“If you could take a drug that would improve your test-taking ability by 25%,” I asked a group of High School students, “but the drug was illegal, would you take it? “How illegal?” one student asked. Although everyone laughed, this student’s response clearly mimicked behavior by some adults with a keen ability to parse an issue in order to justify unethical...

On Fox News Sunday (Jan. 3) former anchor, current pundit, Brit Hume made the following statement regarding Tiger Woods: “He’s said to be a Buddhist; I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a...

Back in the rough and tumble of the old west (courtesy of ‘50s-‘60s television) justice was the theme and Paladin its most ardent champion.  In fact, the name comes from the twelve knightly champions of the medieval king, Charlemagne. Have Gun – Will Travel was the calling card of the man dressed in black, and who was, essentially, a gun for...

In the cut-throat world of fine Parisian dining, the food critic is King.  In the Pixar movie Ratatouille, Anton Ego (superbly voiced by Peter O’Toole), is Emperor!  “The Grim Eater” as he is known, strikes fear into the hearts of anyone even thinking about offering a new dish without his “divine” approval. In my little niche of essays on ethics, I strive...

A conversation with landscape architect Isabelle Greene led me to discover that integrity can take many forms. Like the framework of the gardens she designs and creates, her principles are likewise, clear and exacting. Isabelle is the granddaughter of Henry Mather Greene, of Greene & Greene Architects, pioneers of the early Craftsman movement in Southern California. “These principles and ideas seem...

“There are two kinds of celebrity crash,” Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik writes (Dec.14). “The first, like Tiger Woods’ on Nov. 27, is accidental… The second is intentional.  You crash a President’s State dinner…” Due respect, Jim, you missed a third: when the mainstream media drives us to distraction with non-stop coverage of notorious, celebrity events. In describing the White House State Dinner crashers,...

“It is in everybody’s interest to seek those [actions] that lead to happiness and avoid those which lead to suffering. And because our interests are inextricably linked, we are compelled to accept ethics as the indispensable interface between my desire to be happy and yours.” – His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama What is clear from the writings of the...

Okay folks, without cheating, how many “hits” do you get when you type the word “cheating,” into a search engine? I discovered almost six-million sites listed on Google that covers everything from poker to academic to relationship cheating.  (Here’s a bouncy little do-it-yourself I found on YouTube). To be fair, some of these sites discuss the problems and consequences of cheating.   » Read more...

Some people think that the only way you can teach college athletes and build a winning basketball season is to intimidate, bully and demean. It’s a good thing John Wooden and his students never paid much attention to that kind of “conventional” wisdom. Always there to support, encourage, and congratulate, Coach Wooden directed his UCLA Basketball teams to 10 NCAA...

“What he has accomplished is really nothing short of extraordinary.  We are not saying that this extraordinary story should give him a pass.” Those “extraordinary” words were spoken by defense attorney Robert P. Trout regarding his client, former congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana, asking the judge to take into account Jefferson’s life story before sentencing. In response, prosecutors pointed out...