Month: September 2025

Why Fake Ron Howard Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About, Part 1

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

I posted about the “why I am a liberal” social media post that has been surfacing on Facebook and challenged the Ethics Alarms commentariate to dissect its rampant generalities, facile assumptions, and logical fallacies. As I wrote in the post, some previously intelligent people of my acquaintance have been reposting and praising the thing, attributing its authorship to Hollywood nice guy director Ron Howard. He didn’t write it, so this is a textbook “appeal to authority,” especially since the arguments “Ron” makes are flawed at best. They are, however, typical progressive talking points. There is no reason to believe the real Ron Howard has any political science or philosophical acumen or expertise, as he has spent literally his whole life in front of cameras or behind them.

Four EA comment stars took up my challenge, and they all shined. As promised, I am posting all four, each of which would make an excellent civics class topic, if there were high school civics classes that didn’t focus exclusively on leftist cant. (Are there any any?)

You can review Fake Ron’s manifesto here. Rebuttal #1 is by Gamereg; his numbered points correspond to “Ron’s”:

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I May Have To Retract My Official Dislike of Memes in the Wake of the Charlie Kirk Assassination Ethics Train Wreck…

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

The internet memes below mocking the Axis of Unethical Conduct response to the Charlie Kirk assassination and the hypocrisy of its Jimmy Kimmel firing protestations are devastating. I’m wrestling with myself not to post them all to Facebook with the legend, “Suck on this, you deluded fools!” just to watch about 250 Trump-Deranged Facebook friends’ (including poor Curmie) heads blow-up, and have them all unfriend me, thus ensuring that I live out the rest of my days lonely and unloved, but satisfied.

The conservative Powerline blog, under the administration of lawyer John Hinderaker, provides a collection of the best of the week’s memes every Saturday. He has taken over the feature since his original Meme Master quit or left or died or something, and it hasn’t been as exhaustive or as reliably hilarious since, but this one, dubbed the “The Week In Pictures: Party of Peace Edition,” is a classic: funny, merciless, and best of all, true. Not every meme included is a gem, but from the documented hypocrisy of Kimmel himself and his defenders, to the joy of watching the Left turn on Disney, to, oh, so much more that is nauseating as the “party of peace” tries to spin its way out of its accountability, collectively they deliver a…well, let the Duke illustrate:

I’m still wrestling…but in the meantime, below are the featured Kirk-Kimmel memes. They have many uses: if your Trump-Deranged relative or freind can’t see these and admit that they raise legitimate points, call 911. The whole thing is here.

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It’s Come to This: a Majority of House Democrats Chose To Avoid Angering Their Radical Trump-Deranged Base Over Appealing To Sane Americans

/ Jack Marshall / 22 Comments

To be fair, Republican had Democrats in a metaphorical head-lock and the assassination of Charlie Kirk gave the Elephants a perfect “gotcha!” Then again, the Democrats and the rest of the Axis of Unethical conduct were begging for their just desserts and are getting it good and hard.

Well, good. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving party.

House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced House Resolution 719 this week and with over 100 co-sponsors, all Republicans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass., and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D- Cal.) all sucked it up and supported the resolution, which, with a sane party, should have been easy. The relevant text read,

Resolved, That the House of Representatives

(1) condemns in the strongest possible terms the assassination of Charles “Charlie” James Kirk, and all forms of political violence;

(2) commends and honors the dedicated law enforcement and emergency personnel for their tireless efforts in finding the suspect responsible for the assassination of Charlie Kirk and urges the administration of swift justice to the suspect;

(3) extends its deepest condolences and sympathies to Charlie Kirk’s family, including his wife, Erika, and their two young children, and prays for comfort, peace, and healing in this time of unspeakable loss;

(4) honors the life, leadership, and legacy of Charlie Kirk, whose steadfast dedication to the Constitution, civil discourse, and Biblical truth inspired a generation to cherish and defend the blessings of liberty; and

(5) calls upon all Americans—regardless of race, party affiliation, or creed—to reject political violence, recommit to respectful debate, uphold American values, and respect one another as fellow Americans.

Only ninety-five Democrats had the sense to back the resolution even though the vast majority of Americans wouldn’t read the text and would just see it as a routine rejection of political violence and an expression of regret over the death of a murder victim. Thirty-eight Democrats voted “present,” 58 voted against the resolution, and 22 did not vote at all. That’s 117 who objected to the existence of Charlie Kirk so much that they were unwilling to support a resolution condemning political violence.

In June, the House unanimously passed a resolution honoring Minnesota House Democrat Leader Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark after they were murdered, while also condemning political violence. There were no Republican dissenters. But the Hortmans hadn’t played a part in defeating a grand scheme to remake the nation, the government and its culture like Charlie Kirk had. The Mad Left hated him and hates him still, hence today’s vote. Res ipsa loquitur.

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Sickness Ethics:  The Worker’s (and the Tourist’s) Dilemma

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

Guest Post

by AM Golden

About a month ago, I got my hair cut at a salon that is part of a nationwide chain.  It was a couple of days before my vacation.  During the cut, the stylist coughed several times into her arm.

Correction: she held her arm out and coughed in its general direction.  You know what I mean, right?  The arm is extended out front, allowing the cough to have plenty of space to spew germs out into the air with nothing to buffer them.

She complained about sinuses.  I sympathized.  Sinuses are tough.  It didn’t pass my notice, however, that one cough seemed a little congested.

At checkout, I told her I hoped her sinuses got better.  It was then that she disclosed that it was harder because she was also recovering from bronchitis.

Cue internal Homer Simpson-esque scream and flight.

I am highly susceptible to bronchial infections, especially this time of year.  It was 35 years ago that I caught pneumonia while in college which caused me to miss two weeks of classes and three weeks of work at McDonald’s.  I returned to classes the day mid-terms began.  The day I returned to work, they put me in the drive-thru and assured my mother they would take me out as soon as it got dark and too cold.  They didn’t.  Fast food work sucks. 

Probably for that reason, I am sympathetic to people in customer-facing positions because they are paid by the hour, generally don’t have sick time or much sick time and often have to make the choice of earning money to pay their bills or staying home unpaid when sick.

I get it.

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Show This To Your Friends (and Chuck Schumer) Fuming Over The Suspension of Jimmy Kimmel….

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

Do remind them that Democrats forced Al Franken to leave the Senate over a far less disgusting stunt he engaged in while Franken was still a (sort of) comedian. That Jimmy Kimmel displayed above is exactly who the creep really is and has always been. That ABC thought he was worthy of a nightly show tells you all you need to know about ABC.

Again: What a ridiculous metaphorical hill for progressives and Democrats to take a supposedly principled stand on! But a revealing one…

Amazing Stories of the Trump Deranged: The Protest

/ Jack Marshall / 21 Comments

A nice, generally reasonable, D.C. actor and Facebook friend posted this today in response to the Jimmy Kimmel uproar, followed by the usual likes, loves and “care” emojis:

Brilliant.

Let’s see: he’s cancelling the streaming service Hulu, owned by Disney, to protest another entity owned by Disney suspending an epic asshole from a money-losing TV show because the actor thinks bashing Donald Trump and Republicans night after night should insulate a marginal talent from the consequences of his words and actions.

Or my friend thinks Disney/ABC is violating the First Amendment because the under-welcome educated bubble he exists in gets all its news from MSNBC and social media. Or he thinks this is some kind of virtue-signalling to his friends who think Donald Trump is a Nazi.

No, the least you could do, my friend, is to do nothing at all, and it would be just as effective as cancelling Hulu and boasting about it on Facebook, with the added benefit that you would not look ridiculous. I say this recognizing that the side of the ideological divide you hang out with fervently believes that “Do something!” is a rational response to all perceived problems.

Have we ever seen a period in American history where so many people were eager to put out public statements that could be fairly translated as “I have become a moron”?

Friday Open Forum, Recovering Edition [Extended]

/ Jack Marshall / 30 Comments

My major theatrical project, in the works for three years, the revue honoring the 50th anniversary of the musical theater organization I inadvertently founded at Georgetown University Law Center, was completed last weekend and judged a success. It is the only student operated theatrical organization at an American graduate school, and alums of the school and the group traveled to D.C. from all over the country to be part of the celebration. If they wanted to be in the show itself, I promised that I would find a way to let them do it, meaning that the production never had a single rehearsal with the entire cast available, a handicap that extended to the individual numbers, some of them quite challenging. Naturally I’m still exhausted, desperately trying to catch up, and now I’m sick. (But the infected leg is much better, thanks.)

At the end of the gala after the final performance, an alumnus of the group who was in several numbers, a lawyer in his 30s whom I had not met before the show, pulled me aside. He pointed out two two young children playing outside in an enclosed area outside the party space, and said, “Those are my kids. My wife and I met during one of the shows here, and it changed every aspect of my life. If you hadn’t started this wonderful organization that kept me sane during law school, my children wouldn’t exist, and I just wanted to say thank you.” Then he shook my hand, gave me a hug, and walked away.

Meanwhile, in the “I’m smart!” Fredo category, I was amused to see that Pajamas Media columnist Stephen Kruiser this morning virtually duplicated my post from last night about Kamala’s book excerpt, not that my analysis took much thought since its conclusions should be obvious. But I was reminded once again about how often the rebuttals from the Trump Deranged when I’m debating with them consist of saying “Oh, you’re just reciting [Fox News/ some other conservative news or opinion source/Trump’s] talking points” when as far as I know they are just echoing my analysis. Kruiser’s Morning Briefing column is often an amusing read, and his link farm is, if single-minded, informative. Here’s a head-exploding story I might have missed: Hizzoner: ‘Law Enforcement Is a Sickness’ In Chicago I Will ‘Eradicate’

ADDED: On the other hand, Ann Althouse beat me to the punch regarding Harris’s fatuous musings on the VP choice that never was, and was spot on.

Enough from me: I have to take some DayQuill and go back to bed….It’s all up to you what this space is covers now, as long as the topic is ethics.

Once Again, Harris Reminds Us of How Narrowly the US Avoided Disaster in 2024

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

The disaster we narrowly avoided was having such an incompetent elected President of the United States. The Atlantic posted a new excerpt from former Vice President Kamala Harris’s book, “107 Days,” and like so many other emissions from what Kamala calls “her mind,” the selection prompts the thought, “Wow, what an idiot!”

Kamala Harris writes that her “first choice” to be her running mate was her close friend Pete Buttigieg, but she decided that it would be “too big of a risk” for a black woman to run with a gay man. Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man,” Harris writes. “But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, “Screw it, let’s just do it.”But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.” She adds that Buttigieg originally topped her list because “he is a sincere public servant with the rare talent of being able to frame liberal arguments in a way that makes it possible for conservatives to hear them…I love Pete. I love working with Pete. He and his husband, Chasten, are friends.”

Well.

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On That Fake “Ron Howard” Facebook Post….

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

“Appeal to Authority” is one of the hoariest logical fallacies of all as well as one of the most common; it is a favorite of those who cannot make their own cases for their fervently held beliefs. So it is not surprising that a supposed post by nice guy—he was Opie, after all!—and mostly apolitical Hollywood director Ron Howard has resurfaced on social media as desperate progressives try to avoid the consequences of the Charley Kirk murder that was the inevitable result of the fearmongering and demonizing their party flooded the culture with for years.

The Ron Howard manifesto of what liberals believe and why was circulating earlier this year and even Snopes, a reliable Axis ally, pronounced it fake. Never mind, though. What a brilliant ideology the Left has that its adherents can’t even be honest about who is making arguments in its support!

If you read “Ron’s” screed, you will conclude as I have that the director needs to track down the forger and sue him for defamation, or perhaps force the miscreant to watch Howard’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and Jim Carey’s unrestrained mugging for days on end. The recitation of beliefs is so full of “Imagine”-esque fantasy and logical inconsistencies that a relatively alert 8th grader should be able to poke the thing with enough holes to fill Prince Albert’s Hall.

Here’s a challenge to Ethics Alarms readers: debunk this virtue-signaling orgy my Facebook friends are so fond of, and I’ll publish your vivisections in one grand post to express my gratitude for saving me the trouble. I’ll get you started: Only idiots make statements that they conclude with “PERIOD.”

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s “Ron”…

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Charlie Kirk Assassination Ethics Train Wreck Update…

/ Jack Marshall / 21 Comments

The newly Christened “Charie Kirk Assassination Ethics Train Wreck” is barrelling along at breakneck pace. I need this post just to catch up:

  • Attorney General Pam Bondi idiotically stated that “hate speech” was not protected by the First Amendment. Ethics Alarms negligently didn’t flag this immediately as Ethics Duncery, and I am abashed. I just am not surprised when Bondi shows us what she is: a legal hack, an unqualified and incompetent AG, and in the running for the worst Trump Cabinet appointment. Should she be fired for directly undermining the Trump/MAGA/conservative position on freedom of speech? Of course; she should never have been appointed in the first place. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the U.S. Attorney General understand the Bill of Rights and all the SCOTUS cases establishing that “hate speech” is just speech, and completely covered by the First Amendment. What a disgrace Bondi is. Ugh.
  • Then there is Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democratic Party leader in the Senate, lawyer (once upon a time) and utter hypocrite. Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension is unfair and cowardly, but there is nothing preventing an employer from firing or suspending an employee who makes a statement in public that the organization decides is detrimental to business, But Schumer wrote on “X”:

“America is meant to be a bastion of free speech. Everybody across the political spectrum should be speaking out to stop what’s happening to Jimmy Kimmel. This is about protecting democracy. This must go to court.”

Roseanne Barr tweeted back derisive laughter, as well she might. She was fired from her hit sitcom for an offensive, arguably racist tweet, though what she said was, again, protected speech. I don’t care enough about Schumer to check and see if he expressed outrage at Roseanne’s tweet, but he certainly didn’t say that she had a case in court, which she definitely did not, just like Kimmel. Continue reading →