Good News/Bad News On Karine Jean-Pierre’s Status

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

The New York Post has released a scoop: White House insiders attempted to persuade President Biden’s incompetent paid liar, Karine Jean-Pierre, to leave her post, thus sparing the administration, Democrats and any American who thinks his or her government should be run by people at least minimally qualified for their jobs of ongoing embarrassment.

Whew! That’s a relief. At least a few in the executive branch recognize an unqualified, inept high-profile job occupant when they see one and have the integrity and sense of responsibility to try to rectify the problem. The reason this secret effort to dump Karine was apparently attempted is what anyone watching her painful press briefings already knows: She terrible at her job. She doesn’t understand the issues and isn’t quick enough or smart enough to parry reporters’ questions effectively. Unfortunately, Karine is also a Dunning-Kruger sufferer. “She thinks she’s doing an amazing job,” one of the Post’s sources says.

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From the Res Ipsa Loquitur Files…

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

This really does speak for itself, but indulge me as I make a few comments…

1. The “money quote”: “I wish I was more educated.”

2. Ah, yes, the young protesting just to protest, meet people, have fun, threaten Jews! This phenomenon was rife when I was a student, and it so nauseated me that my bias against protests and demonstrations has lasted to this day.

3. When I was 18, I was certain that giving the vote to 18-year-olds was a mistake. People like these women informed that opinion.

4. Immature, uncritical, peer-driven Americans like this are easy marks for propagandists, cultists and hucksters. Imagine: similar zombie activists enabled Black Lives Matter to warp the U.S. culture

5. Good job, American educational system! Well done, parents! The life competence rules that one should never take action on a matter before thoroughly understanding that matter, and that one should never allow others to dictate your conduct absent your informed consent—informed is a key word—have apparently never been taught, explained or conveyed.

6. Nice to see that Rudy isn’t letting his persecution by the legal community for daring to represent Donald Trump, though.

Ethics Observations on Harvey Weinstein’s Reprieve….

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

The New York Court of Appeals overturned the felony sex crimes conviction of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein yesterday. The 4-to-3 decision held that the trial judge deprived him of his right to a fair trial in 2020 when he allowed prosecutors to call witnesses who said Weinstein had sexually assaulted them despite the assaults having never been charged as crimes or proven to have occurred. Using allegations of past bad acts to prove guilt in a criminal trial is generally forbidden in New York and other U.S. jurisdictions with limited exceptions. Since Harvey is already serving a prison sentence for another set of crimes that will keep him locked away until he is almost 90, the decision is more symbolic than useful to Weinstein. But it still needed to be made.

Observations:

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A New Ethics Alarm Goes Off!

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

I had dropped off Spuds for an emergency visit to the vet: one of his ears suddenly started swelling for no discernible reason. On the way out, I chatted with another concerned pet owner, who was sitting with her adorable aged Yorkie-Chihuahua mix (known as a “Chorkie”: that’s not her above, but it looks just like her—the dog, not the owner). We talked for quite a while, then I took my leave, after asking her dog’s name (April).

Half-way to my car in the parking lot, I started thinking, “That was rude. I talk to this nice, friendly woman for 15 minutes, ask her dog’s name, and never ask for hers or identify myself. I acted like she didn’t matter, and all I was really interested in was her dog. How dehumanizing and disrespectful.” Then I recalled all the other dog owners I know only by their dogs. (Everybody know Spuds.) One of them came by my house two days ago, knocked on the door, and gave me all the ingredients for tacos. “I know you’re having to cook for just one now after your wife’s death, and we had this left over,” she said. I had no idea who she was because she didn’t have her dog with her, a very old Sheltie named Lilly. Eventually I figured it out. (She pretty clearly doesn’t know my name either.)

Back to the vet’s…I turned around, went back into the pet hospital, and found the woman I had just left. “I came back to apologize,” I said. “I asked your dog’s name but never asked what yours was. I really did enjoy speaking with you. I’m Jack.” She smiled and said, “I’m Carla! You don’t need to apologize. That happens all the time!” “I know it does, and it shouldn’t,” I said as I left.

As I drove home, I found myself wondering if the fact that she was black helped trigger the alarm. It might have. Whatever the reason, that alarm is set now.

As the Biden Campaign Slaps Itself on Its Metaphorical Forehead For Not Thinking of This First…

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

We should have seen this coming. Maybe you did.

Pikesville High School’s athletic director Dazhon Darien was arrested yesterday after an investigation revealed that he used AI technology to created the fake audio clip above of the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert, ranting about black students and Jews. Darien, who is black, has been charged with disrupting school activities: of course the audio clip using the principal’s voice “went viral”and Eiswert, who is white, was widely condemned by the Baltimore County community. The school had to add police personnel for security and additional counselors. Here is a typical reaction to the clip:

Darien has also charged been charged with theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. Good.

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Dispatches From the Great Stupid: NPR Unmasked (Cont.)

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

I know I should be writing about the college campuses revealing to administrators and faculty that they have successfully indoctrinated their students into being anti-Semites, bigots, and fascists while remaining ignorant of history and ethics. I’m really tired today, however, and for a while, at least, I’m going to indulge myself elaborating on an earlier ethics mess: the revelation that National Public Radio has become a malign force in American culture, and will lie, obfuscate and spin to disguise its true nature and objectives.

I found two notes worth pondering. From the Times (I’m not making this up)—

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T.J. Maxx Wouldn’t Hire Her: It’s a Mystery!

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

Oh goody, EA hasn’t had a face-tattoo post for a while. I think we can make short work of this one.

That’s Ash Putnam above, a Tik Toker who’s “annoyed” because she applied for a job with the discount retailer and was told via email saying had been rejected. She strongly suspects it might have been her tattoos and body piercings that ruled her out.

Gee, what would make her think that?

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Unethical Website of the Century: “Above the Law”

/ Jack Marshall / Leave a comment

[Oh, all right, not “evil,” exactly, but I just wanted to use that clip from the Ethics Alarms Clip Archive because it always made Grace laugh. For an indisputably great director, Hitchcock allowed some pretty awful acting in his films periodically. ]

I was about to declare the legal gossip and now full-time Democratic Party and Woke World mouthpiece the Unethical Website of the Month, a title it deserves, frankly, every month, but decided to check its Ethics Alarms dossier. Not only would that designation make it the only website to be so honored twice, “Above the Law” has been an ethics dunce multiple times, issued the most misleading headline of the month once (well, just once when I bothered to flag it). Two of its most frequent writers, Joe Patrice and Kathryn Rubino, have been hit with flagrant ethics foul calls here, and that doesn’t even include the reign of terror and hysteria by Elie Mystal, the anti-white racist Harvard lawyer who was the most prominent voice at ABL until he left for “The Nation,” apparently because ABL wasn’t quite communist enough for him.

“Above the Law” isn’t the worst website out there, of course, but it is by far the worst supposedly respectable website. Yesterday, a legal ethics blog authored by a legal ethics specialist I know cited Above the Law as an authority on one legal controversy, and that did it: I won’t be going back there again. For a legal ethicist to admit to following “Above the Law” is the equivalent of a political analyst revealing that he or she watches MSNBC or follows NewsMax. It’s as disqualifying as opinion columnists quoting Kamala Harris, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Bill Maher, Joy Behar or Mike Lindell to support their positions.

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Welcome to My World: The Daily Travails of a Conscientious Ethicist

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

1. The Washington Post is hiring a new primary theater reviewer, and several friends and associates from the theater community urged me to apply for the job on the grounds that I am very qualified for it (true) and that I would be good at it (also true). I was dubious about whether I would be considered, especially because a) I fought with the Post critics over their biased and incompetent reviews of my company’s productions and b) a simple search of EA would reveal about a hundred posts critical of the Post, its editors, its pundits and its reporting. But I could use the gig, and I was transparent about my criticism, while making a case why it shouldn’t disqualify me.

Two days later, this story surfaced. It was the Post at its worst, indeed, biased, irresponsible journalism at its worst. I realized that posting this right after my application virtually guaranteed a ding, and I had spent a couple hours on the paper’s absurdly complicated online submission process. I also realized that I had no choice. Several friends told me I was nuts not to just skip one story; it’s not like I cover everything here. But that was a truly awful example of unethical journalism by a major news source, and attention should be paid.

Rats.

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