-50 chance of living to 100

3. medical care gets more expensive as people grow older, and

4. medical science is developing ever-more-expensive treatments.

All in all, this “perfect storm” will either bankrupt the country or force America to break its promises to the elderly.

So what are our politicians doing to fix this problem? Some are calling for budget cuts, knowing that the entitlement programs are not cut-able under present law. Others are calling for reform, knowing that reform can’t come close to solving the funding problem. Every one of our legislators knows about the problem. But it’s not being addressed. This is profoundly unethical behavior: they agreed to do the people’s work if they were sent to Washington, and having won election they are sloughing off the problem to our grandchildren.

Whose fault is it and what can be done? I’ll address this in coming blogs.

Palin was the best part of the Tea Party convention, the audience the worst

2010-02-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin gave a rousing speech at the Tea Party convention, raking and mocking President Obama with zingers like "How's that hope-y, change-y stuff workin' out for ya?" The crowd enthused, having paid $350 to hear the speech live, and the left’s commentators tut-tutted over Palin’s writing notes on her hand to help her remember her key points. All in good fun.

But there was a truly ugly side of the convention. Tea Partiers can no longer pass off the birthers as a tiny group of nuts that aren’t representative of true Tea Partiers. Not after the crowd’s wild enthusiasm for Tom Tancredo’s keynote speech. Ex-congressman Tancredo (R-CO) explained that “Barack Hussein Obama” was only elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote." [Wild cheers]

"People who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House." [More wild cheers]

I’m not sure who he was referring to. Perhaps it was Latinos and African-Americans who couldn’t have voted had there been a literacy test—like in the good old days when blacks were turned away from polls all over the South, no matter how literate they were, because the point of the tests was to turn them away.

I’m pretty sure, however, what the crowd was cheering. It was that Obama voters were others, a different species, not even entitled to be part of the American system. The crowd responded to hate speech with cheers.

Why not breed Trojan quarterbacks?

2010-02-05T23:44:00.000-08:00

A top quarterback can be the difference between a good college team and a championship one. Lane Kiffen, USC’s new football coach, has a good one in Matt Barkley, freshman leader of last year’s team who could grow into a superstar if he stays in school and resists the temptation to leave school early for the megabucks of the NFL.

But Kiffen isn’t standing pat. Barkley may quarterback the Trojans through the 2012 season, but after that? Don’t worry, Trojan fans. Kiffen has a plan for 2015, in the person of 13-year old David Sills of Bear, Delaware. “David’s always wanted to go to USC,” says his proud dad.

But why stop at 13-year olds? With the advances in genetics it should soon be possible to breed quarterbacks. Of course they won’t be ready to lead the Trojans into battle for, umm, 18 years and nine months. Maybe the USC medical school could research cloning. Kiffen could have his choice of a copy of Peyton Manning or Drew Brees, depending on who does best in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Oh, but cloning humans is unethical. Better to recruit more 13-year olds. Then a nine-year old to replace Sills in 2019.

Teachers and Democrats put kids second

2010-02-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

Wouldn’t it be nice if teachers put their students’ interests first? Tragically, from coast to coast they have more pressing things to worry about. In New York the teachers union got the legislature to prevent the state from applying for $700 million in federal funds for the Obama administration’s new program, “Race to the Top,” a school reform that emphasizes school choice and teacher accountability. And in California, when the San Jose school district had to lay off librarians for lack of money, they boxed the books and locked the library doors. No parents were allowed to volunteer so that the kids could use the library books. No sir, state law—enacted to please the librarians union—prohibits anyone but a real librarian from handing out library books.

Our teachers are failing our kids. Too many of them are more interested in their paychecks and their comfort than in their charges. Oh, not all of them—there are still lots of wonderful and dedicated teachers, but too many have ceded their profession and their integrity to unions that work with their political flunkies (aka Democrats) in a “race to the bottom.” Well-off families are fleeing to private schools. The poor kids are left behind and out of luck.

But all teachers get a paycheck. Their ethical obligation is to do their best to further their students’ interest—especially those students who need them the most. Sadly, not nearly enough of them meet that obligation.

If only teachers were ethical. If only… School boards and teachers should consider adopting—and taking seriously—the code of ethics of the Association of American Educators. It says that the professional educator:

o strives to create a learning environment that nurtures to fulfillment the potential of all students

o acts with conscientious effort to exemplify the highest ethical standards, and

o accepts that every child has a right to an uninterrupted education free from strikes or any other work stoppage tactics.

That’ll be the day!

Entertainment and ethics: see Amreeka

2010-02-01T23:39:00.000-08:00

You can learn ethics from the movies. To Kill a Mockingbird is about speaking truth to power. The Magnificent Seven is about keeping your commitments. And now Amreeka.

The engrossing film—not at all preachy—is about treating people as “the other.” Nisreen Faour is award-nominated as Muna, the West Bank Christian Arab who is treated as other by the Israelis, then emigrates with her teen age son to join her sister in Illinois just after the Iraq war begins, and is treated there too as other. Philosophers have written about the concept of “otherness,” where people of a different background or faith are deemed to be other—that is, not equivalent to the “self,” and therefore inferior, or even less than human.

The basis of all ethics is the Golden Rule, and that rule is smashed by treating people as other. Amreeka entertains, inspires, and teaches us. See it.

Obama makes nice, MSNBC makes not nice, Boehner follows suit

2010-01-30T22:41:00.000-08:00

The President’s session with the House Republicans might have been the first step toward more civil political discourse and toward working together on the problems facing the American people. Might, but not if some have their say.

Many in the media paint all political activity as sport, with winners and losers. For example, Friday night MSNBC’s brain trust—Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Rachel Maddow—rushed to crown Obama the winner, the Republicans (of course) the losers. And—just to rub it in—pointed out that the Republicans had been outsmarted into letting America see the President’s triumph.

Then on Saturday, after generally constructive comments by Republicans who attended, the office of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) put out a release headed, "Rhetoric versus reality: President Obama repeats discredited talking points during dialogue with House GOP."

Once again, people on both sides of the political divide rush to keep anyone from bridging the divide for the benefit of the American people. Shame on MSNBC, and shame on John Boehner.

Clap your hands if you believe.

2010-01-29T22:58:00.000-08:00

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Maybe the single step was the invitation of Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Conference , to President Obama to address the Republican retreat in Baltimore today. The President spoke for twenty minutes, then took questions for an hour.

He ended his introductory remarks this way: ”We've gotten caught up in the political game in a way that's just not healthy. It's dividing our country in ways that are preventing us from meeting the challenges of the 21st century. I'm hopeful that the conversation we have today can help reverse that.”

The session was—as diplomats describe difficult negotiations—frank. Even combative. But both sides—the President and the 140 Republican congressmen—appeared to listen. There was real conversation going on. The President wrapped up the session with this:

“And so the question is, at what point can we have a serious conversation about Medicare and its long-term liability, or a serious question about -- a serious conversation about Social Security, or a serious conversation about budget and debt in which we're not simply trying to position ourselves politically. That's what I'm committed to doing. We won't agree all the time in getting it done, but I'm committed to doing it.”

The ideal of Niebuhr—the political fight waged with good temper and integrity—seems a little closer today than it was yesterday. Clap your hands if you believe.

Tebow or not Tebow

2010-01-28T00:16:00.000-08:00

There’s a controversy about CBS’s decision to broadcast a pro-life commercial at the Super Bowl. It’s Tim Tebow, the Florida football star, and his mother, who was advised to have an abortion when she was pregnant with Tim. Several pro-choice organizations have called on CBS to reverse itself and not run the commercial.

Jack Marshall, in his Ethics Alarms blog analyzes the ethics of the opposing sides’ arguments. His article clarifies the arguments for me. It's worth reading.

The New York Times's unethical "Ethicist"

2010-01-25T23:02:00.000-08:00

The New York Times is as good a place as any to get your news, and better than most. But don’t get your ethics advice there—not from Randy Cohen, who writes in the Sunday Times magazine as “The Ethicist.” Cohen has been advising lying and dishonesty when such behavior brings a benefit to the liar or dissembler.

Our debt is to Jack Marshall, who blows the whistle on Cohen’s egregious advice. You can read Jack’s devastating analysis on his Ethics Alarms blog.

(http://ethicsalarms.com/2010/01/25/the-ethicist-strikes-out-again/#more-834)

Education priorities: California right, Virginia wrong

2010-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Too bad about budding athletes in Fairfax County, Virginia, and throughout the Washington, D.C. area. The Washington Post reports today that schools there are cutting funding for various sports programs. Where are their priorities?

We Californians know what school is for. The University of California is raising tuition by 32 percent this year to cover budget shortfalls, but we’re not letting it harm UC’s sports programs: just this week the UC Board of Regents approved a $321-million renovation of Memorial Stadium, where the Golden Bears football team plays. And this on the heels of UCLA’s $185-million upgrade of Pauley Pavillon, home of Bruin basketball.

The university explains that no state money (well, hardly any) will go to these projects—they’ll be funded mainly from Bruin and Bear sports fans.

It goes to show: California sports fans are more dedicated than California education fans—even at the University of California.

A Reinhold Niebuhr award for Jon Stewart

2010-01-23T20:26:00.000-08:00

Jon Stewart gets a (mythical) Reinhold Niebuhr award* for bringing good temper and integrity into the political fight.

The highest level of political ethics is to call out members of one’s own party. We expect to see Republicans calling out leftish commentators like Keith Olbermann, just as we expect to see Democrats criticizing Bill O”Reilly. And to see Bill-O and Keith ranting out each other. Ho hum, no surprise there, and no contribution to the integrity of the political fight.

But when liberal Jon Stewart calls out liberal Keith Olbermann, that’s BIG, and surprising, and a contribution.

Our civic society is being ripped by the bitter antagonism between left and right, the worst since the bad old days of Senator Joe McCarthy, red hunts, and leftish defenses of Soviet spies. It’s made worse by the ease of getting all one’s news from a kind of “Daily Me,” an assortment of media that reflect only one’s own bias.

Stewart’s fair and balanced skewering of fellow-liberal Olbermann is in the highest traditions of Niebuhr’s goal of a healthy society. And funny as all get-out. Watch it at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/jon-stewart-takes-on-keit_n_433179.html

______

Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, ‘The temper of and integrity with which the political fight is waged is more important for the health of our society than the outcome of any issue or campaign.”

That darned Constitution…that darned Supreme Court

2010-01-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

The United States Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal government may not ban political spending by corporations or unions in candidate elections. The Court’s 5-4 majority opinion cited the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says,

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Darn the Constitution. Darn the Court. Everybody knows that this decision will wipe out restrictions on corporations spending huge sums to elect candidates who will do their bidding. The New York Times says so. So does the Washington Post. An ethical justice would have decided the opposite way, a decision that would have produced the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Moreover, that decision would have decreased the influence of money in politics, whereas the Court’s decision will surely increase it.

But hold on: what really does ethics require of the Supreme Court? The justices take the same oath as all federal officers: “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

The McCain-Feingold Act and other federal restrictions on political spending serve, I’m certain, an important public purpose: they make our politics a little more ethical. But they pretty obviously violate the First Amendment. Federal officers have an ethical duty to hold to their oath of office and overturn them, as they now have done. If we are to restrict corporations political spending we need a Constitutional amendment to do it.

A REAL governing party wouldn’t need 60 votes

2010-01-21T13:18:00.001-08:00

The Democrats were elected to govern, but they’re not governing.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, civil rights legislation was doomed by Southern Democrats’ filibusters. Strom Thurmond held the Senate floor for over 24 hours straight, filibustering against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which eventually passed. But filibusters and cloture motions—the vote to close debate—were rare: never more than seven motions filed in any two-year session until 1971. But now it’s received wisdom that it takes 60 votes to pass any bill in the Senate.

Pity the poor Democrats. They’ve had 60 Senators in their caucus. If they got all sixty into the Senate chamber—including poor 92-year old Bobby Byrd slouching in his wheelchair—they could get a matter like health care brought to a vote. But with Tuesday’s Massachusetts election they’re down to 59.

And there’s a lot of anger in the country. Tea partiers are angry that Obama is seizing the economy to socialize it. Progressives and independents in Massachusetts—far larger in number—just demonstrated their anger that the Dems, with a huge majority in both houses—256-178 in the House and now 59-41 in the Senate, aren’t getting things done.

The Dems need to make Americans angry at the Republicans, not at them. Back in the bad old days of Senators Bilbo and Thurmond, southerners actually filibustered: they read telephone books, the Bible, the comic pages, etc. Their pro-segregation constituents loved them for it, but most Americans hated what they were doing and turned against them.
By contrast, today's Dems quietly accept that 60 votes are needed in the Senate. The Reps don't have to actually filibuster, reading telephone books on national television.. If they did they’d become laughing stocks:, the public's anger would turn on them for denying democracy, instead of turning against the Dems for incompetence.

Time for the Dems to get serious. Or else, paraphrasing Lincoln’s plea to General McClellan, “If they’re not planning to use the majority, the Republicans would like to take it back.”

Strip-search 18-28-year-old Muslim men? Unethical and dangerously ineffective

2010-01-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

"If you are an 18-28-year-old Muslim man then you should be strip searched. And if we don't do that there's a very high probability we're going to lose an airliner." So said retired Air Force Lieutenant General Tom McInerney to Fox newscaster Julie Banderas.

Most Americans, and all constitutional lawyers, would consider such religious discrimination to be wrong: unethical and probably illegal. But perhaps it’s okay to do unethical things to save 300 lives, as General McInerny recommends.

Hmmm, if you were Al Qaeda and planning an attack against an American airliner could you possibly counter this policy of strip-searching 18-28-year-old Muslim males? Let me count the ways:

1) Send a non-Muslim

2) Send somebody who looks like a non-Muslim

3) Send a 35-yr old Muslim, like the double agent who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan.

4) Send a woman

Get the idea? Profiling is a good thing for law enforcement people to do. It lets them concentrate their efforts on people who behave suspiciously. Like maybe several recent short trips to Yemen. Or buying a one-way ticket and having no baggage. Or a thousand other things.

But profiling on the basis of religion? That’s the worst of both worlds: it is unethical and ineffective, and as a bonus, would give millions of peaceful and friendly Muslims good reason to hate us. We should reject this advice as dangerously wrong-headed.

Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, reach new depths of hatefulness

2010-01-15T00:15:00.000-08:00

The television is full of heartbreaking pictures of unspeakable, unwatchable human tragedy. Relief starts to arrive from all over the world, but especially from America: soldiers from the 82d Airborne Division, the super carrier Carl Vinson, C-130 cargo aircraft by the dozens, the Navy’s only hospital ship. President Obama announces that America will not forsake Haiti.

But two Americans, both heroes to millions, utter unimaginably vile language that makes one doubt their humanity.

Rush Limbaugh says the earthquake is “made to order” for the Administration, which will “use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community.” He went on to discourage anyone from giving to the Red Cross for Haitian relief, saying that the President’s appeal would only lead to collecting names to solicit later for campaign contributions. “Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax.”

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and host of The 700 Club, a Christian TV program syndicated throughout the U.S. and Canada, matched Limbaugh in his hate: “A long time ago in Haiti…they were under the heel of the French, and they got together and swore a pact with the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

Phony hysteria over Senator Reid saying "Negro"

2010-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

Many Republicans are calling for Democrats to ditch Harry Reid as Senate majority leader. RNC chairman Michael Steele and Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) equate Reid’s recent use of the word “Negro” with former Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott’s saying that America would have been better off had arch-segregationist Strom Thurmond been elected President on his racist ticket in 1948.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Even chutzpah doesn’t begin to cover equating the behavior of Senator Reid, with his solid record of advancing the cause of civil rights, and who encouraged Obama to run for President, with that of ex-Senator Lott, who longed for the good old days of segregation.

I was brought up to say “Negro.” Or colored person. Somewhere in the last 40 years those terms went out of polite usage, to be replaced, usually, by African-American (although the NAACP is still working for the advancement of colored people).

Harry Reid didn’t get the memo. In 2008 he decided early to support Barack Obama’s Presidential run. He was quoted in “Game Change,” the new tell-all book about the campaign, as advocating Obama’s running, and explaining that America was ready to elect “a light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”

Reid is guilty—for the gazillionth time—of speaking awkwardly, and he apologized to Obama and everyone else he could think of. But to equate his awkward language expressing inter-racial fairness with Lott’s nostalgia for a racist America is deeply unethical.

“Change we can believe in” would be on C-SPAN

2010-01-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

Keep my commitments. That’s high on my list of unenforceables. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard. Candidate Obama made this commitment about health care reform:

"I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process."

It would have been hard for the President to put the closed-door negotiations in the House and Senate on C-SPAN; after all, that’s the prerogative of those two houses. But the negotiations about a final bill?? They’re being held at the White House. It’s Obama’s house. It would be very easy for him to invite C-SPAN in.

So why hasn’t he done it? Looks like an ethics violation to me. And over the issue that’s gripped the political scene for the past eleven months. This isn’t change we can believe in.

A Reinhold Niebuhr award for Bob Barr (ex-R-GA)

2010-01-08T23:25:00.000-08:00

The President’s praiseworthy statement on strengthening intelligence was met by ridicule from the usual suspects: Cheney, Limbaugh, Beck, Bachmann. No news there. But some better news: most Republicans kept quiet, perhaps honoring President Bush’s statement in the early days of the new administration, “He deserves my silence.” And some, including Tom Ridge and John Negroponte, praised Obama.

But the best news comes from conservative ex-congressman Bob Barr (R-GA), who called the Republican sniping at President Obama for his handling of the aftermath of the Christmas underpants bombing “asinine” and “irresponsible.” His indictment of the right is on the Atlanta Journal Constitution website at http://bit.ly/BarrCriticism

The highest level of political ethics is to call out members of one’s own party. Bob Barr gets this month’s (mythical) Reinhold Niebuhr award for bringing good temper and integrity into the political fight.*

______

* Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, ‘The temper of and integrity with which the political fight is waged is more important for the health of our society than the outcome of any issue or campaign.’

Self-terror: update from the President

2010-01-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

I wrote this morning about self-terrorism: the exaggeration and amplification of the threat from real terrorists that spreads more terror. Today the President, in his remarks on strengthening intelligence and aviation security, addressed the issue of self-terror with these words:

“Here at home, we will strengthen our defenses, but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don’t hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. That is exactly what our adversaries want, and so long as I am President, we will never hand them that victory. We will define the character of our country, not some band of small men intent on killing innocent men, women, wnd children.”

What kind of people are we cheering for, anyway?

2010-01-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

The Washington Wizards are a pretty sorry basketball team—11 wins, 22 losses so far this season—but their one bright spot has been all-star Gilbert Arenas, in the second year of a six-year, $111 MILLION contract to play for the Wizards. But not after last night, when Arenas was suspended indefinitely by David Stern commissioner of the NBA.

Before Christmas Arenas had brought several handguns to the Wizards’ locker room, and on December 21 he had brandished one at a teammate, who in response, according to anonymous reports from players who were there, pointed his loaded handgun at Arenas in a spat over a gambling debt.

When the incident came to light Arenas apologized, saying it was all in fun, but recognizing that “there’s no such thing as joking around” where guns are concerned. Not for a week or two, anyway. Last night as the players were being introduced, Arenas pointed his hands, mimicking handguns, at his teammates and went pop pop pop.

Stern immediately suspended Arenas, saying “His ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game.” Stern is just right. To be fit to play big time sports a player ought to be somebody we’ll cheer for—at least some of us. Sport can be ennobling, and some of its best are to be admired and cheered.

But it’s demeaning to cheer for players who lie, cheat, or commit crimes. Hooray for David Stern for taking this (belated) step. Let’s hope it encourages other sports commissioners and coaches to insist on behavior that we can cheer for without feeling ashamed.

Meanwhile I’m only going to cheer for people who don’t make me feel ashamed.

American self-terrorists

2010-01-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

“Dramatic violence choreographed to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm, which causes people to exaggerate the threat.” That’s the definition of terrorism coined by Brian Jenkins, one of America’s foremost experts on the subject. Jenkins goes on to define another term, one we should become more familiar with: self-terrorism.

He writes that government officials, journalists, networks, talking heads, and believers in doom “all collaborate in creating a fission of fear.” They are self-terrorists. They terrorize us and themselves, like children telling horror stories after the lights go out

There ARE terrorists out there, and our government and allies of all faiths and many nations are searching it out and fighting it. So what are we to make of politicians who blast the President for avoiding the words “terrorism” and “war”?

Dick Cheney says the President’s pretending we’re not at war. Congressman Peter King (R-NY) says the one most important thing could do now is “to use the word terrorism more often.” Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Virginia Fox (R-NC), Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, and others are all piling on in enthusiastic agreement.

They are amplifying the efforts of Al Qaeda and its collaborators to spread terror. They are self-terrorists. They are helping the enemies of civilization. They need to be repudiated.

Dick Cheney: liar, liar, pants on fire

2010-01-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

Dick Cheney has repeatedly accused President Obama of making America less safe by “trying to pretend we are not at war," Cheney recently went on: "He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of Sept. 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.”

Our favorite fact-checking blog, PolitiFact√com, has just published a review of Obama's statements of the past year that makes it clear he has repeatedly said—starting with his inaugural address right through to his West Point speech last month—that the United States is at war against terrorist organizations.

PolitiFact usually rules statements half true, mostly false, or false. Only the most outrageous falsehoods do they rate “Pants on fire.” And now Cheney’s statements have earned this most ignominious label. Well deserved, Cheney!

Virtue rewarded: Texas Tech 41-Michigan State 31

2010-01-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

Nice to see the Texas Tech Red Raiders come out on top tonight, 41-31 over the Spartans of Michigan State. Texas Tech risked losing a bowl game and perhaps a recruiting class when they fired coach Mike Leach for mistreating a player who had suffered a concussion in practice. For a big time football power like Tech, that was a strong statement for ethical behavior.

Coach Leach gave interviews to the New York Times and the Associated Press in which he denied ordering the injured player, Adam James, to be locked up in a dark place, but his account was refuted by trainer Steve Pincock, who signed an affidavit attesting that Coach Leach had directed him “to lock his [obscenity] in a place so dark that [series of obscenities].

So—unless there’s a massive conspiracy to frame Leach, it appears that he is guilty of lying, in addition to abusing an injured player. Hooray for Tech in acting boldly and ethically to fire him, even on the eve of a bowl game.But save a tear for Spartan coach Mark Dantonio, who suspended twelve players and fired two more for a campus brawl in December. Like the Tech authorities, he placed decent behavior above winning.

Winning isn't the only thing, not at Texas Tech

2009-12-29T23:14:00.000-08:00

It’s always noteworthy when a University that places high value on its football program opts for good behavior even at the possible cost of a game (or more). That’s why this column made such a fuss over Oregon Ducks football coach Chip Kelly when he suspended his star running back for sucker punching an opposing player who was taunting him after a Ducks loss in their season opener.

Now we want to give three cheers for Texas Tech, who suspended football coach Mike Leach on the eve of Saturday’s big Alamo Bowl Game against Michigan State. Leach is accused of punishing a player who suffered a concussion in practice.

A source close to the player’s family told ESPN that he sustained a concussion on Dec. 16, was examined on Dec. 17 and told not to practice because of the concussion and an elevated heart rate. The source said Coach Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James "to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours." According to the source, Leach told the trainer, two days later, to "put [James] in the darkest, tightest spot. It was in an electrical closet, again, with a guard posted outside."

The suspension will surely be litigated, and we’re not sure yet what all the facts are. What’s clear and indisputable, however, is that Texas Tech, occasionally maligned as a football factory, places player safety and ethical behavior above winning. Here’s hoping their first reward is a win over the Spartans Saturday in the Alamo Bowl.

Heckuva job, Janet

2009-12-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano just gave Americans the best reason to distrust their government since Bush’s “Heckuva job, Brownie.” Jack Marshall has an excellent analysis of her egregious misstatement about the attempted destruction of the Northwest airliner (“The system worked.”) on his EthicsAlarms blog, at http://ethicsalarms.com/2009/12/28/napolitano-ethics-heck-of-a-job-janet/comment-page-1/#comment-602

Napolitano later, when correcting herself, said that she had been quoted out of context. Marshall’s article demonstrates that this is another untruth.

It’s the depths of unethical behavior to lie from a position of trust. It’ll take a lot to get people to trust Napolitano again. Worse, her egregious misstatement will confirm for millions their justification for distrusting all government.

A lesson in shame from the Indianapolis Colts

2009-12-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

Ethics in sports means trying your best to win while behaving with integrity. Sometimes winning and integrity are at odds, and people have to choose. They can choose honorably, as tennis player Andy Roddick famously did in the 2005 Rome Masters tournament when he corrected an umpire’s wrong call to his own disadvantage and it wound up costing him the match. Or they can choose dishonorably, as gymnast Paul Hamm did in the 2004 Olympics when he kept a gold medal that had been awarded to him on a scorer’s error.

Coach Jim Caldwell chose dishonorably yesterday when he chose to keep his best players healthy as the playoffs approached. His Indianapolis Colts were two wins away from an undefeated 16-0 season, playing a game that was meaningless for them (they already had clinched top seed in the playoffs), but that meant a great deal to their opponents, the New York Jets, who were battling seven other teams for the last two playoff berths in the American Football Conference. It also—presumably—meant something to the Colts’ fans who shelled out big money to see them play.

Caldwell pulled his starters early in the second half, leading 15-10. He replaced all-pro quarterback Peyton Manning with Curtis Painter, a rookie who had never played a down in the NFL. Painter promptly fumbled in his own end zone, handing a touchdown to the Jets, who went on to win, 29-15.

The Colts are now 14-1, their fans are disappointed, and the Jets have an unearned edge in the race for the last playoff spot.

Sport is said to teach us about character. Yesterday it taught us about shame.

Santa Claus, Build-a-Bear, and global warming

2009-12-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Where are the ethical boundaries in videos aimed at children? Is it OK to show a video about Santa and his helpers? We know (shhh) there’s not really a Santa Claus; is it OK to pretend there is to entertain (and mislead) children?

So OK, Santa is a fiction, but writing fiction is ethical. Fiction deals with real life and real issues—life and death, war and peace, love and hate, duty and temptation, and so on. Fiction for children, especially children of an age to want cuddly teddy bears, is more likely to deal with more age-appropriate issues—telling the truth, being a friend, obeying parents.

The Build-a-Bear Company is in the business of selling build-it-yourself bears to children, and along the way, to teach children something about citizenship and helping others. Their website until a couple of days ago had—along with interactive games designed for the 3-5 yr old set—three videos about Santa’s helpers, a penguin, and two cuddly polar bear cubs, all of whom were worrying about global warming and the ongoing melting of the polar icecap. One of the videos had a gross exaggeration—that the polar icecap would disappear before Christmas (i.e., today).

It’s arguable how great a sin it is to exaggerate the degree of icecap melting in a video about Santa. Build-a-Bear should have been more accurate. But apparently the greater sin is to deal with global warming at all. In response to expressions of outrage from global-warming deniers and threats of boycott, Maxine Clark, founder and Chief Executive Bear of Build-a-Bear, apologized and withdrew the offending videos from the Bear website.

Rather than police what their children do on the computer, some people prefer to shut down the voice of Build-a-Bear, so that nobody can hear it. And shamefully, Build-a-Bear knuckled under to the pressure and gave up on their effort to teach a few children a little about global warming.

The ethics argument for health care reform

2009-12-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

The health care debate is too much for any individual to understand completely. That’s why reading a bill on the Senate floor doesn’t contribute to the debate, other than to slow it down. There are persuasive arguments on all sides: doesn’t go far enough, goes too far, costs too much, gives too much to the insurance companies, is unfair to the insurance companies, and on and on.

I only know two things for sure about it, one ethical, one historical.

First, the ethical argument: What kind of society do we want to be a part of? Remember Lincoln asking if we wanted to be part of a nation that was half slave, half free? Remember John Kennedy asking if we wanted to be part of a wealthy nation with millions suffering from hunger. It’s time for Americans to ask ourselves whether we want to be a part of a society that provides its political leaders and most everybody else with health care, but leaves fifty million—one of every six Americans—uninsured, with additional millions worried sick that they’ll lose their insurance.

An ethical person must reject this status quo as unacceptable, a violation of the Golden Rule and of the principles of virtue ethics. So the system needs to be changed.

Now the thing I know about history: Theodore Roosevelt first proposed health care reform in 1912, then Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. All failed. If the current attempt fails we’ll likely go many years before reform is even attempted in the Congress.

So an ethical person must work to pass reform now—not necessarily the House bill, not necessarily the Senate bill, but SOME bill. The ethical person doesn’t want his country to take care of five-sixths and leave the rest to fickle fortune

Distortions about Senator Whitehouse in the WSJ and Washington Times

2009-12-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

--and slurs across the political spectrum.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. gave a tough thoughtful speech on the Senate floor Sunday, blasting Republican obstructionism over, not only the health care bill but even against the defense appropriation bill. He asked,

“Why all this discord and discourtesy, all this unprecedented destructive action? All to break the momentum of our new young president. They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist.

“That is one powerful reason, it is not the only one. The insurance industry one of the most powerful bodies in politics, is another reason.”

It’s perfectly clear that Whitehouse was blasting the unanimous Republican senators. There is no way, however, to construe his remarks like this headline on the Washington Times website does:

Sen. Whitehouse: Foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups

The headline was picked up verbatim by the Wall Street Journal’s website too, and the sense of it was repeated even on the middle-of-the-road Morning Joe show on MSNBC.

Whitehouse clearly did NOT say—or mean—what the headline said. He said that the Republicans had ardent supporters who…etc. But so few Republicans distance themselves from the fanatics, and so many embrace their bile, that it’s almost tempting to accuse Whitehouse of understatement.

But the WSJ and the Washington Times got his remarks very wrong. Too bad for all of us if their slander goes uncorrected.

The video of the entire 12-1/2 min Whitehouse speech is at http://drblues.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/senator-whitehouse-calls-out-the-paranoid-republicans/. Worth watching and make up your own mind.

So's John McCain

2009-12-21T23:03:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Rachel Maddow for ferreting this out after McCain said he'd never in his twenty years in the Senate seen a senator denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. On October 10, 2002, McCain reacted to the anti-war speech of then-Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) by objecting to Dayton's request for unanimous consent to speak for an extra minute or two.
Shame on McCain for his hypocrisy, which exacerbated the Franken-Lieberman brouhaha. You're dragging the Senate down, Senator.

Al Franken is a big fat idiot

2009-12-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) burnished his reputation as a comedian and made a bundle of money with his 1999 book, Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, which The New York Times review called “dreadfully foul.” After he won win a Senate seat a year ago many hoped his manners would be nicer than his book.

So far not so much.

Franken was presiding over the Senate last Thursday when Senator Lieberman was giving a ten-minute speech on health care. Franken interrupted, saying Lieberman’s ten minutes were up. When Lieberman requested unanimous consent for “an additional moment” to finish his speech, Franken refused.

John McCain rose to say that he'd never in his twenty years in the Senate seen a senator denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. saying it. “I don’t know what’s happening here in this body, but I think it’s wrong. It harms the comity of the senate.”

Franken’s rude behavior was matched Sunday by Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) who blocked a similar request by Senator John Cornyn, (R-TX). When Cornyn protested, “I’m looking around — I don’t see any other senator waiting to speak,” Begich relented.

Franken isn’t the only guilty one, nor is all the rudeness Democratic—the Republicans have been giving about as good—or as bad—as they’ve been getting. But the bad behavior on both sides has already shattered the Senate’s reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body, and is well on the way to ending its ability to do the people’s business.

Who do you trust—the L.A. Times or Pete Carroll?

2009-12-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Times reports that Joe McKnight, star running back for the USC Trojans, has been driving an SUV belonging to a Trojan booster, Scott Schenter. This would be a violation of NCAA rules that would require McKnight’s disqualification, if true.

The USC athletic program is already under scrutiny by the NCAA for possible illicit payments to Heisman trophy footballer Reggie Bush and to basketball star O. J. Mayo. A scandal involving McKnight would seriously damage what’s left of USC’s reputation for athletic integrity.

The Times article said that Mr. Schenter “has not responded to multiple requests for answers.” Mr Schenter has since written that the car really belongs to McKnight’s girl friend, who works for Schenter—“ I am the owner of the Land Rover because [the girl friend’s] parents couldn't qualify for the loan. It is her car. She makes the payments and she is responsible for insurance.”

The Times has leveled serious charges of corruption at McKnight and USC, apparently without trying very hard to confirm the story. If Mr. Schenter is telling the truth the Times itself is guilty of corruption. If not, then USC has a lot to answer for. Either way, it’s a sad day for ethics in the Southland.

Fire poor teachers? It’s unethical NOT to

2009-12-18T14:28:00.001-08:00

   Teachers in Los Angeles serve a two-year probationary period, during which they are "at-will" employees who can easily be fired. At the end of the probationary period they automatically get tenure and are, for all practical purposes, impossible to fire.
   An investigation by the Los Angeles Times has shown that teachers in LA are routinely given tenure at the end of the two years, without any meaningful evaluation of their performance. Ramon Cortines, the LA superintendent, told the L. A. Times, “This is about to change. We do not owe poor performers a job.”
   Cortines is on solid ethical grounds; it’s not a close call. The Golden Rule requires us to look after the weaker members of our society. Who weaker than schoolchildren? And the responsibility falls especially heavily on people who are paid to look after the weak.
   So why are so many education bigwigs fighting Cortines? A. J. Duffy, head of the teachers union, objects thus: “Administrators are not properly trained to evaluate teachers.” Julie Slayton, a teacher at USC and former head of research and planning for the school district, blasts Cortines for a knee-jerk reaction to outside pressure.

While we’re sacrificing our children’s futures to poor teaching, too many education professionals are more interested in protecting their turf than in education. This is an ethical failure of the highest order.

Ethical affirmative action in the NFL

2009-12-14T00:09:00.000-08:00

The Indianapolis Colts beat Denver, 28-16 to bring the Colts’ record to a perfect 13-0. The Colts are coached by Jim Caldwell, in his first year replacing Tony Dungy, who stepped down after seven successful seasons, including a Super Bowl win.

It was worth remarking that none of the announcers thought it worth remarking that Caldwell, like Dungy, is African-American. This all results from the Rooney rule—arguably the most successful affirmative action policy in American sports—perhaps in America, period.

The Rooney rule requires all NFL teams with a head coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate. They can hire who they like, but they must interview a minority candidate.

The rule was adopted in 2003 when the NFL owners, prodded by black attorney Johnnie Cochran, looked hard at themselves and didn’t like what they saw. In a league with 70% black players, there were only two black head coaches—six percent of the league’s teams.

They asked themselves the central questions of ethics: “What kind of a person do I want to be?” And “What kind of group do I want to be a part of?” They didn’t want to be a part of a league where nearly all the head coaches were white and nearly all the players were black. So they adopted the Rooney rule.

Today there are, unremarkably, seven black coaches in the 32-team league. Black coaches have reached the pinnacle, winning two Super Bowls, and the depths, being fired from jobs at Kansas City and Cleveland. The most ethical of affirmative action efforts has been successful.

Dan Rooney, the Pittsburgh Steeler owner who chaired an owners committee that came up with the Rooney rule, said he is pleased with the rule, but, "I really feel and hope that we will not need a Rooney Rule very long."

What kind of people are they on Wall Street?

2009-12-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

The beginning of ethical behavior is asking yourself, “What kind of a person do I want to be?” Next comes “What kind of group (or company or town or society) do I want to be a part of?”

Lincoln asked if we wanted to be part of a nation that was half slave, half free. John Kennedy asked if we wanted to be part of a wealthy nation with millions suffering from hunger. It’s time for Wall Street leaders to ask themselves whether they want to be part of a society that pays top earners thousands of times as much as it pays ordinary hard workers, and enables the top people to live in 18,000 square foot homes while some ordinary workers live in their cars.

These questions have been posed before—by Spartacus, by Nat Turner, by Marx, by Mao. When the questions came as demands from people on the bottom they always had terrible results—think slave revolt or the “Great Leap Forward.”. But when they were posed by leaders of society they often led to constructive change—think Social Security or the Marshall Plan.

It’s time for Wall Street leaders to lead, or risk provoking our political system into a “cure” that will likely be far worse than the disease.

Notre Dame's new coach a winner both ways

2009-12-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

Notre Dame has a winner in just-announced new head football coach Brian Kelly. Kelly coached the Cincinnati Bearcats to a 12-0 record and an unprecedented (for the Bearcats) #3 ranking among BCS (i.e., major football) schools. His teams at Cincinnati are 34-6 over his three-year tenure.

As impressive as his teams’ won-lost record is the academic record of his players: a 75 percent NCAA graduation rate, the highest in the BCS top 10. That was undoubtedly as attractive to Notre dame as his won-loss record, because Notre Dame athletes have long had one of the highest rates of graduation of any university in America.

It’s worth reminding people of Notre Dame’s emphasis on academics, especially in light of its reported $18 million-$24 million paid to buyout coach Charlie Weis for the six years remaining on his contract.

Dick Cheney, hate monger

2009-12-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

U.S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 3. “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

Dick Cheney, on last night’s Hannity show on Fox: “I think it [trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York] will give aid and comfort to the enemy.”

Who is Cheney accusing of treason? President Obama? Attorney General Holder? Mayor Bloomberg? What earthly reason could he have for using such language?

Ethics,global warming, and Al Gore

2009-12-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

First, do no harm.

Ethically that’s a good place to start. We—you, me, everybody—are doing lots of harm to the earth by our consumption of carbon-based fuels. Al Gore has made it his life cause to combat this damage. His interview with Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast is well worth reading and absorbing.

We all need to be part of the anti-global warming movement.

The Baucus affair is an unethical mess

2009-12-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

What’s so bad about Max Baucus recommending his girlfriend for a U. S. Attorney job? Nothing, according to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who said that Max Baucus is “a good friend and outstanding senator, and he has my full support.”

Even Washington watchdog Melanie Sloan, former prosecutor and head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington defends Baucus.

“Obviously, he showed bad judgment.” Sloan told the New York Daily News. “It certainly tarnishes his image, but I can’t think of what rule he violated.”

Sloan and Reid and other Baucus defenders should think about ethics. As Jack Marshall, who does think about ethics points out, Baucus violated several provisions of the code of ethics for U.S. government employees:

§ Employees shall not use public office for private gain.

§ Employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual.

§ Employees shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating the law or the ethical standards promulgated pursuant to this order.

Baucus compounded his unethical behavior by not disclosing his relationship to the White House, to Montana's other senator, or to the lawyer who was vetting potential candidates, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Senators seem to be brain dead when it comes to ethics. If they let Baucus off they’ll prove it once again to the world.

Et tu, Max? Bye bye, Max

2009-12-05T09:56:00.001-08:00

Senator Max Baucus (R-MT) is the President’s lead man on health care reform in the Senate. Politico is reporting that he recommended that Obama nominate his girlfriend to be a United States Attorney.

What was he thinking? His office says she was nominated because of her qualifications, not because she was sleeping with the senator. Yeah, sure. Ever hear of conflict of interest, senator?

It’s behavior like this that’s sparking the rabid anti-government movement in America. Time for the Dems to do the right thing: expel Baucus from the Senate.

Oregon Ducks to win tonight’s “Civil War”

2009-12-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here’s hoping the Oregon Ducks win tonight’s football game with Oregon State, the traditional season-ender known as the “Civil War.”

It would give Oregon its first Pac 10 Championship since 2001, but more important ethically, it would give the nation reason to pay attention to Chip Kelly, Oregon’s young coach and an exemplar of ethical coaching.

Back in September the Ducks lost their opener to powerful Boise State, and at the end of the game Oregon’s top player, star running back Legarrette Blount sucker punched a Boise State player. Kelly wasted no time suspending his star for the rest of the season. (By comparison, Florida Gator coach Urban Meyer suspended his top defender for one half for attempting to gouge out the eye of an opponent.)

Adding to Kelly’s ethical résumé, he allowed Blount to keep his scholarship, thus preventing Kelly from recruiting a replacement. Kelly reasoned that Blount’s penalty should be losing his place on the team, not his education.

After weeks of good behavior by Blount, and after his substitute, freshman LaMichael James, had unexpectedly performed like a super star, Kelly allowed Blount to rejoin the team.

Sadly America mostly subscribes to Leo Durocher’s dictum, “The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place.” An Oregon win tonight will let America get to know a nice guy who finished first.

Nativity scene at the Courthouse

2009-12-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

Let’s go back to allowing a Nativity scene in front of the courthouse, as we did for nearly 200 years. It made Christians feel good and reminded them what Christmas was about. The Right is exorcised about a “war on Christmas,” and they have a point.

The Bill of Rights says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”Allowing Christians to put up a Nativity scene is not establishment of religion, but denying them is interfering with, if not prohibiting, the “free exercise thereof.”

Nativity scenes were on public property in every town until an organization called Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, or POAU, was formed in the late 1940’s and began campaigning against any recognition (let alone, "establishment") of religion by any governmental entity, including the public schools. Thus was the war on Christmas born, although, like World War 1, it didn’t get its current name until years later. Bill O’Reilly named it in 2005 and began to fume about it.

Hard for a liberal to admit, but O’Reilly was right. Denying religious groups (Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims) the use of public property is interfering with the free exercise of religion. When we interfere with strongly held beliefs people get angry, and bad things happen. Better to return to the words and meaning of the Bill of Rights.

Happy Holidays…er…

2009-12-01T14:44:00.001-08:00

Ah, the holiday season is upon us. Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men. Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays. But be VERY careful what you wish people. Some people will respond angrily if you get it wrong.

Let’s see. It’s always ok to say Merry Christmas to a Christian. It’s ok to say Happy Chanukah to a Jew. It’s ok to say Happy Kwanzaa to an African-American, but not if he’s an evangelical Christian. And wish your Muslim friends a Happy Muharram and Hindus a Happy Diwali. And if you’re not sure of the person’s religious beliefs, Happy Holidays covers all. Or Holiday Cheer.

That’s what retailer The Gap thought when it called its campaign Holiday Cheer. But the American Family Association has called for a boycott of Gap, along with Old Navy and Banana Republic for similar sacrileges. It turns out that in our land of religious freedom, you’ve got to watch your mouth.

And your step. Want to put up Christmas decorations? If you’d like to use the village green, or the nice lawn in front of City Hall you’ll risk a law suit from Church-State separation fanatics. And if you’re the music teacher make sure the December choral concert is multi-denominational. Or non-denominational. The only safe route is to hibernate all December. Oops, that’ll get you in trouble with the American Family Association.

What would an ethicist say about all this seasonal Bad Will Toward Men? All religions and secular ethicists teach us to treat others as we’d want to be treated. They all (now) teach tolerance toward people of other beliefs. Let Christians have their mangers and Christmas trees. Let Jews have their menorahs and eight days of presents. Let Muslims have their quiet reflection on the coming year. And let the lawyers take the month off.

As Rodney King asked, “Can we all get along?”

Freedom of religion in America but not in Switzerland

2009-11-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The First Amendment of our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion in America, and we have places of worship for every religion here.

We can identify most places of worship by symbols: crosses, stars of David, statues of Moroni, minarets, and so on. These symbols are important to the faithful. Imagine outlawing display of stars of David, or crosses, or minarets. Nope. Unimaginable. Not here.

But in Switzerland, which is five percent Muslim, voters just outlawed the building of minarets. There are now four in the country, and that’ll be all. The largest Swiss party, the Swiss People’s Party, says minarets are a sign of Islamization, and proposed the referendum that passed with 57% of the vote. The SVP's general secretary told the BBC: "This was a vote against minarets as symbols of Islamic power."

I’m thankful we have the First Amendment in our Constitution and in our cultural DNA. From now on, whenever I see a minaret I’ll remember to be thankful for American freedom

Pete Carroll rubs it in to UCLA

2009-11-29T00:58:00.000-08:00

You’re leading your cross-town rival, 21-7, and you have the ball with 54 seconds to go. The game is won, so what do you do? You call for your quarterback to take the ball from center and knell—“taking a knee” in football talk.

Your opponent calls time out, honoring the age-old sports imperative to not quit until the final gun. Now there are 52 seconds left. Your opponent still has two time outs remaining. He’ll surely use them.

So if you’re a coach teaching and practicing sportsmanship you call for the quarterback to take a knee again. But if you’re Pete Carroll, coaching the disappointing 7-3 USC Trojans against the UCLA Bruins, you call for the quarterback to fake a running play, then throw a 48-yard touchdown pass. Then you exchange high-fives with players and coaches on the sideline.

My question, Coach, is “What were you celebrating?” You’re better than that, Pete.

Heckuva job, Brownie! Obama’s Katrina? Not quite yet, but stay tuned

2009-11-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

To a lifetime Fed like me, the biggest shock of Hurricane Katrina was the colossal failure of the Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and the Defense Department. It proved that the Bush administration couldn’t govern. Surely the Dems, and President Obama, would do better. Not so fast, Bob, the Obama administration may not be any better.

But if the Obama administration isn’t up to the task, thank God for Michaele and Tareq Salahi. The Salahis got through the Secret Service security and crashed the White House reception and state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Salahis were just publicity hounds, not killers, and their escapade may well shock the government into fixing the apparent carelessness of the U.S. Secret Service before one of the many potential assassins get through the USSS’s haphazard security.

The recent book by ex-Secret Service man Ronald Kessler warns that the Service is regularly compromising the President’s safety by, for example, not bothering to put everybody who could come close to the President through a metal detector. Contributing to the problem is the Department of Homeland Security, which seems to be starving its USSS subsidiary of funding just like it starved FEMA before Katrina hit.

All this carelessness and failure to get the job done is a huge violation of the U.S. Government’s ethics code, which requires every government person to “ [give] to the performance of his duties his earnest effort and best thought.” The Secretary of Homeland Security and the President need to find and fire those responsible…or else it’ll be clear that they are the ones responsible.

Maybe the NFL isn’t the tobacco industry, after all

2009-11-23T06:31:00.000-08:00

The NFL has been compared in congressional hearings to the tobacco industry for its insistence that concussions, like tobacco, aren’t bad for you. My colleague, Jack Marshall has gone so far as to write, harshly but sensibly, that even watching NFL games is unethical.

Now the league is finally starting to take seriously the problem of players returning to action too soon after suffering concussions. Today’s New York Times reports that the NFL will require players who have suffered head injuries to be cleared by an independent neurologist before returning to play. It’s not a complete solution, but it’s an important second step. (The first step was recognizing the league’s own responsibility for the situation.) Perhaps colleges and high schools will begin to do the same.

Unethics in California

2009-11-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

Today’s LA Times headline screamed: UC ready to raise student fees by 32%. UC—the University of California—is a great university. It’s the flagship of the huge system of higher education that is widely credited with making California the envy of the world, the pace setter in agriculture, entertainment, aerospace, and information technology. It’s very low in-state tuition has opened the door to advancement to generations of Californians, rich and poor alike, but especially to those who couldn’t otherwise even dream of a quality university education.

Student fees will be over $10,000, tripling in ten years. With other costs a student will have to pay $26,000 to attend for a year. This is the result of gridlock in California politics caused by solid Republican opposition to raising any taxes to pay the costs of running a modern state.

Many, if not most, of these Republican legislators themselves attended UC when it was far cheaper than it is now. Having reaped the benefit they are selfishly denying it to today’s young Californians. By whatever measure you want to use-- refusing to “give back,” refusing to leave things as good as they found them, or refusing to give a hand up to people who need it-- this is profoundly unethical behavior.

An Inspector General shooting the wounded--as usual

2009-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

Today’s papers reported that Tim Geithner, then head of the New York Fed, caved into demands from Goldman Sachs and other “counterparties” of failing insurance giant AIG. As a result taxpayers spent billions to keep Goldman and other Wall Street biggies from losing as AIG failed.

All this according to the report of Neil M. Barofsky, the special Inspector General for TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, last fall’s $700-billion bailout of the financial markets.

In my days at the Defense Department IGs were likened to someone who went over the battlefield after the battle and shot the wounded. Barofsky’s report and the news coverage is in the best tradition of the wounded-shooting IG’s. What’s not in the headlines is that the world financial system was on the verge of collapse—within a few hours, according to Too Big to Fail, a new book about the crisis.

We should be praising Geithner and the entire Fed for rescuing the world, with little time to spare, from a repeat of the Great Depression, not quibbling that he might have done it better. Everyone could have done everything better. Big deal. I’m grateful that he did it effectively, and with no time to spare.

Pete Carroll teaches unsportsmanlike conduct

2009-11-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

Sports…sportsmanship. Hmmm. Seems like they should go together. Legendary coach John Wooden taught both at UCLA, today coach Chip Kelly teaches both at Oregon.

I’m a big fan of USC Trojan coach Pete Carroll. He’s arguably the most successful college football coach of recent years, and at the same time he’s been quietly dedicated to helping gang-threatened youth in the rough neighborhood around the university.

But why, Pete, do you encourage your players to strut, to taunt, and to act like they’re more important than the team. USC touchdowns, sacks, and solid plays are often followed by 15-yard penalties. The penalties hurt the Trojans’ field position, but more importantly, the acts teach poor sportsmanship to the legions of kids and adults that follow USC football.

All you have to do is once bench Everson Griffen, Will Harris, or one of your other stars after an egotistical demonstration and the whole team will get the message. It’ll make the Trojans a better team and will make you a better teacher.

Ethics, profiling, and Major Hasan

2009-11-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

The tragic killings at Fort Hood have again raised the issue of profiling, and of treating people as individuals rather than as part of a group of “others.” The Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey, has told Army leaders at all levels to be on the lookout for an anti-Muslim backlash that would hurt Muslim soldiers and damage the Army’s diversity, which he called a great strength.

My friend Jack Marshall has written eloquently in his blog, ethicsalarms.com, about the price of American principles, and about how we must always treat people as individuals and not as members of some group.

I posted a comment on his blog about the human tendency to fear the “other”–Muslims, homeless, African-Americans, cops, people with odd accents, etc. I wrote that our leaders need to constantly remind us of our shared humanity, like Bush did after 9/11 and like Army leaders are doing today. Jack pointed out the real trap to that attitude…

“is when one individual appears to confirm a negative stereotype. Hasan shouldn’t be regarded as any more of an “other” than you are. There were plenty of German-Americans in the forces during WWII (indeed, the commander!), but nobody regarded them as threats…they were Americans. Hasan is a perfect storm of factors leading him to this, and maybe someone should have caught the warning signs earlier. But his religion and nationality were not among them.”

Two cheers for Nancy Pelosi

2009-11-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

Ethicists criticize politicians who put re-election and partisanship above doing the work the people elected them to do। Nancy Pelosi has been the legitimate target of such criticism. But we have to admire the way she got the job done over the weekend.

Pelosi is a fierce advocate of women’s right to choose, but she saw that getting the health care bill through the House of Representatives would require yielding to the right-to-lifers among House Dems। So she supported an amendment to block the use of federal subsidies for insurance that covers elective abortions.

That did the trick: pro-life Dems voted yea, and the first health care reform bill ever to pass the house was approved. Pelosi had counted well: the bill passes on a 220-215 vote—just two votes to spare.

And speaking of ethical sportsmen, here's Joe Girardi

2009-11-05T22:06:00.000-08:00

Jack Marshall's excellent ethics blog, http://ethicsalarms.com/, tells the story of Yankee manager Joe Girardi, driving home at 2am hours after winning the World's Series, stopping to help a motorist who had just crashed on New York's heavily traveled Cross County Parkway.

Jack makes Girardi his ethics hero of the month, but remains loyal to his beloved Red Sox. For me, I'll now start rooting for the Yankees (except when they play the Dodgers), and I'll tell people the ethics story that made me a Yankee fan. Similarly, I'll start rooting for coach Chip Kelly's Oregon Ducks (except when they play USC), and I'll keep on rooting for my all-time ethical sports hero, Andy Roddick.

Let's just say no to rooting for unethical players or teams, and tell our friends why we've starting rooting for the Yankees, Ducks, Roddick, and others who exemplify ethical behavior.

Florida Gators, Oregon Ducks, and ethics lessons

2009-11-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

Sport teaches character. What can we learn from the Florida Gators? The Gators are ranked #1 again this week, likely headed for the national championship game. How do they do it? Play dirty, the dirtier the better.

Like, if the other team’s running back is doing well against you, jump on the pile after he’s been tackled and try to gouge his eye out.

That’s what star Gator linebacker Brandon Spikes did Saturday to Georgia running back Washaun Ealey during Florida 41-17 win over the Bulldogs. Fortunately for Ealey, Spikes couldn’t quite reach the eye through Ealey’s facemask.

Gator coach Urban Meyer doesn’t go for that kind of dirty play, trying to permanently blind an opponent. No, sirree. Meyer suspended Spikes for the first half of this week’s game against a weak Vanderbilt team.

Compare Meyer’s action with that of Oregon coach Chip Kelly, who suspended his top running back for the season for punching an opponent.

When it comes to ethics, score one for Oregon. Big zero for Florida. Go, Ducks!

Ethics isn’t Democratic, but…

2009-11-03T23:24:00.001-08:00

It’s good news for America that the moderate Democrat, Bill Owens, won today’s special election in New York’s 23^rd congressional district. The Republicans had nominated Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a supporter of gay rights, right-to-choose, and the Obama stimulus. That was too much for some conservative Republicans, who broke with the party and got Doug Hoffman on the ballot as a third-party candidate. Scozzafava eventually withdrew and endorsed Owens.

The district voters have been represented by Republicans longer than anyone can remember, going back to the nineteenth century. But Hoffman, with his supporters—Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and many mainstream Republicans—was too much for them to swallow: they elected Owens. The Democratic winner, in his victory statement , said, “The challenges that we face are not Democratic or Republican," he said. "They are not liberal or conservative. They're challenges that Americans face and that we will overcome with American resolve."

Had Hoffman won it would have ratified the Limbaugh-Beck line that there’s no room in the Republican party for any dissent from the far-right line. It likely would have led to massive repudiation of moderates from the party, and probably to one-party (Democratic) government for years to come.

The Owens election strikes a blow for politicians of both parties who believe in working together to solve America’s problems. And for the prospect of ethical governance.

The three tens: Dow 10,000, unemployment 10%, bonuses of $10 million

2009-11-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

Thinking about the three tens: Dow Jones at 10,000, unemployment at 10 percent, and Wall Street bonuses at $10 million a head. What’s wrong with this picture?

Our society is growing more and more unequal—more unemployed people at the bottom, more zillionaires at the top, 23% of total national income going to the top 1% of earners. We Americans pride ourselves on America being the land of opportunity. But the promise seems to be slipping further and further away.

The ethical person has to ask himself occasionally, “What kind of person am I? What kind of community am I a part of?” The answer can’t be very comforting. The three tens have to make us pretty uncomfortable.

The left wants to legislate limits on executive pay; the right wants to preserve the ability to gain super wealth without government interference. But what about the people getting the $10 million bonuses. Do they ever ask, “What kind of person am I? What kind of community am I a part of?” They have the ability and the moral authority to change the system. If they ask the question.

The 32 National Football League owners asked the question six years ago and it profoundly changed the league. More about that model in a day or two..

Colossal failure of government and ethics

2009-10-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Swine flu (H1N1) is coming, maybe big-time, and there’s not enough vaccine to go around. What to do? This flu is unlike the annual “seasonal” flu: it’s dangerous, even deadly, to healthy young adults to whom seasonal flu is just a nuisance. Seniors, who are at serious risk from seasonal flu, seem to be resistant to the disease.

So the CDC, the U.S. Government’s Centers for Disease Control, recommended that, as long as vaccine was in short supply it be allocated according to these priorities, based on risk:

Pregnant women
Household contacts and caregivers for infants younger than 6 months
Healthcare and emergency medical services
All people from 6 months through 24 years of age
Persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza.

When Los Angeles County set up free clinics to immunize people at highest risk, lots of healthy people over 24 years old—and therefore the least vulnerable population—showed up, got the vaccine, and caused many centers to run out before they could take care of the most vulnerable. Dr. Jonathan Fielding, L.A. County public health director disclaimed responsibility for the screw-up: “What do we say [to people who came a distance with their families]—we’ll do your children but we won’t do you?”

Well, duh! What do you think we have a county public health department for, Dr. Fielding? Orange County, by contrast, refused vaccine to people who didn’t need it. So did Phoenix and Las Vegas, according to the Los Angeles Times.

How about the healthy older adults who got their dose at the expense of someone who could die from H1N1? How ethical is that!

Terrific new book on ethics

2009-10-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

When Mick Ukleja and I wrote The Ethics Challenge, we aimed for an easy fun read and practical guide to leading a fuller, more ethical life. We concentrated on stories that illustrated the real-life application of the ethics we all started to learn as children. We thought that theory was rather dull, and relegated it to an appendix.

But now comes a new book, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Harvard professor Michael Sandel, that goes deep into theory in a fascinating way. If you want to learn more about ethics read Sandel’s book (after ours, of course). And if you want to read a short op-ed that tells you a little more about Justice, read “Giving democracy a dose of clarity,” by Michael Gerson in today’s Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102702841.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Obama calls Bernanke assistant a “K Street whore”

2009-10-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not exactly, but when you praise someone who did just that you’re endorsing the sentiment.

Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Fl) recently criticized Linda Robertson, a Congressional affairs assistant to Ben Bernanke, saying "Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics."

A month ago Grayson said on the House floor that the Republican health care plan was “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.” He was praised for this by Keith Olbermann and Arianna Huffington.

It now appears that Grayson’s behavior is up to the standards of President Obama, who last night acknowledged Grayson at a Florida fundraiser as one of Florida’s “outstanding members of Congress."

Grayson’s behavior has been condemned by several Democratic congressmen, but it appears to be ok with the President. Where’s candidate Obama who promised to change the tone of Washington? We miss him.

Ethics wins for Oregon

2009-10-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when you do the right thing fate intervenes on your side.

Seven weeks ago this column praised Oregon football coach Chip Kelly for valuing sportsmanship over winning. Kelly had just thrown his best player, running back LeGarrette Blount, off the team for sucker-punching a Boise State player after Boise State defeated Oregon in the season opener. We thought Kelly’s action might cost the Ducks a shot at the Pac 10 championship and a profitable Rose Bowl appearance.

Kelly moved freshman LaMichael James into the starting lineup, and James has merely averaged 131 yards per game in the games he’s started. Oregon’s now won six straight, and is the only Pac 10 team undefeated in conference play.

Virtue rewarded!

Dithering and Dick Cheney’s chutzpah

2009-10-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

Nobody ever said Dick Cheney lacked chutzpah. He has criticized Obama for taking over the economy, even though the huge flow of cash into Wall Street came under Bush-Cheney (with Obama’s support). He excoriated Obama’s for ending torture, claiming it was making America less safe, even though John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and many others believe that the Bush-Cheney torture policy created thousands of dedicated, active enemies of America. He blasted Obama for running up huge deficits even though Bush-Cheney turned a budget surplus into the biggest deficit in American history.

But his most vile display of chutzpah and hypocrisy came this week when he said President Obama "seems afraid to make a decision" about General McChrystal’s call for 40,000 more U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

"The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger," Cheney said in a speech at the Center for Security Policy on Oct. 21.

Dithering, huh? How about when, in mid-2008, General McChrystal’s predecessor in Afghanistan asked for three more combat brigades—about 15,000-20,000 more troops. The request was ignored for the last eight months of Bush-Cheney. Not until February 17, 2009, was the increase approved—not by Bush-Cheney, but by President Obama on his twenty-seventh day in office.

It’s certainly legitimate for the ex-Vice President to criticize President Obama, but the savage and hypocritical carping on serious national security issues is simply ugly politics at our nation’s expense.

Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, had the right analysis of Cheney’s criticism. “What Vice President Cheney calls ‘dithering,’ President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public,” Gibbs said. “I think we’ve all seen what happens when somebody doesn’t take that responsibility seriously.”

Little lies to get at big truths

2009-10-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

The National Press Club audience was listening Monday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spokesperson announce the Chamber’s sudden decision to reverse course and support climate change legislation. Suddenly another spokesperson for the Chamber burst into the room and announced that he was the real Chamber spokesperson, and that the whole press conference was a fraud.

The fraud was perpetrated by the Yes Men, a group who, in the words of their leader, “tell little lies to get at bigger truths.” The leader, Igor Vamos, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting pretending to be Mike Bonanno, and regaled host Dylan Ratigan with glories of past frauds, like impersonating Dow Chemical representatives on BBC and announcing that Dow would provide $12 billion compensation to victims of the tragic gas leak at Bhopal, India, which killed nearly 4000 people in 1984. Dow stock plummeted.

Pretty cute, eh?

The Yes Men believe that business is evil and must be brought “in line with our [i.e., the Yes Men’s] moral and ethical sensibilities.” The New York Times praised their movie: “It is great fun to watch them do their dirty work.”

You don’t have to like the Chamber to believe that lying to advance one’s “moral and ethical sensibilities” is unethical. And it shouldn’t be great fun to watch.

The Ethics Challenge of Health Care

2009-10-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

The ethics challenge: daring Democrats and Republicans to find a balanced solution to health care reform

The need for reform
The kind of reform we need
The process of reform

The need for reform of one-sixth of our economy

What kind of people are we? Most of us are doing fine, for now, but
--40 million of our neighbors have no health insurance
--millions more fear losing their jobs and therefore their insurance
Health care will break the federal budget within a decade or so, or—more likely—will lead to severe cutbacks in care and big increases in cost
Are we satisfied with a system that takes care of us while leaving our neighbor to suffer?

What kind of reform do we need?

An ethical reform means—

Giving everyone the chance for affordable coverage
Paying for benefits as we use them; not passing down the bills to our children and grandchildren.

What process do we use to get there?

Start with some truth-telling—

There are no death panels, Senator Grassley, your grandma is safe.
There will be rationing, President Obama. It’s true that there already is rationing—just ask anyone whose treatment has been denied by their insurance company—but there will be more, as forty million people are added to a system while costs are being cut from Medicare.
The insurance companies are already telling the truth about costs going through the roof without a powerful mandate requiring healthy people to buy insurance. (Absent such a mandate young healthy people will stay out of the system until they’re sick and need coverage—which all the reform bills prohibit the insurance companies from denying.)

There are good ideas on both sides of the aisle

Not matched by much good will on either side of the debate.
Too many lines drawn—
--no public option (nearly all Republicans)
--no bill without a public option (Speaker Pelosi and many Democrats).
Members of Congress are choosing up sides rather than working together to meet the ethics challenge. Both sides see danger where there is only difference. Neither seems willing to solve the problems without casting blame.

How to get the nation to real reform?

Televise sessions on C-Span, like the President promised during the campaign
Democrats commit to an inclusive process that listens to the concerns of the Republicans and the insurance industry
Republicans commit to participate in good-faith negotiations
Both sides leave ideology behind
e.g., the private sector is greedy, immoral, and irresponsible
e.g., the government can’t run a two-car funeral

The nation needs the best of both parties.

A Reinhold Niebuhr award for Obama

2009-10-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

Last week the Reinhold Niebuhr award for bringing good temper and integrity into the political fight* went to John McCain. This week it goes to Barack Obama.

When Obama acknowledged Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at his New Orleans town hall Thursday, boos rang out.

Obama held up his hand for silence. "No, no, Bob is doing a good job," the president told the crowd. “Hey hey, hold on a sec Hold on.

“Bobby, first of all if it makes you feel any better, I get that all the time," he went on to laughter from the crowd. “More seriously, and the second point is, even though we have our differences politically, one thing I will say is that this person is working hard on behalf of the state, and you gotta give people credit for working hard." The audience, chastened, turned from boos to cheers.

__________

Rush Limbaugh discredited by the left

2009-10-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

Rush Limbaugh explained Thursday why he had been removed from the group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams football team.

“This is the latest attempt by the left to discredit any of us who believe what we believe. Um, Sarah Palin and the others. We’re pioneers, and pioneers always take the arrows.”

Oh, really, Rush? Maybe they kicked you off after several players said they’d rather not play football than play for you because they consider you a racist. Maybe because you said on January 19, 2007 “The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips [notorious gangs, both all black] without any weapons. There, I said it.”

Or maybe because back in 2003 you said of Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, "I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

You’re right about one thing, though. Many on the left (and on the right, too) are out to discredit you because of what you believe. And they don’t think what you believe is decent in 21^st century America.

Building character at Oklahoma State U

2009-10-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Ethics isn’t just how we behave, it’s what we tolerate. Intolerance of misbehavior is what sets West Point’s Honor Code apart as an example for the world: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do."

That’s not Oklahoma State University’s honor code. OSU has formally asked the National Collegiate Athletic Association to reinstate their All-American wide receiver, Dez Bryant, who was ruled ineligible indefinitely for lying to an NCAA investigator. The University asked the NCAA to consider "unique circumstances" and hand down a lighter punishment.

The unique circumstances? Here’s Bryant’s explanation: "I just panicked because I was scared and afraid that I was in some kind of trouble."

Sport is supposed to develop character. What kind of character is OSU developing?

Hip hip hooray for ethical Olympia Snowe

2009-10-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here’s an easy two-part checklist to size up a politician’s ethical standard:

· Is she applying her energies to governing (rather than just to getting elected)?

· Is she following Niebuhr’s call for temper and integrity in the fight?

I don’t know where Snowe is going to come out on subsequent votes on health care reform—neither does she. But she gets three cheers for her justification for yesterday’s yes vote in committee:

"When history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time," Snowe said after her vote Tuesday.

Up with McCain, down with Steele

2009-10-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

My touchstone of ethics in politics is from Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, “The temper of and integrity with which the political fight is waged is more important for the health of our society than the outcome of any issue or campaign.”

Test it against the reactions of two Republicans to today’s awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama.

From Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, petty meanness: “The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights."

From Senator John McCain (R-AZ), gracious generosity: “I congratulate President Obama on receiving this prestigious award. I join my fellow Americans in expressing pride in our President on this occasion.”

Sportsmanship in the Big ten, but not at Ohio State

2009-10-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

If you believe in sportsmanship you have to like the Big Ten Conference’s suspension of Ohio State safety and captain Kurt Coleman for a “helmet-to-helmet hit” on a “defenseless opponent” with the Buckeyes leading Illinois, 30-0 and just seconds remaining in the game.

Sadly, Buckeye coach Jim Tressel objected to the suspension, calling it poor judgment to suspend the player. Nice message to the fans, especially the kids, Jim. And the point in savaging a defenseless second-string quarterback at the end of a game you’re winning by 30-0 is…? Sportsmanship?

Pelosi-Rangel: Which twin is the corrupt one?

2009-10-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

Charles Rangel (D-NY) chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, perhaps the second or third most powerful position in the House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, promised in 2006 to oversee the "most ethical Congress in history" and end what she called "the culture of corruption" when Republicans ruled the House.

Rangel has admitted failing to report half of his assets (he forgot) on the financial disclosure report that all members of Congress and senior executive branch people must file. He also forgot to report upwards of $75,000 in rental income on the form or on his tax return. The House Ethics Committee has had his case for sixteen months—no action yet.

Today Pelosi beat back a Republican resolution to strip Rangel of his chairmanship. Seems her ethical standard is offended by corrupt Republicans but not by corrupt Democrats. What does that make her?

Send Eric Cantor a copy of the Constitution

2009-10-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

The President met today with Congressional leaders of both parties to discuss the ongoing review of American strategy on Afghanistan. After the meeting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told CNN that Democrats and Republicans said they would back Obama on whatever decision he makes.

But to the contrary, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that Republicans would support him "if he makes the right decision, which is to listen to his commanders in the field who are asking desperately for more troops."

So Cantor’s party will support the field commanders, regardless of what the Commander in Chief decides, and regardless of what Obama's chief military advisors--Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen--advise. Whatever became of civilian control? Guess it’s not in Cantor’s copy of the Constitution.

Is it funny? Or racism?

2009-10-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Ann Coulter uses language to shock, as when she said that Jews need "to be perfected" and suggested the nation would be better off if it were all-Christian.

Her blog is headed by a frequent update of "LIBERAL LIES ABOUT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE.” In the latest posting she attributes the Democrats’ loss of Congress in 1994 to Clinton’s sudden transformation from “an old-school, moderate Democrat” to “Che Guevara.”

Then she punctuates her argument with this question: “What is it with all our black presidents and these bait-and-switch tactics?”

It’s meant to be funny because Clinton sometimes was called the first black President. But it’s not funny any more than perfecting Jews was funny. Obama is our President, not our black President.

OK to break faith if you’re clever?

2009-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of praise for ex-Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer’s tell-all book about what he heard in the Bush White House. “Hilarious,” wonderful, “excellent.” And lots of criticism from Bush loyalists: “high-schoolish, “unimportant,” “little punk.”

The ethical issue isn’t whether it’s a good book, or whether Latimer is a little punk. Ethics means keeping one’s commitments and living up to reasonable expectations. Latimer was privileged to hear lots of things in confidence. And made a commitment, even if implicit, to keep the confidences.

Even though the tales he told were juicy, even that they may be useful to historians, that doesn’t make it right.

A blow for civility by Lindsay Graham

2009-10-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hooray for Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) for denouncing Glenn Beck as a cynic and birthers as "crazy." Extra credit for politicians calling out people on their own side. He also said that Republicans need to support President Barack Obama on foreign policy issues.

Here's part of his interview with The Atlantic:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/sen-graham-calls-beck-a-c_n_306434.html

We’re all in this together…or are we?

2009-10-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

President Obama is conducting a review of our Afghanistan strategy with the key national leaders—Secretary of Defense Gates, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen, Centcom commander General Petraeus, and Afghanistan force commander, General McChrystal. Good idea, to make sure we’ve got the strategy right before we commit up to 40,000 more American troops?

Not according to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), who accused the President of “delaying, that puts in jeopardy, I believe, our men and women."

Cantor, or his staff, had the smidge of decency to recant—somewhat. His spokesman afterward, acknowledged that the president is "entitled" to review the decision for a few weeks but should not prolong it for months.

A new death squad: the whole Republican party

2009-09-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) has managed—against all odds—to lower the quality and integrity of the health care debate even further by announcing in a speech on the House floor that the Republican health care plan was “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”

When Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “You lie” at President Obama, the Republican leaders called on him to apologize to the President, which he promptly did. As yet we haven’t heard any Democratic leaders call on Grayson to do likewise. Keith Olbermann said, “I’m applauding him,” and Arianna Huffington chimed in, “He has the truth on his side.”

Three cheers for the first Dem to chastise Grayson. Maybe when you get back from Copenhagen, President Obama?

Second Chance for Roman Polanski?

2009-09-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Everybody deserves a second chance, even Michael Vick. But Vick pled guilty, was sentenced, served his prison term, and now has earned his second chance.

Polanski has a way to go. He pled guilty in 1977, when he was in his 40s. to drugging, raping, and sodomizing a 13-yr old girl. Then he fled the country before sentencing, claiming that the judge was going to throw out his plea bargain.

Sorry, no sympathy here. He took the law into his own hands by fleeing the country. He needs to face the U.S. judicial system to earn his second chance. “Gifted artist” doesn’t earn him a pass for his crime. Nor does getting away with it for 32 years.

Extra credit when it's extra hard

2009-09-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Extra credit for being ethical when it's extra hard. Hooray for 40-year old Carolyn Savage of Toledo, Ohio. Carolyn was told by an erring fertility doctor that he had implanted someone else’s embryo. She carried the baby to term and gave it to the biological parents. And hooray for the fertility doc who owned up to his mistake and allowed good things to happen to other people. http://www.startribune.com/nation/60737507.html

Ethical worsts of the week

2009-09-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Carter told NBC News, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American." When people are saying hateful things (Obama’s Hitler-like, communist, destroying our America) condemn them. But calling them racist is unjustified, forfeits the moral high ground, leads otherwise reasonable people to come to their defense, and stirs up racial animosity.

Lane Kiffin, football coach of the University of Tennessee, wins this week’s bad sportsmanship prize. After the Florida Gators beat his UT Volunteers, the Florida coach said that several of his players had been suffering with the flu. Kiffen told the press, "I guess we'll wait and after we're not excited about a performance, we'll tell you everybody was sick."

Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona says that “Republicans believe all Americans should have access to quality health care and that we must find ways to reduce health care costs.” His first example: root out Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The Senate plan calls for doing just that, to the tune of $500 billion. But when Democrats go after Medicare fraud, Kyl demagogues seniors, saying “This would ultimately lead to shortages, rationing and the elimination of private-plan choices—something our seniors rightly fear.”

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) wants to weasel out of the White House deal with PhRMA, the pharmaceutical lobbyist. The Administration cut the deal, which gave some concessions to the industry in exchange for their agreement to cut drug prices and support health care reform. Now Nelson and other Dems on the Finance committee are saying, we’ll take what you offered but we’ll take back what you were offered in exchange. Backing away from the deal is very popular: Nelson was quickly joined by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Schumer (D-NY), and Stabenow (D-MI).

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) joined up with two other Republicans and three Democratic senators to work out a health care bill. When the political temperature rose he decided to appease his base by “discovering” that the bill he had been collaborating on provided for death panels. Moreover it contained a mandate for individuals to buy insurance, which he could not support, even though he had long campaigned for just such a mandate.

Ethical bests of the week

2009-09-23T21:41:00.001-07:00

Here are my "bests of the week":

Barney Frank blasted ACORN for its casual and irresponsible response to a series of scandals, the latest provoked by conservative activists who posed as prostitute and pimp and recorded a video of an ACORN worker recommend they lie to the IRS. There’s extra ethics credit when a liberal condemns bad behavior by other liberals, or when a conservative condemns bad behavior by other conservatives.

Pacific Gas and Electric quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the Chamber’s approach to global warming: “We find it dismaying that the chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored.”

ETV Motors, an Israeli player in the electric vehicle business, proposed an honest mileage standard for plug-in cars: how far they can go on a single charge and how many miles per gallon they get when running on gasoline. This would end the outrageous lying about mileage for the Chevy Volt(230 mpg) and for the Nissan Leaf (367 mpg).

Ford published straightforward ads for its Fusion Hybrid: 41 city mpg, top speed of 47 mph in all-electric mode, and 700 miles on a tank of gas.

Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase ended their practice of charging $35 for overdrawing your account by as little as $1 with a debit card. Another debit, say for a cappuccino, costs another thirty-five bucks. No more. Nice going, BofA and Chase. It would have been even nicer had you made this announcement before Congress moved to outlaw your predatory behavior.

You Lie. I'm sorry

2009-09-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Joe Wilson (R-SC) interrupted the President's speech on health care to a joint session of Congress with a shout of, "You lie," when the President said that illegal immigrants wouldn't be covered by his proposed health care reform.

Wilson's outburst was shocking, ill-mannered, and way out of order. After the speech he promptly apologized--not one of those "I'm-sorry-if-you-misinterpreted-my-remarks" type of pseudo-apologies, but a real one.

"This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill," he said. "While I disagree with the President's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility." Wilson also called the White House to apologize.

Game over? An emotional outburst followed by an apology and a statement by the President accepting the apology as sincere?

Not so fast. The House Democrats (and some of the liberal commentariat are demanding a second apology on the floor of the House, thereby demonstrating that they can behave worse than Wilson. They're also restoring Wilson's reputation, making him a hero to the right for his outburst.

Who loves racism? The LA Times!

2009-09-08T17:14:00.000-07:00

I was saddened this morning to see this headline on the front page of my morning paper, the LA Times:

Obama is fast losing white voters' support

My sadness turned to disgust when I read Nate Silver's blog on fivethirtyeight.com (great site) explaining and demonstrating with the Times' own story that Obama's support among whites had fallen at just the same rate as his support among other voters.

The Times is stirring up the fumes of racism--why? To sell papers? This is yet another example of the media crying wolf when the wolves are far away. Like CNN interviewing an Oklahoma state senator who thinks Obama is trying to communize our schoolchildren. Why is it of national interest what one Oklahoma state senator thinks? Because it stirs the pot of controversy and partisanship. CNN and the LA Times aspire to better. They need to try harder.

How Oregon Plays the Game

2009-09-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

It’s rare in big-time college sports that sportsmanship is valued over winning. So rare that we can’t help admiring Oregon football coach Chip Kelly.

This was to be the year that the Oregon Ducks finally dethroned the mighty USC Trojans, who have won or shared the Pacific 10 championship for eight consecutive years. The Ducks were to do this largely on the legs of top running back LeGarrette Blount, who set a school record last year by scoring 17 touchdowns.

But at the end of Oregon’s 19-8 loss to Boise State last Thursday, a frustrated Blount sucker punched Boise player Byron Hout, who had been taunting Blount over his poor game.

Coach Kelly wasted no time suspending Blount for the rest of the season, his last year of eligibility to play college ball. (Boise coach Chris Peterson won’t suspend Hout for his poor sportsmanship.) Oregon’s president, Richard Lariviere, supported Kelly, saying “We do not and will not tolerate the actions that were taken by our player. Oregon’s loyal fans expect and deserve better.”

Suspending Oregon’s star player may cost the Ducks a shot at the Pac 10 championship and a profitable Rose Bowl appearance, but they’ve already won the Pac 10 sportsmanship championship. That counts for a lot more.

Investigate Cheney?

2009-09-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Some readers strongly believe that someone—either Congress or a special prosecutor—should investigate whether the people responsible for torturing detainees should themselves be held to account.

The argument goes that the American people deserve the truth. And ethically that would be a good thing, but, alas, this is one of those times when ethics demands a difficult choice, not between good and bad, but between good and good.

It was good to punish the soldiers who tortured and killed prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Baghram Air Base, and Guantanamo. It would be good to punish the higher-ups who set them on that path or at least tolerated their evil. But there’s another good at issue here: the social harmony of the American people.

Our American community has deteriorated to the point that large numbers of Democrats believe that George W. Bush was complicit in the attack of 9/11, and large numbers of Republicans believe that Barack Hussein Obama is a Kenya-born fascist who is plotting to murder grandma. And worse, far worse, “adults” in both parties are standing by in silent acquiescence.

The greater good is the restoration of American comity. My political mentor, former congressman James Leach (R-IA), explained,

“I’ve always believed in the philosophy of [Christian theologian] Reinhold Niebuhr, ‘The temper of and integrity with which the political fight is waged is more important for the health of our society than the outcome of any issue or campaign.’”

It’s time to restore the temper and integrity of the political fight. The best way to start is to follow the direction that President Obama has pointed: forward.

(Re-) Investigating Torture

2009-09-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is endorsing current AG Eric Holder’s decision to investigate whether US interrogators committed criminal offenses when they interrogated detainees.

Gonzales is actually bringing some clarity to the matter. During the Bush Administration the AG’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a careful evaluation of interrogation techniques for the CIA, in which it ruled that waterboarding and several other “enhanced interrogation” methods were not torture. That ruling had the force of law: waterboarding was legal: even though John McCain and many others considered it torture, by law it was not.

Obama said months ago that his administration would not go after operatives who worked within the guidelines of the OLC. Holder is complying with Obama’s statement (although Obama has made clear that the decision is Holder’s alone to make). If interrogators operated within the law they won’t be prosecuted; if they went beyond the methods ruled legal by the OLC they will.

Criticizing Obama or Holder for second-guessing intelligence agents who operated in good faith is nonsense. Intelligence agents, like all other civil servants, military people, and Presidents, for that matter, have always been required to uphold the law. They took an oath to do so.

The Redemption of Ted Kennedy

2009-08-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Act I: Kicked out of Harvard for cheating.

Act II: Cheated repeatedly and very publicly on his wife, who decayed into alcoholism before she left him.

Act III: His reckless (or probably drunken) driving led to the death of his pretty young woman passenger, who drowned probably because he cravenly waited eight hours to report the accident.

Act IV: Greatest Senator, maybe ever. Revered by politicians of both parties. Terrific husband, father, brother, uncle, family patriarch. Sensitive consoler of those stricken by grief. Master legislator who changed the lives of millions.

Epilog: Think of Ted Kennedy when you’re deciding whether somebody deserves a second chance. Or even a third one.

Truth tellers, liars, and half-truthers

2009-08-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there, I'm sorry to say from both parties. The St Petersburg Times does the best job I've seen of fact-checking. They seem to be a close as anybody to non-partisanship. Check them out at http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

The three-ruling version:

Where are the Ethical Republicans? Here's One.

2009-08-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Joe Scarborough (former Republican Congressman, sidekick to Newt Gingrich), on Meet the Press today: "Leaders in both parties have an affirmative responsibility to step forward and speak out against this hate speech and speak out against people carrying guns to rallies. As a guy with a 100 percent lifetime rating with the NRA, I can tell you that it not only hurts those of us who believe in Second Amendment rights, it makes the job of the Secret Service and of our law enforcement personnel so much harder. We've got to tone this debate down."

The New GM, Starting with a Big Lie

2009-08-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

"Chevrolet Volt Expects 230 Mpg In City Driving"

That's the banner at the top of GM's press release for the Chevrolet Volt, its forthcoming plug-in hybrid. Very impressive, but not true. GM expects the Volt to go 40 miles on its battery, during which time its mpg is infinite: it goes 40 miles on no gallons, hence 40/0 = infinite.

So what mileage does the Volt get when traveling beyond the range of its battery? GM isn't saying. They're hiding behind a "draft EPA federal fuel economy methodology for labeling for plug-in electric vehicles." I hope EPA figures out a more useful methodology; meanwhile GM is being deceptive.

Too bad. Lying is always bad, but why lie when the truth about the Volt is remarkable enough. Maybe it's in their DNA?

What's with all the guns??

2009-08-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Is it ethical to stand around outside a Presidential event with a loaded handgun? How about with a loaded automatic rifle? Apparently it's legal, at least in Arizona and New Hampshire, where people have been doing it.

It scares the heart out of me, remembering the killings of JFK, RFK, MLK, John Lennon, and the 168 federal workers and children at the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Not to mention the shooters who failed to kill Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan.

The people carrying these weapons near the President claim to be exercising their Second Amendment rights, and perhaps they are, hopefully without providing cover to would-be killers.

But rights, schmights. Don't they--or anyone who believes in legal weapons for hunting and self-defense--understand the difference between rights and common sense? Or ethics?

The late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.

An Ethical Fan of Michael Vick's?`

2009-08-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

Michael Vick was the top college football player in the US in 2000, and a pro bowler for several years with the Atlanta Falcons. In 2007 he pled guilty to federal charges of felony dogfighting and cruelty, and went to prison for 23 months. Yesterday he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles.

So can an ethical fan root for Vick? It's uncomfortable, but any student of ethics knows that nobody behaves ethically all the time: the ethical life is one of learning and working to close the gap between what you believe and how you behave. It's a life of second chances.

If you believe in second chances you must believe in a second chance for Vick, who admitted his crime, served his time, and expressed remorse. So go get 'em, Michael.
Hooray, Eagles!

Hooray for Senator Murkowski

2009-08-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)spoke up against the fearmongering against the various health insurance reform bills being considered in the Congress. According to the Associated Press,

"It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there's these end-of-life provisions, these death panels," Murkowski told a crowd of about 130 at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center.

"Quite honestly, I'm so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn't (in the bill). There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill."

It's refreshing to see a politician speaking out against unethical behavior in her own party.

Honest golfer Obama

2009-08-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

I liked this Time Magazine piece about Obama's golf game:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1914663,00.html

When he gets a 10 on a hole he writes it down; when he shanks a shot he plays it where it lies. Not like Bill Clinton--no mulligans or do-overs. Just honesty.

Hooray.

Listening to Ann Coulter

2009-08-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

Before my Democratic friends get too excited about the crazies who seem to be taking over the Republican party, consider Ann Coulter's column of Wednesday. She points out that it's not the Republican party that contains 99 percent of the people who believe that:

--Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance
--The Bush family clandestinely spirited the bin Laden family out of the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks
--Bush went to war in Afghanistan to help the Unocal Corporation to obtain a natural gas pipeline there
--Sarah Palin's infant son Trig is actually her daughter's child

Fair enough, the Democrats have their share of crazy conspiracy-believers, but that's not the worst thing: the worst thing is that respectable politicians on both sides feed these ugly stories for political gains.

Where are Reinhoold Niebuhr and Jim Leach now, when we need them?

Listening to America--NOT

2009-08-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

I subscribed to the Human Events newsletter and got my first issue today: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33008
In it Newt Gingrich writes that Barack Obama should "listen to America" over health care reform. Newt goes on to write that "By asking questions at town hall meetings and answering questions from pollsters, Americans are telling President Obama that they don’t trust big government plans for health care."

What Newt calls "asking questions at town hall meetings" is really anti-free speech thuggery--organizing Republican activists to shout down congressmen and prevent any questions from being asked, let alone answered.

This isn't listening to America, it's suppressing free speech. I don't know where I stand on the various health care bills, but I know where I stand on suppressing free speech: I'm against.

Cash Only, No Credit

2009-08-04T10:34:00.001-07:00

The Apple Pan in Westwood (LA) has served great apple pie and burgers for 50 years or so. Cash only, no plastic. My friend David Krygier recently asked a waiter of many years service if ever a customer was unable to come up with cash to pay the check.

"Yes, it happens often--about once a day, in fact," the waiter replied.

"How often do you get stiffed?" asked David.

"It's never happened," came the answer.

Easy enough for somebody to walk off without paying, but it's never happened in the waiter's many years there. Maybe people are more honest that we give them credit for.

Birthers and Deathers

2009-08-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Lots of Republican members of Congress are helping to spread two calumnies: 1) Obama wasn't born in the United States, and 2) health insurance reform contains a secret plot to kill old people. They are going far beyond any concept of a democratic opposition and deeply into unethical behavior. So far, in fact, that they are endangering America's ability to govern itself.

My paradigm of an ethical politician is Jim Leach, the former 14-term Republican congressman from Iowa. Jim says, “I’ve always believed in the philosophy of [Christian theologian] Reinhold Niebuhr, ‘The temper of and integrity with which the political fight is waged is more important for the health of our society than the outcome of any issue or campaign.’”

What would Niebuhr--or Jim--think about the "birthers" and the "deathers" and the politicians that give them comfort and cover? Not much.

Birthers and Deathers

2009-08-01T11:34:00.001-07:00

What would Niebuhr--or Jim--think about the "birthers" and the "deathers" and the politicians that give them comfort and cover?