On my birthday (also known as “Finding Jack’s father dead in his chair day”) in 2025, I began a post thusly…
“I missed this pre-Great Stupid story in 2019, when it was a harbinger of stupid things to come, and missed it again this year, when it was back in the news a few days ago. It wasn’t too long ago that Fred and Pennagain reliably alerted me to ethics stories around the web that I otherwise might have missed. A few of you do send me story ideas regularly, but something like this shouldn’t slip through the cracks.”
“This” was a recurring story about various reactions to absurdist artist Maurizio Cattelan taping a banana to a wall at an art show in 2019 and calling it “Comedian.” In 2019, performance artist David Datuna ripped the banana off the wall and ate it, so Cattalan just taped another banana to another wall. I missed that one and in 2024 was urging readers to keep my EA runway full. I am doing so again. I can’t find every rich ethics story out there all by myself. I still welcome guest post submissions too.
The story in 2024 was that a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur named Justin Sun bought the silly artwork for $6.2 million at auction and, in front of cameras, ate the banana as a gesture of conspicuous consumption to show how rich he was. Well, “Comedians” sparked another stupid incident last month: The Pompidou-Metz museum in Paris announced that it had filed a criminal complaint for theft against the unknown art-lover (or banana-lover) who took down the most recent banana to be featured in “Comedians” and ate it.
The museum also announced that it had replaced the banana.
Now it’s your turn again to write about more trenchant ethics events like that one, or more sophisticated issue that may lack appeal.
Ethics Alarms 
“The museum also announced that it had replaced the banana.”
Until then, was their disclaimer:
PWS
The big story this week is in the UK, namely the conduct of the Southampton police related to the murder of Henry Nowak. This story gets a lot of attention in the USA and Australia as well, and according to conservative commentators the conduct of the police is comparable or worse than the conduct of Chauvin during the George Floyd incident.
Henry Nowak was an 18 year old who on his way home was stabbed by a Sikh. The police was called, and the Sikh and his brother made allegations of racism against Henry Nowak. The police took the words of both Sikhs at face value and handcuffed Henry Nowak as he lay bleeding to death on the ground, saying nine times “I can’t breathe”. The police was dismissive of Henry Nowak and proceeded with the arrest procedure; the last words Henry Nowak heard in his live was how the police read him his rights.
The killer was tried and received a life sentence with possibility of parole after 21 years; his “excuses” of racism were dismissed in court. After the verdict bodycam footage was released, and it is bad.
This is a story about how DEI, woke ideology, and anti-racism have corrupted policing in the UK. The story goes viral, and received a lot of attention in the USA as there is another trial in the USA going on for a race based murder at Anthony Metcalf by Karmelo Anthony, while the murder of Irina Zarutska is still fresh in memory.
Here is Farage addressing the UK calling for “rage”.
Wouldn’t they [artist or museum] have to replace the banana every week or so? Lest it be a disgusting, brown, flaccid, ready for banana bread thing?
Which reminds me of a cruel, but kind of funny birthday greeting card I read recently that said, “Another birthday? At your age maybe you should stop buying green bananas”
Scott Bessent is on a roll in how he answers questions in Congress.
BESSENT: “Sen. Wyden has slandered the Treasury building to cover up his son having an investment with Jeffrey Epstein.” WYDEN: “Nobody is interested in the rambling of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history.” BESSENT: “Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret. Did your son and Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility??
Congress has lost all respect from the Trump Administration, in my opinion deservedly so. However these type of interactions, entertaining as they may be, should concern us about the health of the Republic.