Unwise Rulers

I really feel for this guy:

A University of Illinois math professor who derided states ethics training as childish, “petty tyranny” and “Orwellian” ended his four-year boycott by agreeing to pay a fine and submit to the training, a state ethics panel disclosed Monday.

Unwise rulers? Surely not here in Illinois! Oh, wait...

an ethics program put into place in 2004 by impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich

Maybe the math professor has a point. But the state has kept after him with threats of serious fines, and he is finally caving in.

Well, he tried.

By coincidence, I am reading The Appearance of Impropriety: How the Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business, and Society, the thesis of which is:

That our tut-tutting society
has become cluttered with rules
which can be useful as devious tools,
but which do little to stop actual impropriety.