Let me briefly re-state my unalterable position that it was unethical, disrespectful and foolish for the U.S. to reduce George Washington’s birthday (Feb. 22) to a catch-all excuse for a long weekend. I wrote at length about this here, three years ago. An excerpt:
“How many Americans of our rich national past have a birthday celebrated as a national holiday? One: Martin Luther King. That surely makes the anti-white racists and the “the most important aspect of the United States is its racial divisions” gang—you know, Democrats—happy, but it is also misleading and ridiculous. The most important single figure, black, brown, white or whatever it is currently acceptable to call Asians and Native Americans (I haven’t checked this morning), is George Washington. He was, as George Will likes to say, “the indispensable man”—no George, no U.S. His birthday absolutely should be a national holiday….. The only thing most children are taught about him, other than his many “firsts,” is that he was a slaveholder, which had no impact on the development of the nation he helped create at all. It has been crafted into a weapon to use against our nation, but that isn’t George’s doing: by the end of his life, he had come to realize how wrong slavery was, and unlike Thomas Jefferson, did something about it, freeing his slaves in his will. George Washington earned his own national holiday. Give him his birthday back, and move President’s Day to some other random Monday.”
I have also come to believe that Abraham Lincoln deserves a national holiday as well. Abe would have had one if his birthday wasn’t so close to both George’s and Valentine’s Day. I’d give Abe his day on the anniversary of his Gettysburg Address, but November 19 is too close to Thanksgiving. April 14th? That’s Abe’s assassination, which would be a ghoulish way to honor him. The best date, I think, would fall on March 4, when Lincoln was sworn in as President. We would have no United States of America as we know it without either George or Abe. Let’s show a little respect.
In other ethics news…
1. I just added another ethics website to the links, a really good one: Ethics Unwrapped. Check it out. Does anyone use the links? It’s a useful feature, and I realize it’s time for a clean-up: I have a backlog of additions to put in and some dead sites to take down. I just noticed that A.E. Brain’s blog is no longer active. “Zoebrain” was that esteemed Aussie commenter’s handle here, now AWOL since late 2023. Zoe’s expert commentary on transgender issues was invaluable while it lasted.
I worry too much, I guess, about why commenters leave. But I do…
2. All fixed? I also worry that the recent WordPress bug (now fixed) that made commenting such a chore has discouraged some of you: comments are down. Two posts with a lot of views, this one and this one, received no comments at all, which is very unusual.
Well I thought they were interesting…
3. Above the Law thinks it’s significant that over two thousand lawyers signed this open letter attacking President Trump as a danger to the Rule of Law. But then, Above the Law is an openly left-based legal hackery site. The letter is the work of a progressive, partisan group calling itself “Lawyers For Good Government,” which means, “Lawyers for Democratic Party-Dominated Government.” The group was oddly silent while the Biden Administration was trying to remove its most feared political foe with contrived political prosecutions.
4. The American Bar Association is similarly making declarations against Trump. Gee, I wonder why? A coalition of conservative legal groups this week asked the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate several of the American Bar Association’s diversity hiring programs. It’s the first direct legal challenge to the openly progressive and partisan lawyers’ association since Trump began his push to eliminate DEI employment discrimination across private and public sectors, and the usual suspects are furious. The 150,000 member ABA makes DEI one of its four core goals; the new EEOC complaint alleges that the ABA’s Diversity Clerkship Program, its Judicial Intern Opportunity Program, and its Business Law Fellows Program violate federal non-discrimination laws.
5. Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy is a genuinely objective commentator who conservatives love when he backs their grievances of the week and the Left re-embraces every time he points out one of Trump’s questionable actions. In a column for the still Trump-detesting National Review, McCarthy denounced the “Weaponization Working Group” established by new AG Pam Bondi. “Under the guise of ‘Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of the Department of Justice,’ the AG is implementing the Biden DOJ model of conviction first and trial later — if ever,” McCarthy wrote. “Standing convicted are Trump’s principal prosecutorial nemeses — Biden DOJ special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James , and therefore guilty by association are any DOJ and FBI personnel who aided and abetted them. In what crimes, we’re not told, only that Bondi will be “provid[ing] quarterly reports to the White House regarding the progress of the review.”
All three of these engaged in unethical prosecutorial conduct, but those are not necessarily cause for criminal charges. On the other hand, I am inclined to grant Trump wide discretion in removing Deep State lawyers and law enforcement officials after the way both groups sabotaged his first term.
6. Yet another really stupid and reckless Truth Social and Twitter-X post by Trump...Well, we knew these would keep coming, the social media outbursts that hand Democrats, NeverTrumpers and the media spiked clubs to clobber the President with. This one was a boon to the “Trump wants to be a dictator” mob. He wrote, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” sparking a freak-out this week.
This was reminiscent of Barry Goldwater’s nuch-condemned line in the 1964 Presidential campaign (that he lost to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide), “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” In truth and from a Presidential history standpoint, Trump is almost correct. Both FDR and Abraham Lincoln broke laws while in the process of saving the country and they have been celebrated for it, but that isn’t the same as not violating any laws.
7. “Bucket lists” are absurd, but this bucket list request is really absurd, and fulfilling it was unethical: Loretta, a resident at the Avon Nursing Home in Geneseo, New York, was granted a life-long wish for her 104th birthday to be behind bars at the Livingston County Jail. She said she had never been in jail before. (I assume she has never been covered with rapid wolverines, stuffed into a barrel with fat Lithuanian midgets, or stuck live eels up her nose either.)
The centenarian got a private tour of the facility, its surveillance system and booking procedures in the process of being jailed. Call me a spoilsport, but if law enforcement officials have nothing better to do than waste taxpayer dollars indulging batty old ladies, it’s time to cut the staff.
Here’s Loretta’s happy birthday…
8. Finally, if I hear this kind of comment one more time, I am heading for the shredder. On Fox News this morning, during Howard Kurtz’s media watchdog segment, both Kurtz and his guest described the billions of dollars in waste now being identified by the DOGE squad as insignificant as far as getting the deficit and the National Debt under control. This rationalization literally embraces the “Oh, what the hell, it’s just a few more dollars” attitude that is why we have a debt crisis and a political class that throws away millions on junk.
If a government doesn’t establish the principle that every cent of taxpayer funds should be spent responsibly, financial failure is inevitable. This is the same unethical path that leads advocates for illegal immigrants to argue that the number of illegals who kill and rape are just a small percentage compared to the “good” illegal immigrants, so it’s unfair to make a big deal about those crimes.
There should be no crimes committed in this country by illegal immigrants, because not one of them belongs here.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack wrote, “Does anyone use the links?”
I do, sometimes.
Jack wrote, “It’s a useful feature, and I realize it’s time for a clean-up:”
Speaking of a clean up, here’s my two cents worth on side bar listings…
Scrolling to see the entire listing on the side bar seems to be nearly endless. No one knows what lists are available unless the scroll to the bottom. What would be really helpful is if the links for Categories, Blogroll, Ethics Websites, Inspiration and Of Interest were above the Archives list. Also I think it’s time to condense your lists (especially archives which grows in length every month) into drop downs and also remove the spaces between the items on the list which increases the required scrolling. Here’s how I do my Archives…
These Drop-Down lists are great space saving tools and would reduce the amount of seemingly endless scrolling to see the lists you have available. I’m guessing that you have regular visitors to your blog that have no clue what’s available at the bottom of your side bar.
Special Note: Your ProEthics list should be on the top of your side bar just under the Search feature, not hidden away at the bottom. Since that’s a for profit venture, make it prominent and blow your own whistle.
Of course as usual, these suggestions are just my opinion and I offer them in hopes that it inspires you in ways you might not have thought of.
Steve
“Zoebrain” was that esteemed Aussie commenter’s handle here, now AWOL since late 2023. Zoe’s expert commentary on transgender issues was invaluable while it lasted.
Zoebrain was also a COVIDian
Michael T. Ejercito wrote, “Zoebrain was also a COVIDian”
What’s a COVIDian?
At least two definitions that I have seen — one who lived through the COVID years and one who enthusiastically supported every protective measure against COVID.
Zoebrain was the latter.
There should be no crimes committed in this country by illegal immigrants, because not one of them belongs here.
Would not this same logic apply to deserters.
Michael T Ejercito wrote, “Would not this same logic apply to deserters.”
Ok, I’m not understanding this one at all. Please explain.
Deserters are not where they are legally allowed to be. Merely being in engaged in the act of desertion is a crime, even if they do not commit other crimes.
What’s that have to do with hackers?
Jack wrote, “it was unethical, disrespectful and foolish for the U.S. to reduce George Washington’s birthday (Feb. 22) to a catch-all excuse for a long weekend.”
I completely agree.
I would have supported them creating a completely separate “President’s Day” holiday later in the year. They could have created it in March or August which currently have no federal holidays.
I’ll echo what Steve W said about links. I totally forgot they were there because they are WAY down the page and I never see them. I did use the links long ago, in fact I found ‘Above the Law’ from your page – recently deleted them from my reading list because I rarely found anything there that did not raise my blood pressure, and I need to calm myself down a bit more.
other stuff: I refuse to use the term ‘bucket list’. I retired a year ago and it seems nearly everyone asks me what’s on my ‘bucket list’. My reply: nothing. I don’t keep a ‘list’. There are things I want to do, and I will, but for now, after working since I was 14 years old, I’m enjoying not having to do anything and I think the whole term ‘bucket list’ is overused and just dumb.
That 104 lady must have eaten too many paint chips as a youngster. Her wish is insane.
7. The staffing need for first responders is not based on the slowest of slow days. Thus, these government employees do have days with extra time on their hands, and community relations are important for LEO’S who all too often are denigrated unreservedly. So why not indulge a silly wish for a centanarian and generate some goodwill in the community.
Killjoy doesn’t seem apt, since you’re not detracting from the fun the old lady and the cops had. A bit lacking in freudenfreude, maybe that’s it.
*undeservedly*
I also agree that the links and ethics blogs would do better if they were at the top of the blog instead of after the archives. When I do a search, I am more likely to search by key word or just use the search bar.
Maybe organize the archives by year?
Also, one of the reasons those links scroll endlessly is that there is only one relatively narrow column for them — is it possible to use some of the extra white space on the right for another column of links?
=================
On a total side note, I read that Britain is selling back my namesake — the joint naval and air base with the United States — to Mauritania. That both makes me sad and alarms me. Maybe I am missing something, but don’t we still have an adversary in the Pacific?
3. and 4. The decline of the legal profession is as big a tragedy as the demise of the American academy.
Or American journalism. Absolutely.
I think I’m of the opinion journalists have always been ink-stained wretches. We were just hoodwinked by Eward R. Murrow and the other WWII newsmen into thinking they were legitimate truth seekers. We thought “Citizen Kane” was about a prior age of journalism. Wrong.