This is the life I have chosen: I just was hit with a $400 charge (350 euro) for mistakenly using a licensed image last year that—get this—belongs to Germany. With all my posts, its only the second time this has happened: my practice is to apologize, take the graphic down, and pay the fine. This is what ethicists do. This one hurts a bit more than the last ($750) charge, just because of the time of year (cash flow is rough) and the confluence of projects. Hey! EA is due for another installment of my mass tort/ non-lawyer partner law firms/ litigation financing scandal report! Watch this space….
1. Weird story of the day: A park ranger at Yosemite was fired for mounting a Pride banner (above) on El Capitan. Of course, NBC, in its report, drips with sympathy for the (trans) woman, whom it insists on calling “they” resulting in a completely confusing report:
“‘I’m devastated,’ said Joslin, who is trans and uses they/them pronouns. “We don’t take our positions in the park service to make money or to have any kind of huge career gains. We take it because we love the places that we work. I have a Ph.D. in bioinformatics, and I could be making a lot more money in Silicon Valley, which is only a few hours away, but I made career choices to position myself in Yosemite National Park, because this is the place that I love the most.’”
Then why did you use your position to make an unauthorized political statement while marring the natural beauty that tourists expect to see in National Parks? More from NBC (them)…
Joslin said the flag display, which they [ WHO?] organized with other LGBTQ climbers and advocates and participated in outside of work hours, was intended to celebrate trans people and show that everyone is welcome in the nation’s parks. The flag was up on El Capitan for about two hours when park officials told the climbers to remove it, though the climbers said at the time that they were not told that they had broken any park rules.
About a week after the display, Joslin said, park leadership told them [WHO?] they [“They’ or you?]were the subject of a criminal investigation into the hanging of the flag. After that investigation, Acting Deputy Superintendent Danika Globokar fired Joslin due to their [Whose?] participation in what leadership described as the “flag demonstration,” Joslin said.
It does appear that the park service’s regulations on signs, flags and “demonstrations” have been inconsistent at best, and I think a stern reprimand or suspension for Joslin would have been fairer. They (I mean park authorities) are also talking about criminal charges. That seems like overkill as well.
2. Does anyone really think it would be responsible to let women walk around bare-breasted in public? The Raëlian movement is the co-organizer of next week’s Top Freedom topless protest in Boston—-I’m old enough to remember when Boston banned “Peyton Place.”
Next Tuesday’s protest, sponsored by the Raëlians’ GoTopless movement and the organization Equalititty will be having women parading bare-breasted to “encourage state lawmakers to end the oppression of women’s bodies by the government.” “This is not about sexuality, it is about oppression,” says Katrina Brees, founder of Equalititty and a co-organizer of the protest.“Whether it is the oppression of the female breast or where Rosa Parks has to sit on a bus, Americans must never stop fighting against oppression. Most importantly, the unconstitutional oppression perpetrated by our government upon its own citizens.” Laws are frequently the governors of societal norms and values. There is absolutely no discernible value to allowing women to appear in public topless, or, for that matter, allowing men to parade balls-out. There are, however several downsides of what the the Raëlians’ propose. I assume I don’t have to enumerate them. But the state of my birth is, and always has been, a little nuts. Multiple bills have been filed in the Massachusetts Legislature this year to let women to go topless in public. In 2022, Nantucket added a bylaw to allow anyone, regardless of gender, to go topless on beaches on the island.
3. How can anyone listen to Karoline Leavitt for more than five minutes and not resent how the Biden administration inflicted the incompetent Karine Jean-Pierre on the American public and the media simply because she was “historic”? She is a competent, articulate and skilled paid liar, and Jean-Pierre was an embarrassment. She was, in fact, for those objective enough to process it, a glaring example of why DEI is destructive and makes no sense. Today, a reporter in Leavitt’s press briefing asked whether it wasn’t “disrespectful” for President Trump to interrupt his meeting withe European leaders to take a phone call from President Putin. “Only a reporter from the New York Times would ask a question like that,” Leavitt replied. Bingo!
4. I have an amazing number of Facebook friends who watch MSNB…sorry, MS…regularly. There’s no excuse for this. That network has featured a series of outright anti-white racists as show hosts. Among the worst was Joy Reid, who when she was finally sacked, was among the highest paid talking heads there or anywhere. Here’s what she said in an interview with Wajahat Ali on his Substack, as she freaked out over Trump’s efforts to take the anti-American propaganda out of the Smithsonian:
They [that is, white people] can’t fix the history they did. Their ancestors made this country into a slave hell, but they can clean it up now. Cause they got the Smithsonian, they can get rid of all the slavery stuff. They got PragerU, they can lie about the history to the children. They can’t originally invent anything, more than they were ever able to invent good music. We black folk gave yall country music, hip hop, R&B, jazz, rock and roll, they couldn’t even invent that. But they have to call a white man The King. Because they couldn’t make rock and roll. So they have to stamp The King on a man whose main song, was stolen from an overweight black woman.
No lies about history there! Whites never originally invested anything. Good to know. It isn’t so much that Reid and her fellow travelers set out to divide the country as the fact that they make people dumber. There is a chicken and egg problem there, I’ll concede: Are they dumb because of what they hear Reid say, or do they only pay attention to Reid and those like her because they are dumb already?
5. If you want a quick snapshot of how bad Trump Derangement has become, check out The Daily Beast. There’s an article about how the President’s ankles looked swollen during his meetings on the Ukraine war (“White House Hides Trump’s Cankles With Odd Prop in Zelensky Photo-Op”). There’s this headline: “Trump, 79, Tells Smithsonian to Stop Saying ‘How Bad Slavery Was’” (That’s not what he said.) There is this nod to the pathetic Axis narrative that Trump is as far gone in his dotage as Joe Biden: “Trump, 79, Forgets the Name of an Ocean.” It’s literally all like that. I once used the DB as a source of legitimate news commentary from a progressive perspective. Now it joins my boycotted news sources, which are slowly becoming more numerous than the ones just barely useful enough to tolerate, like the New York Times. (Times columns today include “The Mind-Boggling Intrusiveness of Donald J. Trump” and “Ukraine Diplomacy Reveals How Un-American Trump Is.” )
6. In recent posts, Ann Althouse has been making Jack Marshall-style typos. This makes me very happy. Thanks, Ann.
Ethics Alarms 
A park ranger at Yosemite was fired for mounting a Pride banner (above) on El Capitan. Of course, NBC, in its report, drips with sympathy for the (ersatz) woman, whom it insists on calling “they” resulting in a completely confusing report:
FIFY
Also, the third person plural is inherently neuter. But the sentence is about one person, so, logically, the appropriate pronoun is singular neuter. As it happens, English has one: it.
JM: I have an amazing number of Facebook friends who watch MSNB…sorry, MS…regularly.
Hmm, this makes me curious how many people who frequent this blog watch television new shows (from ANY network) with some regularity.
Perhaps it’s because most people in my social circle are younger than me, but I know hardly anyone (besides my 94-year-old mother) who still watch linear TV regularly for news rather than read blogs and digital news and watch podcasts.
Okay, did a quick cruise of the interwebs and a Pew Research study from 2024 reports that overall 33% of the population prefer to get their news from TV (58% choose digital devices, 6% radio, 4% print), but the “prefer TV” figures are strongly dependent on age:
8% for 18-24
18% for 30-49
42% for 50-64
60% for 65+
Based on the past few months that I’ve been reading and commenting, it seems (based on how people reflect on history / memory) as though this community is mainly drawn from the two oldest groups above, so maybe 50%-ish for this group (?)
I think the severely Trump Deranged watch MSNBC in order to get a rage fix. They may very well not watch any other television. But they need their fix of Rachel Maddow. It’s essentially group therapy for them.
Hmm, do you think the severely TD are mainly elderly (or, at least, in their senior years)? My mother is the only person I know who fits that profile. She watches TV news (don’t know if she watches Maddow or not) and will soon be 94. She also gets along just fine with the Trump enthusiast who sits at the same table at meals at her retirement home, however, so fortunately it doesn’t seem to affect her actual in-person relationships.
Surely you jest. There are severly Trump Deranged of all ages around us.
Hmm, sounds like you live in a hotspot of the TD? My sympathy with your inhospitable surroundings…
Yes, your demographic theory makes sense, and is certainly backed up by what I see on Facebook. MS might explain why almost all of the “No Kings” protesters were white and over 40, and why the protest in DC over the National Guard enforcing the law in DC was also mostly old and white.
This, exactly. My 90 year old dad is a Rachel Maddow devotee. Because she has a doctorate from Oxford, you see. And dad has his Ph.D. from a Boston institution. So they are the educated elite and they just know better; about everything and everyone. Add to her drippingly smug delivery being right up dad’s alley, and he gets all chest out and finger-pointy with why Trump is the anti-Christ.
(Yeah, dad and I have had our moments.)
“this makes me curious how many people who frequent this blog watch television new shows (from ANY network) with some regularity.”
I watch NBC a coupla minutes a week (if that), and only because my wife ( a career Lefty) has it on as I stroll by.
PWS
Thanks!
I fit the stereotype for news watchers (81). I watch TV news to get local information, traffic (to see what I’m not dealing with), and weather (which is occasionally correct). The national news keeps me aware of what the pols are up to and to see the latest efforts at spin being provided by the legacy news outlets.
I find that I can get through a written story far quicker than I can listen through the same story. I read lots of blogs: this one is part of my “big 3”. I also hit the Bongino Report (aggregator) to see what is trending several days a week. I occasionally watch a podcast, but they are usually too long (1 hour or more). I don’t have enough time left to invest. When driving I always listen to talk radio. (I miss Rush and Sullivan.)
So there’s your old-fart report.
Thanks!
I watch almost no TV news, except for elections. I will watch various sports broadcasts, however.
I’d say I get the bulk of my news — when I cannot just ignore the world — from the Wall Street Journal. I have an online subscription, so not print but not precisely digital devices. I also frequent the Real Clear Politics site, and a small amount of time on Fox News website.
My oldest sister, on the other hand, is more incline to watch MSNBC 24/7. Not quite that, but she had it playing on her phone constantly. So I get exposed to a lot more of that than I want, especially since she is hard of hearing and has the volume turned up.
And, might I add, from what little I do overhear — the sheer amount of venom is astounding, and depressing.
Thanks! Pew would count an on-line subscription as getting news “from a digital device” — i.e. computer or tablet or phone. I also check Real Clear occasionally, for headlines I go to Reuters (and I can read a certain number of articles for free). I subscribe to Puck for analysis.
For sanity / positive mental health I also follow the GoodNews Network — there ARE actually a lot of people out there busily trying to solve problems and make things better in their communities, but that doesn’t count as mainstream news (I call them the bad news networks).
Yeah, I agree, venom and hostility is depressing! And people seem to get addicted to these negative emotions, stewing in grievance and consuming content that feeds it. It must be emotionally exhausting! Of course, addiction is good for the monetization of attention…
It sure would be nice to see more people responding to those of a different political persuasion with curiosity instead of hostility. And I think that IS happening among ordinary people in conversation, but not so much in the popular media world. The old “if it bleeds it leads” has seemingly become “if it screeches it leads”…..
“the sheer amount of venom is astounding, and depressing.”
Bill Clinton (from interviews between 11/30 and 12/16/2011): “I was just watching MSNBC, and they had a woman that used to work for me and a couple of other people on there, and they were talking about the Republican primary. And I was laughing. I said, ‘BOY, IT REALLY HAS BECOME OUR VERSION OF FOX’” (bolds/caps/italics mine)
A burning question remains: Has it gotten better, stayed the same, or gotten worse?
PWS
I think worse, although they did dump Keith Doberman, right, so that’s a tiny step to the good.
But Trump has just made them totally lose whatever minds they had. He is a trolling genius amongst his other talents.
Actually, I think they might be a little better, though it hardly shows. No Melissa Harris-Perry, no Joy, no Martin Bashir; Chris Matthews sometimes varies from the script.
4. I’ve finally come up with a term for the likes of Joy Reid, Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. They are “racial ringers.” Of course, in social sports, ringers are more expert players put on teams to help them win. For example, to win the annual golf outing at OB Jr.’s high school which was usually won by the dean of students who was a really good stick, I stacked my four-person team with clients who happened to be a former PGA tour player who never won but made one hundred and fifty cuts, a very good club player and … the then reigning state amateur champion. We ran away with it. We still have the photo from the school newspaper of the undersigned, OB, Jr. and the trophy. Everyone at the school with a sense of humor got the joke. But, back to racial ringers.
Admissions departments at elite colleges are desperate to find students of color whom they can admit. Who are the best and most coveted ones? The children of professionals and professors who are from foreign countries and OF COLOR. Bingo! Admissions people are always predisposed to admit the children of their fellow academics. And besides, these children of the best and brightest from foreign (mostly shithole) countries have much better SAT and academic chops than their African American peers. That’s what these racial ringers provide to elite colleges: students who may be competent, but they are sure as hell of color. The ringers then ride a gravy train with biscuit wheels for the rest of their lives. And they are deferred to and elevated as a result.
But you know what the real problem is? These racial ringers take a slot that these elite colleges should really be giving to actual African Americans. But no one has the time or inclination to educate home grown African American kids so they can compete in better schools. Nope. Just bring in all the ringers they can find and call it good. (And God forbid they give the slot to a qualified white kid.)
In any event Joy Ried is a complete Potemkin public intellectual. She’s been dining out on her Harvard degree in FILM STUDIES and her dark skin for her entire career. Frankly, I think it’s pretty ironic she thinks she’s a big deal when in fact she’s just been used by other people and entities for their advantage her entire career. And now she’s what? Unemployed. Worthy of a Nelson.
“she thinks she’s a big deal when in fact she’s just been used by other people and entities for their advantage her entire career.”
Painfully poignant example of the talented Professor Thomas Sowell’s Mascot Politics
The kicker? She’s totally oblivious to it…a legend in her own mind!
PWS
I just want to point out that there are a lot of white people in America who don’t have ancestors who participated in chattel slavery, myself included. In fact, a lot of white Americans’ ancestors arrived after the end of slavery, and never had anything to do with it.
Conversely, a lot of African Americans who are the descendants of slaves are also descendants of whites who exploited slaves. By the one-drop rule, mixed children were formally excluded from white society and integrated into the black slave caste. Indeed, it’s been estimated that the average African American has about 24% white ancestry, mostly from that legacy of exploitation. It’s far more likely that Joy Reid is the descendant of white slave owners than I am.
Per Reid, it stands to reason (and is actually true) that Africans invented slavery, also…they certainly facilitated the slave trade that enabled American slavery.
Considering that she would certainly acknowledge that fact, I feel empowered to shed my inherited guilt. Whew, so relieved! (Had an aunt who did genealogy stuff… a number of slaveholders in the line, like Custises and Calhouns, etc.)
Jack: “Nut the state of my birth is, and always has been, a little nuts. ”
a double-endtypo if there ever was one.
-Jut
Yeah. Fixed.
2). Counterpoint: I don’t think men should go topless in public. That’s fair. And decent.
Yeah, I like this. Except for the beach (and for dedicated nude beaches, well, that’s their choice). American men are pretty unusual (globally speaking) in their propensity for toplessness. I would prefer that they keep their shirts on when not at the beach or pool.
I’m fine even with a ban on tank tops and wife beaters.
Would this recommended ban pertain to that (arguably) priceless Paul’s Club Tee you received from an (also arguably) brilliant EA contributor…?
PWS
With your guns, you’d be entitled to a statutory exemption, Paulie.
Would that desire also apply to the notorious “Beijing bikini”?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLnUorZJQDi/
Warning: Some things can’t be unseen
Hmm, those men don’t look old enough to have dad bods!
BTW The comments are pretty funny. Some of my favorites:
At least they are hairless 😂
Men in crop tops>>>>>
we call that polish air conditioning
Watch out: Here’s Johnny will insist that I censor that joke…
So, that’s the Transgender flag? I did not know that. Looks like a faded Thai flag? It’s hard to keep track of all these oppressed group flags.
I must register my skepticism that a PhD in bioinformatics is working as a park ranger just because they’re passionate about Yosemite. It’s extremely expensive to get a PhD. If you never intended to use the credential, you could simply study the topic informally and still work at Yosemite without years of delay or 5-6 figures in debt.
5. Correction, AM: “A memo goes out that tells them to fixate on Trump’s age this month so all the headlines make sure to include it.”
I wouldn’t doubt it.