Well, I’ll include one movie-related note. Grace, the late Mrs. Marshall, was amazing in her ability to spot continuity errors in films, and logical gaffes and plot holes annoyed her greatly, even more than they do me. (The “impact tremors” when the T-Rex is approaching in “Jurassic Park” was a particular target of her scorn: water would ripple in the glass, but at the climax of the film the dinosaur somehow creeps up on everybody to surprise the raptors and rescue the heroes. Grace mentioned it every time we saw the film, which was often.) The Times has a feature called “As Oscars approach, an honest look at beloved sports movies’ glaring plot holes.” The holes cited are the kind of things Grace would hate, but these are hardly “beloved sports movies.” In fact, almost all of them stink. Not one comes close to being on my list of the best sports movies (which are all ethics movies too.) You would have to staple my eyelids to my forehead to get me to watch “Happy Gilmore.”
1. Stop making me defend the public school system! On what must have been a slow outrage day, the Daily Caller took after this assignment, allegedly screen-shotted by a 16-year-old student:
Yeah, it looks like a dumb assignment, but absent context and the class work around it, there is no fair way to be sure. But what struck me about the Daily Caller’s critique was this: “If your child is incapable of writing more than 10 or so sentences on World War I, you have failed to educate them. Therefore, you have failed as a parent and you’re continuing to do so if you keep allowing schools to get away with not doing their job — a job you pay them for with your taxes every year.”
The failure of parents to do their duty of educating their kids as well as the deterioration of public education are important issues, but World War I illiteracy isn’t proof of either. I had a very good public school education, and my father was teaching my sister and me history all the time, but The Great War was largely ignored by both. It has always been a black hole of U.S. history along with the War of 1812, for a variety of reasons. There’s a lot more to American history than that remarkably pointless war, and the Revolution, the Civil War and World War II get most of the limited time the schools have to cover conflicts, as they should.
2. Abuse of position! What the heck business does the Pope have making policy recommendations to Ukraine? Pope Francis was interviewed in February on the Swiss television channel RSI. The interviewer asked Francis if he believed that in Ukraine there was the need to “surrender, the white flag in this case,” or if such a capitulation would only legitimize the actions of strongmen. Pope Francis answered that the fear of encouraging the aggressor was “one interpretation, it’s true. But I believe that the strongest is the one who sees the situation, thinks of the people, and has the courage of the white flag, and to negotiate.” In response to a lot of backlash, the Vatican spokesman “clarified” that the Pope meant “cease-fire and negotiation,” not surrender, when he evoked the white flag.
Pope Francis has no expertise in geopolitical affairs, military strategy, or Ukrainian needs and objectives. He is not competent to advise in these matters, and because of his out-sized influence on so many, it is unethical for him to offer his opinion or advice.
3. From the res ipsa loquitur files: Elon Musk on illegal immigration:
4. The fact that this question would a) be asked of The Ethicist and b) be judged worthy of publication shows how much DEI madness has rotted rational society. The questioner was invited to a men-only social event, and his wife was resentful, feeling like she should be able to attend. “How should we feel about gender-exclusionary spaces in 2024?” the woke-tending man asks. Men have every right to want to occasionally hang out with “the guys.” Women have the same right. Gays can guiltlessly get together as in “The Boys in the Band.” Organized clubs and institutions that discriminate by sex are a different issue ethically and practically, but a private gathering of like-minded or chromosomed individuals is usually harmless and frequently healthy. In his usual verbose and detailed fashion, The Ethicist reaches the same conclusion.
5. Asshole. President Trump imitated Biden’s stutter again. He’s incorrigible, but we knew that. I would have found that kind of conduct unforgivable from a fellow sixth grader when I was 11. Trump is running for President.
6. Bias makes you stupid. A revered (though senile) Harvard professor and a judge issued this last August, and their position proved spectacularly wrong, as many <cough!> predicted at the time. Did they have the integrity to step back, realize how they allowed confirmation bias to confound them, and show humility and integrity by acknowledging their error?
Of course not.
Ethics Alarms 
#5 Regarding Donald Trump’s current run for President.
At this point in time I’d rather vote for complete government gridlock between the Democrats and the Republicans in Washington DC and accomplish damn near nothing in the next four years than to vote for Trump. We can easily survive government gridlock, we’ve done it before. It would take an unpredictable act of God, an extraordinary turn of events, for me to vote for Trump in the 2024 general election.
5. In 2016, I went with Trump following the IRS/Tea Party scandal, Dems kicking around the idea of turning RICO against opponents of their environmental agenda, Dem states trying to use the power of the state to hijack people’s voices (Masterpiece Cakeshop and NIFLA), and the Obama Adminsitration’s Operation Chokepoint – an effort to use financial regulations to coerce banks and other financial institutions to deny services to certain industries (notably those involved in Second Amendment-protected activities).
In 2020, I backed Trump due to the fact that he had done surprisingly well, given that there was an oturight mutiny by bureaucrats and others in his adminsitration – and I certainly wasn’t going to go with a Democratic party that was waging lawfare against political opponents like the National Rifle Association.
Now, in 2024, there is a Democratic Party that screams how much they hate Putin while borrowing tactics from Putin’s anti-Navalny playbook for use against Trump. At this point, Donald Trump is a far less risky option that continued Democratic control of the executive branch.
If this were normal gridlock, maybe. But this Democratic party is NOT normal, it has become increasingly authoritarian (see the actions in New York), and if they win in 2024, I doubt we will see free and fair elections in the United States for a long time.
Inquiring Mind wrote, “if they win in 2024, I doubt we will see free and fair elections in the United States for a long time.”
I don’t know about that in particular but I’ve been writing for a while that “Based on observed cultural, societal and political patterns, I see the 2024 election as being a societal and cultural disaster for the United States of America. No matter who is elected, the reactions are going to be bad, and they’re likely to be very bad.”
There will be a reaction if the Democrats win and it’s likely to be very bad.
Personally, I’m really glad that my children and my wife and I live in small town America and not in the big cities.
The Times has a feature called “As Oscars approach, an honest look at beloved sports movies’ glaring plot holes.”
Just FYI, it’s the Athletic not the times (also not to be confused with Atlantic which you quote in section 6). Without access I couldn’t tell what movies they would have picked other than Happy Gilmore and Teen Wolf, but for it, it was always the Sandlot. I was never a sports person, but a lot of my childhood was a lot like Smalls with the groups leader being a lot like Benny. My friend went on to play AAA ball, but never hit it big. Here 30 years later, I’ll never forget those summers. I didn’t get a black eye, but I got a busted nose. Bleed for three blocks and got a new mitt out of it.
Section 3: Normally when you use res ipsa loquitur you use it to signify the person’s untrustworthiness or stupidity. I would have assumed you agree with Elon here. Is that the case or is there something I’m missing?
Section 5: This also belongs in the res ipsa loquitur files. Not sure much more really needs to be said about this. Is there anyone out there who hasn’t made up there mind yet between Trump, Biden and a sock drawer?
1. The Times bought The Athletic when it canned its whole sports staff. So I get their stuff as Times emails, but of course you are right.
3. Res ipsa loquitur is usually used to indicate something is wrong without further proof other than its bare facts. I was using the Latin in its literal sense: something that speaks for itself and needs no further embellishment. But you’re right: as a matter of consistency, I should keep the term narrowly applied. In fact, I’m going to add a note to the post.
5. I’m close. I believe the Democrats as they have mutated are more dangerous because they are more monolithic and powerful than Trump: nothing would make me vote for Biden, and I doubt I can afford to sit this one out like I did in 2016. But I am certain that Trump is untrustworthy and possibly dangerous.
Trump is a whack, no question of it. However he is definitely all for this country and for its ordinary people. I once said that Biden was a great president for peacetime but not the president for now. I have concluded that he is not the president for any time. The the man is simply senile and was never all that great to begin with.
A President who characterizes half the nation as the enemy is an enemy of the nation himself. Unfortunately, as is often the case, there are only two choices that can realistically be made this time out. One choice is to give Biden another 4 years. The other choice is to give Trump his second four years. That’s it, there are no other realistic choices, there is no third party candidate that has even a glimmer of hope of winning. This is no different than any other time.
The only time that we have had third party candidates all they have succeeded in doing is ensuring victory for the person they were less like. Ralph Nader essentially made it possible for George w Bush to get his second term by taking away a few of John Kerry’s votes. Ross Perot subjected this nation to Bill Clinton by undermining Bush the elder. That’s as far as they got and that’s how far any third party candidate gets.
The last time out you justifiably lambasted a company called Expensify for writing its customers with a lengthy email about how important it was to remove Trump from power and that no one should sit this one out and only a vote for Biden and Harris would do, nothing else. I think the reverse is true this time out.
We’ve been through what’s wrong with this country a million times at this point. The Democratic party has become something between the socialist party of the United States and the oligarchy party of the United States.
A vote for Biden and Harris now is a vote to continue to throw tax dollars down the sinkhole of a war in Eastern Europe that we do not have the will to win but do not have the will to walk away from either. A vote for Biden and Harris now is a vote to stab Israel in the back by passing supplies to a terrorist organization who murdered more Jews in one night than anyone since the Holocaust. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote for open borders. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote for continued high gas and other prices. a vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote for the muzzling of free speech and pretty much all other rights except the right to obtain an abortion. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote for a justice department that crushes whoever it chooses to Target and looks the other way on crime that advances the administration’s cause. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote for the criminalization of law abiding gun owners who’ve never harmed anyone. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote to place America not just last but dead last. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is to hand the government over special interests and take it away from the general interest of the people of this country. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote against what’s left of the middle class. A vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote for further feckless foreign policy and this nation looking weak the world around.
I could keep on going, but I think you get the point. Essentially a vote for the Democratic ticket this time out is a vote to give Jimmy Carter another term, many years later. You need to ask yourself what kind of person would cast that kind of vote and then ask yourself if you want to become that kind of person. You also need to listen to the arguments being pitched by the other side about how this is all about reproductive health, and ask yourself if you are willing to sacrifice everything so that women in some states can be careless and destroy gestating human life. you also need to look at where this country is and ask yourself if this rhetoric about there being an existential threat to democracy is actually true, or is just rhetoric designed to gun up fear. Biden may have ranted that history is watching, and maybe history is watching, but it’s not watching to make sure that we give a worthless administration a second term simply because they say the right words. History is watching to make certain the United States continues in the role of leader of the Free World which it has held since 1945. History is going to wonder what led people to vote against their own best interests and against their nation’s best interests to the sake of fear and loathing of one ticket and one person that the other side chose to demonize. It’s all or nothing this point, and I think the only answer is to give Trump his second four years.
I am currently essentially in the same place you are. But nobody should understate the risk of making someone like Trump President. He’s not trustworthy. He’s impulsive and divisive, and he doesn’t believe in ethics. (And he’s an asshole, but some assholes have made good Presidents.) He also has terrible judgment in appointees and staff—maybe no worse than Biden’s, but that’s no recommendation. I could easily see Trump doing something that warranted a bi-partisan impeachment, and I think there’s a substantial chance that his election will trigger serious civil unrest across the country, to which his reactions could easily trigger worse.
All true, but that last part would be giving in to the heckler’s veto. if the left is determined to have a civil war, then let me go get my frock coat, kepi and musket, you go get yours, and we’ll assemble on the village green.
I agree with that too, Steve, but it will be scary and dangerous nonetheless.
It already is scary and dangerous.
My fear is that there will be a repeat of the close call from 2016 in Las Vegas (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/20/donald-trump-assassination-attempt-las-vegas-rally).
I don’t think Trump supporters will be as calm if there is a repeat.
Nor do I.
I remember how my longtime usenet ally, Christopher Charles Morton, commented on the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s comment section, noting how the Democrats’ Russian Collusion®™ conspiracy theory was like the 1919 German ultrarightwing’s Stab in the Back®™ conspiracy theory.
He was sadly too right about how the Dem leadership and spokesholes would act like the 1919 German ultrarightwing.
Oh—about “The Sandlot.” It’s not on the list in the article: it’s too good. I love the film. Hell, I lived the film: a bunch of my buddies played pick-up hardball games on weekends and during the summer from the 8th grade into college.
In no particular order, my list of the best sports movies are…
The Natural
Hoosiers
Rocky
Field of Dreams
The Sandlot
42
61
Bang the Drum Slowly
Cinderella Man
Seabiscuit
The Bad New Bears (the original)
Fever Pitch
Major League
The Hustler
Breaking Away
Moneyball
Bull Durham
[added] A League of Their Own
That’s 18 in all: two boxing movies, one horse racing, one pool, one basketball, and 13 baseball movies. No football movie makes the list. Fever Pitch is a sentimental choice–it’s not that great, but it has a special resonance for me.
Not suprised football didn’t make your list. Growing up in Indiana Rudy and Hoosiers were almost required watching every year. I got sick of them both.
I’ve seen some of these. I’m a little surprised a League of Their Own isn’t on here.
It should be. Oops. I’m adding it right now. Excellent movie. “Rudy” was the last cut, long with “Brian’s Song.”
My wife also suggested:
Mighty Ducks
Cool Runnings (Not sure Id agree)
Karate Kid (we debated if this counts as a sports movie)
Chariots of Fire (haven’t seen it)
Believe it or not, I’ve never seen “The Mighty Ducks.”
Cool Runnings is fine. Not good enough for a “Best” list, in my critical estimation.
Funny, I didn’t think of “Karate Kid” as a sports movie. But it probably is.
Now, Chariots of Fire is a special case. I’m in the minority, but I found it precious and over-wrought, wildly over-rated then (when it won the Oscar, so dated stylistically now (all that slow-motion running to the theme) that it’s nerly unwatchable.
What? Okay Jack. That’s a homework assignment for you. You need to watch that movie. A drunk lawyer gets caught crashing his car and has to coach a peewee hockey team that’s the worst in the league as his punishment. I think you might like it. There’s even some ethical considerations in there.
What do to with the star kid of hot shot team, who was accidently playing outside his district and should be playing for the worst team (lines were redrawn, it wasn’t intentional).
Hot shot team hiring law firm of coach the kid should go to.
Principles over money (boss told lawyer eariler in the movie the importance of fair play, but now he’s being paid to get the hotshot kid back).
Having the kids cheat to try to win (early in the movie this is more about him learning ethics, then if this is about ethical act of cheating).
Overzealous kids sports coaches and parents
Dating one of the mom of the team.
There’s more, but this movie might be up there with Sandlot. It’s the reason I learned to inline skate (didn’t have ice rings where I lived).
Jack,
Wait!
Your thoughts on these films [my favorite two sports movies of all time] not included in your list?
Raging Bull?
The Wrestler?
Caddyshack…
PWS
Good One!!
As if Ted Knight didnt deserve Best Supporting Actor of ALL TIME for his role as Judge Smails.
Sad how some genres are just not considered for those awards. Which so hurts their legitimacy, among other reasons….
I’m sorry, the gopher puppet disqualifies it for me, along with Bill Murray’s ridiculous performance.
Shoot, I forgot Eight Men Out!
We had a whole discussion on that one day when I was [regrettably] naive about Joe Jackson’s involvement in the 1919 WS and you pointed to stories that went beyond his batting stats [How he dogged flies and threw to wrong cut offs, etc]
Surely, you love that move???
I don’t. I don’t like Sayles as a director, the movie is a downer (sports movies aren’t supposed to be downers) and it’s more about history than sports. Great cast; liked the book.
I’m adding two golf movies that were supposed to be on the list: Tin Cup, and “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”
Oh, i forgot about Tin Cup. I agree. For some reason, I thought The Greatest Game Ever played was The Legend of Bagger Vance. Never saw either of those though.
Actually there is a nice duology by Eric Flint (The Rivers of War) that posits Sam Houston not being severely wounded in the Cherokee (?) campaign and thence taking a critical part in the battle of Washington — driving off the British from the White House. If I recall correctly, Houston then more or less forces Jackson to allow a true independent Indian nation down around Oklahoma. Flint always wrote engaging alternate history stories — this was a nice one set in a neglected era of the United States.
As far as the WWI assignment, I think it could be a fun and useful exercise, especially if it gets the students to delve a bit into WWI literature and histories.
I should have mentioned the Korean War. If Ted Williams hadn’t crash-landed his jet on a carrier, Boston area schools would have never mentioned that one.
<blockquote>
Baude and Paulsen are two of the most prominent conservative constitutional scholars in America, and both are affiliated with the Federalist Society, making it more difficult for them to be dismissed as political partisans. Thus it is all the more significant and sobering that they do not hesitate to draw from their long study of the Fourteenth Amendment’s text and history the shattering conclusion that the attempted overturning of the 2020 presidential election and the attack on the Capitol, intended to prevent the joint session from counting the electoral votes for the presidency, together can be fairly characterized as an “insurrection” or “rebellion.” They write:
They betray themselves by their own internal logic; they rely on a grossly distorted public record to conclude Trump running his mouth could, “be fairly characterized as an “insurrection” or “rebellion.” “.
It’s amazing, because it is such a contrived argument and obviously so. The elites on the right hate Trump so much, are so offended by his existence, that they do this. It’s stunning. The power of hate and bias.
The very idea that the speech caused people to insurrect was and is absurd on its face!
The current pope seem to be a rather self-serving socialist busybody. Ukraine is not ‘his’ part of the universal church anyway. There are several Orthodox churches in Ukraine (the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church is recognized by Rome). His pronouncement is like the Head of the Southern Baptist Association giving a pronouncement on what the Yemeni Government should do about the Houthi’s. I mean, if he were trying to give guidance to the (small) Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church about the war, that would be one thing. It would still be stupid, but at least he would have a plausible authority there.
The pope would be roundly condemned by our media if he weren’t a communist and promoting same-sex marriage. I guess that gives him insight into geopolitical conflicts.