Ethics for Dummies

eth·ics[eth-iks], plural noun 

1.a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture. 

2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a 
particular class of human actions or a particular group, 
culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics. 

3.moral principles, as of an individual

    
4.That branch of philosophy dealing with values 
relating to human conduct, with respect to the
 rightness and wrongness of certain actions    
and to the goodness and badness 
of the motives and ends of such actions 
--Dictionary.com
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Doing mop up after General Petraeus got busted last year for putting his John Thomas somewhere he oughtn't have (being the Good Calvinists that we, in the United States, are), Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called for an ethics training review by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for General Officers.

Doesn't it appear a teeny wienie bit too late to wait until a person reaches General Officer rank before they get ethics training?  I mean, once wee willie is out of the barn, what is the use in shutting the fly trap door?

It also seems somewhat hypocritical that a former Central Intelligence Agency Chief espouses this ethics review when his agency oversaw illegal renditions, secret prions and torture, none of which fall under the rubric "ethical". Further, why not ethics training for civilian Department of Defense appointees, to include their shill well-paid loyal attorneys?

How about ethics training for our political leaders and the folks over at State Department and Homeland Security (DHS)?  What about the Department of Justice (DoJ)?  The National Security Counsel (NSC) and the National Security Agency (NSA)?  Treasury Department?

Who cares about ethics today?  Who questioned the legality of elective and aggressive preemptive invasions, and the ethics of Long Wars?  What has happened to the people who have questioned the incarceration and detainment of people snatched up during these illegal, protracted aggressions? Hint:  They did not get the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Marital infidelity ain't good, but it may pale next to transgressions of the murderous sort.  Message: No fuck whores, but fucking nations is o.k.  This belated consideration of ethics -- the latest installation of ass-covering as an art-form -- indicts our entire structure of education and military training, including our conception of liberal thought and what constitutes humanistic behavior.

We need more than a remediation course on ethics.

It Didn't Have to Happen

Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law,
for my own safety's sake!
--A Man for All Seasons (1966)

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky
--Summertime,
George and Ira Gershwin
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The Trayvon Martin - George Zimmerman media circus continues, with Mr. Zimmerman's bail for a charge of second degree murder set at $1 Million. As expected, the social media lynch mob is ramping up again, too. President Obama mistakenly stepped in, biasing the case when he said, "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids." What a mess.

Why wouldn't Obama think about Zimmerman, who would be the more logical cognate. Both Obama and Zimmerman are mixed race; both prioritize community action. Zimmerman had mentored black children in his development (though the parents are too afraid to speak out in his defense.) Then the prosecutor in the Martin shooting said, "This did not have to happen."

While she is correct -- the event did not need to go down the way it did -- that is a personal judgement, not a legal yardstick. It does not matter how it ended but rather, was it within the framework of the law. It does not matter what should have happened, but rather, what did. That is the basis of legal action.

The Trayvon Martin ™ incident is just another sad case in the annals of random death in the United States. Why do people march over this death, yet cheerfully accept daily Predator and Hellfire strikes around the world daily? Why do those who protest have no problems with a Chicago murder rate outstripping that of Kabul, up 60% this year, primarily involving young black men?

Why should Martin's death not have happened, yet dead bodies in Yemen courtesy of U.S. guided missiles concern us not at all?

All life is of equal value, and if we do not accept this, then we must accede to totalitarian rule. It is odd that America calls Obamacare "socialism", yet raises nary a whimper at real totalitarian actions which threaten our core beliefs and values.

Socialism is the supposed bogeyman, while our entire internal security apparatus puts KGB efforts to shame. We operate under totalitarian security yet get squeamish over socialized medicine.

What are we missing here?

[This being summer, we are mining the archives for some good also-rans that did not get play, some never-rans, and might try out some new things. We are in the armpit of FLA and do not boat or beach, so we're just plum tuckered out. Languor is the mood. Mojitos and Gin and Tonic wind down the day -- and no HFCS in that tonic, please!

This is not to say new thoughts will stop flowing; they will.]