Category: Culture
One of those things that make me go, “Hmmmm”.
Now that I have some free time to read the many news feeds on my Google reader I came across this headline this morning, “Mind-enhancing drugs: Are they a no-brainer?” I’m not sure what to think about the ethics professor who find this ethical behavior, but we are a hyper-competitive culture. It strikes me like the old story of Jekyel and Hyde. Questions arise:
- Is this another example of science outpacing our ability to determine what is ethical, right, or just?
- How much should we jump the evolution cycle via a drug to improve humanity. Yes, there is a difference between ‘enhancing’ male ED and change the chemical balance in the brain to make someone smarter for a moment or a day. Did you see the old Disney film, “The Strongest Man in the World”?
- Would these drugs make public education even harder and more segregated than it is today? Some could afford the prescriptions, some the black market, and some not. And how would you measure how students are learning across gender and race?
Here is a excerpt of the article. Click above to read the entire article.
“In the middle of the exam season, the offer of a drug that could improve results might excite students but would be likely to terrify their parents. Now, a distinguished professor of bioethics says it is time to embrace the possibilities of “brain boosters” – chemical cognitive enhancement. The provocative suggestion comes from John Harris, director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.”
Commentary: Judge Sotomayor is not a racist
Michael D Note: This is a good read on the current nominee for the Supreme Court. I am a white male who has benefited from being a white male in our culture. This commentary from CNN by Sherrilyn A. Ifill is a good rebuttal to those who would claim that Judge Sotomayor is a reverse racists.
When Don Imus denigrated in clearly racist terms the championship women’s basketball team from Rutgers University; when actor Michael Richards screamed at black guests in a comedy club, calling them the “n-word” and invoking the threat of lynching; when Trent Lott said that things would have been better if a southern segregationist had been elected president a half-century earlier, responsible white people from across the ideological spectrum stepped forward to explain that these individuals were not racist.
It is an insult of unimaginable proportion to unleash this charge on her, based on one sentence from her Berkeley, California, speech. It is not just irresponsible to make this charge against a sitting federal appeals court judge based on this flimsy record; it is — and here I’ll break the taboo — racist to do so.