Pope Francis Criticizes “Ideological” Christianity

On October 23, 2013October 22, 2013 By southwerkIn Editorial1 Comment

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.”

QOTD: Pope Francis (digbysblog.blogspot.com)
Quote of the Day (houseofthedread.wordpress.com)

No More Salmonella

On October 22, 2013October 22, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics

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.

Health ALERT – salmonella outbreak in Foster Farms chicken (bloguvib.wordpress.com)

The Ethics Sage Addresses Cyberbullying

On October 22, 2013October 22, 2013 By southwerkIn Editorial

The Ethics Sage Addresses Cyberbullying

The Ethics Sage has a new blog post on the issue of Cyberbullying. I would appreciate it if you would go to his blog and read the entire entry. The two paragraphs below do not do full justice to the depth of his thought.

James Pilant

Are our Schools a Safe Place for Students to Grow and Learn?

Cyberbullying and Random Acts of Violence Threaten American Exceptionalism

http://www.ethicssage.com/2013/10/are-our-schools-a-safe-place-for-students-to-grow-and-learn.html

Cyberbullying in our schools threatens the safety of our students both in and out of school. It creates an environment where learning is negatively affected and potentially devastates the bullied individual. The result may be embarrassment, withdrawal from social and educational activities, attempted suicide and worse. I am tired of hearing schools defend their inaction when cyberbullying attacks occur after school hours and on weekends by claiming they are not responsible because the attacks did not occur on school grounds or during school time. If one student shot another outside of school would they look the other way? I don’t think so (or at least I hope not).

The extent of the phenomenon is hard to quantify. But one 2010 study by the Cyberbullying Research Center, an organization founded by two criminologists who defined bullying as “willful and repeated harm” inflicted through phones and computers, said one in five middle-school students had been affected. The purpose of this blog is to address what can be done about it. I have blogged before on the behavioral impact of being bullied through the use of social media. Attacks using Facebook, and Instagram, an online photo- and video-sharing service, and other social media threaten to stifle emotional development and growth, two factors so important to becoming a productive member of society.

From around the web.

From the web site, Stop Cyberbullying.

http://stopcyberbullyingsite.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/cyberbullying-research-paper/

People should never feel like they are useless or lonely or like they don’t matter. However, when people cyberbully other people, that is exactly how the victims feel. No one should feel that way. Cyberbullying is bullying that happens in cyberspace, hence the name. People can get bullied over text, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Cyberbullying is becoming a bigger situation as time passes and the internet comes into play more and more, and people need to notice and do something about it.

There are many statistics on cyberbullying. 43 percent have been cyberbullied, 70 percent have reported that they have seen it happen, 68 percent of teens agree that is a problem (Eleven). When pictures or posts get put on the internet is impossible to delete it, even if you do delete it it will still be up there (Cyber-bullying). The most common way to be cyberbullied is instant messaging. Most cyberbullies are girls, it is twice as likely for them to be girls. One third of people have been threatened online (Cyberbullying). Most people who have been cyberbullied will not tell anyone about, only one tenth of victims will tell someone. Victims who have been bullied can be two to nine times more likely to commit suicide (Eleven). Many people ask why they do it, but also people ask how it happens.

Is ‘traditional’ bullying different from cyberbullying? (cjald93.wordpress.com)

Slate Hates Us

On October 21, 2013October 21, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Slate Hates Us

Slate, the online magazine, has a new web site. Actually, “new web site” might not be an accurate description. I might prefer “attack on the public” or “insult to the intelligence” or “rain dance of hatred upon the consumer.”

It’s a Rohrschach of a web site. You don’t have any idea what it’s supposed to mean and after a time, you no longer believe anyone else knows either. Someone just threw colors and titles on the page like an electronic Jackson Pollack. The web site re-lists the same articles repeatedly apparently with the idea that maybe if you the title in a different font with a different background, you’ll like it better. If you want to find anything, you’re on the scavenger hunt from hell. I just want to read Doonsebury and I’m never sure where it is in there.

Some days, it’s just not worth hacking through the electronic jungle of obstruction and there are easier sights beckoning.

I know where they got the designer – same guys did the ACA site except better.

James Pilant

Pre-Slate Ponder (tollstension.wordpress.com)

Thomas Friedman Gets Entitlements Wrong

On October 20, 2013October 17, 2013 By southwerkIn Capitalism

Thomas Friedman Gets Entitlements Wrong

Sorry Kids, Thomas Friedman Is Not Very Good at Economics

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/sorry-kids-thomas-friedman-is-not-very-good-at-economics

Many young people may have been mislead by Thomas Friedman’s column, titled “Sorry Kids: We Ate It All,” which implied that our children might somehow suffer because we are paying so much to seniors for Social Security and Medicare. The reality of course is that if our children and grandchildren do not enjoy much higher standards of living than do current workers and retirees then it will be because the rich have rigged the deck so that they can accrue most of the gains from economic growth.

This is easy to show. For example, if we look at the Social Security trustees report we see that average annual wages are projected to grow at more than a 1.3 percent annual rate between now and 2050. As a result, the average before tax wage will be more than 60 percent higher in 2060 than it is today. If our children and grandchildren get to share equally in these gains then they will be far richer than we are today.

It’s true that we will have a higher ratio of retirees to workers in 2050, just as we have a higher ratio of retirees to workers than we did in 1970. Just as the increase in the ratio of retirees to workers over the last 4 decades did not prevent an increase in average living standards over this period, there is no reason to think it will prevent an increase in average living standards over the next four decades.

I heartily agree with Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The generational theft storyline has been running around for a while and it is both wrong and unconvincing. Let’s take me for instance, I have my form in the mail from the Social Security Administration telling me what to expect. If I wait all the way until I’m 70, I will receive, $1,440 a month. I’m a little curious? When did that become a princely sum? Is this the kind of money that will enable me to go the sand and surf of Hawaii or does it more look like I’m going to have trouble paying for a place to live and basic groceries. I’m leaning toward the latter conclusion. Even in Arkansas, 1,440 dollars a month is not going to pay for a mansion. I might add that I have been paying in on that all of my working life, so it’s not free as far as I am concerned.

Well, what about Medicare? Well, it’s obvious to me although not to Friedman, that medical patents are being abused, that not allowing prescription drugs to either be bargained for by the federal government or purchased overseas is creating dramatically high medical costs and there are a bundles of other good choices we have to reduce out medical costs instead of telling seniors, “It’s just too bad, you got old while Thomas Friedman was considered an expert.”

Where do these people get the gall to tell the great middle class to go without pensions and health care when they have expressed no willingness to fix the nation’s problems? Why do we have a system where capital gains is taxed at less than wages? Why do we have no financial transaction tax to discourage the speculation which has wrought havoc all over this nation and the world?

James Pilant

From around the web.

From the web site, Okieprogressive.

http://okieblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/social-security-and-medicare/

Social Security and Medicare are programs that are needed relevant and necessary!

The economy is slowing repairing itself but we still have those on the right who want to deep-six any social safety net that would protect our seniors, the poor and disadvantaged, the sick, the halt and the lame. These are very people whom even Jesus Christ said should always be protected and aided. People like Tom Coburn don’t agree with Jesus on that, even though Coburn professes to be a follower of that Jewish Rabbi from Nazareth he had publicly stated that Social Security and Medicare are programs that we really don’t need to continue. Tom must have read a different Bible from all the ones I have read.

But, that is the current mantra for a lot of neo-cons and they are influencing a lot of neo-newbies who are coming and have come into the workforce over the past decade. These are people most of whom have never known any toil or strife in their lives because of safety nets like Social Security and Medicare were there for their parents and grandparents. They are the very ones buying to the neo-cons who claim most of the people who are poor don’t try hard enough or don’t or are lazy and shiftless and don’t really want to work. It’s a completely asinine idea, but they are buying hook line and sinker. When you have never known what is to be hungry or out of work I guess it is difficult to understand that, that is something that doesn’t necessarily mean you caused it.

Tom Friedman’s Worst Column Ever (prospect.org)
The Government is Open: Now Fight for a Just Economy (talkingunion.wordpress.com)

Internet Explorer Assassin!

On October 20, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics

Internet Explorer Assassin!

Before I name the culprit, let me explain the crime. Every morning barring the most unusual circumstances, I read through business, business ethics, economics, and justice related web sites. It takes about an hour. It happens every day. Usually, I set a few aside for later use as blog posts.

A few weeks ago, Internet Explorer would crash while I was reading. I thought nothing about it. Browsers do crash on occasion. I have six different browsers on my computer just in case.

But after a while, a pattern emerged and Internet Explorer began dying every morning about the same time.

It was Salon killing my browser, actually it just locks it up so it’s frozen and useless.

The internet site, Salon.com has been crashing Internet Explorer. It usually does it after I have put up several tabs of articles to read. It seems to coincide with one of their new advertisement pop-ups.

I haven’t solved the problem but I use a separate browser to view Salon, so when the browser crashes, I don’t lose much but it is inconvenient.

I guess the business ethics problem here is having a product which doesn’t work all the time. And before I learned to use a separate browser, it regularly ate my research for blogging.

So, maybe in the future, they might temper the clutter so that access to their site would be better. I’d like that and I’m sure there are others who would appreciate it.

James Pilant

From around the web.

From the web site, Kenny1948’s Soapbox.

http://open.salon.com/blog/kenny1948/2012/04/29/goodbye_salon

Well, today was the last straw. I unsubscribed from the Salon main
page. It is totally impossible to read anything on Salon, or to even
try and contact them! Every time I go there, my browser crashes and I
have to restart my computer. Don’t they understand about advertising,
and how it slows down things? What idiots constructed this website?
Well they lost one reader, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

From the web site,

Hannity Obamacare Attack Non-factual

On October 19, 2013October 19, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

Fair & Balanced graphic used in 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hannity Obamacare Attack Non-factual

Lies, Damned Lies, and Fox News – NYTimes.com

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/lies-damned-lies-and-fox-news/?_r=0

The other day Sean Hannity featured some Real Americans telling tales of how they have been hurt by Obamacare. So Eric Stern, who used to work for Brian Schweitzer, had a bright idea: he actually called Hannity’s guests, to get the details.

Sure enough, the businessman who claimed that Obamacare was driving up his costs, forcing him to lay off workers, only has four employees — meaning that Obamacare has no effect whatsoever on his business. The two families complaining about soaring premiums haven’t actually checked out what’s on offer, and Stern estimates that they would in fact see major savings.

You have to wonder about the mindset of people who go on national TV to complain about how they’re suffering from a program based on nothing but what they think they heard somewhere. You might also wonder about what kind of alleged news show features such people without any check on their bona fides. But then again, consider the network.

via Lies, Damned Lies, and Fox News – NYTimes.com.

I’m kinda’ in the same boat here with Paul Krugman. A major television network does three interviews with couples explaining that Obamacare costs more than what they had before without any actual knowledge of what their costs would be. An analysis of what they said and later interviews convincingly suggests that all of them would save money under the program. Someone is falling down on the job here.

Doesn’t the concept of a “news” imply knowledge? .. at least a little knowledge?

As a matter of business ethics, it’s very similar to skipping interviewing actual participants in an event because you don’t want to drive that far. Why do your job when it’s hard? Why work up intelligent news coverage when half-done and half-baked with do?

In short, this is a spectacular ethics failure. Interviewing people who don’t know anything about an important subject and acting as if what they are saying is factual is unethical unless your intent is to purely mislead.

James Pilant

From around the web.

From the web site, The Secular Jurist.

http://thesecularjurist.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/fox-news-obamacare-victims-werent-at-all-victimized-by-obamacare/

A recent Obamacare special on Fox News’ Hannity illuminated the
network’s political bias, pattern of misinformation, and questionable
use of anecdotal evidence, brought to light when a former adviser to
Montana’s governor fact-checked the special and found that not one of
the show’s guests–who lamented the horrors of the Affordable Care Act
(ACA) on air–had directly suffered from the law or even visited the
insurance exchange. Hannity’s reliance on guests who condemned Obamacare
due to existing political bias demonstrates Fox News’ habit of
misinforming on the ACA and raises serious questions about the
credibility of other guests that have recounted the “consequences” of
the law.

Emily Yoffe Needs Advice

On October 19, 2013October 19, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics

Emily Yoffe Needs Advice

I believe you can write a column and strongly recommend that women be careful about drinking too much while still holding men accountable for their behavior. Ms. Yoffe wrote a column discouraging women from over indulging but did not hold men accountable. That’s not acceptable. She said she did hold them accountable but I did not get that from her writing, if you did please comment.

Is this a business ethics problem. Yes.

Giving people advice is a serious business. Implying that female drinking puts too much temptation out there is different than saying taking precautions is wise. The difference is where you place the responsibility. The responsibility is always on the perpetrator not the victim.

James Pilant

Emily Yoffe, advice columnist, blames college women for Rape Culture

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/18/emily-yoffe-college-drinking-rape/

Okay, Emily Yoffe–obviously alcohol makes you randy and more aggressive, no matter your gender. And obviously college-aged women invariably act like Lindsey Lohan when they consume too much of it, and, worse yet, can be unwittingly drinking a mixed drink full of date rape drugs. However, to somehow suggest that their consumption of alcohol creates a more rape permissive environment and only seeks to embolden potential rapists is, well, like saying women should be raped for wearing provocative clothing. Furthermore, a woman can be discussing her menstrual cycle while drinking O Doul’s in a beekeepers uniform, and college dudes will still try to rape her. As we all know, rape is purely about dominance. The introduction of alcohol, although certainly offering rapists a golden ticket, is by no means the fault of the woman or somehow the only invitation to rape. And this is coming from a guy, Emily Yoffe.

via Emily Yoffe, advice columnist, blames college women for Rape Culture.

From around the web.

From the web site, Yes Means Yes.

http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/emily-yoffe-a-further-catalog-of-ways-she-is-wrong/

Yoffe is wrong, as her Slate colleague Amanda Hess, tells us, because you don’t solve a structural problem with a personal self-help solution. We didn’t deal with drunk driving in this country by telling people, “hey, you can’t control drunk drivers, so minimize driving when the bars are closing!” We dealt with it by a combination of a massive public awareness campaign, and imposing real accountability- not just jail sentences, but more prosaically, license suspensions. Drunk driving costs the drunk drivers something now, and it didn’t three decades ago. We didn’t end drunk driving deaths, but we knocked them down a lot.

Yoffe is wrong because rapists are not weather systems. I mentioned this earlier today, and I’ve written about it before. The implicit model of rapists in her piece is one of an unthinking phenomena, one that does not respond to stimulus, that therefore we can’t do anything about but get out of the way. There’s a pernicious undercurrent to this thinking in many areas, from forest fires to global climate change – but for a moment, let’s just accept that there are some things we can’t prevent or deter. All we can do it look out for them, avoid encountering them, and minimize the damage when they occur. Yoffe, and many others, treat rape like this. That’s wrong. Often, they start from the proposition that rapists are bad people who don’t misunderstand, but rather rape because they want to. That’s true. But they take the wrong lesson from the research that shows us that. They infer that the rapists are irrational and can’t be influenced, when the Predator Theory research indicates just the opposite: that they do, in fact, respond to stimulus, by choosing the tactics that are least likely to get them caught. I’ve seen it in small, tightly-knit communities, too. When they have enough victims report and can no longer convince people of narratives about crazy victims, misunderstandings or one-time poor judgment, they move on to new communities where they can get a fresh shot at bullshitting their way through their victims’ reports. Since we know that they use the tactics that work and respond rationally to stimulus, we know that they are not like weather systems and we should discard that model.

Emily Yoffe: Stop Victim-Blaming. It’s feeding into Rape Culture, and yet you’re still doing it. (cutegirlwithabanjo.wordpress.com)

It’s Called Justice!

On October 19, 2013October 19, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics

It’s Called Justice!

This is what happens when a university covers up crime. It’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s not an anomaly except in the sense that so often it does not.

Should they have had to pay this money and fire those people?

Yes.

How do you get justice without penalty? How do you get people to not aid and abet in the crimes of others if there are not penalties? How do you get people from sweeping criminal conduct under the rug if it threatens the institutions reputation if the penalties for not sweeping don’t do as much damage?

What’s scary is how seldom justice happens. This time, people got fired. This time, there were criminal prosecutions and monetary penalties.

Compare this to our standard international or investment bank narrative. 1. Bank does something terrible and utterly illegal. 2. Against all odds bank gets caught. 3. Bank says, “What wrongdoing?” against a background of overwhelming evidence. 4. Bank pleads guilty only after prosecution has been taken off the table. 5. Bank pays roughly 10% of what it made by outright criminality. 6. Roughly two years pass, and the bank once again gets caught doing the same old thing or something brand new. 7. The cycle goes on.

It’s a pity that child abuse brings out societal anger but not house stealing or international money laundering.

We can bet Penn State will be keeping a careful eye on its policies in the future.

Can we say the same for our investment banks?

James Pilant

Sandusky fallout costs Penn State more than $50 million | News | CentreDaily.com

http://www.centredaily.com/2013/10/14/3837882/sandusky-fallout-costs-penn-state.html

The money Penn State has spent in legal and consulting fees for the Jerry Sandusky scandal has topped $50 million. Penn State’s latest update shows the university has spent $50,459,828 through July 31 for work done by more than three-dozen firms. That’s up $1,025,962 from what the university spent through June 30, according to monthly updates provided by Penn State. The potential total cost of the scandal skyrockets to more than $158 million when factoring in the dollar value of the total settlement offers with Sandusky claimants and the full NCAA fine, which the university is paying in yearly installments.

via Sandusky fallout costs Penn State more than $50 million | News | CentreDaily.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, BHA Journalism – (Their new web site).

http://bhsjournalism.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/penn-state-scandal-follow-up/

Arguably the single greatest controversy ever to mar the reputation
of a nationally recognized university, and certainly the incidence of
greatest infamy ever to involve a university’s athletic
department, the Pennsylvania State sex scandal was one which, at its
height, captivated the nation, prompting a variety of emotional
responses amongst members of the general public, the most profound of
which occurred amongst those with personal connections to the Penn State
football program. While the event is one which may have faded from the
forefront of public attention, the emotional trauma inflicted by the
scandal upon those personally involved is likely to be of a far more
enduring nature.

At the onset of the scandal, allegations of sexual
misconduct against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky prompted widespread
outrage, which became exponentially more vitriolic when it was
discovered that many of Sandusky’s alleged misdeeds were said to
have involved minors. The subsequent controversy which developed in the
wake of these allegations would be of a severity so great as to nearly
completely divert public attention from other major events affecting the
campus in subsequent months, most notably the removal of longtime head
coach Joe Paterno from his position within the program, just months
before his death due to a long-gestating lung cancer. Even in light of
these developments, those convinced of Sandusky’s guilt would continue
to demand that justice be served, and would see their desires
fulfilled on Tuesday, October 9, when Sandusky would plead guilty to ten
separate instances of sexual abuse involving minors, which were
conducted over a fifteen-year period.

Self Regulation and Chicken!

On October 19, 2013October 19, 2013 By southwerkIn business ethics

Self Regulation and Chicken!

Here Milton Friedman explains that business will self regulate without government regulation.

How do you feel about that? Ever had food poisoning? Fun?

I don’t get the impression that businesses aren’t willing to lose a few customers (and I mean permanent losses) if it means more profits.

Maybe I’m cynical or maybe I just read the news?

Or how about this?

How many people have to be killed or injured by supposedly self regulating businesses before you realize that Milton Friedman was a much better television celebrity than an economist?

James Pilant

Is our chicken safe to eat? | Business Watch | McClatchy DC

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/17/205695/us-urged-to-do-more-to-protect.html

After 317 people in 20 states got sick from eating contaminated chicken, consumer groups today urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do a better job of inspecting poultry.

via Is our chicken safe to eat? | Business Watch | McClatchy DC.

From around the web.

From the web site, Eslkevin’s Blog.

http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/government-washes-its-hands-of-meat-and-poultry-safety-inspections/

In 1998, USDA rolled out its pilot HACCP system. The acronym stood

for “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points” but federal meat

inspectors, industry watchers and food advocates quickly dubbed it “Have

a Cup of Coffee and Pray” because it transferred oversight from the

government to the plant, in shocking, industry-friendly de-regulation.

HACCP was supposed to replace meat inspectors’ old-fashioned “poke and

sniff” method of visually examining carcasses by instituting advanced

microbiology techniques. But it is also an “honors system” in which

federal inspectors simply ratify that companies arefollowing their own

self-created system. As in “Trust us.”

Last week, a coalition of food and worker safety advocates and

allies gathered outside the White House to protest USDA’s imminent plan

to implement HACCP system-wide now that it has been used at pilot

locations. “Instead of trained USDA inspectors, companies will police

themselves,” says the site of the group that organized the protest, sumofus.org.

“Plants will be allowed to speed up production dramatically. Chickens

will spend more time soaking in contaminants (including pus and feces!),

and poultry plants are compensating by washing them in with chlorine.”

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