Ethics Headlines
#85

Volume 2, Number 32                                             Friday, August 25, 2006


Ethics Headlines is an ethics-in-the-news clipping file published each Friday by Polytechnic School teacher Greg Feldmeth. It contains news items from the media in the past week that deal with some area of ethical inquiry.

SUBSCRIBE. You can receive the file via email every Friday afternoon with links to the original articles. Just email your address here and put Ethics Headlines in the subject line. If you know of others who would be interested, please forward the page to them.

This week's headlines--select the headline to read the article
  • Is it a cactus or a rude gesture? Utah neighbors differ on home decoration. An air vent cover on the side of a house looks like it might be an obscene hand gesture. Then again, it might be an abstract cactus.It depends if you're the owner or a neighbor.
  • In Tehran, a riposte to the Danish cartoons. The title of the show is Holocaust International Cartoon Contest, or "Holocust," as the show's organizers spelled the word in promotional material. But the content has little to do with the events of World War II and Nazi Germany. There is instead a drawing of a Jew with a very large nose, a nose so large, in fact, that it obscures his entire head. Across his chest is the word "Holocaust." Another drawing shows a vampire, wearing a big Star of David, drinking the blood of Palestinians. A third shows Ariel Sharon dressed in a Nazi uniform, emblazoned not with swastikas, but with the Star of David.
  • Transgendered inmates push for state-funded sex-change surgery.  Wearing lipstick, a scooped-neck sweater and nearly waist-length hair, the witness cried while describing what it feels like to be a woman trapped inside a man's body."The greatest loss is the dying I do inside a little bit every day," said Michelle Kosilek, an inmate who is serving a life sentence for murder. Michelle Kosilek was Robert Kosilek when he was convicted in the killing of his wife. In 1993, while in prison, he legally changed his name to Michelle. Since then, Kosilek has been fighting with prison officials to complete his transformation into a woman.
  • Teacher's radical 9/11 views raise red flags. According to Kevin Barrett, the US government planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks, the World Trade Center imploded due to explosives set up ahead of time in the buildings, Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane crash was no accident, and Osama bin Laden has probably been dead since 2001. Mr. Barrett is not a radical anarchist or a teenager peddling conspiracy theories; he's a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison - a fact that has outraged some state politicians.
  • Successful integration hinges on (shhh!) culture. With all the problems accompanying the massive, disruptive immigration from the underdeveloped world to the industrialized world, there is one word that underlies successful integration. But it is, most unfortunately, the word that you dare not speak. Better not even think it, in fact. At politically correct soirees, don't even let it cross your mind, because some smart aleck son-of-a-gun might just mind-read. Oh, you might occasionally have lapses and think that this word actually IS at the core of things, were we permitted to speak of it; but the lapse will fade quickly because the consequences are so dire.
  • Teens defend polygamy at Utah rally. Calling their lives blessed, more than a dozen children and young adults from polygamist families in Utah spoke at a rally Saturday, calling for a change in state laws and the right to live the life and religion they choose. "Because of our beliefs, many of our people have been incarcerated and had their basic human rights stripped of them, namely life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," said a 19-year-old identified only as Tyler. "I didn't come here today to ask for your permission to live my beliefs. I shouldn't have to."
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