March 4, 2010
Old hat
reds die hard. Many Serbs still burn with hate for Muslims over the lost battle of Blackbird’s Field in Kosovo on June 15, 1389. In Great Britain there remains mutual hatred between Catholics and Protestants dating from atrocities of the 17th century. And many Armenian Americans still burn over the massacres and other deaths of 1,500,000 Armenians by the forces of the collapsing Ottoman Empire—the predecessor to modern Turkey in 1915. Turks dispute the number, claiming that 300,000 Armenians were killed and at least as many Turks as the empire descended into chaos and war.
It seems that civilization depends on our ability to put such horrors aside, to consign them to the ash heap of history. That ability is Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 1389, Ambassador Namik Tan, Armenia, Armenian-Americans, Blackbird's Field, ethics, genocide, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Muslims, Ottoman Empire, Serbs, slavery, Turkey
Posted in Politics | 8 Comments »
March 4, 2010
Amidst all the scandals erupting from New York (about which, more later–stay tuned), finally a big helping of ethics cheer: Joe Scarborough earns a (mythical) Reinhold Niebuhr award* for bringing good temper and integrity into the political fight.
Thanks to Samuel Jacobs for alerting us to Scarborough’s ethics heroism in his Daily Beast blog.
Scarborough, a conservative Republican former congressman from Pensacola and now co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, blasted Glenn Beck for hate-mongering:
“We’re going to have a conservatives’ honor roll on this show… I’m talking to you, Mitt Romney, and I’m talking about anyone who wants to be president in 2012. … You need to call out this type of hatred.”
The highest level of political ethics is to call out members of one’s own party. We’re not surprised when Republicans call out Charlie Rangel, or when Democrats criticize Appalachian Trail-trekker, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. That’s no contribution to the integrity of the political fight. But when a Republican calls out fellow Republicans like Scarborough did, he deserves kudos. And when he does it on national television he deserves a Niebuhr award. Nice going Joe.
Romney declined, through a spokesman, to take up Scarborough’s challenge.
______
*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.”
Tags: ethics, Glenn Beck, Joe Scarborough, Mark Sanford, Mitt Romney, Niebuhr, Rangel, Samuel Jacobs, scandals
Posted in Politics | Leave a Comment »
March 2, 2010
Winston Churchill said that Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else. He could have been anticipating Nancy Pelosi. She tried to defend her pal, sleazy New York congressman Charlie Rangel, even after the House Ethics Committee found him guilty of violating House rules by accepting a corporate gift of a Caribbean junket. And more bad news to come from the committee.
But protests from shocked (!) Republicans and panicky Dems have led Pelosi to do the right thing. She informed Rangel today that he’s got to step down–probably Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News.
Read The Ethics Challenge: Strengthening Your Integrity in a Greedy World
Tags: Churchill, ethics, House Ethics Committee, Pelosi
Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »
March 1, 2010
One thing we knew about John McCain, he was a straight shooter. He said what he believed, he stood behind what he said. McCain voted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (popular name: the bank bailout), which passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Bush on October 3, 2008. McCain was one of 74 senators voting for the bill.
McCain’s opponent in the Republican primary, JD Hayworth, has been blasting McCain for voting for the bailout. McCain’s rejoinder:
We were all misled [by Treasury secretary Paulson]. We were all misled. I mean, he said that they were going after the toxic assets. The toxic asset–his word–was the housing market. He testified to that. I mean, we were all misled. So what did he do then? They started pumping money into the financial institutions. Now the financial institutions are fine. Wall Street’s doing great. Main Street is in deep trouble.
C’mon, Senator. The toxic assets—the underwater home mortgages—were held by the financial institutions. You knew then—everybody knew—that the money was to bail them out. Paulson didn’t mislead you. Nor did Bernanke. You voted for it to prevent a catastrophic collapse of the financial sector and with it, the world economy. You thought it was the right thing to do.
Now your right wing opponent criticizes you for your vote, and your defense? “We were all misled.”
We liked the old McCain—the straight shooter, the truth teller—better. Wonder what happened to him.
Tags: bailout, Bernanke, Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, ethics, JD Hayworth, McCain, the toxic assets, Treasury secretary Paulson
Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »
February 28, 2010
What’s fair treatment mean? Treat everybody the same or treat everybody special? Read Mick’s and my latest column for Governing.
Read The Ethics Challenge: Strengthening Your Integrity in a Greedy World
Tags: equal treatment, ethics, fairness, special treatment
Posted in Organizational | 2 Comments »
February 27, 2010
Until 1993 homosexuals were banned from the U.S. military, and military investigators worked hard to search out and discharge closet gays and lesbians. Then in 1993 Congress passed the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law (aka DADT) to prevent President Clinton from opening the military to gays and lesbians.
The law frees the military from the obligation to search out and discharge homosexuals (“Don’t ask”), while prohibiting service members from disclosing their homosexuality (“Don’t tell”).
Now the Obama administration has set out to do away with DADT, and allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. The Secretary of Defense has started a year long study into how to best implement the change. America’s military leadership recently testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: don't ask, don't tell.Mike Mullen, ethics, Gary Roughhead, gays, George Casey, homosexuals, integrity, James Conway, lesbians, military, Norton Schwartz, Obama administration, Secretary of defense
Posted in military, Politics | 1 Comment »
February 26, 2010
In the Broadway classic Guys and Dolls Chicago gangster Big Jule loses a bet to Sky Masterson and as a result becomes a recalcitrant participant in a prayer meeting at the Save-a-Soul Mission. When called on to “testify,” i.e., confess his sins, Big Jule says,
“Well, I used to be bad when I was a kid, but ever since then I’ve gone straight, as has been proved by my record: Thirty-three arrests and no convictions!”
That’s the Big Jule ethics standard.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has apparently adopted the Big Jule ethics standard. She’s behaving differently from the person she claimed to be when she promised to “drain the swamp” Read the rest of this entry »
34.064458
-118.451661
Tags: Big Jule, Caribbean junket, corruption, drain the swamp, ethics, financial disclosure, Guys and Dolls, House Ways and Means, Pelosi, Rangel
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics | 1 Comment »
February 24, 2010
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has rescinded ex-Gov. Tim Kaine’s order protecting gay state workers from job discrimination. This discrimination seems reasonable to people who believe that the Bible is the word of God, because the Bible says that male homosexuality is “abomination,” for which the penalty is to be “cut off from among their people.” (Leviticus 18:22 and 29).
A letter to Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who has in the past expressed similar views about homosexuality, has gone viral on the web. Although the letter—author unknown—has been around for at least ten years, and may never actually have been sent to Dr. Laura, its reasoning is worth thinking about, especially in view of Gov. McDonnell’s action and the battles about same-sex marriage. The biblical references in the letter are accurate.
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination… End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: anti-gay, Bible, Bob McDonnell, Dr. Laura, ethics, job discrimination, Leviticus, Tim Kaine, Virginia
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics | 2 Comments »
February 22, 2010
Michael Smerconish is the Philadelphia area’s top talk-show host, and a frequent guest host for Bill O’Reilly on his nationally syndicated Radio Factor. Smerconish has been a Republican all his adult life, including a stint as assistant secretary of HUD under Bush I.
He’s had enough. He’s decided to leave a party that he describes as exclusionist and dominated by the religious right, with no room or tolerance for long-standing moderates. He’s no Democrat, either,
He describes why he decided to leave the party on the Huffington Post. Recommended reading for Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike.
Read The Ethics Challenge: Strengthening Your Integrity in a Greedy World
Tags: Democratic Party, ethics, exclusionist, O'Reilly, religious right, Republican Party, Smerconish, talk-show host
Posted in Politics | Leave a Comment »
February 21, 2010
More shockingly blatantly unethical advice from the New York Times “The Ethicist” column. Jack Marshall exposes “The Ethicist” again in his “Ethics Alarms” blog.
Recommended reading, especially if you’re a fan of the New York Times
Tags: ethics, Ethics Alarms, Jack Marshall, New York Times, The Ethicist
Posted in Ethics-general | 1 Comment »
reds die hard. Many Serbs still burn with hate for Muslims over the lost battle of Blackbird’s Field in Kosovo on June 15, 1389. In Great Britain there remains mutual hatred between Catholics and Protestants dating from atrocities of the 17th century. And many Armenian Americans still burn over the massacres and other deaths of 1,500,000 Armenians by the forces of the collapsing Ottoman Empire—the predecessor to modern Turkey in 1915. Turks dispute the number, claiming that 300,000 Armenians were killed and at least as many Turks as the empire descended into chaos and war.
Ethics Bob 