The first seat belt law was established in 1970 in Victoria, Australia, making the wearing of a seat belt mandatory for both drivers and front-seat passengers. In 1981, Mercedes-Benz introduced the airbag as an option on its S-Class cars. On July 11 1984, the United States government amended Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to require cars produced after April 1,...

Of all the ethics-related issues I’ve discussed, the controversy surrounding gun ownership has been the most difficult for two reasons. First, the issue embraces at least four ethical values: respect, responsibility, citizenship and fairness. Add to that the multiple stakeholders, generally divided into two camps. Whatever position appears fair to one group is viewed as patently unfair by another. Here...

Of all the films whose central character demonstrates a highly developed moral compass, High Noon tops my list. Why does High Noon still matter? Never has one film captured the essence of an ethical dilemma along with the variety of rationalizations against doing the right thing as this 1952 western does. Written by Carl Foreman (who was facing his own dilemma with McCarthyism...

Here’s one symptom of a growing problem: “Jeff Rothschild’s machines at Facebook had a problem he knew he had to solve immediately. They were about to melt. “The company had been packing a 40-by-60-foot rental space here with racks of computer servers that were needed to store and process information from members’ accounts. The electricity pouring into the computers was...

This final ode to baseball comes from writer Norman Corwin. Originally posted May 12, 2008, he talks about two words that largely go missing today. Last week I attended a special memorial of this master of word, wit and wisdom known to most simply as Corwin. After listening to stories from Norman Lear, Stan Freeburg, Norman Lloyd and others, I...

In 1999 it was Columbine; Fort Hood, 2009. The 2011 shootings in Tucson claimed six lives and U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords almost became the seventh victim of that massacre. Now, Aurora. It’s impossible to make sense of the senseless. In his 2009 book, How to Practice – The Way to a Meaningful Life, His Holiness writes, “If your life is easy...

Health Battle Enters Round 2 – That was the weekend headline in the Wall Street Journal (June 30-July1). I’ve written about some of issues surrounding the health care law earlier this year: (March 5, April 20). However, no sooner had the Supreme Court ruled that The Affordable Care Act was constitutional than the lines were drawn on opinion pages as well as Congress as...

In August 2009, here’s how New York Times reporter and Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak first described the unleashing of a monster. “The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted.” Arguably, one of the biggest understatements in decades… and for the Supreme...

On Monday I received the following e-mail from a friend requesting that I pass it along to at least three others: “In 1952 President Truman established one day a year as aNational Day of Prayer. In 1988, President Reagan designated the first Thursday in May of each year as the National Day of Prayer. “In June 2007, (then) Presidential candidate Barack...

“We’re not taking away anybody’s right to do anything. All we’re trying to do is remind you that this is something that… is detrimental to your health and to do something about this national epidemic.” That’s New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg defending his proposal to ban sugary sodas in containers larger than 16 oz. from restaurants, concession stands and movie theaters in...