Month: July 2024

Just In Case You’ve Forgotten, April Ryan is Still an Ethics Dunce, the News Media Is Still Biased, and Trump is Still Not a Weenie

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

I guess there is still some hope that race-baiting, anti-white racist, Trump-Deranged, dumb-as-a-shoehorn journalist April Ryan is slowly sliding into oblivion where she belongs. Once she was a CNN correspondent, which admittedly is nothing to be proud of, but now she toils for the Grio, a racist, race-baiting, American television network and website that says its area is “black news.” Funny, I thought news was news for everyone! Oh well, live and learn. Next on Ryan’s career freefall? Oh, maybe Hip Hop Weekly? But never mind.

April has a long Ethics Alarms dossier, the most recent entry in 2020, when she reprimanded reporters for writing about a leaked recording of Joe Biden making unpalatable comments about the “defund the police” movement. As Jonathan Turley said at the time, “[W]e are moving dangerously close to a de facto state media with the cooperation of Big Tech companies.  Ryan believes that it is outrageous to rely on unapproved material if it is critical of Joe Biden (despite her use of such material for the last four years against Trump).”

Indeed she does. My favorite Ryan episode was in 2017, when she hectored Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the end of a press briefing in which Sanders confirmed the administration’s position that toppling statues of historical figures is both bad history and bad civics by shouting, “Sarah, is slavery wrong? Sarah, is slavery wrong? Does this administration think that slavery was wrong? Sarah, does this administration believe slavery was wrong?”

A class act, to be sure.

The latest April Ryan sighting came as Donald Trump bravely and appropriately agreed to take questions in Chicago today from members of the National Association of Black Journalists. Ryan, of course, was in the camp of the members who have pledged to follow the “Trump is a racist” narrative, contrived though it is. “The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” Ryan tweeted, or Xed. The group’s co-chairwoman of the convention, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, resigned in protest: after all, why give a Presidential candidate a chance to change minds that have already been made up? Yeah, this is the perfect group for April Ryan.

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Addendum: “Ethics Hero: Orioles Catcher James McCann, No Weenie He!”

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

I just heard a commentator on MLB’s cable channel describe James McCann’s now famous act of continuing play after getting a fastball thrown in his face as “the John Wayning of the catcher position.”

Perfect. I enthusiastically endorse the transformation of “John Wayne” into a verb: it’s a much needed one. To John Wayne is to continue to pursue the completion of one’s commitment, assigned task, or duty despite obstacles, threats, pain, personal hardship and danger—even to the point of fanaticism, futility or certain failure.

The Duke would have loved his creation becoming a word to describe that iconic American character. I plan on doing my part to see that John Wayne, verb: John Wayned/John Wayning/ catches on.

Light-Hearted Ribbing or Taunting? The Pineapple Pizza

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

Whatever else they may be, the Paris Olympics are definitely….strange.

Hong Kong (is that China or not? I can’t quite figure it out…) won a razor-thin fencing Gold over Italy, 15-14. There was a bitter dispute over the final, decisive point: referees replayed the video three times, and each competitor was convinced he had won. Cheung Ka Long of Hong Kong was ultimately declared the victor, and became the first athlete from Hong Kong to win two Olympic gold medals. He’s historic, see, so that must mean he deserved to win.

The Italian Fencing Federation, meanwhile, said it would file a formal complaint over what it called “unacceptable refereeing.” “Filippo Macchi is the real winner,” Paolo Azzi, the federation’s president, wrote on social media. “He was denied the gold he deserved.”

The New York Times immediately declared that the claim the fencing gold was stolen is “baseless.” (Kidding!)

To slap back at Italy, Pizza Hut’s Hong Kong and Macao branch announced that it is offering free pineapple toppings on its pizzas, a desecration of the dish that, understandable, Italians consider blasphemy. I think it’s funny, but maybe not. Italy truly feels it was robbed. Is the pineapple pizza ploy more like taunting than good-natured joshing? Is Hong Kong disrespectfully rubbing in the pain of a close defeat, or sending a message of “Come on, let’s laugh and be friends!”?

If I ran a Chinese restaurant chain in Italy, I’d announce new menu items like Peking duck with tomato sauce.

On the Biden Withdrawal Whitewashing (Or Whitewashington?) Narrative

/ Jack Marshall / 18 Comments

Author Mary McCarthy (“The Group”) famously said of playwright Lillian Hellman (“The Children’s Hour,” “The LittleFoxes”), that “every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.” The Democrats and their mainstream media minions have just about reached this point trying to not merely excuse the way Joe Biden was unceremoniously dumped from his re-election campaign, but to recast in the public’s mind as some kind of noble sacrifice Biden, which it was anything but. In other words, once again, “it isn’t what it is,” the motto of the New Democrats—you know, the ones who pretend to be defending democracy while they are dismantling it.

Is nobody paying attention? Is everyone devoid of critical thinking skills? Biden went on ABC and told George Stephanopoulos that he didn’t believe the polls, that he was the best chance of defeating that evil fascist Hitler monster Donald Trump, that there was nothing wrong with his brain, and that nothing short of God himself coming down and telling him to quit would make him do so. That pretty much wrapped it, don’t you think? Short of a burning bush’s signature being found in the White House logs, I’d say that it is indisputable that Biden’s decision to suddenly pull out was anything but voluntary.

God didn’t come down to guide Joe, but the nearest thing for Democrats, Barack Obama, might have. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersch wrote on his substack that his sources in Washington DC and the White House confirmed to him that former President Barack Obama pushed Biden out of the 2024 presidential race by telling him that he would orchestrate a humiliating 25th Amendment removal process if Joe didn’t bow out gracefully. “I went over [reports] this week with a senior official in Washington who helped me fashion an account of a White House in complete disarray,” Hersh said. “Obama called Biden after breakfast [on July 20] and said, ‘Here’s the deal. We have Kamala’s approval to invoke the 25th Amendment.’” Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries were reportedly directly involved. “[Obama] had an agenda and he wanted to seek it through to the end, and he wanted to have control over who would be elected.” Democracy! Seymour Hersch’s reputation is a bit tarnished, and so are his mysterious sources, but that version of events makes more sense than the one being peddled by the Axis liars.

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Somebody Please Explain To the Palm Beach County State Attorney, the Secret Service and Judge Cymonie Rowe That Being An Asshole Is Protected Under The First Amendment…

/ Jack Marshall / 28 Comments

I’m truly sick of this stuff. What we have here isn’t even a close call. Michael Wiseman, 68, from Jupiter, Florida, was arrested by local police officers on July 19 because he posted ugly comments on social media expressing disappointment that former President Trump wasn’t assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania. “The shooter missed,” he wrote on X. “He can’t be the only patriot. Cocksucker, mother and daughter fucker Trump.” And, “Why is Trump allowed to be alive? We need to train patriots. Thomas Matthew Crooks deserves a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor, a stamp, and a national holiday.”

And, “Some people need to be better shots if they know they are going to kill a monster.” Shortly before his arrest, Wiseman wrote, “I am advocating Trump and Vance’s daughters get raped and THEN tell me they won’t fly their kids out of the USA for an abortion.”

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Unethical Film and Theater Reviewer Bias, Part II: “OK, It’s a Good Movie, But Where’s the Climate Change Propaganda?”

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

I supposed technically Margeret Renkl isn’t a film reviewer for the Times: officially she’s a “contributing opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South.” I don’t care: she criticizes an action movie that audiences are enjoying because it doesn’t deliver the progressive agenda propaganda that she thinks good little Big Brotherites should jam into the brains of the trusting public at every opportunity.

Renkle can bite me, and so can the Times for publishing her dreck.

Renkl and the Times concede that “Twisters,” which appears to be the non-superhero hit that Hollywood desperately needs, “ is a humdinger of a summer blockbuster that delivers exactly what theatergoers want in an action film: plenty of explosions, destruction, high-speed chases and heroism, all with a dash of wit and sexual tension thrown in. It is not — and does not aspire to be — high cinematic art.” However, it is, she argues, a missed “golden opportunity to talk about what scientists know and don’t know about how climate change might be affecting the formation, strength, frequency and geographic distribution of tornadoes, or why they now tend to develop in groups.”

No, it’s really not. A movie people want to see for escape and entertainment isn’t a “golden opportunity” for the writers and producers to bombard them with favored and faddish data related to progressive public policy. The Ethics Alarms standard response to the “Why are you talking/writing/singing about what you want to instead of what I want to” is “Write your own blog, direct your own play, produce your own movie or sing your own song.

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Ethics Hero: Orioles Catcher James McCann, No Weenie He!

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

Wow.

Blue Jays rookie pitcher Yariel Rodríguez threw a first-inning 95 mph fastball that hit Baltimore Orioles back-up catcher James McCann directly in the face. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth, and he immediately dropped to the ground. Team trainer Brian Ebel began providing treatment at the plate, but McCann got to his feet, still bleeding, and went to first base. O’s manager Brandon Hyde summoned him to the dugout while the Jays were replacing their wild pitcher, but McCann was adamant that he could continue. It was the first game of a doubleheader, and McCann didn’t want the O’s young star catcher, Adley Rutschman, to have to catch both games, an invitation to injury.

“I felt like if I could get the blood to stop flowing then I could stay in the game, and that was what I was able to do,” McCann said. When play resumed, McCann went back to first, wearing a fresh, unbloodied jersey.

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Unethical Film and Theater Reviewer Bias, Part I: “Straight People Can’t Act”

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Film and theater reviewer biases and politics have always been a blight on the field: the late, absurdly worshiped New Yorker reviewer Pauline Kael would pan terrific John Wayne movies just because he had supported Barry Goldwater. It’s hard to watch a revival of “Hair” (or the stunningly bad film version) without wondering, “What were those reviewers raving about, with that faux rock music and the trite book?” Why, peace, pot and love, baby! ” Hair” was against the war in Vietnam, so it had to be at least as good as “Oklahoma!”

Now, of course, in the era of the Great Stupid, explaining what Big Brother’s tastes in the arts require is a job requirement for film and theater reviewer who are paid in real money rather than free passes. In a New York Times column about how “outdated” classic musicals (that is, insufficiently woke) can be salvaged by appropriately sensitive directors, for example, readers were informed by an “expert” that only gay actors can convincingly play gay characters.

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Ethics Dunce: University of Houston Law Professor Renee Knake Jefferson

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

I have resolved to be more vigilant in calling ethics fouls on the various repeat ethical transgressions that proliferate in our society and political discourse. I wrote about some of them here; I just encountered another in an alleged legal ethics news letter. An alleged legal ethics newsletter that I have to pay for. Uh-uh, I’m not letting that pass. I was already triggered because I saw another TV commercial where two people were playing chess and the board was set up wrong. As soon as I see it again and note the product, I will out the company here. For so I have sworn.

Renee (Newman) Knake Jefferson is, she tells us, a law professor and an award-winning author. She “regularly consults on matters related to lawyer/judicial ethics and the first amendment and lawyer speech.” Jefferson holds the Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston Law Center where she teaches ethics, constitutional law, and a writing seminar on gender, power, law, and leadership. Based on these credentials and the fact that a lot of the legal ethics blogs have been going defunct lately, I decided to subscribe to her weekly Legal Ethics Roundup at substack which promised to keep me up to date on significant developments in the field.

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Baseball’s Unethical Trade Deadline

/ Jack Marshall / 18 Comments

Let’s take a break from the election to focus on the things that really matter.

Like baseball.

Baseball’s Unethical Season is upon us. The trade deadline is tomorrow at 6 pm. It means that several teams…fewer this year than usual, but still…will announce to their fans that they won’t be trying to win any more, that hope is lost, and that they will put on the field from now on even worse squads than the ones that got them to this point.

This is because they have decided to trade or sell off many of their best players, especially veterans with big contracts or who will be free agents after the season, for unproven prospects. Those teams will “tank” for the foreseeable future, meaning accumulate losses so they can get high draft picks.

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