This is really getting up late; I spent all day writing legal ethics song parodies, including a new version of the “American Pie” parody I posted earlier. I was going to discuss the answers to that one, but I am so sick of “American Pie” right now I could spit.
Did you know that there was different end of the last verse? It comes in after “And the man there said the music wouldn’t play.” It went,
And there I stood alone and afraid
I dropped to my knees and there I prayed
And I promised him everything I could give
If only he would make the music live
And he promised it would live once more
But this time one would equal four
And in five years four had come to mourn
And the music was reborn…
The Day the Music Died.
1 . Here’s someone to add to your venal scum list: Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who has a “tell-all” book coming out exploiting her time as a trusted friend of Melania Trump. All of these wretched people—Omarosa, John Bolton, Mary Trump, “Anonymous,” the rest of them—are the same. They betray trust for money, like Judas, or Robert Hansson. By any ethical standard, such books should be written, if at all, after the individuals who trusted the authors are dead or at least out of the public eye. That rule is the same whether the scum is cashing in on being trusted by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or Donald Trump.
And yes, those who reward such low-lifes by buying their books are endorsing, rewarding and encouraging unethical conduct.
2. Wait, why isn’t this guy “cancelled?” From the Times:
The rapper and internet troll 6ix9ine, one of the most polarizing figures in popular culture today, is by turns grating, defiant, relentless, hostile and savvy, a self-proclaimed car crash, a rat and an admitted domestic abuser. At 24, he is also inarguably compelling to many, having landed two Top 5 hits — including “Trollz” with Nicki Minaj, his first No. 1 — and racked up more than one billion new YouTube views in less than four months, since his early release from federal prison this spring.
… In February of last year, he pleaded guilty to firearms and racketeering charges stemming from his role in the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, a violent, drug-trafficking Brooklyn gang, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, delivering what the judge in the case called “game-changing” testimony against his former associates… he was sentenced to two years, including the 13 months he’d already served — but it also put his life and rap career in jeopardy…
6ix9ine, a rainbow-haired, suggestively tattooed attention addict, was already controversial — an endless source of Instagram beefs that often devolved into real-world violence, and a convicted sex criminal, having pleaded guilty as a teenager to the use of a child in a sexual performance. Then he repeatedly doubled down on his villain status. His new album is called “TattleTales,” out Friday via the independent distributor Create Music Group,
3. I have an impolitic question to ask after you’ve digested this…
On Wednesday, four Democratic members of Congress sent the N.F.L. a list of questions about the race-based benchmarks being used in the landmark concussion settlement to determine whether retired players who filed claims for dementia were eligible for monetary awards. The lawmakers’ questions stem from two legal actions filed last week in federal court by two former N.F.L. players who said they had their claims denied because the benchmarks “explicitly and deliberately” discriminate against hundreds, if not thousands, of Black players who apply for payouts worth as much as $3 million.
The players want the judge overseeing the settlement to stop doctors from using the race-based benchmarks and rely on age, education levels and other metrics that would create a more precise point of comparison for the players. They also want Black players to be able to have the results of their neurocognitive exams recalculated using “race-neutral” scales to put them on an even footing with white players.
The rest is here.
Now the question: Am I wrong in concluding that African Americans want race-blind determinations when using race doesn’t favor them, but insist on race-based determination when they benefit?
4. Let’s see, which Big Stupid item should I use? There are so many! OK, I choose this: Tressie McMillan Cottom, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tweeted that “they have deputized all white people to murder us.”
Nice. How does this effect any white students foolish enough to be in the classes of this racist, race-hate provocateur? I thought that was the criteria for an excusable public comment by a professor. If it undermines students’ education, then the professor has to be disciplined. When her idiotic and offensive statement drew criticism. Cottom—of course—defaulted to race-baiting…
Why is someone like this employed by a major university?
5. Oh, heck, let’s do a poll!
Ethics Alarms 
Trying to rate them requires thinking far too much about disgusting human beings. It’s not worth it.
3. You would be right if you inserted the word “some” in two places in that statement.
And, to me, it appears that the racial benchmarks reflect poorly on one racial group, which may well be racist, and which is why they are confidential.
Of course, BUT…I have tired of the dodge. Until I see and hear substantial numbers of A-A saying, no, we reject the movement toward quotas and compensatory race-based hiring, promotions, etc, then I assume they are happy to reap the benefits. “”Oh now, progressives don’t want to defund police, just SOME progressives. No, we don’t want open borders, gun confiscation,abortion on demand…SOME do. To hell with that. The “some” who do appear to be calling the shots. Stop them, oppose them, or take responsibility for them.
I don’t have a problem with ‘Progressives this’ or ‘Conservatives that’ because no one is born into those groups, and they are defined by their beliefs and actions. It’s not the same for ethnic groups. There very well may be large numbers of Blacks who oppose what the more prominent and vocal say, and we never hear about them. Likewise, those who quietly nod their heads and agree. And, there certainly are a few who do speak out against, for example, progressive calls for race-based quotas, or reparations, or the implied denial of Black agency. But, ‘stop them’ is not possible.
Agreed. But is “speak up, then, and register your opposition” too much to ask?
The old joke is what is the difference between a radical Muslim and a moderate Muslim? The answer is that the former does the actual bombings, while the latter enables him, supports him, and makes excuses for him.
I’m surprised the polling results at this point so heavily favor the idea that these people are all so rotten it’s not worth making distinctions (67.65%!). While I agree they’re all rotten, only one of them is a violent criminal—at least, so far. For that reason I chose 6ix9ine.
Although “American Pie” is overplayed, there’s a story behind the lyrics. Richie Vallens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash February 3rd, 1959. Waylon Jenning was forced to take a bus to the concert which saved his life. Rock and rock took a nosedive for about 5 years and no talents like the Tokens and the Four Seasons took their place.
Buddy holly was rubbing Waylon for giving up his seat and said I hope your bus freezes up! To which Waylon replied, I hope your plane crashes! Jennings struggled with those final words for a long time.
“The Four Seasons” are no talents? Now that’s an eccentric verdict…Almost everybody is a “No talent” compared to Buddy Holly, but I doubt the loss of the Big Bopper and Valens plunged us into an alternate reality.
I’m sure they’d love for doctors to assume that, were it not for football, they’d have the same cognitive function who actually studied for real degrees.
*as those who studied for real degrees.
I voted for the professor because of biblical principles: to Him who hath been given much, much will be expected.
Agreed. I voted for the same reason. This person is responsible for educating young adults and needs to be more circumspect in what she tweets.
Of course, the POTUS should be, too, but he’s not and isn’t going to change. The fish rots from the head down here, so, it’s not surprising that the Best People turn out to be the Worst People, even if those people are in his own family.
And the Julie Principle might as well apply to rappers, too. In an election year in which BLM and its various violent off-shoots is the big issue, no one, especially the Democratic Party and its allies in the news media and the entertainment industry want to shine the cancellation spotlight on a black musician. #metoo? What’s that? Nothing to see here.
That is how I voted. Also remember, this is a state institution. Professors carry a lot of apparent authority with them. That is why professors can be punished for their statements in a lot of cases. Professors used to be fairly responsible people, so if they spoke publicly about a matter, it was assumed that the position was an approved one of the institution. This state institution is, at worst, saying it thinks all whites are out to kill all the blacks in the state. At best, this signals to potential white students that they are not welcome at the institution of higher learning supported by their tax dollars solely because of their race. If we had a justice system, judges would look at things like this, speech codes, and schools that don’t allow conservative speakers on campus and say “You cannot receive taxpayer dollars”.
Related note on despicable characters. Why is no one concerned about why the Kenosha officers were called to the home in the first place? Did Joe Biden visit with Jacob Blake because the two have an affinity for performing unwelcome digital penetration on others?
Honestly, I am getting sick and tired of the claims of social injustice when the biggest complainers lionize despicable characters to advance an anti-white agenda.
You make a good point here.
In the wake of the Rodney King beating, it seems to me that the black community began moving from innocent victims of racism or police brutality to making martyrs of the worst people. The O.J. Simpson trial soon followed with a lot of speculation (and fear) that there would be worse riots if he were to be found guilty.
Since that time, the protest movements have chosen their martyrs poorly. For every Breonna Taylor, there are five Michael Browns that go from local punks to honored dead. If the black community wants police brutality taken seriously, it has got to stop elevating the George Floyds and Jacob Blakes of the world.
The Democratic Party has not changed since the movie “Bulworth” came out. In this scene, my favorite of the film, Warren Beatty’s Democratic character perfectly epitomizes the Democrats of then and of today.
5. Can we add another option? The people who facilitate, enable, employ, publicize, give a pass to, encourage and compensate these creeps are the real villains.
(3) What I can gather is that they want to check these players for dementia. They need a ‘starting point’ figure to judge diminished capacity. So, the doctors are using textbook ‘starting points’ based on age and race to evaluate if a person has diminished capacity and the players don’t like that because they have to show lower capacity than white players to be considered ‘diminished’. OK, fine. Then we need to test members of Congress as well and we will used race-neutral starting number (OK, that was just bitter).
I say we go along with this. Seriously. We should also test the players when they enter the NFL. How do we know they weren’t diminished before they left college? What about high school? We can test them before and after high school as well. Let’s do it and see what the results show. Who wants an ‘honest discussion’ about the results of such a study? If we want race-neutral policies, we should have race-neutral policies. We need to stop handicapping (as in golf) people in every aspect of life.
Jack asked: :Am I wrong in concluding that African Americans want race-blind determinations when using race doesn’t favor them, but insist on race-based determination when they benefit?”
I would answer “No, you are not wrong.” This has been an ongoing phenomena since the Mike Brown shooting. Even before that, Equal Employment Opportunity was, in fact, race/sex based and was totally discriminatory.