Suzie asks some important questions concerning this report on young people's ethics. It doesn't surprise me at all that more boys than girls believe that lying and cheating are necessary for success in life. Now, I'm not one to bemoan Those Kids Today, as I've been doing some reading on 18thc politics and know we've got a long way to go before we hit rock bottom. But I do think that another point that should be raised re: this endemic of cheating and lying is that politics have far reaching consequences, and to me that is reflected in the survey. If the President and high elected officials lie like rugs and no one calls them on it, why shouldn't young people take that as a model and example?

Personally, I've come to understand that educators must take real care, and guard against cheating and lying, when it comes to teens today. There's a certain culture that crosses races and income levels, which lauds those teens who are able to 'get away with it,' whatever it may be. Again, I don't think this is too different than when I was a teen, or before that, but I think that teens who adopt this aesthetic will carry it on into adulthood, unless some authority in their lives teaches them that there are serious consequences.

It will be interesting, as the coming population wave assumes political and cultural power, in the many battles in which we find ourselves engaged today. People who don't believe that lying and cheating are great evils to be avoided will be more or less likely oppose gay marriage? More or less likely to believe that our nation should be engaged in wars of choice? More or less concerned with government spying? More or less tolerant of "the war on drugs?" I don't know the answer to any of that, but I suspect the political scene will be different, when this generation begins to exhibit its peak influence.

I think of this as one of those "what comes around, goes around" sort of things. Republicans have enshrined lying and cheating as legitimate forms of public behavior, and Democrats have failed to oppose that in a significant way. Soon, we'll get to find out just what it's like when a large portion of the population shares those beliefs. Short form: if the rubes don't follow the rules set up for them, it's a lot harder to suck up obscene profits from their enslavement.

Liberty, you've had your say. I'm about to have mine   Read more…

So it's Nephew Weekend for me (yeah!) and we're sitting here watching The Day the Earth Stood Still (What is it about 50s movies that make them so perfect for young kids? No swearing, gratuitious violence or sex, that's what). I'm trying to teach him about truth and lies. He's only 3, but he's bright and chatty and I think he's asked me "Why?" about 1 million times today. So I think he's ready for "advanced" concepts like the difference between truth and lies.

This may seem like a nonpolitical post to you, but it's not. I'm trying to better understand how Republicans can function, how their world is constructed, and I'm wondering if some of it doesn't come out of their childhoods. Actually, I'm sure that childhood development is the root of our problem. I can't do the detailed post right now, but let's just say that "Bobo's World" isn't just a pithy joke.

Hat tip to DailyKos, where the diarist "Free Exchange On Campus" provided the quotes below:

Great, great little piece in NYT today, which interestingly enough they chose not to hide behind the evil Paywall. The author: Frank Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Not a big name, not a politician. Very nice writer though, and his logic (as well as politcal savvy) seems quite impeccable.

His topic: Should Congress impeach the Attorney General? That they can is unquestionable:

A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct ... grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government.”

Emphasis added, because as we've said on possibly a time or two before, this is the heart of the matter.

Honestly. Is there anything Republicans won't lie about? Anything at all?

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist acknowledged Tuesday that he may not have met all the requirements needed to keep his medical license active — even though he gave paperwork to Tennessee officials indicating that he had.

The state of Tennessee requires its licensed physicians to complete 40 hours of continuing medical education every two years. Frist, a heart-lung surgeon who is considering a 2008 presidential run, submitted a license renewal with the Tennessee Health Department stating he has fulfilled that requirement.

Responding Tuesday to repeated requests from The Associated Press, a Frist spokesman said the Republican senator may not have done his continuing education after all [He must have been taking lessons from the same guy who David Addington worked with], and had contacted the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners to see if corrective steps were necessary.

Any doctor will tell you not to spin when you're lame, but Frist flack Matt Leigh gives it the ol' college try: