Month: April 2022

PM Ethics Shadows, 4/12/2022: Civil War Memories, Crazy Climate Change Terrorists, Someone Figures Out That BLM Is A Scam, And More [Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

The Civil War started on this date in 1861, as Southern forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. That’s about all that needs to be said. All wars are ethics nightmares, but none has had more ethics ramifications for this country, from the lives sacrificed to end slavery, to the war crimes of Andersonville, and the total war tactics of Sherman, to the myriad instances of astounding courage, cruelty and incompetence on the battlefields and the ongoing debate about how best to glean the right ethics lessons from them. (Tearing down statues is not it, though.) The Civil War took away our greatest POTUS, Lincoln, and gave us Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison and McKinley, Civil War veterans all. The one non-veteran in the sequence, Grover Cleveland, is an ethics controversy himself because of it: Grover paid someone else to take his place in the draft. And yet….try asking the nearest college grad to give you the dates of the Civil War. I asked a Cornell law grad and former associate of one of the most prestigious law firm in the nation once.
She guessed “Somewhere in the 1930s, right?”

1. I’ll take “Unethical environmental fanatic nutballs, Alex!” Adbusters, a self-described “international collective of artists, designers, writers, musicians, poets, punks, philosophers and wild hearts” posted instructions on how to deflate the tires of “rich people’s” gas-powered vehicles. [Pointer: JutGory] “Wedge gravel in the tire valves, leaflet the SUV to let them know the tires are flat and why it was done, and walk away. It’s that simple,” the group said in a tweet. The group cautioned “to avoid targeting vehicles with disabled stickers or hangers.” That’s considerate of them…

This is what climate change hysteria does to people who lack ethics alarms. Here’s what they want you to leave on the windshield when you disable a car:

2. Good. Now what took you so long? On the Huffington Post, progressive opinionater Stephen Crockett authored a rueful essay bemoaning the fact that Black Lives Matter is apparently a racket. (Please note that this space figured that out years ago, and it wasn’t hard.)

He writes, Continue reading →

“Jen Psaki’s Job Is Not An Easy One (Easy One!)”

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

Well! Jen Psaki has been hot as a firecracker lately! Before we get into details, however, let’s add a verse to that immortal Gilbert and Sullivan song above, shall we?

When Joe Biden utters something idiotic (Idiotic!)
Or he babbles what his puppeteers forbid (They forbid)
Jen Psaki must deny he even thought it (That he thought it)
And insist he never did what he just did. (What he did!)
Though her figurative pants may be on fire (Pants on fire!)
Do admire her for the tales she’s boldly spun. (That she’s spun)
It’s a chore to be Joe’s designated liar (She’s his liar!)
Jen Psaki’s job is not an easy one.

OHHH!

Since deceptive propaganda must be done, must be done.
Jen Psaki’s job is not an easy one…Easy one!

There, now that I’ve got that out of my system, Jen’s latest hits!

First, the “Putin Price Hike” lie…

This goes beyond mere lying, which is what Psaki does every day. The claim that gas prices and the skyrocketing inflation are the fault of the Russian Ukraine invasion is gaslighting. Funny, I seem to recall both gas and other prices heading up at today’s trajectory long before Vlad decided to become a war criminal. Must be my imagination…

How stupid does the Biden administration think American are? Very stupid, apparently. Psaki has been repeating “Putin Price Hike” for quite a while now: obviously it was decided upon by some focus group exercise as the Democrats’ best chance to hypnotize Americans into believing that spending trillions the nation doesn’t have and blocking energy production to make Greta Thunberg happy haven’t caused the price hikes in everything, because it’s all Putin’s fault (and greedy American corporations). Of course, polls showing about 40% of the public still thinking Joe is doing a bang-up job does encourage the “these people will believe anything!” conclusion. Continue reading →

Looking Back: This Week’s Ethics Alarms Monday Retrospective (I Know It’s Tuesday)

/ Jack Marshall / Leave a comment

Last week was a very lively one on Ethics Alarms; you’d hardly know it was an “echo chamber.” The uptick in quality may or may not have been the result of not having to argue with a now self-exiled commenter who kept complaining about the process here (and explaining why the New York Times wasn’t really biased because not all of its articles were biased), and having to correct a now banned knee-jerk progressive who believes every bit of spin and fake news that warms the hearts of progressives.

Here are five highlights that you might want to check out if you missed them, but you could just read all the April 7 posts…

From 4/4: A COTD instant classic.

From 4/5: More bang for your metaphorical buck: 10 ethics stories instead of just 5. (Special attention should be paid to #5,#9, and #10)

From 4/7: In which some Democrats and journalists advocate defying the Supreme Court in the interests of democracy. I’m not kidding!

From 4/9: No, AOC, you idiot, nobody believes corporations are people….

From 4/10: Student questions expose the embarrassing hypocrisy of a “disinformation” conference.

What Is The Ethical Response To This Astoundingly Stupid Story?

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

I really don’t know.

In Florida, two teenage males—Can we say “males”?—were playing a fun and exciting game: they took turns wearing body armor while the other shot a gun at him, police have concluded. Surprisingly, at least to them, one of the kids was shot dead when a bullet hit a place that the body armor didn’t cover.

Christopher Leroy Broad, 15, died after being rushed to a hospital. 17-year-old Joshua Vining has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child with a firearm. Continue reading →

Ethics Dunce: The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.)

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced on April 6 that Russians and Belarusians who had been accepted to compete in the 2022 Boston Marathon and are currently residing in either country, will not be allowed to compete.

“Like so many around the world, we are horrified and outraged by what we have seen and learned from the reporting in Ukraine,” said President & CEO of the B.A.A. Tom Grilk. “We believe that running is a global sport, and as such, we must do what we can to show our support to the people of Ukraine.”

Morons.

Clearly, The Great Stupid (TGS for short) has variants like the Wuhan virus. This one is not directly related to George Floyd Ethics Freakout like the original “antiracism”/ let’s pretend every couple in America is biracial and make race and gender the most important criteria for goddamn everything TGS, but it’s almost as brain-crippling.

This one started in Germany, as I recounted here. Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was fired from the Munich Philharmonic orchestra this week. His offense? He is a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and refused to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I began by writing that at least that undemocratic version of TGS hadn’t made it to the U.S., but it rapidly made it here. Anna Netrebko, the celebrated Russian opera soprano, failed to submit to the company’s demand that she distance herself from President  Putin, and was dismissed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I wrote then,
Continue reading →

Funny! But Unethical…

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

Among the more diabolical guerilla tactics to highlight the epic failure of the Biden Presidency is the “I did that!” stickers, which turn up stuck on gas pumps across the country. There are many versions, including a “We did that!” sticker featuring Kamala. They are available all over the web, including on Amazon, here. I found them funny the first few times I encountered them.

The problem is that putting them on gas pumps is unethical. Come on, you know it is. The pumps are private property, and slapping a sticker on anyone’s property without permission is vandalism, albeit a mild variety.

Thus I cannot mount a great deal of sympathy for one Thomas Richard Glazewski, 54, of Manor Township, PA., who was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, harassment and criminal mischief, all related to a gas station “I did that!” rampage. “Off to the gulag with Glazewski!” exclaimed conservative site Moonbattery. Sure. This was a political prosecution? Prove it. When Joe’s apologists are allowed to post “Putin did that!” stickers with abandon, then I’ll consider it.

Mr. Glazewski also apparently sprayed gunk over his stickers to make them difficult to remove. I don’t know about you, but I won’t be joining the “No Justice, No Peace” protests in Manor Township.

Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 4/11/2022: Old Ethics Never Die, They Just Fade Away…

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

April 11 has a relevant leadership and ethics history lesson for today’s times, and it is also  a nice segue from the previous post involving a mega-jerk. For this, in 1951, is the date where President Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur from command of the U.S. forces in Korea.

After MacArthur had assured the President that pushing into North Korea would not bring Red China into the Korean conflict, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops rushed into the North and battled American troops, driving them back into South Korea. MacArthur reacted by demandingpermission to bomb Communist China and use Nationalist Chinese forces from Taiwan against the it. President Truman, finding himself unimpressed with MacArthur’s wisdom and not wanting to expand the so-called “police action” further, flatly refused. MacArthur then engaged in a public lobbying campaign, openly challenging Truman’s decision as well as the traditional civilian command of the U.S. military. Finally, in one of the many gutsy (if not necessarily correct) decisions that marked his tenure in the White House, President Truman fired the popular MacArthur and replaced him with Gen. Matthew Ridgway.  Harry told the nation in a televised address, “I believe that we must try to limit the war to Korea for these vital reasons: To make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted; to see that the security of our country and the free world is not needlessly jeopardized; and to prevent a third world war.” General MacArthur was fired, he added, “so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy.”

Truman stuck to his metaphorical guns, even as MacArthur returned to the United States to a hero’s welcome, parades, and declarations from politicians and others designed to undermine Truman’s authority and popularity, which was already on life support. MacArthur was invited to speak before Congress, and gave his maudlin “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away” speech. (You could trigger my old soldier father into a rant by just mentioning MacArthur.) Surprising many, MacArthur did “fade away.”

Good.

1. In ethics zugzwang, Texas blinks. One of the central ethics conflicts in the abortion problem is that a life is a life, and if it is unethically, morally and illegally ending a life to abort an unborn child, it is difficult to justify treating the mother differently from a doctor or anyone else. Gocha Allen Ramirez, a district attorney in Texas, exploded heads all over the state and nation by filing murder charges against Lizelle Herrera, who allegedly committed a “self-induced abortion.” Yesterday he backed down, dropping them. “In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” Ramirez, the DA for Starr, Jim Hogg, and Duval counties, said in a press release. Continue reading →

Hey, Professor Mann! The Jerk Store Called And They’re All Out of You!

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Jerks come in all shapes, sizes and types, but jerks of some prominence who broadcast their jerkiness in public are an especially loathsome breed. Jerk aficionados, I give you Michael Mann, the inventor of that staple of the climate change fanataspere, the “hockey stick” graph. Prof. Mann is the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. He’s a hero to the climate change doomsday crowd; he’s also attempted to bully his critics by suing them. None of which is necessary malinger to his recent jerk orgy. Anyone who sent these two tweets would qualify as a jerk grandmaster.

First we have this one:

Continue reading →

Why Am I Not Surprised That The Trump Administration Didn’t Follow The Law Requiring Reporting On Foreign Gifts?

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

(It’s a rhetorical question.)

Federal law requires each government department and agency  to submit a list to the State Department of gifts over $415 received from officials of foreign governments. “The measure is intended to ensure that foreign governments do not gain undue influence over American officials,” says the New York Times, but that’s silly: there are a thousand ways that foreign nations can and do try to insert quid pro quos into relations with our government officials that don’t involve jewel-encrusted scimitars, busts of Winston Churchill or pairs of golden marmosets. Gifts are ham-handed way to bribe anyone, but never mind: the law addresses that old “appearance of impropriety” thingy.

So I pronounce myself shocked–shocked!—to learn that the Trump administration left office without providing the State Department with an accounting of the gifts former President  Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials received from foreign governments in 2020. Continue reading →

From The “It Doesn’t Quite Speak For Itself” Files…

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

This sign was apparent seen on the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis campus. 

What’s going on here?

Is Purdue taking a stand against the miserable treatment of free speech on so many other campuses? Is this a student prank? Is it satire? Should we find it depressing or encouraging? If it is the work of students, will Purdue remove it? If it is a statement by the school, will students or faculty protest?