The Ethical Barometer

Income.  It’s called income.  Whether cash or check, one should report it.  However, the Gulf Coast fishermen are struggling to obtain payouts for lost wages and business income because they can’t produce an income tax return that shows what they made.  Pundits are fretting, “Oh, what times are these when oil giants demand proof that you made income before reimbursing you for lost income!”  When you don’t pay your taxes, well, there is a downside.  Sometimes an oil spill causes it all to percolate to the surface, as it were.  Some are worried that filing a claim will raise an IRS eyebrow and (more…)

In a classic illustration of the front-page-of-the-newspaper test for making ethical decisions, the New York Daily News summed up Roger Clemens’ indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation into his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The News actually used the much better Jennings’ National Enquirer test:  Make up the worst possible headline you can think of for what you are about to do and then decide accordingly.

 Jay Coakley, sociologist and author, discussing Lance Armstrong and the   allegations of steroid use

Ah, but generally shifting norms don’t find us denying our adherence to the norm in lieu of, well, in this case, the laws as well as the regs of the sport.

Greg Akcelrod, the French soccer player who, through an exaggerated rèsumè quite nearly climbed to the top of Euro soccer.  Mr. Akcelrod has apologized “if I lied a little bit on my CV,” but rationalizes that he never took a single euro from anyone.  That’s the second rationalization — the first is that 99% rèsumè fraud.  The French have us beat on that — only 50% of us here in the states have the good sense to lie on our rèsumès.