Ahhhhh ethics.  Great day for ‘em, 2009!   Bernie Madoff conning thousands out of life savings.  No ethics there, obviously.  But the unexpected end result of that con we might not regret, in my view?  Redistribution of all that wealth.  Another example, Canada’s media guy Conrad Black jailed for defrauding company investors.  The guy simply went too far on the scale and he’s paying for it.  Too bad for him.  Another, indefensible, example: Guantanamo Bay torture tactics as approved by George W.   He’ll answer to history, let’s hope, because he’s still a hero for some.  And today’s news from China, several parents jailed for feeding their offspring exam answers by cell phone.  Ethics.  We have gradations of ethical breakdowns, but it’s clear they abound.  From the small and insignificant, forgetting to pay for that Starbucks coffee and muffin, to the huge, and unforgettable Madoff fiasco ultimately made possible by numerous U.S. government officials who kept that balloon growing.  Til it burst.  Frighteningly and irrevocably.  These are the ethics we’ve come to know at this end of the scale.  The other end, equally human, is the stuff to embrace.  Compassionate, humane, cancelling out the other.  We all know of them.  You board the bus bound for work in the morning, and realize you’ve lost your pass.  The driver’s merciful and tells you to pay the next time.  You do.  Internalized ethics.  You can’t buy ‘em. 

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