How The News Media Makes It Impossible To Be Ethical: The TOTUS Debacle [Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

The biased and dishonest news reporting on the incident yesterday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has disgusted me more than any of the disgusting unethical incidents I have had to watch, and sometimes comment on, this past week. I wrote about the news media’s lie, deceptive spin and fake news earlier today. For the record, I resent having to devote so much analysis and energy to political matters, but I don’t see a way out as long as the relentless assualt on our institutions and democratic processes by the blood-lust crazed Left continues to escalate while the Great Stupid crawls across the land like that green death in “The Ten Commandments.

There was a new development in the Get Hegseth! story: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth awarded a medal on Thursday to the service member who reprimanded his group for making noise at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veterans Day,” CBS News sort-of accurately reported.

Photos showing Hegseth pinning a medal to Spc. Thomas Iglesias’ chest were posted by the Secretary to social media with the comment, “We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist. Carry on Patriots.”

But the dishonest narrative continues. Here is NBC News’ despicable lie in its headline for the same story: “Hegseth awards medal to soldier who reprimanded him at Arlington National Cemetery: The soldier admonished the defense secretary, his wife and top aides for laughing and taking photos at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veterans Day.

Hegseth was not laughing and taking photos. A flat out lie.

In a normal, ethical, fair environment, Hegseth’s decorating the solder for doing his duty without regard for “The King’s Pass” or perhaps more accurately, the “King’s Rude and Clueless Female Companions’ Pass” would be accepted as appropriate, proper and ethical. But, of course, thanks to the near universal smear he received by the news media as they falsely framed the incident, his actions can also be dismissed as an obvious way to avoid accountability for the disrespect he showed at the Tomb, as falsely reported. They will be dismissed that way. He can do no right. He. like the President, is presumptively corrupt, vile and incapable of virtuous action.

Instapundit has a frequently employed mantra referring to journalists: “No matter how much you hate these people, it isn’t enough.” It is spot on, and this episode amply demonstrates why.

Here is my mantra:

“Take note, you conservatives and Republicans who let the “Blue Wave” swamp the nation, for these are the execrable people you allowed to get power over your lives because you wanted to throw a tantrum about inflation.“

“Now What?”…In Which Your Host Seeks Ethics Advice Regarding A Wrenching Ethical Dilemma

/ Jack Marshall / 18 Comments

Back in the good old days, at least according to many movies and my study of American culture, seeking to borrow money from a friend was considered a sure-fire way to lose a friendship. Accepting charity from a friend was a bit different: part of friendship is offering assistance (“A friend in need is a friend indeed!”). I have, however, often, but not always, rejected kind and good faith offers in that category, mostly when the charity came in the form of in-kind benefits.

But now I am beset with this question: How should I handle a friend—not close, but genuine–who has asked me for money,not a loan but a gift, in a personal crisis?

These are the relevant facts:

  • I have known him for over 40 years, in the course of my many theater exploits.
  • He is near retirement age, but still working.
  • He recently had a bout with cancer and is still in treatment.
  • He lost his job, and with it his health benefits.
  • He just sent me a recitation of his problems and asked via Facebook message if I would help him out financially.
  • He is a good human being, based on what I know about him and what I have observed.

If Grace were still alive, I guarantee that she would have vetoed any suggestion that I accede to his request. As for me, I am always inclined to help out in these situations even when I shouldn’t, and without going into embarrassing detail regarding all the metaphorical financial swords of Damocles dangling over my own head right now, this is one of the times when I really shouldn’t. I recently took out a personal loan myself to get through a cash flow crunch.

And yet…my friend really must be desperate to ask me for money: unless he has been cancelled for some hideous conduct I am unaware of. I assume that I don’t rank among his top 50 friends and family members, and he wouldn’t make my Top 100. Is he asking for a token amount? I have had bad experiences with that. I wrote a post a while back about cutting off a friend, a closer one than this one, who had been only contacting me to ask for money for years. Grace had once “loaned” him $10,000 (that we couldn’t afford), and it was like being extorted thereafter. Not only didn’t that now-deceased friend indicate any intent to pay back what we had already given him, he kept asking for more.

My question is: Now what? How would you handle this situation, or better yet, how have you handled it, and were you satisfied with the results?

Unlikely Ethics Hero of the Year: Alexandria (VA) DMV

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

Departments of Motor Vehicles everywhere are justly derided for terrible service: inefficient, sloooow, impersonal, and often surly. Disney’s “Zootopia” scored a classic scene (above) in which a DMV was shown to be staffed entirely by sloths. I have a busy day today on both the compensated and pro bono ethics fronts, and dreaded what I was sure to encounter this morning as I had to renew my driver’s license in person, because for various reasons I was not eligible for the on-line renewal process.

Believe it or not, my DMV appointment was at 9:30 am, and I walked out of the office with my temporary license at 9:46. In that 16 minutes, I moved through the check-in line in a trice. My number was called before I left the check-in desk. The cheerful and attentive DMV staffer at my assigned window administered my vision test, took my photo, directed me through the forms I had to fill out and sign, and arranged my payment with dispatch. Not only have I never interacted with the DMV in such a pleasant and streamlined fashion, I don’t think I’ve interacted with any government service, including a post office, so easily in my entire life.

OK, she was wearing a mask. I confess, I find that annoying, especially since it was a paper mask, which we all know (don’t we?) is virtually useless. She was young, so I doubt that she was immunocompromised. She was also Asian, however, and I know Asians are especially fond of masking up; she was, of course, female in Northern Virginia, so odds are that the mask was a statement, “I am a Democrat, I support Dr. Fauci and Wuhan fearmongering, and I am therefor a good non-Republican who all of you other woke saints can count me as one of you. Gooble Gorble.” I also could barely hear her through the mask and the thick glass at the window, and while the rest of her face suggested that she was returning my smiles, I couldn’t be sure.

But I digress.

The Alexandria DMV has vastly improved its processes and service, as well as its staff training and supervision. It didn’t have to, after all. We have no choice but to accept the service the give us.

There is hope.

“Nah, There’s No Mainstream Media Bias!” Amid Massey’s Impeachment Tantrum, The Axis Slimes Pete Hegseth [Updated]

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

Here I was, up early to finally cover Rep. Massey’s unethical slap at President Trump using Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as his voodoo doll, and what do I see but these headlines on Google News:

Soldier Shouts Toward Hegseth to Show ‘Respect’ at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (NYT)

Hegseth and his entourage scolded by military sentinel at Tomb of the Unknowns (WAPO)

Hegseth and advisers reprimanded by guard at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (CNN)

…and many like it.

“What an idiot!” I think. Hegseth (I am not a fan) is going to be under fire for as long as he is running the department by the Democrat majority in Congress and their ‘flying monkeys” in the news media (that’s PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser’s name for what EA calls the Axis media, and I find it amusing and fair), and he’s so insensitive and politically dim that he would alienate veterans by being disrespectful at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

But he wasn’t. Not a single story suggested that Hegseth misbehaved at the Tomb. One of the women accompanying him, either his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, or advisor Tami Radabaugh (or both) were heard “audibly laughing” as the daily ceremony at the Tomb at Arlington National Cemetery was about to get underway. As a result (I’ve seen this occur when I have been observing the ritual), “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times,” the sentinel shouted at the group. The rules for all ceremonies at the cemetery prohibit visitors from yelling or making any other “boisterous” or “unreasonably loud” noise.

Was Hegseth disrespectful at the Tomb? No. Can he control the inappropriate outbursts of adults accompanying him, who should be presumed to know how to behave at this sacred site? No. Would the sentinel reminding a visitor of the proper decorum at the Tomb be newsworthy if it weren’t an opportunity to impugn and denigrate a Trump Administration figure targeted by progressives, Democrats and the news media? Definitely not. (cont.)

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From The Res Ipsa Loquitur Files, As The Great Stupid Shows No Mercy As It Ravages The Land

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

This is what your friends and relatives who voted for Democrats want unleashed on society, or at least don’t care if it is. Because their scrapple costs too much.

Commentary from “Plan Nine From Outer Space”:

In Which I Lose Respect For Yet Another Brainwashed Facebook Friend…

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

This hurt. The long-time friend who posted the following commentary on the announcement above is someone I have long regarded as intelligent, reasonable, fair, perceptive and responsible. He is also deeply religious, and generally civically literate. Yet he posted the above announcement of this event, which I hadn’t hear of before, with the following commentary:

It seems we’re being given some warning. How do these people stay so enraged, for so long, based on such poor information? It exhausts me just reading about it…A million? The 5th anniversary of the January 6 Insurrection garnered only a few hundred participants. Success for this effort may depend on whom and from where the call to action is amplified. Let’s hope the President and White House are not inclined to acknowledge it. Ugh.

“Ugh” is right. How do “these people” stay so enraged? The online social media mob my friend is pandering to are the rage addicts; they have been enraged at MAGA and Donald Trump since he upset Hillary Clinton’s dream of being the first female President and Obama’s anointed successor! And ” based on such poor information”? “Based on such poor information”!!!!! What does he think was good information? That Joe Biden was “sharp as a tack?” That the Wuhan virus was so deadly that we had to shut down the nation, wreck the economy and tamer with election security just in time to elect Joe Biden? That the Republican party was the existential threat to democracy? That the inflation Trump inherited from the Biden administration was all Trump’s fault? That “the border is secure”?

Meanwhile, anyone referring to January 6, 2025 as an “insurrection” is either an idiot, a lair, hack, or believes everything MSNow says. Even Jack Smith, the Biden Justice Department didn’t try to claim it was an “insurrection,” and it was looking into every nook and cranny to come up with ways to lock those unruly conservatives.

This is like a production of “Rhinoceros,” Eugene Ionesco’s political allegory about a small French town where the residents start turning into horned beasts. Not you, my friend! Not you too!

One Upside Of The Left’s Gloating and Dreamcasting After The Mid-Terms: Their Civic Ignorance and Arrogance Are Being Displayed For Everyone to See

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

My progressive Facebook friends, and others of course, are re-posting that leftist fever dream with gusto. Posts like this are all over social media and X.

The confident and completely mistaken rhetoric that accompanies these celebrations is even being echoed by the dumb conservative news media as well. Here’s Fox: “Democrats’ midterm sweep hands them a path to bypass the Electoral College before the 2028 presidential election. Trifectas in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada could push the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to 272 electoral votes, two more than the 270.”

No, there is no path. The Democrats’ fondness for cheating can’t get around this one: there is no “If enough people decide not to obey the Constitution, then they don’t have to obey it.” Uh-uh. Sorry. Go back to school, if you can find one that bothers to teach Civics 101. The Electoral College is how the Constitution dictates that Presidential elections are decided. Democrats don’t like that? Swell, let them try to pass a Constitutional Amendment, and good luck.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is unconstitutional, and pretty clearly so. The Compact Clause (Article I, Section 10) requires explicit Congressional consent for interstate “compacts” that alter the balance of power within the federal system and infringes upon the interests of non-compact joining states. But more decisively, the structure of the Electoral College was carefully designed by the Framers through difficult constitutional compromise. Bypassing or nullifying the operational impact of the Electoral College across state lines using a multi-state agreement rather than going through the formal Article V constitutional amendment process violates the structural integrity of the U.S. Constitution.

And that, you confirmation bias-addled revolutionaries, is the position our substantially originalist SCOTUS is bound to take, should take, and will take. Sure, there are “experts” who deny reality, but there are experts who will say anything, like, say, that Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian disinformation prop. Bias makes experts stupid too.

The Electoral College is here to stay, for better or worse.

Defeated Members of Congress Actually Do This? And We Let Them Get Away With it?

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

Buried hundreds of words deep within an article in “The Athletic,” the New York Times’ online sports publication, about the looming failure of the Protect College Sports Act after the Democrat sweep, is this fascinating bit of information:

“Many lawmakers simply don’t return to Washington after being voted out. They lose their physical office space starting next week.”

What? WHAT???? They lose the election and blow off their last two months on the job? No elected member of Congress who does that should be allowed to hold elected office ever again. They should forfeit those two months of salary and their pensions. No one should hire them for any job; they should be shamed and shunned. Their names should be prominently displayed, published and circulated. In fact, this practice—how long has it been going on? Centuries?—should have been illegal, and a law should be passed imposing a hefty fine on any House member or Senator who engages in it.

My head started exploding when I read that passage 20 minutes ago, and it hasn’t stopped oozing brain matter like Mt. Vesuvius oozed lava yet.

The 2026 Mid-Terms Ethics Train Wreck is gathering steam…

How Can We Feel Positively About Veterans In A Culture That Increasingly Treats Them As Fools and Criminals?

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

This is the weirdest Veterans Day since the Vietnam era, and maybe ever. A major political party has just taken over Congress while decrying the use of military personnel for security and the national interest. Indeed, strong constituencies on both sides of the political divide are embracing the well-disproved notion that wars must never be fought at all.

A similar mindset immeasurably aided the rise of Hitler after the horrors of The Great War. It led the U.S. into abandoning South Vietnam before the mission was accomplished, and failing to complete the objectives in both Iraq wars and Afghanistan. That irrational and ahistorical position threatens to let Iran continue as the regional terrorism machine it has been for decades and the existential threat it aspires to be against Israel and the United States. It is why the nation foolishly no longer requires a period of military service for its citizens, and why recruitment has become increasingly difficult for our Armed Serviced.

The day before this Veterans Day, a lame duck Republican Congressman who has opposed the elected President of the United States from the beginning filed a contrived impeachment resolution against the Secretary of War for following the chain of command and doing his job. (More on this unethical debacle later today, I hope.) It appears that Democrats, progressives and the Trump Deranged will greet veterans today with, “Thank you for your service, you foolish tools of war criminals!”

Nice. I know I’m being repetitious, but these are the people most voters endorsed last week because hamburger is too expensive. (cont.)

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Ethics Quotes of the Month: Arthur Schaper (American Greatness) and Victor Davis Hanson (Hoover Institute)

/ Jack Marshall / 26 Comments

“The fallout falls fully on the voters. They are wrong, and they foolishly voted against their own interests out of short-term outrage. Across the country, Americans chose to punish the Republicans by punishing themselves even more. No matter how frustrating one may feel about incumbent Republican politicians at the state level or the federal level, the voters are not going to fix the problem by giving power to a political party that openly fraternizes with socialists, communists, Nazis, and antisemites.This is a major failing. The real outrage is the American voter throwing an electoral temper tantrum and hurting America.”

–—Arthur Schaper at “American Greatness,” in his essay, “A Contrarian View on Election 2026: Trump Was Right, GOP Was OK, Voters Were Wrong.”

Of course I think it is spot on: Schaper pretty much wrote exactly what I have been posting here over the past week. I particularly like this passage:

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