Scanning the ‘sphere – morals and moralists version

Some interesting tid-bits for you while I do duty at the dentist…all about morals and morality and ethical conundrums…

Hillary taking donations from folks her husband pardoned? This particular guy was pardoned – before the Justice Department even got going against him – for charges he had mishandled government secrets. Which, we all know, is a very, very serious issue. Isn’t it?

This really illustrates a problem that has been little-discussed during this presidential campaign: a husband/wife presidential tag-team brings an awful lot of complicated baggage to a position that is already fraught with difficulty and complexity. Do we really want a president whose husband has taken money from anyone with money for the past 7 years, and who comes with an whole line of people to which she is beholden?

Rep. William Jefferson, D, La – defines bribery down. Glenn Reynolds wonders if congress’ approval numbers can go into single digits?

CBS’s Dick Meyer looks at emotionally stunted America and leaves you to determine whether our hookup, please-yourself culture has anything to do with where we are.

Drew Carey lends his voice to helping a community keep healing itself in the face of some upperclass development. A very well-edited and compelling video.

Is it immoral of media – particularly the public vanguard of the press – to carry any politician on their shoulders? Is it moral for pols to tell the press not to make things too hard? Can you imagine President Bush telling the press to stop being mean?

Is it moral to smash one sex in order to celebrate another? Ed Driscoll links to this piece in the Boston Globe:

In one sense, this is gender-bending stuff as old as Shakespeare, imagining what things might be like if men were more like women, and vice versa. But on ABC, role-reversal is pursued with such vigor that it feels like a social mission: a feverish, wholly off-putting attempt to break free of the boy-meets-girl formula.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston takes a paddle to pro-choice Catholic Democrats:

“However, when I challenge people about this, they say, ‘Well, bishop, we’re not supporting [abortion rights],’ ” he said. “I think there’s a need for people to very actively dissociate themselves from those unacceptable positions, and I think if they did that, then the party would have to change.”

O’Malley urged the Democratic Party to be more open to abortion opponents. “My plea with Democratic leaders is always that they make space for prolife politicians, and I have many prolife Democrats come to me and say that they’re not making space for them. I think that that is a very serious problem, particularly in a state like Massachusetts, where it is so heavily Democrat.”

Of course, there is a subtext for Rudy Giuliani and his supporters there, as well. The Capuchin Cardinal has a good deal to say on a variety of issues, so you’ll want to read it all.

And interview here with another Capuchin, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Colorado, who muses on the church’s response to the sexual abuse scandals and where to go from here.

Meanwhile, a Saudi rape victim gets the lash. Somehow I doubt the late, great Oriana Fallaci would think Islamic Fundamentalists and Christian Fundamentalists to be moral equivalents.

Are hyperbolic scams, by definition, immoral? Or are they only immoral when they encourage hypocritical behavior? Once again, if this really was “the” issue, “the” crisis they all vaunt, “they” would be living very differently than they are, rather than simply preaching to the rest of us.

Can the blame for 21st century terrorism be placed on the shoulders of the Versailles treaty? Amazing. The piece does not specifically blame Bush! ;-) Everyone knows there was no terrorism before him.

In Australia: Cockroaches on operating tables? Not precisely a moral issue…or maybe it is.

A consecrated virgin in the 21st Century? Friends tell me there are about 100 in the United States. A very brave and counter-cultural choice in an ear of cheap sexuality and devalued virginity.

And if you don’t like morality, there is always philosophy. The video is a riot!

Americans dropping out of presidential politics? I believe!.

And finally – what are the things that “get you right there?” Here is one woman’s list. Very interesting stuff.