ethics
pharyngula | January 20, 2011I have been receiving lots of triumphant mail from anti-choice people claiming vindication, that abortion is wrong, and demanding to know how I can possibly support abortion rights after hearing about the case of Dr Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell ran an abortion mill in Philadelphia, and was a hack who maimed and killed women while doing abortions on demand, for a substantial fee. He was unqualified, uncertified in obstetrics and gynecology, and his facility was unmonitored and relatively uninspected. He gave untrained, inexperienced staff critical jobs in the surgery — he allowed a 15 year old high…
pharyngula | January 18, 2011The IDiots at Uncommon Descent are horrified and appalled by my ideas about the status of fetuses and babies … so horrified, in fact, that some of them want to make me the poster child for the fall of Western Civilization into a godless, nihilistic chaos in which babies are casually destroyed, and there are of course, a few comparisons to Hitler. But then, they are IDiots, after all.
I was amused by this remark from one of the deathcultists:
Sad to say, what we just saw from PZM, is the outworking of the corrosive nihilistic amorality that is inherent to evolutionary materialism. Hopefully,…
mikethemadbiologist | January 17, 2011Reading the prepared text of Obama's speech at the Tucson Memorial Thursday night, there was one part I really liked:
And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud.
I would prioritize honesty--that is, speaking with words that have meaning and are not simply utterances designed to manipulate--…
mikethemadbiologist | January 12, 2011Obama has finally gotten around to choosing a replacement for Larry Summers, and named Gene Sperling director of the National Economic Council (why he didn't prioritize this with nearly 10% U3 unemployment is puzzling). This has been controversial since Gene Sperling, like many of Obama's closest advisors, has ties to Wall Street. David Corn describes those ties:
At some point, according to a source familiar with the episode, Goldman Sachs approached Sperling for advice on globalization. He took this opportunity to pitch the company an idea in sync with his nonprofit work: the firm ought to…
mikethemadbiologist | January 9, 2011Marshall Auerback comments on the new 'creative' economy (italics mine):
Finally, there is the odious problem of political corruption, which manifests itself in many forms, but most recently through the cynical revolving door policy between Wall Street and government. Peter Orszag's move to Citi after spending months launching broadsides against Social Security from his perch at OMB and then the NYTimes goes beyond cynicism. Nobody expects a former government official to live like a monk after spending time in public service. But the idea that someone would help plan, advocate, and carry out…
mikethemadbiologist | December 12, 2010Now if former head of the OMB Peter Orszag were only so charitable when it came to disability benefits. From AMERICAblog, here's the timeline:
2005 Peter Orszag, already at the Brookings Institute, proposes the Diamond-Orszag Plan, "Saving Social Security" (pdf; intro here; comment here). He wants (surprise) benefit cuts. The Diamond-Orszag Plan is now incorporated into the Bowles-Simpson (Mr. 310-Million Tits) Deficit Commission Proposal. 2006 Orszag is picked to direct The Hamilton Project, created by Robert Rubin "to think about what a future Democratic administration would do" in the…
pharyngula | November 15, 2010It's hard not to crack a cheerful smile at this story, but do try to take it seriously. A coven of Westboro Baptist anti-gay kooks went off to protest outside a soldier's funeral in Oklahoma, and returned to their car to find their tires slashed. When they drove into town on the flat tires anyway, to try and get them repaired, they were refused any help at all.
There's a grim part of me that feels a kind of satisfaction at that, I'll admit. But I think it was wrong.
Don't harm the WBC cretins no matter how awfully they prance. Do not vandalize their possessions. Don't even threaten them. Even…
mikethemadbiologist | November 11, 2010Certainly, you shouldn't when the topic is education 'reform.' Some snarky bloggers refer to The Washington Post as the Kaplan Test Prep Company, since most of the Post's profits come from the KTPC, not the newspaper (both of which are owned by the Washington Post Company). Well, any claims The Washington Post might want to make about ethics or morality (not to mention for-profit education) should be utterly ignored:
Though Kaplan is not the largest in the industry, the Post Company chairman, Donald Graham, has emerged as the highest-profile defender of for-profit education.
Together,…
mikethemadbiologist | October 21, 2010So my first thought upon reading that a fraternity pledge ritual involved chanting in a public place "No Means Yes, Yes Means Anal" was "Frat boys are still assholes. Nice to see that some things remain constant." Then I read that this happened at Yale, and my next thought was, "I wonder which of these assholes, when he graduates, will be hired by J.P. Morgan." ("You're one of the anal rape guys? Congratulations, you're hired!")
Then, upon further reflection (such as it is for the Mad Biologist), I stumbled across the following question:
Why haven't they been suspended, or, preferably,…
mikethemadbiologist | October 11, 2010Last week, I showed pictures of what a food stamp budget actually buys. By way of Susie Madrak, we come across this article describing hunger in Philadelphia:
Sherita Parks went shopping in a corner store in Frankford the other day with her too-thin daughter, Joe-anna, 2....
"I only wanted to spend a dollar today, so this is a lot," Parks said. "But she'll eat a slice of cheese for a meal."
On the walk home, Joe-anna, who weighs 20 pounds but should be 26 or more, dawdled on the dirty sidewalks of Torresdale Avenue until Parks pulled her into the tidy, small house owned by Joe-anna's father…
mikethemadbiologist | October 6, 2010Once again, Janet Stemwedel reminds us why we keep professional philosophers around. On Monday, in response to cancer researcher Scott Kern's moaning about how cancer researchers don't work hard enough, I asked if science was a job or a calling? Janet framed the question far better than I did (and go read the whole thing--there's lots of good stuff in there):
...if scientific researchers and the special skills they have are so very vital to providing for the needs of other members of society -- vital enough that people like Kern feel it's appropriate to harangue them for wanting any time…
mikethemadbiologist | September 23, 2010And 'suburban' is code. Monday, I responded to a rich twit's complaint about how difficult his life was at $450,000 of annual income (Note: Since then, said twit has removed the post. Fortunately, Brad 'Deling' DeLong is aware of all internet traditions, and has saved the post for posterity). In that post, I wrote:
Perhaps Henderson's outburst should be chalked up to the influence of degenerate white culture or our finishing school 'elite' educational system. But I digress.
Most readers got the snark, but the first commenter worked himself into high dudgeon over the degenerate white…
mikethemadbiologist | September 20, 2010I swear every time I go on vacation, there's an outbreak of stupidity. One symptom is a ridiculous plaint by law professor Todd Henderson, who whines about barely getting by on $450,000 per year.
No, really, I'm not kidding. I suppose the rest of us should just eat a bullet or something (and bullets are cheap!). Thankfully, Michael O'Hare and Brad DeLong (aka 'Mr. Deling') tear down this staggering display of narcissism. I would only add that when one has $500,000 of student debt, you probably shouldn't buy a million dollar house. Or maybe, you'll have to forgo part of the $100,000…
mikethemadbiologist | September 18, 2010If you're Jewish, you'll probably be reading this in a few hours, depending on your time zone. What really bugs me about the theopolitical right is their selective choosing of which parts of the Bible they will take 'literally' and which parts they ignore. They typically ignore this bit by my landsman Izzy, which is read every year on Yom Kippur:
To be sure, they seek Me daily,
Eager to learn My ways.
Like a nation that does what is right,
That has not abandoned the laws of its God,
They ask Me for the right path,
They are eager for the nearness of God:
:Why, when we fasted, did You not see…
mikethemadbiologist | September 7, 2010One of science's saving graces is that a fair number of scientists will publicly admit that they are wrong (and then there's Marc Hauser*...). Last week, at the Human Microbiome Project meeting, Jonathan Eisen gave a talk about the GEBA project which is an effort to sequence the genomes of a diverse group of bacteria to create a bacterial genomic encyclopedia. At one point during his talk, Eisen mentioned that originally all of the genomes in the project were to be finished, although that standard has been relaxed. Eisen then noted that with the new sequencing technologies, it's feasible…
pharyngula | September 6, 2010Gregory Koger is an ex-con and a revolutionary communist…and none of that should matter in the slightest. He's also a person who was beat up, handcuffed, maced, arrested, and now faces the prospect of a three year jail sentence for the crime of holding up his iPhone to take pictures of police harrassment. Koger is the young man who was documenting Sunsara Taylor's protest of the behavior of the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago (which, by the way, ought to change their name to drop the first word), and who, oddly, was manhandled and arrested for taking videos of the event, while Taylor…
mikethemadbiologist | August 26, 2010Marc Ambinder reports that Ken Mehlman has admitted to friends and family that he is gay (did anyone really not know?):
"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," said Mehlman, now an executive vice-president with the New York City-based private equity firm, KKR. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I…
mikethemadbiologist | August 25, 2010So there's an article that a fair number of people have gotten all het up about in The Scientist which criticizes peer reivew. I'll state for the record that I agree with the article in that the review process needs to be much faster, and more people need to be reviewing (the burden is too great for some people). But I'm puzzled by this (italics mine):
Twenty years ago, David Kaplan of the Case Western Reserve University had a manuscript rejected, and with it came what he calls a "ridiculous" comment. "The comment was essentially that I should do an x-ray crystallography of the molecule…
mikethemadbiologist | August 24, 2010In the movie Quiz Show, which is about the quiz show scandals of the 1950s (and a wonderful period piece), there is a scene at the end of the movie which has always stuck with me. Van Doren, the disgraced upper-class professor who cheated, gave a teary mea culpa in front of Congress. The gallery applauded, but was shocked into silence when a congressman called him out, and noted that he doesn't get credit for admitting his wrong doing--he still did the wrong thing.
Last week, Matthew Yglesias wrote a post about how he came to support the Iraq War (which he later renounced). Some have…
mikethemadbiologist | August 15, 2010For those of you who have been blissfully out of the news (not a bad thing to be doing in the summer), Harvard professor Marc Hauser has been accused of scientific fraud. It now appears that Harvard had concluded its investigation and swept the findings under the rug for months/i>:
Marc Hauser's academic career was soaring when suddenly, three years ago, Harvard authorities raided his laboratory and confiscated computers and records.
Dr. Hauser continued to publish and lecture widely until last week, while all the time researchers at Harvard and elsewhere who knew of the raid kept…