Washington politics has become a bad opera – tedious, score-settling bad opera where each side reacts like a soccer player who falls to the ground, grabs a body part and moans loudly so the official will call a foul. On June 16, the New York Times writes that “The Ways and Means chairman, Representative Dave Camp… wrote a letter to President Obama...

There are entrepreneurs and then there are business people who become entrepreneurs by building a business while helping others… at the same time. That’s a thumbnail sketch of Blake Mycoskie, this month’s ethical hero who has given away 10 million pairs of shoes to needy children. And that’s just the beginning, as this profile from The New York Times describes....

“I don’t believe you.” Why anyone, in their right mind, would want to head anygovernment agency in today’s hyper-partisan world is beyond my understanding. Just look at what you have to stare-down when you’re sitting before a congressional committee. On December 23, 2013, John Koskinen was sworn in as the new IRS commissioner after being confirmed by the Senate three days earlier....

After the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizen’s United allowed for nearly unlimited and unidentified donations to political campaigns in 2010, a number of new groups applied for tax-exempt status. On February 16, 2012, Democratic Senators Al Franken, Chuck Schumer, Jeff Merkley and Michael Bennet wrote a letter to Douglas Shulman urging the then-IRS commissioner to investigate social welfare organizations “engaged in a...

To understand the root cause of the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service, context is important. With the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, corporations and non-profits were permitted to contribute to political campaigns. In the case of certain non-profits, they could donate provided they did not contribute more than 49 percent of their...

My friend Walter is a world class World Cup fan! Walter used to play professional soccer for a time and whenever I talk to him lately, all I hear is strategy. “Look at this guy play a wall-pass (a give and go) just to get more time on the ball if he’s being closed down, or can play the ball...

In countless letters to his wife and partner, Abigail, John Adams poured out his heart and his mind. Abigail was not just a sounding board for his political conscience; she was his moral compass in every way. Adams, 90, and Thomas Jefferson 83, while gravely ill, wanted very much to live to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of...

In a move that surprised many, last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled six federal trademark registrations for the name the Washington Redskins, ruling that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans.” In an story authored by Travis Waldron for ThinkProgress, a liberal blog (June 18), the Patent board said, “We decide, based on the evidence properly before us,...

According to the Center for Public Integrity (June 20), Supreme Court justices averaged $250,000 last year in addition to their courtly salaries: $244,400 for associate justices; $255,500 for the chief justice. “Top earner Justice Antonin Scalia,” the Center writes, “raked in more than $100,000 in book royalties for his 2012 tomeReading Law: Interpretation of Legal Texts and teaching wages from Southern Methodist University,...

There are many issues – ethical and otherwise – that we could be spending more time considering, but… this question caught the attention and response of thousands of New York Times‘ readers, (May 3, 2012). Ariel Kaminer, who writes The Ethicist column in the Sunday New York Times magazine, posed the question – is it ethical to eat meat?, then invited readers to “make,  » Read more...