Recently in News Category

Wal-Mart seems to be playing a much larger part in our blog than usual lately, but apparently that's where all the news happens. 

"I bet this is a learning incident." 

I recently had an interesting debate about health care with my brother, a doctor in the Navy. As debates between the two of us generally go, we circled around a number of topics before ending the call. One such topic ended with the shared opinion (a shared opinion is mighty rare when it comes to we two siblings) that we wished more people accepted, medically, that sometimes bad things just happened.

In a move that seems to have taken everyone by surprise (White House included), the Nobel Committee announced that it has awarded President Obama the peace prize this year -- only 9 months into a tumultuous presidency. 

My sense of justice vs legal ethics goes a bit askew when it comes to sex offenders. On the one hand, I believe in crime and punishment as well as rehabilitation; on the other hand, I don't know many other crimes that are so offensive to the soul.

In Georgia, sex offenders were pushed literally the edges of society, sent to an unsupervised and unofficial camp colony in the woods because of the state's strict laws restricting a convicted sex offender from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and other spots where children gather. At least they were until Tuesday, when it seems authorities started rounding the inhabitants back up and trying to find them emergency temporary housing - I can only assume there was an outcry from local citizens after the first report was published.

Obviously, there are the inevitable safety concerns -- surely an unsupervised colony of sexual predators feeding off each other's baser instincts is a bad idea? But safety aside, was their treatment ethical?

According to CNN, legendary film director Roman Polanski was on his way to receive a lifetime achievement award in Switzerland when he was grabbed up by police on a warrant issued in 1978. Said the Zurich Film Festival that is now sans...

Fascinating news! I just read that PBS will air a series based on an edited version of a wildly popular Harvard philosophy class on ethics and morality. The class, called "Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?" is the brainchild...

In the news yesterday, a video surfaced of a kid getting viciously beaten on his school bus in Bellville, Illinois. Other children watched, some cheering, others standing by, others still laughing. One or two looked like they possible wanted to step in,...

Paddy and I thought we'd toss in our two cents on the whole civility debate. After all, we'd hardly be an "Everyday Ethics" blog if we didn't have an opinion on everyday cultural behavior trends. So here goes. Hillary:...

It does if Terry Moran (Moron?) tweets it.So, the civility debate rages (ironically) on. And as everyone's buzzing, the president's now caught up in it, having remarked off the record in a CNBC interview that he thought Kanye West was...

Whether you're for it or against it, odds are, you feel passionately about health care reform. But how many of us have even made the attempt to dive into the 1,000-odd page health care reform bill H.R. 3200 "America's Affordable...

I just have to say, completely unrelated to ethics or dilemmas, thank you Virgin America, for in-flight internet. I love multi-tasking a 5-hour journey and work! (I'm completely serious). Now, on to more interesting things. Talk about an ethical fail...

Yep. This is my high school...and my marching band (any fellow former band nerds out there?)I have to say, I loved going to high school in little ol' Sedalia, Missouri. Sure it's a small town, but small towns are the...

Normal 0 I agree wholeheartedly with Hillary's eloquent argument (see post below) that we should remember a person for who they are, not simply who we wanted them to be.I'd also like to add another point - I see...

It is seldom that we lose someone of such legendary stature as Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Though the media may try to play up every death as a Cronkite or a Mother Theresa, I honestly don't feel the need...

What is gender? Apparently, as the case of South African runner Caster Semenya is proving, it's less absolute than penis versus vagina. As controversy swirls over whether the gold-medal-winning 18-year-old is wholly female, I wondered, should it even matter? Assuming...

Compassion and ethics. Can they co-exist? I say yes, though certainly not in every situation. Take this one, for example: Today, Scottish authorities released Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the convicted Libyan "Lockerbie bomber" on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi was sentenced in 2001...

I have to admit, I got quite an ethically-challenged guffaw out of Barney Frank's comments to the woman who compared President Obama's healthcare plans to a 'Nazi policy'. Take a look at the video and see for yourself: I don't mind...

Liskula Cohen, a NY model whose face has graced the cover of Vogue, among other mags, didn't appreciate being called a "skank" - and worse - by an anonymous blogger on the website "Skanks In NYC" (since defunct). So she...

Never mind the stretch marks; what on earth is this woman thinking? If the UK's Sun can be believed, a Tunisian woman is vowing to carry all twelve fetuses to term after having several heartbreaking miscarriages in the past.Honestly, in...

Time to re-visit the question of Michael Vick, now that he's been signed by the Philadelphia Eagles. In my original post, I asked if--having paid his dues-- he should be welcomed back into the NFL with open arms.The reaction (on...

The burqini, a full body swimsuit, may have been created to allow Muslim women the freedom to partake in the joy of cavorting in the water alongside everyone else, but in France it's causing another flare-up in controversy over Muslim...

Professional sports and I do not go together like peanut butter and jelly - my eyes take on a lovely shade of "glazed" when my male friends start down the road of player stats, fantasy leagues and rankings.  But Michael...

When Hillary wrote her post about Obama speaking out on Skip Gates' arrest, I mentally applauded her for tackling the topic- from beginning to hopeful end, the whole fiasco gives me a headache.However, many of the responses to the story...

Not.On Tuesday, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced a former governor of Rwanda to life imprisonment for his role in the 1994 genocide. This is the third such ruling this year; previous convictions by the U.N. court include 25...

Back in 2006, Maria del Carmen Bousada gave birth to a set of twins - at the ripe old age of 66. Three years later, she's passed away, leaving behind two young children. After Bousada became pregnant using in...

I love a good conspiracy theory. U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook is refusing to deploy to Afghanistan because he doesn't acknowledge President Obama as the rightful president of the United States. Cook is being represented by Orly Taitz, who...

Normal 0 Should a legal brothel be allowed to fund a man's bid for the 2012 Olympics? New Zealand's Logan Campbell says yes. The Taekwondo athlete needs $300,000 to train his way to London, and by golly, he'll do...