Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

You Have To Prosecute Individuals

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments
JPMorgan Chase Tower (Dallas)
JPMorgan Chase Tower (Dallas) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You Have To Prosecute Individuals

There has been much anger in the financial press about JPMorgan having to pay a multi-billion dollar fine. It has been strangely charged that this is a government attack on capitalism. No, actually the bank broke the law and failed over and over again to act in an intelligent manner about its investments or its clients. But Gretchen Morgenson is absolutely right. This kind of fine isn’t really getting tough with the banks. It’s merely carrying on the long tradition of banks paying some proportion of the losses they caused while criminal prosecution as individuals is off the table. 

There is no real penalty here. The billions are just the cost of doing business. The bank has paid out fines before. The bank will pay out fines again. The fun and enormous profits of reckless speculation will remain.

There will only be an effective deterrent when wrongdoers are punished personally by fine and imprisonment.

You can’t attack prevent crime by attacking organizations with minor financial penalties. You could effectively if you were willing to pull the corporate charter from the bank and destroy it, or seize all of its assets. But I see no willingness to do that. The only effective tool present is the power to prosecute individuals.

It is bizarre to tell students to act with business ethics when they can read everyday in the news of the incredible money being made by individuals under the cover of banks deliberately, knowingly breaking the law. But even that is eclipsed by the simple and horrible fact that we do not impose penalties on individuals.

Without justice, how we expect people less favored than bank executives to believe in the law?

James Pilant

Why JPMorgan May be Getting off Easy

In a criminal investigation, JPMorgan Chase is facing action from federal authorities who suspect that the bank turned a blind eye to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. That’s yet another headache in a week of migraines for America’s largest bank; last Friday JPMorgan Chase reached a tentative $13 billion settlement with federal prosecutors for its alleged manipulation of mortgage securities, which helped trigger the Great Recession. There may be more pain to come as the megabank faces litigation on a number of fronts.

And JPMorgan Chase is not alone – it is one of several banks being investigated by the government for mortgage fraud. While many headlines in the financial press accuse the government of conducting a witch hunt, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson offers a different perspective: “If the Justice Department were being tough on Wall Street they would be talking about bringing criminal cases against individuals who helped to perpetrate this immense crisis.” she said. Morgenson adds that the investigations into JPMorgan Chase show that it and many other financial institutions are still ‘too big to fail,’ which means taxpayers could once again be forced to bail them out.

http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/why-jpmorgan-may-be-getting-easy#sthash.lIimWj0v.dpbs

From around the web.

From the web site, Democracy Now!

Stakeholder Pets?

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments
A cat and dog, the two most popular animals ke...
A cat and dog, the two most popular animals kept as pets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

Stakeholder Pets?

 

Are pets stakeholders under business ethics analysis? Yes. Why is that? Theoretically a pet cannot buy a product. However, a pet does express preferences in products, particularly what they eat. So, pets do exercise choices as consumers as pet owners all know.

 

But they are stakeholders in another sense, by their existence they establish a need. So, when a manufacturer of pet treats kills pets, he kills his market.

 

I do not believe a rational argument can be made on behalf of pet killing by purchased treat. It might be a Friedman type thing where profit is foremost and you don’t kill enough of the market to mar your income. Of course, once again, that would suggest that businesses are not any good at or are very bad at self-regulation.

 

Simple business ethics, and I’m talking very simple here, very basic says, “Don’t kill the client.”

 

When businesses fail this basic test, and do not act to fix the problem, then the government has to step in. While this government action is late, it is welcome. I hope it works.

 

James Pilant

 

Amid pet deaths, FDA finally proposes new food safety rules – Salon.com

 

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/25/amid_pet_deaths_fda_finally_proposes_new_food_safety_rules/

 

As the Food and Drug Administration continues to come up short on a possible explanation for the deaths of nearly 600 pets nearly six years after they were first linked to imported jerky treats, the federal agency is at last getting around to passing rules for pet and animal feed that would help prevent contamination before it begins. The Associated Press reports:

 

The proposed rules would require those who sell pet food and animal feed in the United States — including importers — to follow certain sanitation practices and have detailed food safety plans. All of the manufacturers would have to put individual procedures in place to prevent their food from becoming contaminated.

 

The rules would also help human health by aiming to prevent foodborne illnesses in pet food that can be transferred to humans. People can become sick by handling contaminated pet food or animal feed.

 

via Amid pet deaths, FDA finally proposes new food safety rules – Salon.com.

From around the web.

From the web site,

http://thewoof.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/reports-of-pet-illnesses-to-fda-increase-hundreds-more-dogs-fall-ill/

On Sunday, Senator Brown held another news conference  at the Ohio Humane Society in Hilliard Ohio about tainted chicken jerky treats from China. It was Brown’s second public statement to the Food and Drug Administration regarding the treats that are reported to have been causing illness and death in pets across the country.

 

The conference on February 19 came in the wake of 400 new complaints to the FDA about pets becoming ill after eating the treats. Although the FDA has been trying to find the contaminant causing the illnesses, they have been unable to pinpoint the specific toxicant. As a result, manufacturers have not been required by law to remove the products from store shelves, keeping the potentially dangerous treats readily available to the public.

 

In December of 2008, when pets began falling ill in Australia, University of Sydney researchers made an epidemiological connection linking the illnesses to the consumption of chicken treats imported from China. Australian dog treat importer KraMar withdrew its Supa Naturals Chicken breast strips  from the Australian market as a precaution, even though a specific toxicant wasn’t pinpointed.

 

TV Goes Downhill

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Picture taken at Georgia Aquarium, pictured is...
Picture taken at Georgia Aquarium, pictured is one of the two resident male whale sharks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

TV Goes Downhill

The lowest common denominator. That apparently is the demographic television programming is looking for if these reinventions are to make any sense. Of course, maybe doing real programming is hard. After all, how much brains does it take to do “Shark Week?”

I have some old VHS tapes with programming from the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, powerful learned television shows with meaning. Now, my college students complain about the low quality of the programming and how little science or history is being covered.

Is there a business ethics issue here? Well, there is something wrong about advertising yourself as dealing with serious scientific, cultural or historical matters, and then producing junk designed for the inquisitive mind of, “Well, nobody.” Inquisitive minds aren’t wanted there.

And there is the lost opportunity of appealing to what is best in humanity, thrown away endlessly seeking higher ratings or a younger demographic. Whether that is a business ethics problem depends on your interpretation.

I don’t watch those programs anymore. I don’t think anybody should.

James Pilant

TV’s 10 most bizarre reinventions – Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/25/tvs_10_most_bizarre_reinventions/

All across the dial, cable networks have shed their identities in order to become things far stranger — and, often, a bit less highbrow — than they’d been initially. The network formerly known as History Channel (now it’s just History) has defined the academic subject as including ancient aliens and truckers; TV Land’s reruns have gone from old-school classics to stuff from 10 years ago; just about every fine-arts channel broadcasts reality TV now.

It makes sense — in a crowded market, no one’s going to subsidize a network that does something unpopular. All these networks once did slightly different things, but now many have shifted toward the same model: broadcasting unscripted shows depicting a particular corner of the American experience (trucking, pawnbroking, being a pampered wife of one variety or another). Still, there’s something a bit wistful about imagining each of these cable networks’ original iterations frozen in amber — rather than a dial full of similar-looking broadcasts, we could have a gleefully out-of-step Bravo and A&E doing British costume drama, and medical oddities all over TLC. Oh well–there’s always reading!

via TV’s 10 most bizarre reinventions – Salon.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Blogs, Discover Magazine.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/08/05/shark-week-jumps-the-shark-an-open-letter-to-discovery-communications/

While there may be a debate about what “sightings” may be, there is one thing that scientists are sure of: Megalodon is extinct.

Part of me is furious with you, Discovery, for doing this. But mostly, I’m just deeply saddened. It’s inexplicably depressing that you’ve gone from “the world’s #1 nonfiction media company” to peddling lies and faking stories for ratings. You’ve compromised your integrity so completely with this special, and that breaks my heart. I loved you, Discovery, ever since I was a child. I grew up watching you. It was partly because of you that I became transfixed by the natural world and pursued a career in science. I once dreamed of having my own Discovery Channel special, following in the footsteps of people like Jeff Corwin. Not anymore. This is inexcusable. You have an obligation to your viewers to hold to your non-fiction claims. You used to expose the beautiful, magical, wonderful sides of the world around us. Now, you just make shit up for profit. It’s depressing. It’s disgusting. It’s wrong.

I won’t be watching the rest of Shark Week. I simply can’t.

From the web site, From New York to San Francisco.

http://gcaggiano.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/history-channels-chasing-tail-are-you-kidding-me/

I’m not even going to bother sliding into my regular shtick about how far the network has fallen, or how I would take the 24/7 Hitler and Nazi Germany program broadcasting of the 90′s any day over this garbage, because it is a fruitless effort. Apparently, I am in the minority when it comes to opinion on programming. I guess I should feel silly for wanting the History Channel to stop putting on shows where toothless red-necks blast alligator brains out with shotguns and then jump up and down in their little boats hootin’ n’ hollerin’ with unintelligible grunts like they just won the lottery. I am amazed, after seeing shows like that, at how surprised people from the Deep South are when they are looked at as being backwards hicks. Do not blame northern ignorance, my friends, blame the media and popular culture that has turned your society into a hole of filth and slime. At least Chasing Tail is going to do something to repair the damage done: it will show that northerners can be hicks too!

I do not know what is even left anymore. H2 used to always be the safe haven when the History Channel started going to hell, but even that is being corrupted with asinine, pseudo-historical shows like America Unearthed, where the host, Scott Wolter, can make an entire episode centered around a microscopic carving on a rock and lead the viewer on a baseless quest around the country to misrepresent far-reaching theories as fact, and then find absolutely no concrete evidence to back anything up. This show, in format and principle, is identical to Ancient Aliens. The latter attempts to say that everything the ancients built on earth was really built by aliens, while the former attempts to say that everything ancient Americans built on this continent was really built by foreigners. Is there a difference? I acknowledge that the history books are wrong and there is more than meets the eye, but without actual evidence, the shows are absolutely useless. Maybe if I carved a cross onto the tree in my backyard I could get the crew to come down to try to prove that the Knights Templar hid the Holy Grail in Hazlet, New Jersey. Maybe if I find a really big squirrel climbing that same tree I can get Monsterquest to come out of retirement and have a double whammy!

 

Related articles

Football Concussion

On By southwerkIn business ethics
English: Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett F...
English: Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre during on-field warmups at Ralph B. Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, prior to a game against the Buffalo Bills on November 5, 2006. Français : Brett Favre, quarterback des Green Bay Packers, avant un jeu contre le Buffalo Bills. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Football Concussion

 

Unless the problem of football concussion can be solved, I’m not sure if the sport will survive. Brett Favre’s story of memory loss is shocking and tragic. Our memories are what we are in a real way. Taking that away from a human being diminishes that person. It takes away a chunk of what makes us human.

 

Is it ethical to make money off athletes whose lives are diminished (ruined?) by regular concussions?

 

I suppose a free market fundamentalist could argue that these men were willing to take the risk. But that argument collapses like a deflated balloon against the fact that the risks have only become evident recently and are still not well understood. We know that damage results and that it is serious. We don’t know how much damage or how serious.

 

The sport of football with now known health risks involving brain injuries is more similar in some ways to sports now banned like college boxing.

 

I don’t want to abolish the sport yet. First I want to see if something can be done to make it safe or safer.

 

Our current practice of business ethics does allow for sports carrying some risks, high school cheerleading, karate teams, soccer, etc. The question is always going to be how much risk and how serious the damage.

 

So, if the risk of long term brain damage due to concussion can be reduced, if that is possible, then there will have to be a determination if that lowered risk is low enough for the sport to continue.

 

James Pilant

 

Brett Favre: ‘God Only Knows The Toll’ That NFL Concussions, Injuries Will Take

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/brett-favre-memory-lapse-concussions-nfl_n_4164578.html

 

The 44-year-old, who played 302 games over 20 NFL seasons, discussed how \”they didn\’t keep a log like they do now\” of concussions and recounted one specific instance of memory loss since he retired after the 2010 season.

 

\”I don\’t remember my daughter playing soccer, youth soccer, one summer,\” Favre told Pollin and Saraceno after discussng his decision to rebuff an offer from the St. Louis Rams to come out of retirement. \”I don\’t remember that. I got a pretty good memory, and I have a tendency like we all do to say, \’Where are my glasses?\’ and they\’re on your head. I have that [but] this was pretty shocking to me that I couldn\’t remember my daughter playing youth soccer, just one summer, I think. I remember her playing basketball, I remember her playing volleyball. So I kind of think maybe she only played a game or two. I think she played eight. So that\’s a little bit scary to me. For the first time in 44 years, that put a little fear in me.\”

 

via Brett Favre: ‘God Only Knows The Toll’ That NFL Concussions, Injuries Will Take.

From around the web.

From the web site, The Concussion Blog.

http://theconcussionblog.com/2013/10/25/2013-week-7-nfl-concussion-report/

The Concussion Blog Original, NFL Concussion Report, is a weekly compiling of the reported head injuries in the National Football League.  Concussions are added to the list each week from multiple sources to give you the reader a picture of what is happening on the field.  Each week we will bring you the information along with relevant statistics.  If we have missed a concussion or put one on here erroneously, let us know (we will also be using Fink’s Rule to classify a concussion/head injury).  It also should be noted that due to the league not disclosing actual injuries until Friday night there may be some added to next weeks numbers.

 

Deficit Hawks Ignorant

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism

 

 

Paul Krugman, Laureate of the Sveriges Riksban...
Paul Krugman, Laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008 at a press conference at the Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Deficit Hawks Ignorant

 

I’m now 57 years old and the tale of imminent fiscal catastrophe begins with my awareness of its use by Reagan who ran on fixing the deficit and then cut taxes, of course, increasing the debt. And that is how it has always gone. It’s always a apocalyptic event closing in on us like a relentless tsunami, unless there’s an opportunity for a tax cut, in which case, the deficit hawks or deficit scolds (whatever term you prefer) go silent. They are only loud when talking about cutting social programs. They maintain a studious silence when tax increases are discussed. And do you know why, because deficits can be a problem but for these people, it’s a good problem because it’s a club they can pick up or put away as need arises. When there can be tax cuts, the club is put away and when there can be cuts in the safety net, the club can be wielded fiercely and recklessly.

 

They’re not ignorant. They know exactly what they’re doing. It’s just a tactic.

 

James Pilant

 

Krugman: Deficit scolds “literally have no idea what they’re talking about” – Salon.com

 

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/25/krugman_deficit_scolds_literally_have_no_idea_what_theyre_talking_about/

 

Noting the continued endurance of low levels of inflation and low interest rates, which should contradict the expectations of anyone buying into the looming fiscal catastrophe narrative, Krugman ridicules his opponents for having been so wrong for so long, seemingly without ever giving their beliefs a second thought. “It’s actually awesome, in a way, to realize how long cries of looming disaster have filled our airwaves and op-ed pages,” Krugman writes. He then goes on to cite an Alan Greenspan op-ed in this vein, one that was written nearly three and a half years ago, but that for all intents and purposes could have been published just yesterday.

 

via Krugman: Deficit scolds “literally have no idea what they’re talking about” – Salon.com.

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, Duane Graham.

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/ben-bernanke-channels-paul-krugman/

I have been watching Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, testify this morning before the Senate Banking Committee.

 

He has sounded a lot like Paul Krugman.*

 

Krugman, an economist of distinction who also happens to be a liberal, has been telling anyone who will listen that all the scary talk about the national debt is misplaced, considering that we have a genuine jobs crisis going on right now.

 

Bernanke said this morning:

 

High unemployment has substantial costs, including not only the hardship faced by the unemployed and their families, but also the harm done to the vitality and productive potential of our economy as a whole.

 

Ya think? He also said—again sounding like Paul Krugman:

 

In terms of the near-term recovery, there is a sense in which monetary and fiscal policy are working at cross purposes. To some extent, the fiscal policy decisions being made are mismatched with the timing of the problem. The problem is a longer-term problem, and should be addressed over a longer time frame in a way that, to the extent possible, it does no harm to the ongoing recovery.

 

In other words, the actions of Congress (fiscal policy—focusing only on long-term debt) are working against the Fed’s actions (monetary policy—buying government bonds now in order to help stimulate the economic recovery) and the result of those “cross purposes” is sluggish growth and needlessly high unemployment.

 

 

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Pope Acts Against Greed!

On By southwerkIn Capitalism2 Comments
Pope Francis met with media
Pope Francis met with media (Photo credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales))

Pope Acts Against Greed!

I’ve been talking about developing a growing respect for the Pope. But now the Pope has acted directly against a major official for his greed. I’m amazed and delighted. The last two Popes fired and replaced left wingers and came down hard on nuns doing social work. The last two Popes fired and investigated sexual predators with the greatest reluctance and the word, coverup, fits the actions of the Church more accurately than investigation. And yet, a Pope just canned somebody for their ostentatious life style. Am I dreaming?

I don’t think I am easy to impress and this new Pope is definitely more than I expected.

If you consider the Catholic Church in some sense a business, this is proper business ethics in practice. I like it.

James Pilant

Pope suspends German ‘bling bishop’

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg ordered to leave his diocese amid scandal over his alleged lavish spending

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/23/pope-suspends-german-luxury-bishop

His new private residence will cost €31m and include a €15,000 bathtub, furnishings worth €380,000 and a garden that came with a €783,000 bill. But the “bling bishop” of Limburg is unlikely ever to enjoy the benefits of his luxurious new home, after he was temporarily suspended from his post by the pope yesterday.

In a press statement, the Vatican said it had been confronted with a situation in which Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst “could not follow his duty as bishop” and had decided to allow him “some time outside the diocese”. A final verdict on the bishop’s future is expected after the completion of an internal investigation into the Limburg building project.

Tebartz-van Elst has come under increasing criticism since the estimated cost of his new residence – described by some newspapers as “palatial” – rose to €31m (£26m) earlier this month.

He is also facing legal action for allegedly lying under oath about a first-class flight to India, in a row with the news magazine Der Spiegel.

It is hard to imagine a greater contrast between the alleged luxurious living habits of the German bishop and the ascetic style of the Argentinian pontiff, who, from his first hours in office, has made clear his desire for “a poor church … for the poor”. Shunning the large and opulent apostolic palace, the pontiff has chosen instead to live in the simple surrounds of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a Vatican guesthouse. He often travels in used cars and has urged priests to do the same, telling them: “If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world.”

From around the web.

From the web site, Silent Voice.

http://silentmaj.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/pope-francis-suspends-bishop-of-bling/

Pope Francis means Business….Days of the So called princes’ of the Church seem to be numbered..The Laity will Certainly Stand by you, in this fight against corrupt practices within the Church, Dear HOLY FATHER…..

GREG

John Pike Gets $38,000

On By southwerkIn Editorial
Elmo Occupies UC Davis
Elmo Occupies UC Davis (Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

John Pike, the pepper spraying cop, Gets $38,000

The wages of sin! You just gotta love it.

Pike pepper sprays students against police practice with a spray canister designed to never be used at less than thirty feet. A whitewash clears him of wrongdoing when a child can see his guilt in the video.

By simple dumb luck, Pike didn’t permanently injure any of the demonstrators, and yet – $38,000.

 

Here watch the video once again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys1gPp2Gkow

Here is the official report on the incident: http://reynosoreport.ucdavis.edu/reynoso-report.pdf

I say to those who would condone this rogue cop’s actions to read the report to get a full understanding of how many police guidelines he was violating.

James Pilant

UC Davis pepper spray police officer awarded $38,000 compensation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/23/pepper-spray-cop-uc-davis-compensation

A former University of California Davis police officer who pepper-sprayed a group of Occupy protesters has reached a $38,000 settlement in a workman’s compensation case against the school.

John Pike, who was filmed discharging pepper spray at a line of seated demonstrators in a video that was watched around the world, received the compensation last week.

The Davis Enterprise reported that Pike, 40, had suffered depression and anxiety brought on by death threats to him and his family. The threats followed the 18 November 2011 protest, the newspaper reported.

A judge approved the $38,059 workers’ compensation award between Pike and UC Davis on 16 October.

Pike was placed on paid administrative leave after the incident and was fired eight months later in July 2012 – although an internal investigation actually found he had acted appropriately.

Video filmed at the November 2011 protest showed Pike, who was dressed in riot gear and wearing a helmet with visor, walking along a line of seated protesters spraying a steady stream of orange tear-gas toward their faces.

From around the web.

From the web site,

http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/john-pike-gets-compensation-for-emotional-suffering/

The cop who mercilessly doused peaceful, seated protesters with pepper spray recently claimed he has psychological injuries from the incident and demanded workman’s compensation.  And California is granting it to him.  The University of California, Davis — a tax funded college — will pay the fired assailant $38,056 to ease his emotional suffering.

The original incident was a memorable one; an iconic image police abuse.  Back on November 18th, 2011, student protesters gathered in a protest against corporatism and state violence.  A group of them sat huddled in a line on a public sidewalk.  Surrounded by cops wearing riot masks and threatening violence, they were attacked — in ironic fashion — with chemical weapons without provocation during their protest.

Lt. John Pike, as well as another officer, used pepper spray canisters the size of fire-extinguishers to drench the peaceful protesters in OC pepper spray.  The incident was captured on video (shown below). The police actions drew worldwide outrage and inspired hundreds of internet memes.

Dan Bodine Philosophizes!

On By southwerkIn Editorial
Ligustrum japonicum
Ligustrum japonicum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Dan Bodine Philosophizes!

 

My colleague in the blogging world, Dan Bodine, has a new post. Please go to his site and read it in full. It is well worth your time and will almost certainly inspire you to subscribe to the site.

 

James Pilant

 

Starting over with 3 ill-fated “Wax Leaf Ligustrums | Desert Mountain Times

 

http://desertmountaintimes.com/2013/10/starting-over-with-3-ill-fated-wax-leaf-ligustrums/

 

Being an old country philosopher has job security. Unlike when younger, you don’t worry much about anything that’s unusual. Relatively speaking, of course!

 

You’ve already got everything all figured out – say “themes in life” people or things automatically fit in — and when something strange does happen, all you gotta do is drop it in the nearest-matching mental slot; and then don’t worry about it. Sooner or later it’ll fit. …

 

via Starting over with 3 ill-fated “Wax Leaf Ligustrums | Desert Mountain Times.

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, SugarbelleShoots.  (You should go to the site and see his wonderful pictures of the flowers. jp)

 

http://sugarbellephotography.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/wax-leaf-privet-japanese-privet/

 

These flowering bushes are just starting to bloom along the boardwalk in
Carolina Beach. I am acutely aware of this due to my chronic sneezing
fits whenever I pass them. I had to know what they are…google and I have
decided they are known as the Wax Leaf Privet or Japanese Privet.
However, I just call them sneeze flowers.

 

Related articles

 

Pope Francis Criticizes “Ideological” Christianity

On By southwerkIn Editorial1 Comment
emblem of the Papacy: Triple tiara and keys Fr...
emblem of the Papacy: Triple tiara and keys Français : emblème pontifical Italiano: emblema del Papato Português: Emblema papal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Pope Francis Criticizes “Ideological” Christianity

 

Originally the title was going to have a question mark after it but I reread the middle paragraph below and I just didn’t see any doubt as to the meaning of his remarks. I have had serious doubts about Catholicism after the scandals, the coverups and  what I felt was a lack of sincerity in pushing for Catholic Social Justice. But I am reluctantly, cautiously, and slowly being impressed by this man.

 

I’m willing to take a second look. A Catholic church that took it duties of helping the poor and the powerless – that would be something.

 

James Pilant

 

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/10/17/pope_francis_at_mass_calls_for_greater_openness_/in2-738150

of the Vatican Radio website

 

Pope Francis referred back to this passage from Thursday’s Gospel in his homily,

moving from Jesus’ warning. He warned: “When we are on the street and find

ourselves in front of a closed Church,” he said, “we feel that something is

strange.” Sometimes, he said, “they give us reasons” as to why they are closed:

They give “excuses, justifications, but the fact remains that the Church is

closed and the people who pass by cannot enter.” And, even worse, the Lord

cannot be close to the people. Today, the Pope said, Jesus speaks to us about

the “image of the [lock]”; it is “the image of those Christians who have the key

in their hand, but take it away, without opening the door.” Worse still, “they

keep the door closed” and “don’t allow anyone to enter.” In so doing, they

themselves do not enter. The “lack of Christian witness does this,” he said, and

“when this Christian is a priest, a bishop or a Pope it is worse.” But, the Pope

asks, how does it happen that a “Christian falls into this attitude” of keeping

the key to the Church in his pocket, with the door closed?

“The faith

passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And ideology does

not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his

love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And

when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he

is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought…

For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’

The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic

knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.”

The Pope

continued, Jesus told us: “You burden the shoulders of people [with] many

things; only one is necessary.” This, therefore, is the “spiritual, mental”

thought process of one who wants to keep the key in his pocket and the door

closed: “The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away

the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the

people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an

illness, but it is not new, eh? Already the Apostle John, in his first Letter,

spoke of this. Christians who lose the faith and prefer the ideologies. His

attitude is: be rigid, moralistic, ethical, but without kindness. This can be

the question, no? But why is it that a Christian can become like this? Just one

thing: this Christian does not pray. And if there is no prayer, you always close

the door.”

 

…

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site,

 

http://cnsatwyd.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/pope-tells-latin-american-bishops-to-shun-ideology-empower-laity/

 

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

 

RIO DE JANEIRO (CNS) — Reducing the faith to a worldly ideology,

prizing administrative efficiency over missionary zeal, and exalting the

role of clergy to the detriment of the laity are some of the major

“temptations” undermining evangelization in Latin America, Pope Francis

told church leaders from the region.

 

“The decision for missionary discipleship will encounter temptation,”

the pope said July 28 at a meeting with the coordinating committee of

the Latin American bishops’ conference, CELAM. “It is important to know

where the evil spirit is afoot in order to aid our discernment.”

 

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No More Salmonella

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Salmonella Bacteria
Salmonella Bacteria (Photo credit: NIAID)

No More Salmonella

This is not a problem that requires deep analysis. What’s in the balance? On one side, people’s lives and health and on the other profits from selling chicken. I think holding the industry to higher inspection standards is not going to double the price of chicken. This is not a problem that can’t be successfully dealt with. Let’s have the poultry industry finance a testing program to eliminate salmonella contamination. If other nations can do it, certainly we can.

It’s good business ethics to protect one of the principle stakeholders in your business, the consumer. We may safely assume that sickening or killing your customer base is unethical, and probably unwise.

Some will claim that the market will solve this problem, a concept I have ridiculed with some regularity. People will stop buying chicken from a company when that chicken makes them sick?

But the average consumer doesn’t know which chicken brands are safe and which are not. The safety can vary from one shipment of chickens to another from the same company. It’s a job only the government can take on. We, as consumers, cannot police the market. We may not often know what’s making us sick.

We live in the richest nation on earth. Surely we can afford to inspect chicken for salmonella poisoning.

James Pilant

Keeping salmonella out of chicken

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/22/206084/keeping-salmonella-out-of-chicken.html

Sweden has virtually eliminated salmonella in store-bought chicken, even though poultry there is industrially produced, just like in the United States. And even in this country, a 2010 Consumers Union study found no salmonella in the organic store-brand chickens it tested.

In other words, consumers shouldn’t have to accept salmonella-tainted chicken as just one of those unavoidable things. Yet that wasn’t the attitude of Foster Farms and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in response to the recent salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 300 people, most of them in California, and sent close to half to hospitals with antibiotic-resistant infections. Foster Farms refused to recall the suspect chicken shipped from its problem plants, saying that salmonella-tainted poultry is safe to eat if thoroughly cooked. The USDA refused to close the plants on the grounds that, unlike certain strains of E. coli, salmonella is not an adulterant, a poisonous or harmful substance.

From later in the article –

For too long in the United States, the agriculture industry has successfully pushed and prodded Congress and regulatory agencies into accepting practices that are literally sickening to the public. At minimum, we could begin to improve food safety by declaring salmonella an adulterant so that the USDA and agricultural operations are compelled to recall infected products.

From around the web.

From the web site, Salmonella enterica WILL RULE THE WORLD. (This purports to be Salmonella’s actual web site – I had no idea bacteria could type!)

http://salmonellaenterica.wordpress.com/about/

Hi, I’m Salmonella enterica! I’m plotting my way to rule the world, so if you don’t watch out… One of my masses of minions will INFECT YOUR SOUL. BWAHAHA. Ahem.

I’m a gram negative rod, and I’m working hard on mutating so I can
infect you no matter what you are! My goal isn’t a W death curve that
everyone seems so worked up about… MY GOAL IS TOTAL INFECTION. EVERYONE
WILL BE AT MY MERCY.

So far, I’ve gotten a decent amount of publication, but in the
future, No One will be able to deny my Very Impressive and Unavoidable
Impact on Everyday Life. I’m thinking of making this plan into the
acronym: NOVIUIE. Sounds evil. And French, with all the nasty letters
at the end for no apparent reason.

For right now, however, while people still have preventative measures
and disgusting medicines to combat my existence (as well as some odd
resistance here and there).. I plan to lay low and infect without
conscious effort. I mean, I keep my publicity up every now and then, but
that’s just because I can’t STAND being out of the spotlight for too
long.

From the same web site, Salmonella enterica WILL RULE THE WORLD. (Apparently bacteria can type but aren’t that much into spelling and capitalization, although they do like emoticons. jp)

curse this Swine flu thing! Such an attention hogger! :( These emerging diseases all think they’re little hot-shots, I swear! I was an emerging disease once!

I have History! I have a Track Record! People haven’t gotten rid of me yet!

“The CDC estimates that 1.4 million cases occur annually (CDC, 2005, October 13). ” –About Salmonella

:-\

*disgruntled * I used to be a real big deal with that Typhoid Mary Lady. Maybe it’ll happen all over again.

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