I really hate to do this, because there is a lot to write about, but I’m going to have to open up the blog to reader commentary early this week. I took a nasty fall in a (poorly lit, dangerous) hospital parking lot two days ago, and now have a bruise the approximate size of South Dakota in my sitting area, bowling ball-level swelling, and skinned fingers on both hands. In order of painfulness, I’d rank them sitting, bending over (I had to get my son to tie my shoes), getting into the car, lying down, walking and typing. Standing still isn’t too bad. Plus I’m commuting back and forth to that hospital.
I hope I can figure out a way to get out some posts—you would not believe how long this pathetic entry took and how many times I had to re-arrange the pillows.
Ethics Alarms 
Sorry to hear about that, Jack. I hope you have a quick recovery!
Dreadfully sorry. Get well soon!
Ouch. Get better soon.
Damn, Jack, I feel for you; hope you recover quickly. (And don’t let that pit bull of yours sense any weakness, or you’re a goner 😉).
Big hugs & swift healing for you and for your loved one currently in the hospital. You’re in our prayers.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-tackled-rams-player-running-field-said-got-concussion-rcna51765
Ethics Foul?
Assumption of Risk?
Just Deserts?
Fair Warning?
-Jut
I see he’s hired an attorney. I’d be tempted to tell his attorney the NFL has adopted a rigorous concussion policy that involves wearing a, you know, football helmet. I’m also sure the NFL doctors will be glad to evaluate her client on a daily basis to determine whether he will be sufficiently recovered from his concussion to be allowed back on the field this coming Sunday. Good thing the kid is white, and the player is black. I can only imagine how soon Ben Crump would be on the case if it were the other way around, even if the kid were armed.
Walking lawyer joke.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes!
I saw a replay of that incident. The guy was running onto a football field with a flare in his hand spewing smoke. He was being chased by security.
The player knocked him down and left him for the security people to handle. There was no targeting, no late hits, no unnecessary roughness. None of the refs threw a flag.
Seriously, if that guy had run onto the field whilst a play was going on, he could’ve been actually hurt. He got a better outcome than he deserved.
If you run onto the field with a firecracker, it’s your own damn fault if you get burned. If the player who tackled him for burned, the runner would be liable.
As for the protest itself, wtf?
Whoa. Get well soon, sir. That sounds like a whole lot of awfulness.
jvb
Not to distract from ethics and get wells but the spelling of “whoa” is one of my pet peeves I guess. It’s been misspelled so much the “incorrect” version, “woah” is now accepted as correct too. I always ask people how do you pronounce Noah when I see them use the “woah” spelling.
I’m glad to see you started with “Whoa.”
Interesting. I always spell it “whoa”. “Woah” just looks odd.
jvb
When I read “Noah”, I see no reason that I should be confused compared to when I have read “Woah”.
Even though the two words look similar, English is so messed up through and through that I’d be colored red if I sweated such inconsistencies.
Oh man. I just about fell this morning. Mrs. OB and I are in Amsterdam. The sidewalks are not poured concrete, they are made of foot square pavers. They seem to be not maintaining the sidewalks these days, relative to when we were here last. I’m not big on picking up my feet as I walk. This morning, when first out, I wasn’t paying attention and tripped on a paver that was sticking up. Miraculously, I regained my balance. Boy, was it weird. It was as if I was floating in space and some sort of gyroscope sprang into action and got my feet back beneath me. Praise Allah! Sorry you got up close and personal with the pavement, Jack. It’s the worst.
“Praise Allah”? Nicely done.
jvb
One of my sort of pet peeves, John. I think Muslims sound quaint always saying, “Praise Allah!” or “Allah willing,” but then I realize we Judeo Christians use “Thank God!” just as often.
Amsterdam is cursed. I once nearly took a header onto the concrete platform between tram lanes when I caught my toe stepping up to that higher-than-normal-sidewalk level. Managed to bang my knee pretty good, but with thankfully few witnesses.
On the plus side, if you do find you’ve twisted a muscle or something, you can probably locate a shop that will recommend a nice mushroom to help with that.
Amsterdam is dangerous. Surface issues (of which there are many) aside, you have to keep your head on a swivel. Bikes appear out of nowhere. Fewer scooters these days. I think they’ve been banned from the bike paths. But the new menace is battery powered bicycles. They are super-fast and virtually silent. Then of course there are cars and trams to watch out for. It’s hard on visitors.
As a Christian Arab, I feel obligated to clarify this (I see this often). “Allah” is not the Muslim god; rather, it’s simply the Arabic word for God (one of many actually). So even us, Christian Arabs, use “Allah” in prayers and services. Muslims use it frequently because in general they are required to practice using Arabic.
Yeow!! We will definitely be thinking about you here. Get better fast! My wife fell last week and is still recovering.
Geez, Jack. You didn’t have to go to that extreme to take a bit of time off. You are entitled and welcome to do that whenever you need or want to. But, since you have, best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.
Arrrgh!!! Get well soon. 😟
Wishes for a speedy recovery!
First off, take care of yourself, Jack.
Secondly, an observation on Facebook’s inane “community standards”: a good friend has ended up in just-short-of-FB-jail (she can’t go live or advertise, and she’s under warning for future… erm… infractions) for posting a news article about the death of beloved actress Angela Lansbury with a comment that “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” was one of her favorite movies as a kid, and that she still aspires to be a “nazi-fighting witch.”
The FB algorithm may or may not be as partisan as some people allege. Most of my more liberal friends who have posted anything vaguely political have been in FB jail, often repeatedly, for thoroughly innocuous comments. FB prevented anyone from linking to my (usually progressive) blog for over a year, and wouldn’t even reply to multiple requests for an explanation. But whatever else is true of the way FB defends its “community standards,” one thing is unquestionably true: it’s moronic.
Allowing a computer program to make decisions like that is always moronic. They’d better freeze William Shatner because, on the day when the computers take over the world, we’re going to need somebody to talk them into self-destructing.
Yeah…. It depends on the specific vendor, but algorithms tend to look for certain patterns of activity or certain buzzwords or catchphrases. That means that progressives *can* get caught up in their stupidity, but…. It’s like…. Do you remember the Obama era IRS scandal?
See, the IRS agents weren’t necessarily flagging right-wing groups, per se, they were flagging groups that had names Like “Happy Freedom Group Inc.” because it included the word “Freedom” in the name, and it *just so happened* that a lot of groups that included “Freedom” in their name happened to be right of center.
Algorithms are like that, they’re programmed to find patterns that are more likely to occur with right of center accounts and penalize those accounts. And it’s almost better for the platforms if their algorithms are less than perfect at picking out their political opponents because it gives them the fig leaf of plausible deniability because people, just like you did, can post openly and honestly that their progressive platform was also caught up in their bot’s stupidity.
There’s two differences: Frequency and Recourse.
Who is more likely to be caught by an algorithm, and if caught, what is the likelihood of correction?
Even if the algorithm is values neutral (it isn’t, but rhetorically) and progressive and conservative accounts were being effected at about the same rate with about the same severity (they aren’t), the appeal process is manned, and (again varying be vendor) sometimes doesn’t even pretend to be values neutral; Facebook is better than YouTube, which is better than Twitter. And really, we’re comparing how sparkly the piles of shit are in this context…. The bias is real, even if imperfect.
Until algorithms can avoid violating (obeying?) Poe’s Law, they should not be used.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
-Jut
I love the photo at the top. Those are some pretty cute nurses, Jack. Too bad you can’t see them. And why are you on your, er, backside? I thought that was the sorest point!
Catch-22
Ouch, that’s rough. I hope the swelling and pain subside soon. Take care of yourself!
Prayers and best wishes for a quick recovery, Jack!
On the ethics front, I learned a new euphemism today! According to a tweet from the New York Times, President Biden doesn’t habitually lie, he merely “has the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.” Oh, that’s much better! Now they are lying about lying! “Not a joke!”
I’m pondering whether “embellishing a narrative” is more ethical than just plain lying. I know, I know, for the Left, the ends always justify the means.
Remember the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” anti-police propaganda narrative lie that was plaster all over the media, well they’re at it again, now they’ve got a new anti-police propaganda narrative lie “Shot While Eating A Hamburger”.
These people lie as freely as they breathe.
Cluelessly unethical “journalist” Twitter guy with over 300k followers encouraged them to call Child Protective Services on Virginia Republican candidate Tina Ramirez (single Hispanic woman with mixed-race child) because she says she’ll teach her child about “Christopher Columbus and real American history”.
The fool then called CPS himself, and tweeted his complaints about their lines being tied up with extended wait times, harming people who may really need to contact them. Both making false reports and encouraging others to do so is a crime in Virginia.
How David Leavitt has over 300K followers is a mystery. His standing as a journalist seems to be sketchy at best, and likely only in his head; his claimed connection with CBS, for example, appears to be fictional. Any fame he has may stem from a previous widely-derided incident where he went on a vendetta against a local Target store that wouldn’t sell him an electric toothbrush for $0.01.
I can’t speak for Virginia, but its neighbor to the north appears to have had some problems with the mandatory reporting put in place after the Penn State scandal.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mandatory-reporting-child-abuse-traps-140026593.html
I’m sorry to hear you’re doing poorly, Jack. Getting injured at the hospital seems to be just layering trouble on top of trouble.
This forum continues to enrich me. Get well soon, Jack!
(I’m trying…)