Ah, Saturday! When about 12 people seem to be interested in ethics….when traffic falls off to a trickle here after noon…when it’s even more discouraging posting now than before the post 2020 election crash…when I get to read websites with hordes of visitors post about issues I posted on here days ago….when writing the blog seems even more futile and pointless that it usually does.
1 Here’s some good news…at least one Hollywood star knows her limitations. Aging sex-symbol and “Avengers” star Scarlett Johansson is apparently secure enough, brave enough or dumb enough to tell her colleagues, as they need to be told, “Shut up and act.” She said in interview with “The Gentlewoman,” a British magazine,
“I don’t think actors have obligations to have a public role in society Some people want to, but the idea that you’re obligated to because you’re in the public eye is unfair. You didn’t choose to be a politician, you’re an actor. Your job is to reflect our experience to ourselves; your job is to be a mirror for an audience, to be able to have an empathetic experience through art. That is what your job is. Whatever my political views are, all that stuff, I feel most successful when people can sit in a theater or at home and disappear into a story or a performance and see pieces of themselves, or are able to connect with themselves through this experience of watching this performance or story or interaction between actors or whatever it is. And they’re affected by it and they’re thinking about it, and they feel something. You know? They have an emotional reaction to it – good, bad, uncomfortable, validating, whatever.That’s my job. The other stuff is not my job.”
Thank-you. What she neglected to say was that shooting off their generally under-informed mouths about political matters actively undermines their jobs, thanks to the power of cognitive dissonance. For example, I literally cannot stand watching any film with Alec Baldwin or Robert De Niro in it at at this point. Their characterizations, no matter how well performed, are drowned out by their obnoxious public declarations.
2. As the Star-Tribune attempts to intimidate the Chauvin trial jurors.…the home town paper for the trial published this detailed set of profiles of the jurors, leaving all the cues necessary to doxx them. This just creates one more obstacle to a fair trial. The judge was asleep at the switch in handing out gag orders: with at least one potential juror dismissed because she was afraid of community reaction to a “not guilty” verdict, it was reversible error to allows this much information about the jury to get to the news media, which we know is both rooting for a guilty verdict and doing all it can think of to facilitate one.
The most recent Associated Press report on the case, like most mainstream media stories relating to Floyd, never mentions Floyd’s drugged-out condition, nor his Wuhan virus infection. He was killed by the knee of a racist white cop, and the only question in the trial is whether that racist cop will get the conviction he deserves. This is how most Americans understand the case.
Does the news media want riots?
3. The question is, will the pilot be punished for breaking the regulation, or for the content of what he said to do it? The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Southwest Airlines pilot captured on an air traffic control recording ranting about the culture of the San Francisco Bay area while getting ready to take off from Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport. Airline pilots are forbidden from discussing anything but safety-related issues while taxiing or flying below 10,000 feet. “God damned liberal fucks!,” the captain said. “Fucking weirdos, probably driving around in fucking Hyundais…” There’s more, but that’s the most coherent part. In a statement, Southwest said the comments “are inconsistent with the professional behavior and overall respect that we require from our employees…This situation was an isolated incident involving a single employee and not representative of the nearly 60,000 hardworking, respectful People of Southwest Airlines…We do not publicly discuss employee matters, but we are fully addressing the situation internally.”
I’d say “unprofessional” is fair. I’d also wonder if alcohol, or some other impairment, was involved. But if the pilot is going to be punished by the FAA or Southwest, there better not be recordings of more woke pilots making derogatory statements about Texas, Donald Trump, or other favorite targets of the Left when there was no discipline at all.
What are the odds?
4. Did this really require a study? See the scholarly paper here, informing us of the shocking news that most people don’t consider transsexuals to be in their potential dating pools. The paper argues that in an ideal society, such matters as sex and gender would be irrelevant to choosing partners.
Apparently an ideal society would not view continuing human existence as a priority…
5. The rest of the story. Not that I care about her, but Sharon Osbourne has resigned or been dumped from “The Talk,” the CBS rip-off of “The View,” which is not worth ripping off. Osbourne is also a television host who wouldn’t normally be worth feeling sorry for, having a lucky career based on being in a dumb reality show about her addled, aging rocker husband, Ozzie Osbourne. But she has been cancelled for being white and daring to support her friend, British tabloid journalist Piers Morgan, who quite correctly categorized the comments of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in her Oprah interview as the self-serving offal they were. Meg is both sort of black and female, so one is not allowed to criticize her or doubt her word.
When Sharon Osbourne tweeted that she stood by Morgan, she was subsequently ambushed on “The Talk” by black co-host Sheryl Underwood with this gibberish: “What would you say to people who say that, while you’re standing by your friend, it appears that you give validation or safe haven to something that he has uttered that is racist, even if you don’t agree?” Osbourne then asked for an example of a racist statement by Morgan, which itself was apparently racist. Or something.
Later Sharon, being a weenie and perhaps recognizing that her luck was coming to an end, grovelled an apology to keep her job [“Please hear me when I say I do not condone racism, misogyny or bullying. I should have been more specific about that in my tweet”] but she was a marked woman—past members of “The Talk” panel came out of the woodwork to claim that she had made other “racially insensitive” statements.
So she’s gone. Osbourne had a lucrative ten-year run in a role she had no qualifications for (you know, like Joy Behar on “The View”), so it is not the injustice of losing a gig she hadn’t earned, but the manner in which she lost it that matters. As I wrote in the previous post on this otherwise trivial controversy,
In Great Britain, where there is limited freedom of speech, Morgan is being “investigated” by a government agency for being insufficiently compliant with liberal cant. The United States, however, does hold that freedom of speech and expression are critical to democracy.
The Left is currently trying to get around this by having giant corporations do the government’s dirty work, and intimidating and punishing those who insist on raising issues and arguments progressives want censored and buried, along with those views’ contrary advocates. For CBS, a national communications company as well as a part of the news media, to engage in this deliberate chilling of speech in the name of “diversity” demonstrates how quickly the culture is sliding toward fascism of the Left.
More troubling still is the now-undisguised strategy of labeling any criticism of any African-American group, movement or individual, even the ridiculous Meghan Markle, as white supremacy or racism.
Ethics Alarms 
I’m reading….
Well, you’re one of the 12….
I usually catch even the weekend posts, but sometimes not. I always catch up later if I do miss them.
Ethics Alarms supplanted Instapundit as my favorite blog a while ago.
Jack asked, “Does the news media want riots?”
Yes.
Riots sell.
Not riots. “Protests.”
Or perhaps “unrest.” They only use the word “riot” to describe the gear used by police to respond to them.
Agreed. Nothing is more boring than a pleasant day. They might have to make up some news…which is harder now that Trump is no longer
President.
Steve
I was going to say the same thing
Oh, don’t be so sensitive. I read your posts all the time: I just don’t comment on them all the time (tho I do know you get your stats). I just read (only) the Scarlett Johanssen section of your Saturday Morning Warm-Up, but I’m breaking off only to say, “Good for her!” We should all remember that actors aren’t necessarily smart, educated, or analytic. I do remember many years ago when someone made a comment about Roger Clemens being dense only to be reminded that his nickname was “Rocket Man,” not “Rocket Scientist.” Okay. Back to the Warm-Up… then bills, groceries, dog walk, etc., etc. Only some of which are saved for Saturdays…
Third of the twelve checking in (watching Bruins vs. Sabres on the NESN feed with the two most homer announcers of all time)…
Of course the media wants riots… since DJT left office, circulation and clicks are way down…
Do they want riots? Yes. Yes, they do.
4th of the 12 here. I’m a little surprised ScJo is making this proclamation now. Isn’t she the one that normally takes flack for some of the roles she has played such as Ghost in Shell and that one where they wanted to her to be a transgender?
I’ve never been able to watch the View or the Talk but my husband who has early onset Alzheimer’s loves to watch them and parrot all their obnoxious ‘facts’. Sigh.
Don’t post a lot, but always read and often share the hell out of your columns….to those who NEED to hear a different, rational perspective. Sharing such seems to inadvertently stop the conversation….hmmmm…ya think the woke folks would have some kind of response.
Many people are very resistant to “what they need to hear.” One might even think that it is why they are the way they are.
# 9 checking in. And a special Hat Tip to the state of domicile (WESconsin) of fully 1/3 of ’em; Steve, Alicia, & Yours Truly.
1–Right when I thought my…um…appreciation of the talented Ms. Johansson couldn’t improve…
#9
-Jut
Dang it Paul!
#10
-Jut
I am number 11! I rarely comment but I do read almost everything….sometimes on a busy day I may not get to all of them. I am GRATEFUL for your blog!
RE: #2 – Does the news media want riots?
Yes, of course it does. Riots are great for clickthroughs and cable news. Gotta replace Trump with SOMETHING. They’ve been taking it in the shorts lately, poor dears.
RE: #3 – Anyone who regularly uses a two-way radio in the course of their work has either fallen victim to or heard someone else fall victim to the Dreaded Unintentionally Keyed Mic. I recall that we discussed a similar topic a few months back. The public almost invariably won’t like what gets said between partners in such situations. But it happens a lot more than most people realize. Fortunately, must such events happen on private radio channels with far smaller potential audiences than first responders or ATC.
Riots just plausible grounds for big bad Republicans to impeach our president….
The Gotch doesn’t post here often, but when he does, it’s because of a Dos Equis…or two.
STAY DEPLORABLE, My Friends!
The Gotch
I always though you and Paul W Schlecht were the same because of the similarity and style of the posts. I think I’ve seen your comments over at Blaska.
This word SCHLECHT you keep using, The Gotch doesn’t think it means what you think it means.
You’re local?
The Gotch
No, not local. Just came across Blaska during the riots and defund the police, etc as I was interested in the outcome. Then I stayed for a while because Steve W. was commenting. Always enjoy Steve Witherspoon’s comments and occasional posts on his blog.
And, of course, I read all of Jack’s posts.
Riots? They weren’t Fiery, But MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS?
The talented Mr. Witherspoon is not only a Gotch Family Picnic veteran, but someone he’s deeply honored to call a friend.
The Gotch
Get Alizia to come back; she’ll help fill in some comment space.
3) I know a few pilots, and admittedly that’s not enough to make a blanket statement, but none of them are much in the way of what you might call “woke”.
Heh! THAT got an open guffaw!
I sense she’s near.
It did from me as well.
Kinda related to #1, of course I stopped watching Roseanne when it became The Conners but now I can’t even watch old episodes of the original Roseanne because of how the cast all turned on her. All of whom, except maybe John Goodman, wouldn’t have any career without her and even he threw her under the bus. They could have simply declined to comment.
I think that’s fair. Roseanne is such a vile personality and her comment about Obama’s palace advisor was so, so stupid that I have a hard time feeling sorry for her, but you’re right. Goodman, being an established success in movies and the stage, and Laurie Metcalf, who is also very talented and respected. were both established enough to show some courage and integrity and stand up for Barr. I have to wonder if she was just disliked so much that everyone was glad to be rid of her.
“Aging” sex symbol Scarlett Johansson seemed to be an odd phrase, since she is 36. Especially compared to the “aging” rocker Ozzy Osborne, who is 72.
In Hollywood, 36 is past the pull date for sex-symbols. Note that her big role in 2019 was as a mother.
Loved that film.
For those who don’t get the reference, the film was “Jo-Jo Rabbit.” Easily the most creative and daring movie of that year.
Dun bin red. Thank you for improving my day.
I want to say good for Scarlett Johansson, but where was that shut up and act statement when she walked off Rub and Tug because the woke didn’t like that she wasn’t a transexual? Guess she should still get the credit, though. Even if later than it should be, the statement is still a good one to keep repeating. Shut up and act.
I guess I’m bringing up the rear since I’m a west coast girl. I often read Jack’s posts into the late evening here (very early am in VA or, as the military say, “o dark thirty”). Like the others, I wouldn’t miss a one. I’ve tried sending the posts to leftist friends and had one response that “the reporter at Ethics Alarms is biased”. I gave up after that since I’d made it clear to everyone with whom I discuss EA issues that Jack is an ethicist and reviews current events through that filter. These people are so dumb, I don’t think they know what an ethicist is and why this blog is so important to maintaining respect for our culture.
Tolstoy presented a cogent argument for precisely that in The Kreutzer Sonata: once society reached perfection, and so all were prepared for heaven, there would be no earthly point in continuing this cislunar training ground. Of course, many – including me – have values other than his, but he made perfect sense on this.