Randy Cohen writes "The Ethicist" a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine, syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate in newspapers throughout the U.S. and Canada. He can be heard every other Sunday on Weekend All Things Considered on National Public Radio. "The Good, the Bad and the Difference," a book based upon the column, was recently published in paperback by Broadway Books. Cohen, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, is a long-time New Yorker. He attended graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts as a music major studying composition. His first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). A collection of these pieces, "Diary of a Flying Man," was published by Knopf. For several years, he wrote "The News Quiz," a regular column of topical comedy, for Slate, the on-line magazine. His first television work was writing for "Late Night With David Letterman." for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on "TV Nation." He was the original head writer on the "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" and he also co-wrote the show's theme music. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2012 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ A hospital where my father has worked hired a new department manager. My father's friend discovered that the university that granted her MBA is unaccredited and offers life-experience degrees from its headquar http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/10/21/about_that_caribbean_mba e1bba15a-7bac-4a22-8877-93e81790584b Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT My wife and I rent space at a storage facility. We were inside the gate when we saw a woman and her teenage daughter struggling with the entry code they had written on a piece of paper. They asked us to open t http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/10/14/mean_gatekeepers 8c7c1c19-95f8-4b74-b599-7b1a25ab27e2 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT In an English class taken by my friend's son, a seventh-grader, late assignments are lowered a full letter grade. Last term he handed in a paper. His parents saw him write it, his peers saw him deliver it, but http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/10/08/upgrade_needed 0535f4a8-2e66-4680-a08c-abe5e8a7a34f Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT I am participating in a charity bike tour in Italy later this year. Each rider must get sponsors to raise $2,500 for the charity. Since the ride will take place abroad, there are additional costs of airfare, h http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/10/06/never_mind_the_expenses d07516aa-6cea-4bcf-bfb2-07fba892aa24 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT ARMY, NAVY GAMES During a tour in Baghdad, I befriended a man who, working for an Iraqi employer, emptied our trash, cleaned our bathrooms and shared our danger. He learned that he could double his salary by http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/10/01/army,_navy_games 972b17c6-6285-4a0b-bf7c-f8281d6ab212 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT An acquaintance, a professor of philosophy at a small public university, is planning to hold his prewedding bachelor party at a strip club. Should someone who represents a university, someone paid to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/30/the_dirty_professor 4b678f01-80b0-4b71-91f7-0f1924a0f5e0 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT I am a supervisor at a large corporation in the Bible Belt. I am gay and out and, while the company has no formal nondiscrimination policy, my colleagues and supervisors generally have no issues with my sexual http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/26/dont_tell_when_hiring e538900a-e41a-4102-9d70-a2e7b7f7aac1 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT We hoped to attend a symposium, "The Middle East in the 21st Century," on a ship that would dock in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. Because we are Jewish, we wondered if we would be welcome. Our... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/26/planning_problems 4b17f589-c61c-4b7a-8f85-92069b77f172 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT A friend, a nonwriter, retired after a distinguished career, asked me to read his screenplay because I am a published author. It was terrible: poorly written with no plot. Worse, it was clearly autobiographica http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/26/hidden_opinions 8eec0da1-3b9d-43c5-876e-0867244cb7c0 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT A college with which I am affiliated discovered that its alma mater was written for a blackface minstrel show in the 1900s. Although the lyrics are innocuous, the school banned the song from this year's gradua http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/25/the_heart_of_the_alma_mater 1378dbc4-50bf-4097-bdc3-fcea81bf2459 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT I serve on my town's Cultural Council, which awards state-financed grants to local arts projects. Many council members themselves are artists and are permitted to apply for grants. Those members leave the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/25/shoo-ins_and_long_shots 086abd7d-6866-49d2-a570-a4e24a017029 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT Sometimes my normally obedient dog, Ornette, escapes our fenced yard and will not return on command. We open the car door and tell her excitedly that we will take her for a walk, her favorite activity, to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/25/a_dogs_lie 60e2c2fa-79f2-4657-8058-98edd589a502 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT I work as a consultant out of my home, doing a variety of research, writing and editing tasks for five or six clients at a time. Much of what I do for one client also helps me with others, since the topics are http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/25/when_to_drop_charges b946890f-9720-4952-b45d-78af7993e738 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT My parents graciously offered to lend my wife and me the down payment for a home. While we can easily afford the mortgage payments, the bank wants all of us to sign a statement saying the money from my parents http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/25/when_a_loan_is_a_gift c819abda-d23a-45a2-987c-4ccfe414a5be Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT One of the Lions, a team in our recreational men's soccer league, approached us officials about a female player on the Dream Center, the team they'd face next. Several of the Lions are Muslim, he said, and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/25/a_league_of_her_own d1e26650-64d5-4ef8-9892-0aa8f31cf2ba Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT DISABILITY DISCLOSURE I have a fledgling photography business, mostly shooting aspiring models. I am a full-time wheelchair user. When I mention that in e-mail messages when booking a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/24/ask_the_ethicist 309febd8-17f2-4d3d-b65d-5071941eaec7 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT I am a physician. A 30-year-old woman, a student at a local school, came for an initial visit. Her condition was unremarkable. A few weeks later the administrator of her school, a longstanding patient, mention http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/09/24/silence_is_golden--or_not 2e664a17-bb74-4c4c-89a3-34a07242432c Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:01:00 GMT My wife and I had a disagreement recently about the ethical duties of a teacher. I teach fourth-graders and maintain that if a student mispronounces a word, it is my sacred duty to correct the student. It's th http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/08/14/right_speaking,_right_viewing 6ca2b0df-107e-42a0-9ef2-c6a749185820 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:01:00 GMT A large portion of our grade for a course I am taking at a major business school is based upon group projects. One person on my team has taken an egregious free ride on the hard work of the rest of us. Most of http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/07/07/lessons_learned_at_school 155c31e4-7b1f-40f7-ab06-0517cc8a7f53 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:01:00 GMT I struck up a close friendship with a man. We take longs walks or simply talk for hours. I trust that our somewhat intense relationship will remain platonic because he is married and I am in a committed... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/07/05/hidden_doings 1460fe2d-93ad-4a9e-b7f2-b51934473762 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:01:00 GMT My friend, a young artist at the start of his career, offered to sell me a 1 percent share in him for $9,000. I would receive a portion of his lifetime earnings but would have no say in the sort of work he did http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/06/24/payouts_and_payoffs b5688820-fbbc-4a70-a31e-d326a88dde49 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT I am the president of the antidrug group at my high school. All members pledged not to use drugs or they would be kicked out, but I know that some of the most passionate and respected members have done so and http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/06/03/follow_the_rules_or_the_message 6491cb79-d2b6-412e-b009-2551437fc271 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT My daughter's play group consists of children ranging in age from infancy to 4 years old. One mother revealed that she does not vaccinate her son. After much frank but cordial discussion and opinions from pedi http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/06/02/kicked_out_of_the_play_group 44832e3d-b0d1-47e7-8a31-e696a2f0fbdd Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:01:00 GMT In responding to readers' questions, I often discuss why a proposed act is wrong. But it is also incumbent on me to suggest more ethical alternatives. Below, I revisit a few recent answers in which I failed to http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyCohen/2008/05/07/foeign_exchanges d8f0edfd-ea81-4f67-87ec-8a196f70df29 Wed, 07 May 2008 04:01:00 GMT