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Professor Ann Pogson
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Practical Ethics Daily Blog
Practical Ethics Forum
Professor Ann Pogson
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| _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Not only are we humans malicious...we are too often also very, very stupid! September 26, 2011 -Marsha Bennetti, Norfolk _________________________________________________________________________________________________
shaking their heads this morning as they clean up a moronic mess at their offices. Someone who obviously opposes Peta's work brought in a load of dead fish and deceased crabs grossed out, not so much by the dead creatures, but by the fact that some of my fellow "human beings" are so stupid and malicious that they would smear formerly living creatures' guts on the front of a building. Increasingly, I am thinking that many so-called humans actually are not truly human at all! Comments welcome : on ______________________________________________________________________________________ Scary reality: New books shows young people not only don't have a "moral compass" -- they're not even sure what "moral" means!! September 22, 2011 - Samuel K. Pickney, Arlington,VA ______________________________________________________________________________________ _ There's a new book out called Lost in Transition that involves research from Notre Dame that I think you guys ought to look at. The research is from the summer of 2008 and was done by the famous sociologist, Christian Smith, and a research team. They talked with 230 young American adults about ethics and morals. New York Times commentator, David Brooks, wrote a piece about the study that I found interesting and also perplexing. Brooks said, "what's disheartening is how bad they are at thinking and talking about moral issues. The researchers asked straight-forward "about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life." Brooks' assesses the answers as being rambling and, "you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don't have the categories or vocabulary to do so. When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn't answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot." God help us! Comments welcome : on Return to TOP Return to HOME PAGE |
______________________________________________________________________ What is going on in America? You look like Iran! October 7, 2011 - Rozalinde LeFevre, Besancon, France ______________________________________________________________________________________ Everyone in the world knows that Americans are suffering because of a government that acts like people
streets to protest, the French citizens support you. The police beating people in NY look like Iran. Shame to the police Comments welcome : on ______________________________________________________________________________________ The U.S. Congress cut the funds that may have prevented the current deaths from contaminated cantalopes September 28, 2011 - Prof. Ann Pogson, Public Practical Ethics Daily Blog. Comments welcome : on ______________________________________________________________________________________ 16-people have died (now it's up to 22) so far and 72 have been sickened by the current Listeria food contamination crisis. The CDC says that this is the worst outbreak in ten years. And, it follows Congress' having cut funding for agricultural inspections! The Washington Post wrote: "Arguing that the U.S. food supply is 99 percent safe, House Republicans cut millions of dollars (June 16, 2011) from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget, denying the agency money to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress." And, this is the party that tried to tell us the Democrats would kill our moms with their death panels. YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME! |
| ______________________________________________________________________________________ Hospital discharges man, who dies just outside the building. This is NOT an isolated incident September 27, 2011 - Ted (Last name withheld), Miami, FL ______________________________________________________________________________________ I have read with interest that Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California discharged a man who died before even getting off
according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, and was discharged by the Emergency Room after a few hours. After leaving the ER, he remained on the hospital's grounds. Family members say that hospital personnel told them that the facility's security people found Torres on a bench near the entrance and, after telling him to leave, he was again spotted on a bench near the cafeteria. Torres was again told to leave and, later, was found dead leaning against a metal pole, still on hospital property. This situation has struck very close to home as I was given heart arterial by-pass surgery at a hospital in West Palm Beach, FL. It turned out that the health insurance that I believed to be in effect was not. When the hospital discovered this, my care was reduced to a minimum (getting me up and walking with the assistance of a physical therapist, for example, was dropped, even though it was required by protocol). Very, very sick and barely able to move, the hospital declared me well enough to be discharged. Being a professional man, my circle of friends includes attorneys, among others. A dear lawyer friend came to this hospital to intercede on my behalf. She was told that I was "well enough" to be discharged. The attorney told the Chief Nursing Officer / VP, that I couldn't yet walk and that there was no place for me to go as it was late in the day. My lawyer friend was blatantly told, "You sue us if you like but our legal resources are much greater than yours. We are going to put him in a wheel chair and put him on a bench by the main entrance." My lawyer friend asked, "and just leave him there?!" The V.P. said, "there's a little bridge just up the road. He can crawl over and sleep there for all I care. He is being discharged and that's all there is to it!" If this hadn't happened to me, I would never have believed that this sort of thing goes on in America! Comments welcome : on |
| ______________________________________________________________________ PhotoShopping humans to look like, well, something that we simply cannot attain! Goodbye to the old adage: Seeing is not believing! October 10, 2011 - Professor Ann Pogson, Blog Editor ______________________________________________________________________________________ It is becoming increasingly difficult for humans to trust our own eyes. EXHIBIT-A: The Ralph Lauren ad at the right, purports to show what a hip woman could (should?) look like. Take a second look! This obviously Photo-Shopped photo shows a woman who's hips are as narrow as her head! Not only is this an anatomical impossibility, trying to foist this sort of nonsense on us is a moral-ethical outrage! The ad ran and after much outcry at the fraudulent photo, Ralph Lauren fired the 5'10", 120-lb., Size 4 model, Filippa Hamilton, saying she was gaining weight! This sort of "grotesquery" is horrific at so many levels! Firstly, it perpetrates an absolute fraud on the consumer whom the ad attempts to convince is a look that is actually attainable. Secondly, it harms women by promulgating a beauty concept that is not only a physical impossibility but that causes many women to feel as if their bodies are "sub-standard." Perhaps even worse, at least subliminally, it puts into men's heads the totally false notion that "their" women should appear like a Photo Shopped fantasy, a cartoon character. In Great Britain, Liberal Democrat member of Parliment, Jo Swinson, says that the damage to women is more than psychological (although that in and of itself rises to the level of abuse). MP Swinson says that the distorted fake photos send into the marketplace "overly perfected and unrealistic images" of women. Swinson says that what follows is a flood of totally unnecessary eating disorders, anxiety, and steadily-increasing rates of unnecessary cosmetic surgery. England is considering a ban on digitally retouched photos' use in advertising. In France, there is growing support for "warning labels" to be affixed to ads that have been digitally doctored. Not a moment too soon! Comments welcome : on |
| ______________________________________________________________________ Looked at your blog opinion about Ralph Lauren ad... and got thinking about a growing trend... October 11, 2011 - Emmi Langsdon, St. Louis, MO ______________________________________________________________________________________
all the vogue in recent months. The shirts that I am enclosing are from a company called Topman. The first clearly implies that the new girlfriend is a dog. Even worse is one (shown at the right) that lists a bunch of reasons that we are led to believe are excuses either for physical violence or even sexual assault. "Allergic to Algebra", selling directly to girls, suggesting that females don't have the same aptitude for math (and engineering) as do males. Then, there are the sexist gems offered to girls by J.C. Penny's: "I'm Too Pretty to Do Homework, So My Brother Has To Do It For Me" tee shirts. There's one by Zazzle for men to wear that says, "Don't Be Sexist - Bitches Hate That". I would ask your readers to recall the word Misogynist: Hatred of women, inclination to disparage, diminish, humiliate, and disempower them. These kinds of shirts are particularly heinous because they not only denigrate women in general...they expose young girls to of these insulting male attitudes at a young age. Tee shirts (bumper stickers, cartoons, etc.) containing these kinds of degrading remarks are more than sexist. In my view, they rise to the level of out and out abuse. |