Good Morning, everyone!
[I thought I had posted this two hours ago! I’m sorry!]
1. Re President Trump’s latest anti-news media rant: American journalism’s abandonment of partisan neutrality, competence and professionalism has become the single greatest threat to the nation’s functioning democracy, along with the erosion of public trust that this has caused. I have previously endorsed President Trump’s earlier statement that the news media has become an enemy of the people it is supposed to serve. However, saying, as he did this week, that journalists don’t “love America” is incompetent and irresponsible.
But what else is new. Journalists just over-overwhelmingly hate him, and cannot muster the professionalism to do their duties fairly as a result. (Norah O’ Donnell actually interrupted Trump’s anti-journalism rant to call him a liar—nice. A network news operation with professional standards would suspend her for that. ) To be fair to the President, his use of language and comprehension of it is devoid of nuance. I presume that to him, saying that the news media hates America, hates him, and is the enemy of the people all mean the same thing.
2. Let’s keep track of which journalists and politicians relate Hurricane Harvey to climate change, or cite the dangerous storm as more evidence that the “consensus” is correct. This is the first major hurricane in 12 years, in defiance of virtually all predictions and climate change models, which told us that the warming earth would lead to more frequent violent storms, not fewer. Of course, the sudden and unexpected dearth of hurricanes during the entire Obama administration (no, Super Storm Sandy was not a hurricane) also doesn’t prove that climate change is a crock. But every single individual, activist, meteorologist, reporter, talking head, Democrat and Al Gore Fan Club member that points to Harney and says, “See???” is proving that he or she isn’t interested in the truth, just in furthering an agenda.
3. We shouldn’t allow California to secede, but it will be tempting, if it ever comes to that.
The California State Senate has a bill before it making it criminally punishable to “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” in a public health, retirement or housing institution. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced SB 219 which, among other somewhat less ridiculous provisions, directs that violators face a year in jail and a potential $1000 fine for, say, calling a transgender individual “mutton-head.”
The law states in part:
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), it shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to take any of the following actions wholly or partially on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status:. . .(3) Where rooms are assigned by gender, assigning, reassigning, or refusing to assign a room to a transgender resident other than in accordance with the transgender resident’s gender identity, unless at the transgender resident’s request.(4) Prohibit a resident from using, or harass a resident who seeks to use or does use, a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity, regardless of whether the resident is making a gender transition or appears to be gender-nonconforming. Harassment includes, but is not limited to, requiring a resident to show identity documents in order to gain entrance to a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity.(5) Willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.(6) Deny a resident the right to wear or be dressed in clothing, accessories, or cosmetics that are permitted for any other resident.
Jonathan Turley notes that while the measure specifies public health, retirement or housing institutions, such laws punishing disrespectful speech could use such a measure as springboard to general censorship. That’s assuming the Supreme Court won’t laugh a law like this right out of its temple. The professor, excessively careful as always, writes, “The criminalization of pronoun misuse however could raise serious free speech and other constitutional concerns.”Gee, professor, ya think???
4. I guess it’s “Pick on California Friday”: Senator Kamala Harris yesterday authored the second stupidest thing uttered by a female Democratic member of Congress—#1 is so wonderful that I’m giving it a full post as soon as I stop giggling [UPDATE: it’s here]—but it does raise hopes that she gives her party an opportunity to nominate a Presidential candidate in 2020 with the ideological bent of Bernie Sanders, the skin tone of Barack Obama, and the capacity for idiotic tweets of our current President. The perfect candidate!
“Joe Arpaio was convicted because he committed a crime. He should not be pardoned.”
Interesting! Only citizens who have been convicted of crimes or are facing prosecution need to be pardoned. Shouldn’t candidates for Congress have to pass a basic civics literacy test? Is Harris really that ignorant, or does she oppose the pardon power generally? Wait: isn’t that what her kinder, gentler, rule-of law-opposing state advocates regarding illegal aliens? Letting them get away with breaking the law, as in pardoning them?
5. In baseball, these are called the “dog days of August,” when all the players are beat up and tired. I guess these are the dog days of Ethics Alarms. Research and writing the blog hasn’t been much fun lately. After a fast start this year, the blog’s traffic crashed in July and hasn’t recovered. That’s discouraging. I get sick of writing about the same issues, but the news media’s dangerous abandonment of objectivity, the President’s incurable habit of handing it ammunition to misbehave, and the progressive movement’s increasingly open hostility to the rule of law and freedom of expression are constant, indeed escalating. It is irresponsible to start ignoring any of these out of frustration or boredom; on the other hand, what good does it do to keep beating the same drum—especially when I see anti-Trump mania rendering previously intelligent friends and associates irrational and willing to reject core American principles?
It’s also no fun being accused of being a white supremacist and a Trump supporter because I insist on applying the same ethics principles regardless of my opinion of the the violators or their victims. There is a concerted effort by the Left to embed a cultural standard in which those with approved, officially benign opinions have more freedom to express them than those whose beliefs have been deemed unacceptable. That is the beginning of a crack that will crumble the democracy, and I will fight against it until they cart me off to the re-education camp. But who am I kidding? Ethics Alarms is a pea shooter in the ethics wars. And nobody is to blame for my pitiful lack of influence at this crucial moment in our nation’s life but me. Too much time starting theater companies, watching baseball games, and working for Washington associations before arriving at the profession that nobody ever pays attention to. Ethics.
I need a vacation.
Ethics Alarms 
I encourage you to step away from the news and your keyboard for a weekend. Get some mental distance.
Travelocity has some pretty great packages along the TX Gulf Coast…
I am headed that way soon (for work).
Professional wave rider, in the (re)building trades, or insurance adjuster?
# 2-Something one might fairly attribute to the Global Warming that’s here and worse than the models predicted?
Box Office receipts are WAY down, laughably so for one selection:
#-2–2.0 Who didn’t see this coming: Hurricane Harvey is raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist!!
“Hurricane Harvey poised to disproportionately impact blacks in Texas, but no one is talking about it”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1693142
Already reeling from the raaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist eclipse, a Bruthah can’t catch a break.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/american-totality-eclipse-race/537318/
In a stunning display of objectivity, Snopes thinks otherwise:
http://www.snopes.com/eclipse-racist/
# 2–3.0 Ursas Maritimus Situation Not As Dire As Warmalista Alarmacysts Claim. Why? Lots-n-lots of…um…healthy (READ: FAT) Polar Bears.
“Fat polar bears [and lots of them] drive public confidence in future of the species”
https://polarbearscience.com/2017/08/23/fat-polar-bears-and-lots-of-them-drive-public-confidence-in-future-of-the-species/
#3 Last week, a trans FtM called my wife a “fucking dyke” 3 times & told her “your not cool.” My wife who is a rather obvious butch lesbian had not been verbally disparaged for being gay since the 90’s by high school boys. That someone who is in the LGBTQ¥£€ would literally use the same tactic as immature homophobes 20+ years ago was a stark wake up call for us. Transgenderism has become a hostile movement.
I’m not going to say more because there is a person on EA who had recently taken my words from a another blog post, combined them with words someone else said, and tried to spin it all into a narrative of me being some scary TERF. The fact that distorting others words online is a typical tactic for extremists, I no longer feel as “safe” on EA. This point illustrates my concerns about this movement.
I’ll end by saying I suggest people start really looking into this. A site I like,though I’m sure someone on here will discredit it, is a blog aimed at parents who are concerned about kids and the possible long term effects if transitioning early in development physically & emotionally.
https://4thwavenow.com/
I believe the alphabet soup of gender causes will break apart, because some no longer know how to limit their hostility to less than the entire world. I’m sorry they were hurt, but rage makes only needless enemies. Emily Post, where are you now?
The goofy thing is my wife was simply standing outside Whole Foods eating a power bar & talking to me on her lunch break. The insult was totally random.
Jack,
I just wanted to say thank you for everything you do. I so look forward to your posts. Your blog is a true oasis in a desert of noise and anger coming from both sides. I feel so realigned after your articles to be ethically neutral.
You should take a hiatus to help yourself. I will miss each day that you do not write.
“Research and writing the blog hasn’t been much fun lately”
I am sorry to learn this. I read regularly, and I find your steadfast committment to straightline ethics quite admirable, especially given the over-politicisation of everything we face today. Actually not only admirable but also educational. Please stay strong because your work is needed!
Jack, I’ve a suggestion RE:
I get sick of writing about the same issues, but the news media’s dangerous abandonment of objectivity, the President’s incurable habit of handing it ammunition to misbehave, and the progressive movement’s increasingly open hostility to the rule of law and freedom of expression are constant, indeed escalating.
You’ve landed on something kinda cool with the morning warmups. Extend the logic: collect a list of the week’s media outrages and the week’s Trump outrages, and publish them on Mondays. You can always do a special if something TRULY out to lunch happens, but if you compartmentalize them to a once-a-week focus it might free up time to cover other interesting ethics topics.
Just a thought.
Prohibit a resident from using, or harass a resident who seeks to use or does use, a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity, regardless of whether the resident is making a gender transition or appears to be gender-nonconforming.
Am I reading this wrong…or does it mean that absolutely anyone could use any restroom at any time?
Of course, bathroom segregation exists to validate feelings and possibly unlock an achivement. What other purpose could it possibly serve?
It’s not all bad. Would #pepperballs cheer you up?
http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/the-pepper-ball-shot-heard-round-the-internet/
Hi Jack – A newish reader here. I stumbled upon your blog a few months ago when I was losing my mind over rampant media bias and the ongoing denial of its existence by so many of my friends and family. I am still losing my mind over it but you (and all of your thoughtful commenters) have provided a much needed line to truth and fairness and just, you know, clear thinking. Take a break if you need it but please don’t stop the good and necessary work you are doing over here.
Thank you. Much appreciated. And have you noticed how Cracker Jacks includes fewer and fewer peanuts? Don’t get me started on the “prizes”…
Jack: One word: RERUNS!
Don’t get me started on Hurricane Harvey.
Ann Althouse has already posted (with a glaring type, by the way) on the media’s waiting to use the hurricane to beat Trump about the head. Big surprise.
The other day I was just remembering what it was like growing up in Miami, Florida in the ’50s and ’60s. Hurricanes were part of the deal. We were living about fifteen feet above sea level and four miles inland from Biscayne Bay. We had storm shutters we all knew how to put up. It would have been parental/adult malpractice for my father NOT to have them. Everyone did. We cleaned up after hurricanes ourselves at our own expense.
Even as kids we knew there had been numerous really bad hurricanes in the ‘twenties in the Florida Keys and also in Miami. Hurricanes were well known to be killers. But they were simply a fact of living in Florida, or along the gulf coast or along the Eastern Seaboard. If you were afraid of hurricanes you could always move somewhere else.
I wasn’t living in South Florida when Andrew, a Category 5 hurricane roared through south Dade County. But I knew people who “rode it out” in their houses and they were terrified and would never do it again. I was terrified when I saw Hurricane Katrina bearing down on New Orleans, a city that is on the Gulf and BELOW sea level. I was yelling at the television, “GET OUT! RUN AWAY!” Any adult who remained in New Orleans for any reason was criminally foolish.
So now we have Harvey. A Category 2 that might strengthen to a Category 3. Category 3 storms are bad. I’d run away if I were in it’s path as a precaution. Certainly if I were on a barrier island or in a low-lying area.
But is the hurricane unprecedented? No. But in the age of Al Gore and The Weather Channel, hurricanes are always freighted with global warming stuff and everybody’s an expert and no one is supposed to do anything to protect themselves, they’re supposed to wait for the sitting president to show up at their door handing out money.
Frankly, I suspect there’s a good chance Harvey may turn out to be little more than a tropical storm. And again, I’d put up my storm shutters and run away, just to be safe. But you’d think it was a Category 5 given the coverage. I guess it’s all about ratings.
As I said, don’t get me started about hurricanes. If you live in hurricane country and can’t deal with them, move to Idaho. Of course there, you’ll have to hear about how humans invented wildfires in the last fifteen years.
OB, we’ve got people in San Antonio, which is 122 miles from the coast, evacuating. By the time it reaches us, if it does, it’ll be a slightly windy thunderstorm. The media sensationalizes ALL weather foreasts, AND WE BELIEVE THEM. Possible that we have lost our collective minds?
Everthang’s bigger’n Texas, am I right?
I lived in Houston for a spell, been from Texarkana to Nacodoches to Amarillo to San Angelo to El Paso to Eagle Pass to Laredo to Brownsville to Freer to Corpus to Victoria to Pasadena to Orange; and a whole lot of other towns in between.
Only ~ 2.5 ” rainfall expected in Waco, ain’t but ~180 miles (~ 305 km) NNE.
That where folks are headed?
Just sayin’
I’m not scientist and all, but we exit the Paris accords and bam. Hurricane Harvey.
Not a scientist but that looks like causation to me.
Category 4 now and strengthening.
But no matter, you won’t find scientists writing papers about this in relation to Cl….te Ch..ge. They’re not permitted to now, certain phrases are no longer politically correct. Literally.
https://scontent.fmel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/fr/cp0/e15/q65/21054991_10155636640937579_8206153160477627036_o.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoibCJ9&oh=5727552dabec6259a6cc6ed07b768682&oe=5A196FFF
The “Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science” (FICUS) initiative was established in 2014 to encourage and enable researchers to more easily integrate the expertise and capabilities of multiple user facilities stewarded by the Department of Energy Office of Science into their research. In recognition of the increasingly collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of DOE mission science projects, this initiative aims to encourage innovative research exploiting a range of capabilities.
Because once a term is politicized, it’s useless. Who politicized it?
Adolf Hitler?
The Easter Bunny?
Gotta watch out for the Hitler Bunny. You get mesmerized by the ldark spot under that cute twitchy nose, then before you know it, there’s an army of white rabbits, screaming that they’re late, rushing toward Poland.
I’m so not falling for that again.
Mr. Marshall,
If you need a break, feel free to take one. Know that you will be missed and that many of us would be distressed were you to stop. However, as much as I would hate not being able to read your daily posts, I hope that you can begin to enjoy doing this again.
Thanks, Sarah. I need a vacation, but that doesn’t mean one is in the cards anytime soon. The problem with the ethics business is that the usual vacation months are the busy periods with lots of seminars and traveling, and the slow periods mean there’s no cash flow to allow a real vacation. Last break of more than a long weekend was 9 years ago. As Hyman Roth says, this is the life we have chosen.
“This is the life we have chosen.”
GREAT flick!
The underappreciated Roth was something: “Things were good, we made the most of it […] we ran molasses into Canada – made a fortune – your father, too.”
On who orchestrated the…um… demise of the guy for whom they don’t even have a plaque (statue’d be removed), Mo Green:
“I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business.”
No one would begrudge you some well deserved time off.
Know why? Because it has nothing to do with…welp, you know what I mean
#5
I was gonna ask if you’d pulled away a little. I’d noticed your responses to discussions waning.
Take a break!
I get how depressing it can be when it seems like the nation has lost its collective mind. I think it will calm down. I hope at least.
But we love the blog. I try to spread it around.
Mostly it’s been a bad and busy two weeks in other respects. The Verizon problem has been especially handicapping–if I have the internet, I have to use it quick and as substantively as possible.
#4 It’s especially egregious for Harris to tweet this, because she used to be the CA AG, so one would think she has an above average knowledge of judicial procedures. It may be plausible to suspend Occam’s in this case, because she is lucid compared to Pelosi, and worked in the court system. I presume that she was competent enough to get into that position, and with this assumption the tweet looks like typical #resist grandstanding with the knowledge that it is bunk.
Jack, maybe to make things interesting, you can give an analysis on historical events that would demonstrate good and bad ethics. Especially with your vast knowledge of the US presidency, I think a weekly article would be quite interesting.
Don’t get too blue over the current events. Keep the blog rolling, I think this is an amazing blog, which I visit daily. I’ve learned a great deal and I wish I had more exposure to ethical analysis like this in college. We had a few engineering ethics lessons, but nothing as comprehensive as your blog. I would even go on a stretch and say that it makes me a better person. Added bonus is the pleasure one feels when they can deconstruct friends’ arguments by pointing out the rationalizations they are using and pointing it out that one must properly conduct oneself.
Here is another quote from Kamala Harris.
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/Talk.Politics.Guns/rkOPVZdFTEM/GPb5UtdHBwAJ
Today, we remember #MikeBrown and recommit to ensuring truth,
transparency, and trust in our criminal justice system. #BlackLivesMatter
So I wonder if any reporter from the network broadcast and print media would
ask her any of the following questions:
– If the reason that “[l]ocal law enforcement must be able to use their
discretion to determine who can carry a concealed weapon” is because they
are just Klansmen with badges, why shouldn’t the Stormfront White
Nationalist Community also get to decide who can carry a concealed weapon?
– If the reason that “[l]ocal law enforcement must be able to use their
discretion to determine who can carry a concealed weapon” is because they
habitually gun down unarmed black men, why shouldn’t the Crips also get to
decide who can carry a concealed weapon?
– Is more black men dead or in prison a worthy price to pay to make lawful
gun ownership more difficult?
– Is making lawful gun ownership more difficult a worthy price to pay to put
more black men in prison?
– Does some magical guardian fairy turn these Klansmen with badges into
freedom riders whenever they exercise their “discretion to determine who can
carry a concealed weapon”?
If you spend too much time on social media, reading the NYT, WaPo, etc., or watching the cable news wasteland, it can get depressing. But it’s funny…when you get out into the real world and actually talk to people eye-to-eye you’ll often find this “divide” is largely being driven by the media and on social media.
Here’s a story that touches on this. 😉
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/08/22/hate-rise-michigan/104869382/
Yes!!!!! So true!
Here Jack, something away form the same old same old. http://ew.com/books/2017/08/24/handbook-for-mortals-pulled-new-york-times-bestseller-list/
Sorry you’re not enjoying the blog so much. I hope you come back refreshed. I’m drifting away because EA doesn’t stimulate me as much as it used to – and that is primarily because of your choice of subjects. (Entirely up to you, what you write about, of course.) This week’s comments about Hilary Clinton’s complaints and Nancy Pelosi’s gaffe seemed odd choices. I generally read EA after accessing Rachel Maddow, who seems much more into big issues that should stimulate thoughts on ‘ethics’. I suggest she deserves recognition for honest persistence and hard work whether you agree with her or not.
One word, Jack. Tequila. http://news.avclub.com/today-in-political-discourse-here-s-trump-s-weird-ant-1798346318
Oh yeah… Two more words… Tire Fires https://medium.com/geezer-speaks/tire-fires-8f783170717d
Get some rest, Jack. You’re gonna need it. Shitstorm grows closer every day, every hour.
C’mon, Jack. Looosen your tie, take off your pants, and have some tequila!
At this very moment, I am writing without any pants….
*gasp*
At least you’re not in shirtsleeves.
Pants? Overrated; plus who wears them anymore…?
Serendipity, my good friend.
He said no PANTS… but left pajamas curiously open.
Is Jack a part of the pajama media?
Awww Jack!!! You make a big difference! While the media tries to keep us hating, we have more opportunities than ever to connect and influence in our day to day life.
I don’t see the “hate” and issues in my day to day and my encounters with people in all sides is so wonderful! People seem so open to listening and are tired of the media.
My own father, life long reader and watcher of news told me yesterday, ” I can’t watch anymore, I think it was making me physically ill” – he’d been worrying about everything he’s fed, and got a horrible outbreak of shingles.
No more news for him.
Hang in there, you really do change minds or keep them thinking and acting with love, fairness and compassion.
I know because you challenge me and in turn I act kinder and more courageously.
Thank you!
XXXXOOOO!
However, saying, as he did this week, that journalists don’t “love America” is incompetent and irresponsible.
I agree, though I’m unsure how it’s worse than calling them the “enemy of the people.”
I’m also still stumped on how a governor telling Nazis they aren’t welcome in his state is more of a threat to the First Amendment than Trump’s constant attacks on the press.