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Supreme Court ethics

At least one member of the Supreme Court told Justice Clarence Thomas that there was no problem accepting privately paid luxury trips and other lavish gifts from “close personal friends” without disclosing them, according to a statement issued earlier this month by Justice Thomas. Whoever it was — names were not disclosed — gave him stunningly tone-deaf advice, given the uproar that followed when ProPublica reported that the justice had for more than 20 years accepted expensive gifts and trips from a billionaire conservative friend. But Justice Thomas’s indulgence is just the ...

Human spirit showcased Sunday

Sunday morning’s forecast calls for pain. Mixed in will be periods of euphoria, doubt and determination, developing through the day into a gratifying sense of accomplishment. About 1,800 runners from around the world are expected to participate in the Maui Marathon’s assortment of races Sunday, including some 600 who will tackle the full 26.2-mile marathon from Puunene to Kaanapali. The top marathon runners are expected to cross the finish line in front of Kaanapali Beach Hotel in under three hours. The ones at the opposite end of the line will stagger home hoping to beat the ...

Leaking classified information

Any breach in the integrity of the nation’s system of managing secrets is a cause for serious concern. The leaks of classified intelligence documents online, through Discord, a platform popular with gamers, appears to have compromised fresh and highly sensitive intelligence, a breach that is damaging and also underscores that the system of managing secrets is in deep crisis. This does not appear, at this early stage, to be a case of foreign espionage, although the documents certainly have had sufficient time to fall into the wrong hands. It does not seem to involve a principled ...

Protect children, not their abusers

Incident after incident is teaching young people there are some in positions of authority of whom they must be wary. That is frightening, given how often we adults try to drill into their heads they should trust us and do what we say. There are reports of elementary school teachers arrested on charges of sexual abuse, accused of engaging “in inappropriate behavior and physical contact with a juvenile acquaintance under the age of 14 years old.” (Police do say the incident that led to that arrest “did not involve the scope of his employment.”) There are reports on ...

Merging in society

The way traffic merges is a fair metaphor for society. When all is going well, two lanes become one like a zipper. Cooperation, fairness and trust allow humankind to overcome a shared inconvenience in the most efficient manner possible. Taking turns, that is about as basic as it gets. There will always be a certain percentage of people who rock the boat by cutting ahead or refusing to yield, but imagine if we all did. It would be chaos. Same for society if we all decided to cheat, steal and kill. This was the theory we trotted out every time a Kula grandmother we know complained ...

Safeguarding Good Friday agreement

In The Green and White House, an account of the ancestral ties that have linked so many American leaders to Ireland since the 19th century, Joe Biden is described as the most deeply “connected” president of all. Throughout his career, Mr. Biden has placed his Irish roots at the heart of his political identity, and played an influential role in promoting the Northern Ireland peace process. Cometh the hour, cometh the POTUS? As he visits Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, there is widespread hope that Mr. Biden can put his backstory to profitable use ...