Category: Ethics

American Psychological Association Votes to Prohibit Helping Torture

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The depressing part is that the vote was far closer than it should have been:

The vote, 8,792 to 6,157 in a mail-in balloting concluded Monday, may help to settle a long debate within the profession over the ethics of such work. Psychologists have helped military and C.I.A. interrogators evaluate detainees, plan questioning strategy and judge its psychological costs. The association’s ethics code, while condemning a list of coercive techniques adopted in the Bush administration’s antiterrorism campaign, has allowed some consultation “for national security-related purposes.”

The referendum, first posted on the Internet as a petition in May, prohibits psychologists from working in settings where “persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law (e.g., the U.N. Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions) or the U.S. Constitution, where appropriate,” unless they represent a detainee or an independent third party. The association’s bylaws require that it institute the policy at the next annual meeting, in August 2009.

American Psychological Association Debates Torture

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There is nothing wrong with a psychologist participating in a legitimate military interrogation, but what the APA is debating now is whether psychologists should participate in torture.

Water-boarding, sleep deprivation, beatings, stress positions, extremes in temperature, threats to children…These are torture, and any psychologist, or for that matter any medical professional who aided in this, should never be licensed to practice medicine ever again.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

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Very good, but it’s about an hour long, so have the time to be really depressed.

In listening to the changes, I can only conclude that this is a direct result of avarice, stupidity, and malice by the leaders in the US in the political and business spheres.

The unspoken meme of the Reagan revolution was that if you were not rich, it was because you are evil, and thus the not rich must be punished.
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View From North of the Border

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Murray Dobbin has an interesting perspective on the “harmonization” and “integration” of Canada with the US, Americanize Me? No Thanks. He thinks that it’s ill advised, and his first example is quite illustrative:

Now we find out that despite recommendations from the Canadian Pediatric Society and the Canadian Cancer Society that Health Canada dramatically increase the recommended daily does of Vitamin D, the federal agency refuses to do so. Why? Because it is committed to “harmonizing” Canadian nutrition standards with those in the United States.

The interesting thing about Vitamin D is that there are two sources for this, diet, and sunlight, as the human body manufactures it when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet.*

Given the specifics of Canada, further north, less sunlight, the idea that they would need more dietary D is abundantly clear.

More generally, he finds America as a government completely dysfunctional†, America as a society paranoid morass generally bereft of morality†, and America as an economy as an “emerging economic basket case on pace to self destruct.”†

It’s a good read, particularly for Canadians who need to deal with Stephen Harper style boneheads.

*It’s why we have white people in the world. The layer in the skin that manufactures vitamin is beneath the pigment layer, so paler people make more Vitamin D for a given amount of sunlight, so in light starved regions, it favors the pale.
†I Agree

Hillary Clinton Cries Again

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Hillary was at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she volunteered in law school, and she teared up when her former boss there, Penn Rhodeen, said how proud he was of her.

This is not a story. This should not be a story. Public figures tear up all the time.

Bill Clinton teared up a number of times, his doing so while listening to PMaya Angelou’s poetry comes to mind, Poppy Bush did so at the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Reagan did every time a boyscout said the pledge of allegiance.

This is, nor should it be a big deal, though doubtless the Sunday gasbags will talk about nothing else..

Why India (and China) Won’t Catch Up With The West Soon

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While this article on issues with India’s procurement of a military helicopter purchase, it acutally shows a deep problem throughout Indian society that can be extrapolated to most of the emerging Asian economies. (Paid subscription required)

The illegal use of middlemen, impending 2009 elections and regional geopolitical issues are all likely to slow India’s weapons acquisition process just as the world’s industry is gaining unprecedented access to what is expected to be a $40-billion market.

India’s army is the most recent casualty. The government halted the acquisition of 197 Eurocopter AS550 C3 Fennec helicopters as replacements for 1970s-vintage Chetak and Cheetahs when allegations surfaced that middlemen had been used to seal the deal. Indian law prohibits their involvement in military procurements.

As corrupt and self-serving as the Western and Russian defense industries are, you don’t find this as the rule. It’s the exception.

In the West, they shave the rules, in much of the developing world, the rules are observed, at best, in the breach.

I think that this will present a barrier to further development at some point.

Reflections of Guy Fawkes Day

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Scott Horton has the definitive word:

But today Britons have a take on Guy Fawkes that is much at odds with the historical one. Once Fawkes was a symbol of the traitor within. The people were called to be on guard against his like. No longer. Today Guy Fawkes is increasingly viewed as the heroic figure prepared to stand against an unjust and oppressive state, as a martyr and a victim of torture. What are the lessons of Guy Fawkes Day for 2007? I propose three:

1. Torture Never Works and is Always Wrong

………

2. Beware the Government that Rules By Fear

……

3. A Government That Stereotypes Is Unjust

…

It should be noted that the brutality, fear-mongering, xenophobia, and paranoia of the Stuart Kings, those who tortured Guy Fawkes, led inexorably to the revolution in England that placed Oliver Cromwell in control of England as a dictator.

Petraeus Plagiarized His Manual

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Should come as no surprise that a man who has spent his entire career as a REMF*, only to be tagged as the next coming of Sargent Alvin York by the wingnuts, plagiarized significant portions of the counter-insurgency manual that he “authored”.

While agree that a military doctrine manual need not be as meticulously footnoted as a PhD thesis, but direct quotes should be marked as such, and any source should be in the bibliography, if just to help people who might want to tweak this later.

JCS Chairman Forbids “War on Terror”

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I have commented earlier about the difference between Naval and Army officers. In the Navy, it is expected that one would have made professional enemies before becoming captain, where in the army, there is more of an Eddie Haskell ethos.

Now that Admiral Michael Mullen is chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, we are seeing an honesty that was previously lacking:

Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) and has prohibited using it “in any future correspondence,” according to a Sept. 27 e-mail from a Mullen aide.

Personally, I’ve been using Total War Against Terrorism for some time.

Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week is Scam to Get Speaking Gigs

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David Whororitz admits it in an interview with the George Washington University Hatchet, the Student Newspaper.

“I’m a prominent conservative but no one is inviting me to speak at their campuses,” Horowitz said in an interview with The Hatchet. “I had to create an event.”

Ummm…No, you are an obnoxious lying fascist clown, who jumped from one extreme to the other, and have since been trying to milk that for all it’s worth.

You have less credibility as a speaker than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad*, who at least believes the crap spewing forth from his mouth.

*And DAMN you for forcing me look up his name.

What a Sad Pathetic Old Man

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John McCain is now saying that he has been a baptist for years:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has long identified himself as an Episcopalian, said this weekend that he is a Baptist and has been for years.

He’s not going to get the nomination. He needs to accept that, absent some major upheaval not of his own making, he will not get the nod.

I’d say that he should try to take all of this with a bit of class, but really and truly, he’s never shown any, he’s just convinced the press that he has some by keeping their glasses filled, both literally and figuratively.

On the Patriots Stealing Signals Via Video Tape

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Point 1: It’s against the rules, and it should be penalized.

Point 2: It should be legal. I believe that plays should generally be called on the field by the players, generally the QB on offense, and the MLB on defense. I think the constant sending in the plays from the sidelines has diminished the game, and making signal stealing a legal activity would have more players calling their own plays.

Old US Tradition: Leave Your Native Allies to Die

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This is sad, and likely repeated thousands of times. Iraqi interpreters and other people who helped US forces are simply being cut loose to be killed by various militias and insurgents in Iraq.

We did the same thing in Viet Nam, and Republicans in the congress are trying to do the same with Filipino soldiers who fought the Japanese during WWII.

If there is anything that we should do, it is allow these people to come to the United States as refugees.