That sappy John Denver song is just one of the ones that has choked me up when I’ve stumbled across it while listening to the radio in my car. I feel like I’ve let all of my friends and colleagues down; everyone has been so caring and supportive, I’ve been taken out for dinner, friends I haven’t heard from for years have called me just to see how I am. Yet I can’t say that I’m one bit better today than I was March first, a day after finding my body wife and the love of my life dead and staring on our sofa. I had a terrible nightmare about Grace two days ago. And the songs are the worst: songs I remember from our wedding, our first dance at the reception (“Wonderland by Night”), the song I sang for Grace that night (“Let a Woman in Your Life” from “My Fair Lady”) songs I recall from when we were dating, “Another You,” which moved me to end our six month separation, even “The Way We Were.” I’m literally afraid to turn on the radio. Meanwhile, I can’t imagine anything more boring and tedious than having someone constantly expressing their pain at something that happened almost half a year ago, so I don’t want to talk about how miserable I am, and yet talking would help. A little.
Please excuse that self-indulgent introduction.
1. Is Google really burying Trump searches? That’s the latest conspiracy theory. I don’t trust Google, and I have no doubt that Big Tech is mostly all-in concerning forcing Kamala Harris down the nation’s metaphorical throat. Still, this seems like a software glitch to me. So “assassination attempt on Tru…” doesn’t produce “Trump” in the autofill, but Truman. (Was there an assassination attempt on Truman? I missed that.) Why is anyone paying attention to autofill? Learn to search better: “Trump assassination” immediately pulls up all the news stories. There is so much genuinely sinister manipulation of information going on, it’s foolish to try to manufacture any.
2. No, Elon Musk didn’t post a faked Kamala Harris video to deceive anyone. He did share on Twitter/X an edited version of a campaign ad for Harris that deep-fakes her voice to have her say she became the new Democratic candidate after President Biden “exposed his senility.” Fake Harris then says she is the “ultimate diversity hire,” and admits that her work addressing the border crisis was “catastrophic.” Musk posted the parody with an ambiguous comment (“Amazing!”) expressing admiration for its execution. Now he’s being accused of hypocrisy, violating his own platform’s policy instituted after he bought it, that prohibited manipulated or out-of-context media that might deceive or confuse people. The policy does allow satire and parody as long as it isn’t likely to deceive anyone.
Well, someone would have to be an idiot to think that video wasn’t faked, but then idiots are a prime voting bloc being targeted by both parties. My ethics verdict: 1) Musk just supplied a precedent for future “X” enforcement of the policy; 2) It’s his platform, and he should be able to use it however he chooses, but 3) It is ultimately unwise to violate one’s own rules and principles except for rare exceptions and for very good reasons.
3. Speaking of Musk, I decided to finally support his project in freedom of speech, paying for a premium account, and I am going to be much more active on the platform as we approach the election, primarily to attract more readership here. My Twitter address is @ethicsalarmist.
4. The competition among New York Times propagandists/columnists to issue the most strained, excessive and ludicrous attacks on Trump and the Republicans is heating up. A strong entry from David French has this headline: “Hulk Hogan Is Not the Only Way to Be a Man.” Did anyone think that having Hogan make a speech at the GOP convention was some kind of statement about manhood by Trump, Republicans, or anything else? It was stunt, and a dumb one, the equivalent of having Ronald McDonald or the Philly Phanatic make an appearance.
5. It is becoming increasingly difficult to prepare Ethics Alarms. Increasing numbers of websites prevent copying now. In an effort to make you turn off ad-blockers, many sites send up screens that say you must either accept ads or pay a subscription fee. On some, like CBS and the New York post, if you refresh the page enough times you eventually get a screen that says “I’ll fix it next time” or “Continue without supporting us.” PJ Media doesn’t do that, but it you refresh the page, there is time to click “select all” and “copy” before the blocking screen pops up. Then you can copy the text onto a word document. Unethical?
Ethics Alarms 
I was riding home from work one day in the early ’80s and your classmate’s (John Raitt’s daughter) incomparable version of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” burst onto the radio. I’d never heard it before. I had to pull over to the side of the road. I’d been dumped ten years prior but hearing that song it felt as if it was still happening. A punch in the gut.
By the way, the composer (a former NFL offensive lineman) recounts how he and his co-composer got the idea for the song and lyrics not from any personal experience but when they ran across an article in a Memphis newspaper that quoted as sage old guy saying, “You can’t make a woman love you if she don’t.” I wish someone had told me that when I was about twelve. I need to tell my two grandsons.
That former lineman’s name is Mike Reid, an incredibly accomplished pianist and songwriter (he wrote a gob of stuff for Ronnie Milsap). He was also gifted with a super-smoky voice. If you like country music at all, find his album “Turning for Home” (from the early 1990s). From stem to stern, it’s gold…and it’s a “desert island” CD of mine.
As for songs that bring the emotion, one of mine is “Twenty Years Ago” as performed by Kenny Rogers. I spent $16 years ago on a CD for that one oh-so-nostalgic tune.
I was too lazy to look Mike up. Altoona, PA. So, a western Pennsylvania college football player. Weren’t they all? And then five years with the Bengals, the team Paul Brown couldn’t name after himself since he’d already done so. I’ve heard Reid’s recording of the song. No match for Bonnie Raitt’s. And she evidently did hers on a single take.
But speaking of voices, how about John Denver’s Irish tenor. And I just looked him up. His father was an Air Force pilot who, among other things, set a speed record in the B-58 Hustler, the coolest looking plane ever built. So tragic Denver died piloting his own plane. The interior had been repainted, obscuring the plate for the valve switching fuel tanks.
No one was better at writing John Denver songs than John Denver.
I see he lived in Tucson while his dad was stationed at Davis-Monthan. Denver attended the same junior high school as did granddaughter and grandson no. 2.
By the way, Joel, I just recently found out “nostalgia” was a term drummed up for a diagnosed as a mental condition! And I am not making this up.
When Nostalgia Was a Disease – The Atlantic
I had no idea!! It brings to mind Catherine Bowen’s book on the Constitutional Convention (“Miracle at Philadelphia”), in which she writes that in the 1700s, the notion of “innovation” was very negative. Maybe not like a mental condition, but it was considered reckless and impulsive…the thinking of an addled brain.
Very interesting how words transform over time. Thanks!
And by the way, I’ve heard Mike Reid’s version of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (it’s on another of his albums that I own), and you’re right. Raitt’s version is much superior…and Reid is probably glad for that, because her rendition made him a LOT of money.
The song that has killed me since college but that has no connection to Grace (but to other sad episodes) is Linda’s “Long, Long Time.” Once, when I was dumped, I spent about a week playing that song over and over again, in the dark, until my room mate threatened to have me killed.
I’ll see you and raise you a “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” Written by Paul Anka (!), first recorded by Buddy Holly on his last album (!). Covered spectacularly by Linda Ronstadt’s who takes a little ‘fifties ditty to another, stratospheric level.
My favorite Buddy Holly record, and one of my favorite Linda covers. Ronstadt covered Holly as Judy Garland covered Jolson.
You know what I appreciate most about Denver’s voice? He had that soaring voice in an era before Autotune and all the other electronic riff-raff that could made mediocrity sound marketable.
“Annie’s Song” is probably my favorite Denver song, though I would NEVER change the station if “Rocky Mountain High” or “Take Me Home, Country Road” were playing.
That’s a great story about his dad…and I have a 1/72-scale version of Convair’s Hustler, so I know what it looks like, but I give the nod for “bomber beauty” to the B-1. Someday we’re going to stop in Dayton so I can see the one remaining XB-70.
My brother built the Revell model of the Hustler. I think the B-58 was cooler because those great big engines were shoe-horned beneath the delta wings as if the plane was just strapped onto them and it was just along for the ride.
My dad, who never had much time for music, loved Denver’s “Country Road” because he, my dad, was from West Virginia, but left at 16 to enter a TB sanitorium for thirteen years and then had to live in more temperate climes the rest of his 90 years. We’d drive up there most summers during his two-week vacation and he always got the local newspaper, The Morgan County Messenger, mailed to our house.
That song destroys me every time I hear it. Every. Time.
The talented Ms. Raitt (whom I had the pleasure of meeting while working the door at a Concourse Hotel music venue in 1977) has a number of songs like that; Dimming Of the Day is (IMO) one of ’em.
High praise; her rendition gives the angelic voiced Alison Krauss’ version a run for its money.
The two disc Road Tested would be one of my Desert Island CDs.
PWS
Thank you. I will check it out.
There was an assassination attempt on Harry Truman Nov. 1, 1950. Two Puerto Rican separatists attacked Blair House while Truman was staying there during White House renovations. One gunman, one White House uniformed officer were killed, the other gunman sentenced to life in prison. Truman there, but never in serious danger.
That’s RIGHT! Puerto Rican separatists! I’d forgotten about those guys. Too bad they didn’t get their way. AOC would have been a foreigner!
Jimmy Carter pardoned the surviving assassin, along with all of the Puerto Rican nationalists who attacked Congress in 1954, wounding five members of the House of Representatives.
That’s right, Greg. Jimmy Carter. Ugh.
5. Jack, you need to offer some sort of premium thingy or simply otherwise provide a mechanism for people to subscribe to EA for a monthly fee. I pay for access to The Free Press and to Glenn Loury, and even my local paper. Wallowing around in all the content you provide for free feels like stealing.
All the cool kids are producing content on Substack when they get cancelled.
There is also the Locals platform on which Jack could produce regular mini-lessons live in-person for monthly subscribers.
I would sign up for that in a heartbeat. If you don’t want to offer a premium service, perhaps you could sign up as a content creator on Patreon, which would allow folks to contribute anything they wanted and sign up for a monthly subscription.
I do that now for 1) People who stream some of the online games I play whose content I especially enjoy, and 2)Authors I enjoy reading and am happy to support in a small way.
What is the saying? Many hands make a light load? We saw that a while back when Steve organized the laptop purchase for EA.
I know you consider Ethics Alarms a labor of love. You have to realize that we consider it a boon to humanity. Not just that, but it is a way to get a decent look at some of the most interesting news around.
There are certain fees I have no choice but to pay — I have to pay roughly a gazillion and a half in real estate taxes. I have to pay a minimum of $4.63 for each book I ship out to customers (just this month postage to a Danish customer was $50 (!) for a 3 pound book). This would be a fee I would happily fork over.
Jack, six months is a short time to deal with your loss and the trauma of finding your wife as you did. I have read where caregiving of a loved one and losing them can cause PTSD and I believe that to be true. I was a caregiver to my husband with cancer for nine years then lost him unexpectedly to a cardiac arrest. Your experience is even more traumatic than mine so give yourself time to heal and accept the fact the process will be slow, ongoing, and could take years. It has been three years since I lost my husband but I still have dreams of him, some bad some good. But no matter the dream I still awake with the grief and memory of his decline, suffering, and loss. All who have gone through similar experiences understand and those who don’t I pray will never go through them to reach that understanding. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Agreed. By the way, just practicing law can give you PTSD.
Prelude: Jack, healing from a loss takes the time it takes. I certainly don’t begrudge you the chance to air your pain as often as is needed.
On 1, it is interesting that the autocomplete is supposed to be indicative or predictive on one of two accounts: what is popularly asked, or what the algorithm thinks you might be asking about. If you’re trying to ask about something and the autocomplete doesn’t pick up what you’re after, then it reflects back to the user that this isn’t a popular question or a question the algorithm thinks you’d be asking. Given that the TIME article from 2021 that boasted how the elite cabal managed to get Biden elected, and one of the means was to collaborate with social media and Big Tech to suppress stories, it seems very fair to assume Google is trying to memory-hole the Trump assassination. They are just doing so in a much subtler way which in theory gives them the protest, “But look, the articles come up just fine!”
On 2, once again, if people are looking for ways to beat you up, don’t hand them a club.
On 3, I still don’t have any intention of playing on Twitter/X, but for Ethics Alarms as a business and teaching endeavor, I think it is money well spent, and I hope it drives more traffic here. (I have mentioned Ethics Alarms a couple of times in comments on Substack, specifically Holly Mathnerd’s substack, as Gamereg will verify.)
On 4, They are desperate to slime Trump in any way possible. They are terrified of him in part because nothing seems to stick. Even the felony conviction looks like it might slide off him in relatively short order. The man is like Teflon.
On 5, Since these news sites are businesses, I can understand them not wanting the best of their work accessible without a subscription. Making it harder to copy content is another way to try to ensure people actually have to visit their sites to get the news. But while I can understand that, I’m not so committed to any of those news sites that I would want to pay for access.
But, like OB, I would happily pay for access to Ethics Alarms. If you have a PayPal account, I’d even start right away sending a monthly contribution your way.
Regarding Truman, I remembered the occasion when Puerto Rican nationalists shot up Congress, although that happened in 1954 under Eisenhower’s administration.
The Blair House shooting — apparently the White House was being renovated, so Truman was temporarily in Blair House. As was mentioned one terrorist was killed and one wounded. One White House police officer was killed and two were wounded.
Truman later said he wasn’t frightened by the attack, as he had been shot at by professionals (i.e. the German Army in WWI). The man did come up with some good quotes, I have to say.
Also, I had not known that this assassination attempt came just two days after an attempted coup in Puerto Rico — ultimately suppressed by a combination of the Puerto Rican National Guard, US Army, and US Air Force.
Truman supported a plebiscite in 1952 that voted in favor of Commonwealth (Free Associated State) status for Puerto Rico with an 82% margin. Independence was not an option on that ballot, although I believe it was voted down several times in more recent referenda.
All the gunmen in both attacks were convicted and essentially sentenced to life. President Jimmy Carter commuted all their sentences during his administration and they returned to Puerto Rico.
I don’t know about copying, but with ad blocking I’ve never had an issue like that while using Brave browser. It has the added benefit of supporting free speech, having been developed by Brian Eichs after he was driven out of Mozilla for political donations against gay marriage.
The only issues I’ve had with it are in synching bookmarks between devices. If that’s not a deal breaker for you, I recommend giving it a try. Hope it makes it easier to keep Ethics Alarms posts coming!
Jack: there are a lot of ways around the “ad-block warnings”, as well as soft and hard paywalls.
Good Luck,
James
So I use Chrome and I’ll give UBlock Origin a try.
I had a bad spell with YouTube recently when it kept insisting I had an ad blocker installed and refused to play any videos. I came to find out that Malwarebytes was the ad blocker they were talking about. I enable that one web site and it’s been smooth sailing.
I’ll be curious how UBlock Origin interacts with YouTube. I tried playing a couple old Bob Newhart sketches with no problems — Air Traffic Controller is spectacular in that patented Newhart style.
Other web sites — generally if they refuse to show their content without my disabling my ad block, well, I’ll refuse to read their content. Seems like a fair trade.
If you’re using Chrome, uBlockOrigin is absolutely essential. It generally doesn’t get you around paywalls but the other options I mentioned will.
As for YouTube, uBlock still works (no ads) but Google is upping the game and at times cripples your browser if you have a YouTube tab open. When that happens, I just switch over to Firefox (w/uBlock). If you’re really interested in the ongoing battle, there’s a dedicated subreddit for the extension: https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/
One other thing: if you use Firefox mobile, uBlock works on it now as well. It’s now the default browser on my phone. Much better. That said, I’m still on an android phone so it’s a minor victory.
James, I second UBlock Origin and Bypass Paywalls Clean. Without UbO, I find using the Internet is plain unbearable. BPC definitely will let you read an article or two from publications you seldom visit.
Agree 100%. I’ve been using it for years – couldn’t imagine browsing without it.
Jack, it’s only been a few months. I’m amazed at all you’re doing. You are not doing badly; from here, it looks like carrying on valiantly despite great loss. Talk to us about Grace anytime. We’re all here for you.
I never use Chrome unless I absolutely HAVE TO and even then I double- and triple-check that I really do have to.
Chrome is Google’s biggest spyware (well, maybe 2nd to Android) and all the BS that comes with it . . . like tracking what sites you visit and sending Google a copy of your History whether you like it or not.–Dwayne
What’s the best browser?
At present, probably Firefox as most others are based upon a Chromium build. I haven’t switched over from Chrome entirely but I will. As for searching, Google is almost completely broken – I no longer trust it. One great thing about Firefox (especially on mobile) is that it makes it easy to change your search engine on the fly.
I’ve been really happy with Brave.
No one should feel bad about expressing grief with friends.