Friday Open Forum!

/ Jack Marshall

To get you revved up to post on important or intriguing, ethics matters, here is an actual comment I just kicked out of moderation:

Hey everyone! Just stumbled upon an incredibly interesting blog about the potassium content in bananas! If you’ve ever wondered “how much potassium in a banana,” this article breaks it down in a simple and informative way. Check it out and enhance your knowledge on the benefits of this potassium-packed fruit!

You should see all of the sincere letters I get from people who will pay to have articles printed in Ethics Alarms on topics having no conceivable connection to the topic of the blog who have obviously never read a single post.

Never mind. Go crazy. Or rather, “Go bananas.”

17 thoughts on “Friday Open Forum!”

      • The Xi Jinping “dictator” faux pas yesterday.

        Yes he’s a dictator. Now’s not the time to tell him that if indeed you are attempting to do the diplomacy you are claiming to want to do.

        Reply

          • So far the Biden true believers are doubling down that “of course Biden should call him a dictator to his face! That’s what is! Biden has always been a straight shooter.”

            Never mind the context of these diplomatic conversations is supposed to be one of rapprochement.

            I mean if our goal is to be feisty and aggressive then go for it. Call him a dictator. But that’s not the goal of this administration.

            Reply

            • Reminds me when he thought it was a good idea to call the Saudi prince a murderer, and then ask him for a favor.

              What could possibly go wrong?

              Reply

  4. Does anyone think that Xi’s announcement that he will continue the panda loan program to the San Diego Zoo after he took them away from the Smithsonian this week is an attempt to make Gavin Newsome look like a great diplomat because he recently met with Xi. (read: election interference)

    Personally, I would tell Xi to keep his panda’s if the National Zoo was unworthy. Hell, they aren’t even bears.

    Reply

  5. So, about the J6 “they were a riot, not an insurrection” thing. Footage is now being released and while I have not watched the thousands of hours, there are enough videos like this that make me think even treating most defendants as rioters is way beyond appropriate; at least for a large number of them.

    Reply

  6. Another article worth commenting on.

    https://groups.google.com/g/uk.legal/c/SAlMtNHz6ig/m/iuMpVqxWAAAJ

    Where are the women’s rights organizations?
    “Where were you when Israeli women were raped and slaughtered by Hamas
    terrorists?” feminists in the Jewish state demand to know.

    By Rachel Avraham | Nov 15, 2023 at 12:00 pm | Topics: Hamas, Women
    Share on
    Women attend a rally calling for the release of Israelis held kidnapped
    by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, November
    12, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90
    Women attend a rally calling for the release of Israelis held kidnapped
    by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, November
    12, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90
    On October 7, 2023, 1,500 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel by land, sea
    and air, massacring innocent youngers at a music festival, burning
    people living in border communities alive in their homes, decapitating
    babies, and raping numerous women. Simultaneously, Hamas fired
    thousands of rockets at the Jewish state. Israeli forensic experts
    have already confirmed that Hamas is guilty of rape, torture and other
    crimes against.

    As of today, more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, over 5,000 have
    been wounded, and over 230 are held hostage by Hamas in Gaza following
    the October 7 massacre, which Yotam Polizar, the CEO of IsraAid, a
    prominent Israeli humanitarian aid organization, compared to the Yezidi
    Genocide in magnitude. Already, the Israel Police have begun to gather
    testimonies on the rape and other forms of torture Hamas committed on
    October 7.

    Local Israeli media has documented countless instances of rape on
    October 7. It is very hard to forget the images of 19-year-old Naama
    Levy being forced into a jeep by Palestinian terrorists, with blood
    flowing between her legs, an indication that she was raped. One
    survivor of the Supernova Music Festival massacre told The Jerusalem
    Post about the rape and murder of her friend: “As I am hiding, I see in
    the corner of my eyes that a terrorist is raping her. She was alive
    beforehand. She stood on her feet, bleeding from her back. But then
    the situation was that he was pulling her hair. She had long, brown
    hair.” As one survivor of the music festival massacre told Tablet:
    “Women were raped next to the dead bodies of their friends.”

    Another survivor told Haaretz of a gang rape on October 7: “They bent
    someone over. I realized he was raping her and passing her onto someone
    else in uniform.” The terrorist is then said to have shot her in the
    head and then mutilated her body. More recently, the Israel Police
    has started to collect the testimony of survivors, documenting how Hamas
    massacred, raped and tortured en masse. Itzik Itah, who leads
    emergency responders, told The Jewish Chronicle: “In one house, there
    was a couple tied to each other with their clothes down and you can see
    definitely that the women underwent rape. When she is naked faced
    down, and her clothes had clearly been taken off not by her, that’s a
    woman who underwent rape.”

    However, following all of these atrocities, women’s rights activists
    abroad have been deafly silent, while others on social media have even
    had the audacity to deny that rape and other crimes against humanity
    were committed by Hamas on October 7. For example, UN Women, one of the
    most prominent women’s rights organizations, released a statement on
    October 13 – almost a week after Hamas’s massacre and abduction of the
    hostages – saying: “UN Women condemns the attacks on civilians in Israel
    and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and is deeply alarmed by the
    devastating impact on civilians including women and girls.” There is no
    mention of the grave atrocities like rape, beheading, and mutilation
    that have been committed against Israeli women and girls on October 7.

    In response to UN Women’s October 13 statement, 140 women’s rights
    organizations, most of them being either Jewish or Israeli, drafted a
    letter stating:

    “We strongly implore UN Women – and all other human rights agencies – to
    gravely condemn the brutal attack and atrocities committed by Hamas on
    Israeli citizens as well as the abduction of innocent hostages, to
    urgently act to protect the special humanitarian rights of women and
    children, and to do everything in their power to expose and recognize
    these atrocious and horrific acts of violence against women and girls
    and to bring the release of all hostages immediately.”

    Following this, CEDAW, another prominent international women’s rights
    organization, issued a statement calling for the “initiation of
    inclusive peace talks, the cessation of war and an urgently needed
    humanitarian corridor.” They did not mention at all the mass rapes
    committed by the Hamas terror organizations against Israeli women and
    girls. Following this, Nitzana Darshan Leitner, the head of the Shurat
    HaDin law firm, stated in a recent YouTube video:

    “Where are the women’s rights organizations? Where is the Me Too
    Movement? Where were you when Israeli women were raped and slaughtered
    by Hamas terrorists?”

    She continued: “Where are you when Israeli girls are kept hostage,
    tortured and sexually abused by subhuman animals? How come you have
    not even spoken a word? Is it ok to rape Jews? Is that what you are
    saying? Because we hear you all the time. All the time but now. On
    October 7, women and children were brutally raped by Hamas, some of them
    so sadistically that bones were broken. Young girls and elderly women
    were murdered and burned alive. Others were taken to Gaza to be gang
    raped on the streets and in military bunkers. Images of bleeding women
    being paraded through Gaza as captives were broadcast worldwide and
    nothing, not a word from you. No condemnation. Not a call to release
    the women and children.”

    According to Darshan-Leitner, “Rape has been recognized as an insidious
    war crime. It is a horrific criminal weapon that tries to serve a
    political objective. The Geneva Convention specifically provides that
    ‘women should be protected against any attack upon their honor, in
    particular against rape or any form of indecent assault.’ Why do you
    believe that this international law that you constantly wave in our
    faces should not apply in this case? Why do you believe that the
    international tribunals are merely a weapon to punish Israel but in no
    way should be used to safeguard Israelis?”

    In conclusion, she proclaimed: “There is no taking sides in this. This
    is pure evil. This is inhuman. It’s rape. It’s a war crime. When you
    stood up for women’s rights, you made a change. You exposed, hunted
    down, shamed and prosecuted the perpetrators of rape and sexual violence
    in your countries. But now you chose to sit idly because it involves
    Jewish girls and women. There is only one word to describe it.
    Antisemitic hypocrisy.”

    Earlier this week, in a rally organized by Israeli Arab journalist Lucy
    Aharish, some 1,000 Israeli women gathered in Tel Aviv, demanding that
    women’s rights organizations worldwide take a stance against Hamas’s
    crimes against humanity. According to her, more than 100 women are
    presently being held hostage in Gaza, with some of them being children:
    “We, the women of Israel, are calling for the return of the girls and
    women stolen from us.” Former Miss World Linor Abargil also attended
    the rally and added: “How can it be that all 268 existing women’s
    organizations in the world do not rise up to cry out? I call on the
    women leaders of the world to cry out.”

    Reply

  7. There seems to be a rash of recalled articles in the sciences recently. Some mentioned that sources in the articles didn’t actually exist. Popular Science recently dropped articles because evidently the service they bought articles from had ‘writers’ who were computer generated pics and resumes (in other words didn’t exist.) Presumably their ‘articles’ were also AI generated. Have also seen notes about other science publications and/or organizations pulling articles after release for similar issues.

    Reply

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