I will be in a fascinating meeting much of today among various professionals, lawyers and activists seeking to address interlocking corrupt practices in the legal profession, particularly in mass torts. I am primarily focusing on the legal ethics facets, but the victims of these practices include hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of innocent injured victims, including veterans, as well as ethical lawyers and law firms that find themselves facing programmed financial disaster.
Thus I don’t know how much time I will have to catch-up on ethics events and issues here until this evening.
One brief note: Isn’t it nauseating to read the anonymous attacks from White House staff and other Axis hacks on Karine Jean-Pierre now that Biden’s paid liar is trying to cash in?
NOW they are saying that she was incompetent at her job? It was obvious that the mop-top was incompetent literally from Day One, and she never improved. She is a walking, talking, embarrassing, Dunning-Kruger Syndrome suffering personification of what was and is so wrong about DEI policies, but before the Biden scam exploded and the other awful DEI mistake, Kamala Harris, helped drive the Democratic Party into disaster, anyone who pointed out the obvious about Jean-Pierre was risking being called a racist.
That’s enough from me for a while.
It’s your post now…and if you don’t know why that photo marks this post, your cultural literacy needs an infusion. Meanwhile, this is the anniversary of D-Day. Presumably everyone knows the significance of that.….
Ethics Alarms 
A few thoughts on D-Day:
Dad has been reading about Operation Overlord, specifically Alex Kershaw’s book on the initial glider assaults. I have a couple of Kershaw’s works, but not that one, and I might need to track it down. I recommended Ambrose’s short book “Pegasus Bridge”, which covers what was probably the first target captured in Overlord.
Last Tuesday, we ate lunch with a couple of our grandkids and as we drove to meet them, Overlord actually crossed my mind. I wondered if either of them – both intelligent young men – could tell me anything about that legendary operation. I didn’t ask them.
For those of us that think about such things: we consider the massive invasion force – primarily British and American – that stormed those five beaches eighty-one years ago and all of the logistics and planning that went into it. All the ships, the aircraft, the trucks, the tanks, the ammunition, the bombs, the foodstuffs, medicine, doctors, and ultimately, the soldiers with guns that had to be put in place to prosecute that singular invasion.
Now consider this: Nine days later, D-Day struck again. Another 500 ships and more than a quarter million men – entirely American – were committed to the invasion of Saipan, ten thousand miles away in the Pacific to commence the start of Operation Forager.
D-Day in France…and D-Day in the Pacific. Both those operations – in terms of size, scale, and proximity to each other – signify a remarkable, almost incomprehensible, achievement in the annals of military manufacturing, build-up, delivery, and execution.
I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy. If you are a student of WWII, you must read these. You will NOT be disappointed.
“An Army At Dawn” (the 1942 invasion of North Africa)
“The Day of Battle” (the 1943 invasion of Sicily/Italy)
“The Guns at Last Light” (the 1944 invasion of Normandy)
As a bonus, he just published the second book of his trilogy covering the American Revolution. These are another “don’t miss.”
Thank you for the recommendations. I’m a WWII junkie but I will read about anything related to history.
Many of those invaluable, indispensable Operation Overlord Waco CG-4A gliders were built in the Kingsford (MI) Ford Plant (retooled for the war effort), with the capable assistance of my maternal great Uncle.
There’s a marvelous museum with a to-scale model in nearby Iron Mountain; a must see if you’re in the vicinity
Built for…um…single use, piloting them would not have been for the faint of heart!
PWS
World War II Glider and Military Museum
302 Kent Street
Iron Mountain, MI 49801
Seasonal Phone: 906-774-1086
PWS
and secrecy?
Very true. Secrecy was difficult to maintain given how much men and material were being stacked up in England in the spring of ’44. But the Allies had a rather intricate secondary operation (Operation Fortitude) dedicated to misleading the German High Command – and its spies in England – about who was going to land, where the landings would be, and when.
I have a book on my shelf that I’ve yet to read (“Fortitude” by Roger Hesketh) that appears to covers the subject in great detail.
Thnks for the book recommendation. i wil go in search for the,
I just want to note that i recently rewatched “band of Brothers” As well as a documentary on Patton.
Amalgmting the two stories I realized that i Patton was outside of Metz in September. It was then that Eisenhower diverted his fuel to Montgbomery preventing Patton’s advance. Montgomery’s market Graden operation was a failure . Thus if patton ahd been refueled I surmsie that Market Garden would not have casued the death of so many of the 101st and perhaps Bastogne would have been averted.
Just playing What if on this D day!
Thanks for the note on the books, I’ll look those up.
One of the saddest things to read about it are accounts of all the men who died not from enemy actions, but from avoidable mistakes, having the wrong (or missing) equipment, drowning, mis-directed fire from the allied side, etc.
I would like to give this the headline, “Now That’s an Unethical Doctor” or perhaps “Ethics Travails at the Local Physician’s Office.
One of my daughters has issues with food. She cannot, for some unknown reason, eat enough to live on her own, and has to be fed by a G-tube. This particular problem has existed all nine years of her life, perplexing doctors from multiple medical organizations, including the Cleveland Clinic. The whole family recently got a horrible cold, and this child reacted by throwing up all solid food for a week, all formulas and milk-related products for five days, and Pedialyte for two when we took her into the ER (no urgent care in this town) as per our GI’s recommendation. After a hospital stay including gut rest and IV fluids, the hospitalist had no idea if she was better or how to handle her, so just sent her home with orders to see a primary care doctor. Unfortunately her primary care doctor is out for her own surgery and recovery right now, so we had to see this other quack that was taking all the patients.
Now, to give you an idea of this doctor before we get to the event that I find signature significance, you should know that he is known for never having diabetics test their A1C before prescribing medicine. My husband went to see him for chest pain and persistent exhaustion and was given Nexium and told to avoid spicy food. But he was the only one available, so I took the kid in to see him.
While we were there, he had no issues with the fact that she had been throwing up for most of nine days at that point and ignored the vomiting, saying I had just been feeding her wrong. He then went on to suggest that all we needed was to get a Denver doctor to prescribe her marijuana, since it gives people the munchies. He admitted that as a Minnesota native, he used to prescribe it all the time, but never for a kid and it’s not legal here in Wyoming. However, he knew multiple parents with kids with eating problems that would give them marijuana gummies that solved all the problems. On repeat, he wants to give a 9-year-old an addictive drug that has been tied to significant brain changes in uses, but especially teen and younger users. The drug is known for causing approximately 1% of its users to hallucinate, which sometimes leads to violent behavior, the chances of which increase at the younger ages the usage started. Also, it has recently been linked to causing heart problems, especially for those who start using as teens.
Now the specific issues with giving marijuana to my daughter, aside from her age as NINE years old, come up. She has very low motivation as it is, be it eat food, get dressed, brush hair and teeth, do school work, you name it. Mary Jane is known to modify the brain of even adults to decrease motivation. She has moderate to severe ADHD, which might explain the lack of motivation above, or be a symptom alongside the lack of motivation. This is incredibly well documented in her medical history, with notes galore and I always tell doctors who wonder why she won’t interact well with them. She hyper-focuses on something and does not even recognize that they are speaking to her, which was worse than usual on that visit as she hadn’t kept anything, including medicine, down in days and certainly not her ADHD cocktail. Studies show that cannabis and ADHD are a very bad mix, with a worsening of ADHD symptoms and increasingly high chances of severe addiction. That doesn’t even cover the fact that she is on Ritalin for her ADHD, which when mixed with pot, causes significant heart strain.
This is no ethical purveyor of medicine. While it wasn’t the comeuppance he deserved, my daughter covered his entire office in vomit after he said that the vomiting was not a concern. I’ll not be going back to him for anything.
Good for you. You have a right to get a second opinion and a third and a fourth if necessary and you certainly have the right to dismiss a flaky sounding treatment program like that.
Yikes.
In the early days of the Internet, I joined a weekly newsletter similar to EA, but a more humorous bend to it.
At the end he features an obituary of a significant individual. Dr. Jarvick fell into that place this week, and his story is full of ethical considerations of frontier medicine that seem to have been forgotten.
https://honoraryunsubscribe.com/robert-jarvik/
Here is a link to an InstaGram post that appeared on my feed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKhjFLmhiEf/
If this had happedned to you, would you not hate and despise all humanity for doing this to you, for depriving you of the life they got to enjoy?
Would you not want to burn the whole world down in order to punish humanity?
Would you not even want to end humanity, in order to punish them?
Why would you be able to feel anything else except rage, envy, and hatred against others?
Posted at the suggestion of Paul Schlecht:
Last year, to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I published a collection of great World War II films and television shows focusing on pictures made by and for those who ‘were there.’
The list is organized by theater of operations/topic.
My personal favorites appear at the top. I would love to hear if you agree.
https://northwoodslistener.wordpress.com/2024/06/03/world-war-ii-on-screen-a-cinematic-compendium/
Fans of “Where Eagles Dare”, unite!! That is an absolute favorite of mine and I’ve watched it twenty times if I’ve watched it once. The stunt doubles got a workout in that movie!! Dang, now I’ll probably have to watch it again tonight.
I’ve seen quite a few of the others you list as well. “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance” were pretty solid, though I recommend everyone read Herman Wouk’s book versions first.
Anyways, well done on the list.
If you haven’t seen it, check out “Von Ryan’s Express”…Trevor Howard and Frank Sinatra. A pretty good action movie set in WWII Italy.
I read the original book “Von Ryan’s Express” which was far different from the film. I recommend it.
I heard a few years ago that Clint Eastwood had nicknamed that caper, “Where Doubles Dare.”
Thank you for the recommendation re Von Ryan’s Express.
When Eastwood’s double executed the jump between the cable cars, he landed incorrectly, sort of face-planted, and knocked out several teeth. You can kind of see that awkward landing in the movie, though obviously the aftermath was left on the editor’s cutting floor…maybe along with the teeth.
Sorry, not Eastwood’s stunt double…Richard Burton’s double.
Joel is also correct that “Winds of War”/”War and Remembrance” are great stories (I read both books and saw both miniseries). They were written by Herman Wouk who also wrote “The Caine Mutiny”.
Yeah, I loved the books. In fact, on Wednesday I discovered a friend of ours loves WWII historical fiction, and I recommended them to her.
And Wouk lived nearly as long as Methuselah. In fact,…
Also “Marjorie Morningstar.
Good afternoon, Cynthia. I don’t recall seeing your comments before and I do appreciate the collection ofoperations movies. Welcome. I do hope you continue to contribute to this most excellent blog.
jvb
Thank you, John.
You are welcome. In both senses of the word!
jvb
The talented Ms. Tanner has sporadically contributed to EA; most recently ~a year ago. At that time, I discovered she resided in Shorewood Hills, located but a few clicks north of me in the 77 Square Miles Surrounded By A Sea Of Reality
Her post at neighborsnextdoor (THEY Report/YOU Decide), was decidedly not its usual Curtain Twitching fare, being both appropriate and topical on the anniversary of D-Day; a welcome addition both there, and here.
PWS
I noticed Sink the Bismarck popped up on my TV program suggestion feed the other day. Haven’t thought of that one for years (not very old when it came out)…marked it to watch.
It’s surprisingly good. And historically accurate.
On Ethical Begging
I read about a new thing in public begging not long ago. A person is about to enter a store when he or she is approached by a stranger asking for help shopping. The stranger may look old or may be using a cane or motorized cart that elicits sympathy from the person in question. The person, believing that the stranger only needs assistance getting items from shelves into the cart, helps only to find out at the checkout that he or she is expected to pay for the groceries, too. Being put on the spot often pressures people into doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do, after all.
Now some would cast blame on the well-intentioned person by trotting out #36 Victim Blindness aka You Should Have Seen it Coming. Certainly, it is wise to hammer out the terms of a favor you are doing for someone, especially a stranger, before you do it, but automatic suspicion of everyone who asks for help deprives one of the opportunity to be ethical or to just plain be nice to someone else.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on guard for red flags. It’s ethical to pull over and help someone with a flat tire, but it’s still a good idea to drive on by if something about the scenario seems off to avoid becoming the victim of a crime.
I’ll admit to have given money to people who might have been con artists. The guy in the parking lot of a store who was near a pharmacy, said he needed $12 for his wife’s prescription. I had only a $20 and gave it to him. He thanked me profusely, exclaiming it was more than he needed. I handed over my last $6 to a guy who approached Mr. Golden and I one evening in downtown Indianapolis who was short the amount of money he needed to pay the parking attendant of the garage where his car was stashed. Heck, I once gave a bum sitting against a building on the sidewalk $5 even though he had a sign that read, “Why lie? I’m going to buy beer”. Or maybe I gave him the money because of the sign. Probably for having the chutzpah to be honest about it.
And, after all, Hebrews 13:2 reads, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.” (NKJV). Somewhere between angels and con artists, there must have been someone I have helped who genuinely needed it.
A few weeks ago, I walked into the grocery store, grabbed a shopping cart and began pushing it toward the area of store I needed go first. I was stopped by a woman in a motorized store cart. She explained to me that she didn’t have any money, that she had filed for disability but hadn’t gotten a check yet, had kids at home and asked if I could purchase her groceries. She showed me that there was only food in the cart and emphasized that she wasn’t asking for money.
As I had just walked into the store and hadn’t done my own shopping yet – it would take at least an hour – I explained that I had enough for my own list and that was it. This was, of course, true; but it’s not as if I couldn’t have wiggled some extra out if I were so inclined. I was not inclined because:
In each of the circumstances I’ve described, a stranger was asking me for something. Obviously, I was not compelled to give. It would not have been unethical to give if I had no reason to believe it was a scam; it may have been unethical to give if I knew it was a scam. It was probably unethical to give $5 to the guy who admitted he was only going to buy beer.
With food banks/pantries, friends and neighbors and other resources for getting food when one has none, what are the ethics of begging in public? Should it be acceptable at all? Should it be covered by Freedom of Expression/Speech? Do stores have an ethical obligation to remove people recognized as beggars to prevent paying customers from being approached?
When I was overseas, I saw a girl with a cardboard sign that was asking for money for a train ticket. I told her, lets go to the office across the street, I’ll buy it. She didn’t want that. Since then, I never give money.
Now, When get benevolence calls I say that ask for food or gas, I always say there’s a gas station next to church or I have a box of food. That right there eliminates 90%. The ones that do take it are appreciative. People who want rent or bills, I tell them it must go through committee. I’ve never had anyone submit to committee.
One of life’s lessons I’ve had to learn many times over and why I’m reluctant to donate to individuals. Welp, that and a personal history of making poor choices when doing so.
~22 years ago at Christmas, some guy came to the door, dropped some neighborhood references, piqued me with an impassioned tale of considerable woe, and left with $20. As he was driving away, I observed a smug “I sure f****d him” smirk leveled toward his passenger.
Overcome by 2nd thoughts, I called a street-wise pal who, while barely suppressing an audible guffaw, informed me that I’d just “made a donation.” To add insult to injury, her mother’s laughing her ass off in the background and says: “You tell Paul I’m on my way over, and he ain’t gonna get rid of me for less than Fiddy.”
Ouch!
Later that day, I went up the block to the house we were refurbishing and told my story to the carpet guy. Sez he: “You know, he stopped by here too. I told him he should set aside some of his haul for acting lessons.”
Ouch 2.0!
Not quite ten years ago I was on my way to the car wash and at a median enroute stood a young blond woman holding one of those “request” signs. After my car wash, not 15 minutes later, I headed back through that same intersection. Lo-n-behold, a young man had assumed the site and was holding the exact same sign.
Couple of weeks before that at Sam’s Club, I saw a reasonably well-dressed adult male with two children holding “request” signs on the median at the entrance/exit.
As I was stowing my purchases ~ 1/2 an hour later (~04:30 p.m.) I observed all three leaving their posts and heading over to a late model van parked in the shade. There, I assume, mom was seated comfortably in a lawn chair; resting up after her shift?
They all piled in and as they drove away, I noticed “Land Of Lincoln” license plates.
An old Irish proverb, courtesy of Margaret Schroeder (the eminently fetching Kelly Macdonald in Boardwalk Empire)
“Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it.”
Words to live by; there are plenty of other ways to give back.
PWS
I impart an amusing “beggar” anecdote:
I left court one morning, basking in the glory of having done the Lord’s work (meaning I busted my back helping a most ungrateful client get out of a jam who refused to pay me). I stopped at a Walgreen’s to pick up something. As I exited my car, I was met by a youthful young lad sitting on the sidewalk. He looked up at me and said, “Hey. I am hungry! Get me some frosted blueberry Pop Tarts, will you?” I, being an affable fellow, was simultaneously shocked and amused by the specificity of the demand. I said, “Did you say ‘frosted blueberry Pop Tarts’?” He said “yes.”
I went into the store, rummaged around for the stuff i needed, and walked over to the snack aisle. Lo and behold, Walgreen’s sells frosted blueberry PopTarts! On that day, though, they had a two-for-one sale! So, I bought two boxes of frosted blueberry Pop Tarts. One for him and one for me!
I paid and left. He was still sitting there, thinking I blew him off. He was shocked, appalled, and amazed when I presented him with a box of frosted blueberry Pop Tarts. He thanked me and asked me why I did it. I said that his request was so specific – though a bit rude – that I felf I almost owed him the pastries and I would have been disappointed if they didn’t have them. I also told him that if they did not have the pasties, I had no duty to improvise. To me, it was all or nothing. He laughed, thanked me again, and dove face-first into the Pop Tarts.
jvb
Interesting question. I admit that I can certainly appreciate someone asking for help in reaching items on the bottom or top shelves — I have trouble with that myself, although I do not think my first option would be to ask a stranger (I am fortunate to have a sister who could assist). However, going from there to expecting the stranger to then pay for my groceries — that takes a lot of nerve.
It also occurs to me that just being in a motorized cart provided by the grocery store doesn’t necessarily mean anything (unless they have a cane or walker with them). You too could get in one of those carts — but you wouldn’t.
I spent close to 15 years delivering newspapers, which meant I was out and about during the wee hours. When I went to a convenience store to get gas (I didn’t usually go inside, since I tried to bring my own lunch), too many times I would be approached by someone asking for money.
What was remarkable was the sameness of the stories. “I’m picking up my wife from the hospital to take her home, and I don’t have enough gas.” I cannot tell you how many times I heard that story, more or less. I think I did give at least a couple of them a few dollars, and I had very few dollars those days.
But even though there are several research hospitals in this area, my goodness! How many husbands can 1) Be picking up their wives at 4am and 2) All of them are out of gas at the BP station? So that kind of broke me from giving. I have a very few people or organizations that I’m willing to donate to and I thought about those carefully.
I also have been known to wonder to my sister, when we see men holding up signs for money at a red light intersection, “I wonder how much rent he has to pay for that spot?” “When his shift if over, does he hop in a car to go home?” Uncharitable of me, perhaps, but there it is.
I am so glad I recalled Burl Ives dialog in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
“There isn’t nothing more powerful then the odor of mendacity!”
This seems likely to have been brought up here at some time, but I don’t recall seeing it:
Is it ethical to buy a used item that you know is worth considerably more than what is being asked for it (not a price tag mistake) without alerting the seller? News stories occasionally cover incidents of someone finding a valuable painting or other such treasure at Goodwill, an estate sale, etc.
Does who the seller is make any difference in the possible obligation? Is a charity thrift store (like Goodwill), or an old lady selling off some items in a garage sale more deserving of consideration than a for-profit second-hand store or flea market dealer, or should everyone or no-one be a beneficiary?
I saw a Van Gogh recently at a museum that was purchased at a bargain a long while ago from a private party who did not know that he had a Van Gogh. In economic theory this is called an asymmetric bargain, which is one of the scenarios related to information symmetry in transactions.
Another example is the purchase of the DOS operating system by Bill Gates from a Seattle programmer for $50,000 back in the eighties. Bill Gates knew what he was buying, but the programmer had no idea about the importance of the software he just wrote.
Nobel Prices for economy have been awarded about information asymmetry (Akerlof, Stiglitz) as this can lead to market failure, adverse selection, and moral hazard.
My impression is that there are generally more obligations (legal, ethics) for sellers than buyers, as sellers are supposed to know what they are selling and have a duty to disclose hidden problems. An example of obligations for buyers arise when shopping for health insurance and life insurance, when the buyer has to be transparent about health issues.
In general benefitting from asymmetric information is considered smart business, as long as it is legal. Insider trading is unethical precisely because it is illegal.
The obligation to be informed and candid about what is being sold is on the seller, not on the buyer. E.g. my dad bought a horse, and neither my dad nor the seller knew that the horse was carrying, so when a month latter the mare delivered a vole, there was no recourse for the seller.
Your case is similar except that you have more information. I would say that as buyer you are not ethically required to disclose, however I would be careful about when you have a close relationship with the seller (e.g. family).
Thanks, I see the point, but I’m not so sure the horse seller would have cared to get the vole, anyway 😉
It should have been “foal” of course.
Obviously; but I still appreciated your example…and the mental image of the “vole” typo made me grin.
I have been on both sides of this situation, and generally I believe that it is the seller’s responsibility to reasonably determine the value of an item he or she is selling.
Certainly if it is a business or an online sale, I don’t feel any obligation to educate that person on what the item is worth. In my case, if I am buying a book to resell, it is my decision to put up my money based on my judgment that I can make a profit overall with that purchase. If I buy 10 books online for $2 each that I think are worth $20 apiece it might take me several years to sell 3-5 of those books at my price.
Items sold at yard sales are a closer call, but everyone going to yard sales is looking for a bargain, whether for personal use or for resale. At least you can see and touch the item first. Estate sales, on the other hand, are often done by professionals who are responsible for pricing the various items. Not much different than buying books on Abe Books.
The ethical calculus would be different for relatives or close friends, but generally I find no problem with buying something you believe is underpriced.
Jack,
How’d your meeting go yesterday?