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"Sex raises no special moral issues at all. Decisions about sex may involve considerations of honesty, concern for others, prudence and so on, but there is nothing special about sex in this respect, for the same could be said of decisions about driving a car. (In fact the moral issues raised by driving a car, both from an environmental and from a safety point of view, are much more serious than those raised by having sex.) Accordingly this book contains no discussion of sexual morality." This is from the introductory pages of Practical Ethics (Amazon US) , (Amazon UK)...

Some forty years ago, in his groundbreaking study, Twilight of Authority, sociologist Robert Nisbet observed a disturbing trend in American culture. As respect for authority had declined among the population, he wrote, members of that population became increasingly willing to accept and actually applaud an increasingly powerful, albeit less legitimate, governmentThe notion of true authority, Nisbet wrote, assumes the strength of two essential social qualities—hierarchy, and privacy. Yet both are fading before our eyes.For Nisbet, the egalitarian agenda of the elites—especially the liberal intelligentsia—is a driving engine of social collapse. It crushes a rich, varied, and multidimensional culture featuring an...

Presidential ethics are now situational. Obama is calling for a shield law to protect reporters from the sort of harassment that his attorney general, Eric Holder, and the FBI practiced against Fox News and the Associated Press. Through such rhetoric, he remains a staunch champion of the First Amendment — even though he now has the ability to peek into the private phone records of millions of Americans. The president is outraged that the IRS went after those deemed politically suspicious. So he sacked the acting head of the IRS, Steven Miller, who was scheduled to step down soon anyway....

U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said. A review of 926 diplomatic cables of correspondence to and from the U.S. State Department and embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the report issued by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group. The officials tried to quash public criticism of particular companies and facilitated negotiations between foreign governments and seed companies such as...

State Sen. Robert Ford, one of the Lowcountry’s most established and colorful political figures, stepped down today as the Senate Ethics Committee was finishing up its review into his campaign spending. The Charleston Democrat began his political career as an outspoken black leader who butted heads with Mayor Joe Riley and others in Charleston’s political establishment but evolved into a leader who touted his close ties with influential Republican Senate colleagues. His resignation came as the Senate Ethics Committee began discussing the final four of eight allegations today. Its findings are expected to be posted online soon, Sen. John Courson...

Is the Christian faith intellectual nonsense? Are Christians deluded? “If God exists and takes an interest in the affairs of human beings, his will is not inscrutable,” writes Sam Harris about the 2004 tsunami in Letter to a Christian Nation. “The only thing inscrutable here is that so many otherwise rational men and women can deny the unmitigated horror of these events and think this is the height of moral wisdom” (p. 48). In his article “God’s Dupes,” Harris argues, “Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The...

The late columnist William Safire once said that a good clue that someone in Washington was engaged in “an artful dodge,” i.e., a cover-up, was that they used the phrase “mistakes were made.” Safire defined it as a “passive-evasive way of acknowledging error while distancing the speaker from responsibility for it.” The phrase became infamous when both Richard Nixon and Ron Ziegler, his press secretary, deployed it to explain away Watergate without explaining who did what and when or whether any ill motive was involved. AdvertisementAstonishingly, the Internal Revenue Service resurrected the Nixonian expression within hours of its clumsy revelation...

Following my article Effects of Atheist Propaganda Come Home to Roost, - although on Free Republic the comments were favourable to my position - readers of my blog have posted comments that need a more analytical and detailed answer than allowed in the comments section. Complex subjects require complex treatment. Furthermore, there seems to be much confusion about the theme of Christianity and ethics. For example, an anonymous reader calling himself "roger in florida" wrote: "I believe you are very misguided if you equate Christianity with morality or cannot understand that atheists, such as myself, are incapable [he then explained that he...

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is suing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and six other lawmakers, charging that they mishandled the Ethics investigation that led to his public censure in late 2010. In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Washington D.C., Rangel claims the Ethics Committee that investigated his alleged wrongdoing are guilty of "numerous flagrant, knowing and intentional violations" of his due process rights. House members who approved his censure were "knowingly deceived" by the committee leaders – including then-Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and ranking member Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) – into thinking that the probe "had been conducted in...

The seeds of nihilism are sown... I have a suggestion for militant atheist cum zoologist Richard Dawkins about a British (although it has now got to America as well) TV program to watch, that is bound to lift his spirit: The Jeremy Kyle Show. There he can see exactly the kind of society he is trying to promote and propagate. People who appear on the show have been living the sort of life which was advertised for £140,000 on billboards all over buses and underground trains across England, Scotland and Wales, in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Leeds,...

This Is What Societal Collapse Looks Like Politics / Eurozone Debt CrisisApril 04, 2013 - 05:54 AM GMT By: Graham Summers Add the total and complete hypocrisy of France to the list of reasons to avoid putting a cent in the EU. We already know about Spain where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was “allegedly” receiving bribes from property developers throughout the housing bubble… while THREE different treasurers have been accused of everything from money laundering to fraud. Rajoy’s defense to the allegations? “I repeat what I said Saturday: everything that has been said about me and my colleagues in the...

From Parent Society, March 22: A Greek doctor posted this incredible picture on his Facebook page of a baby he delivered. And as you can see… it was no ordinary delivery.The baby was delivered via c-section, but was still inside the amniotic sac after being removed from the mother’s body. In fact, according to Dr. Aris Tsigris, the OB/GYN in charge of this delivery, the baby does not even know that it has been born yet.Most sacs break on their own or are broken by the doctor when a woman is ready to give birth. This is known as a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A presidential ethics panel has opened the door to testing an anthrax vaccine on children as young as infants, bringing an angry response from critics who say the children would be guinea pigs in a study that would never help them and might harm them. The report, however, released on Tuesday by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, said researchers would have to overcome numerous hurdles before launching an anthrax-vaccine trial in children. It now goes to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who will decide whether to take the steps...

Creation provides “the place in which to know God’s omnipotence and goodness,” Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience. Continuing a series of Wednesday talks on the Creed, the Pope dedicated his February 6 audience to the phrase identifying God as “Creator of heaven and earth.” He explained that God is “the source of all things, and the beauty of creation reveals the omnipotence of the loving Father.” Turning then to the account of Creation in the book of Genesis, the Pope said: “In the light of faith, human intelligence can find the key to understanding the world In...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said on Sunday embattled Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) should keep his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee despite an investigation into his dealings with a top donor. "Sen. Menendez has given us an assurance that there is no substance to these charges," the Democratic senator from Illinois said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's being looked at by the Ethics Committee. Of course, I can't comment beyond that." The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into Menendez's interaction with Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye surgeon who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Menendez and...

The University of Texas women's track coach who resigned under fire after the disclosure of an affair with a female student a decade ago doesn't understand why she was targeted for punishment and questions whether she's being treated fairly. "Is it because I have a disability? Is it because I'm black? Is it because I'm female? Is it because I'm successful? Is it now because of my sexual preference?" Coach Bev Kearney asked on CNN's "Starting Point" Tuesday.

Formed in 2008 as part of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's laughable promise to "drain the swamp" when she gained the gavel in 2006, the Office of Congressional Ethics is an independent group that investigates ethics complaints about Congress. Here's the catch: the Congress it investigates must actually go about the business of nominating its appointees, reauthorizing and funding it or it will cease to exist. As one might expect, princesses are not overly fond of paying others to place peas under their mattresses, endangering their delicate hindquarters.So, the Office of Congressional Ethics is in danger, with its creator Pelosi and Rep....

The House Ethics Committee has decided to close its investigation into preferential mortgages doled out under a controversial VIP program without taking any action. The panel said it was not taking any action on members who received more affordable mortgages under the program, instituted by the now-defunct Countrywide Financial because while allegations surrounding the program and lawmakers involved "serious matters," they largely fell outside its jurisdiction. For example, many of the allegations pertain to actions outside the Ethics Committee's statute of limitations — greater than three Congresses ago — and many of those accused are no longer working in Congress...

Today the House Ethics Committee announced that it was taking no action against Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) who secretly took a $40,000 payment from an individual who subsequently pled guilty in a multi-million-dollar mortgage scam. In 2007, Meeks received $40,000 from a "businessman," Edul Ahmad. Under the Ethics in Government Act, Congressmen are required to disclose such financial transactions on their annual Financial Disclosure Reports. Meeks failed to disclose the transaction on his reports for 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2010, the New York Daily News reported, "Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks made no payments for three years on a...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — It was a brazen and surprisingly long-lived scheme, authorities said, to help aspiring public school teachers cheat on the tests they must pass to prove they are qualified to lead their classrooms. For 15 years, teachers in three Southern states paid Clarence Mumford Sr. — himself a longtime educator — to send someone else to take the tests in their place, authorities said. Each time, Mumford received a fee of between $1,500 and $3,000 to send one of his test ringers with fake identification to the Praxis exam. In return, his customers got a passing grade...