My personal favorite 'expert' of all time has got to be that of self-proclaimed 'ethicists'; such as NPR's Randy Cohen who relativistically assures everyone they are ethical by noting the occasional hair-thin 'grey area'. At least Cohen does not pretend to be a real ethics expert, just an opinionated and sometimes entertaining jack-ass. Forgetting Randy for a moment, the mainstream media has taken to annointing its own ethical experts from within its own ranks with which to deflect the much deserved fire it has come under (http://www.poynter.org/subject.asp?id=32). Pure CYA.

With the advent of genetics, questions of ethics became a hot topic, and people capable of guiding researchers just how far they can go (before igniting a fire-storm) became highly lucrative. These 'bioethicist' have taken on the role not of steering scientists away from morally reprehensible behavior but, rather, of redefining what constitutes 'immoral' in the public mind and stretching the moral fabric as close as possible to the ripping point. They've done such a great job of this I see bits of moral fabric scattered far and wide. Bioethicists were prominent during the last election cycle in the debate over stem-cell research and, before that, in the furor over Terry Schiavo. Not surprisingly, a lot of them are lawyers and publicists, though a few are psychobabblers and social-workers. Revealingly, they have no problem terminating semi-vegative patients and countless unborn children, but get apoplectic about terminating serial killers. Then, there's the ethicist whose focus is the dispensibility of G-d (see http://atheistethicist.blogspot.com/2007/07/language-fallacies-and-moral.html). Commercially, there's Dr. von Hagens who is both an entrepreneur of cadaver shows and key member of the professional association (Institute for Plastination) tasked with validating his cadavers are 'ethically' obtained (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5553329). How convenient.

We all engage in a bit of ethical kibbitzing regarding the misbehaviors of our neighbors, but it is the height of chutzpah to set yourself up in the position of unassailable authority without reference to any established code and in rank opposition to the only legitimate source for a moral absolute we know of for the purpose of ducking responsibility and cutting corners.

“As long as your pronouncements serve the correct political agenda, any deviance with reality can be explained away by the headline ‘Experts Surprised’.”

The media are constantly “surprised” because reality rarely (if ever) fits their world view. This is revealed by one of my favorite quotes by ABC News anchor Peter Jennings who thought it strange that, “The prison population increased even though the crime rate went down.”

Speaking of Jennings, get a load of this revealing quote: “I think it was Barbara Walters who unwittingly gave away the Leftist media's secret the other night while supposedly heaping high praise on the newly dead Peter Jennings. Between gushes of admiration and sighs of sorrow not seen since the apostles lost their Lord, Walters waxed poetic about this Canadian-born socialist whose mother had raised him to hate America. On and on Walters went until, near the end, she offered the highest praise a Leftist could fathom: ‘What made Peter so great,’ she said ‘was that he knew there was no such thing as the truth.’" – Evan Sayet, “Peter Knew There Is No Truth”, Aug 15, 2005.

The internet does allow us to obtain raw data and does save a bunch of time. I have noticed lately that junk sites are everywhere.

George Goeble (sp?) advised us to look at the word "expert". An "ex" is a has been, and a "spurt" is a drip under pressure.