You may not have realized it, but if you are reading this, you are
most likely WEIRD, that is, a member of a culture that is Western,
educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. The features of WEIRDness
can be summed up in the following sentence from Jonathan Haidt's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The

According to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/mayor-gray-this-is-not-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Washington <i>Post</i></a>, new allegations have
been made of a "shadow campaign" by which the District of Columbia's
largest contractor (in contract dollars) supported the current mayor's 2010 campaign to

One section of Haidt's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The

<b>The Ethics of Gut Reactions</b><br>
According to Jonathan Haidt's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The

<br>
In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The

<br>
Jonathan Haidt's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The
Righteous Mind</a></i>: <i>Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and
Religion</i> (Pantheon, 2012) is a book that does not, from its
title, appear to have much value for government ethics. But Haidt's

I've written about the issue of <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/independence-ethics-administration-sh…; target="”_blank”">ethics
commission jurisdiction over independent agencies</a> and
authorities, which arose in recent years in such places as
Jacksonville, Louisville, and Palm Beach and Broward counties in
Florida. The issue has arisen again in Broward County, in a

Should an ethics violation be an impediment to future jobs? In
general, I don't think so, especially when the violation was handled
responsibly, that is, without a denial, cover-up, and costly,
unnecessary investigation and hearing process. But sometimes ethics
violations involve much more than the failure to deal responsibly
with a conflict.<br>
<br>

Defining what lobbying is is one of the most important parts of a lobbying law. Not only are many definitions of lobbying
unclear or full of loopholes, but it is difficult to get even a good definition across, because the popular concept of lobbying is different from what lobbying really is.<br>
<br>
This can be clearly seen in what has recently happened in the Orange

I have written <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/luzerne%20pledge&quot; target="”_blank”">three
blog posts</a> criticizing the ethics program created by Luzerne
County, PA in response to one of the <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/689">ugliest scandals in
modern times</a>. Luzerne County finally got its ethics program