1. You knew there had to be a Jason Arday update…Ibram X. Kendi, the race hustler whom many universities took as a prophet of “anti-racism” in the rise of The Great Stupid, issued an essay titled: “The Media Lynched Jason Arday.” Of course he did. Here is what I wrote about him in November of 2020:
“Ibram X. Kendi, the proud author of this neon-bright example of Rationalization #64, Yoo’s Rationalization or “It isn’t what it is,” isn’t just some radical, mind-poisoning, far left ideologue pseudo-intellectual race-baiting wacko. He’s a radical, mind-poisoning, far left ideologue pseudo-intellectual race-baiting wacko who will soon have been twisting young American brains into un-American pretzels for a full decade, fueling the descent of the Democratic Party and the rest of the mutating Left into full Orwellian lunacy.”
That came after he issued this head-exploding tweet:
Yet colleges and universities took this race-hustler seriously. He had teaching positions at the University of Florida, American University in D.C., Boston University, and Harvard, all in various “America and white people are racist” departments. After his BU Center for Antiracist Research was criticized for missing donations and mismanagement—a Washington Post op-ed described it as a “grift”—Kendi finally retreated to Howard, which also employs “1619 Project” author Nicole Hannah-Jones as a tenured professor. You might call Kendi the U.S.’s version of Arday, except that Kendi doesn’t plagiarize his garbage, he comes up with it on his own.
In the Free Press, Douglas Murray rules Kendri’s “lynching” comparison “manifestly, sinisterly untrue,” writing that it was not reporters who failed Arday but the people who elevated him to a position for which he was unsuited.” This seems so obvious that it is disturbing that such a conclusion is the slightest bit controversial. Black conservative-ish pundit John McWhorter examined how Arday’s appointment was itself a form of racism in a culture biased in favor of black academics regardless of the quality of their character or scholarship.
2. The big celebrity tragedy we awoke to this morning is that Hayden Panettiere died at 36 years old. My friend and Ethics Alarms Ethics Hero Paul Petersen, a former child star himself, had written on Ethics Alarms about the issue he devoted his post-show biz life to, the industry abuse of child stars. For all his good work in his organization “A Minor Consideration,” Hollywood’s pederasty problem and the way it chews up its most vulnerable performers seem to have barely abated, if at all. As an adult Hayden suffered from substance addictions and alcoholism, lost custody of her children, and her autobiography was harrowing. Paul and I talked about holding a national convention to call attention to the issue of the exploitation of child performers which the news media continues to shrug off. It’s an ethics issue, and I still think such a convention is a good idea. Paul is dealing with some health issues, and I don’t have the time to organize it myself. Interested parties should email me at jamproethics@verizon.net.
3. On a related note, every news story about Panettiere’s death quickly notes how beautiful she was, as if this amplifies the tragedy. Last week we learned that Indian national Varun Batchigari was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old U.S. college student Julissa Salazar. The accused killer entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa and was arrested in Germany; now he’s fighting extradition. The reports on that story inevitably included interviews with friends and family emphasizing how beautiful Julissa was. The message: a beautiful young woman dying is sadder than a homely young woman dying. The TV magazines like “48 Hours” that are addicted to “true crime” tales also adopt the practice.
4. Virginia has so many insanely woke school districts that I can’t keep up with all of their antics, but this story, from July, is special. In 2024, a Spotsylvania County second-grade teacher overdosed on fentanyl in front of her students. In a classic Barn Door Principle phenomenon, the county school board took up the cause of requiring drug testing for teaching position applicants. It was rejected. Superintendent Clint Mitchell urged the board to vote no because it would put the district at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring counties; no one would want to work there if testing was required.
Exit question: why not?
5. And speaking of our rotting educational institutions, Prof .Zvezdelina Stankova of UC Berkeley, in an op-ed piece on Saturday for the San Francisco Standard, blew a whistle on her school, writing that large numbers of her students are are so untrained in basic math that she’s forced to teach middle-school algebra and fractions to college students. She described the Berkeley admissions process as “less like careful evaluation and more like chance.”
Yeah, but on the plus side, I’m sure a majority of her students graduate believing in DEI, open borders and income redistribution….
6…so they’ll applaud economics-challenged elected officials like New York State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, who feels shoplifting should be legalized. At a news conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court last week, Gallagher proclaimed, “Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty-people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you’re stealing those things, you need them,” said Gallagher, who represents northern Brooklyn. “And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by,” she continued. ” So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need.”
I trust that I don’t have to explain to the readership here what’s logically, legally and ethically wrong with that argument…
Ethics Alarms 
(4) When my state was deciding on marijuana legalization, I heard public schoolteachers openly discussing getting a marijuana card, growing some, and selling it to their students for extra money. Yeah, there are a lot of teachers with ‘medical’ marijuana cards stoned at work today.
(5) And this is why I videoed a 5-part ‘Algebra Essentials’ series for my college freshman. They may have placed into Calculus I by ACT score (27+ math), but that doesn’t mean that they understand Algebra I.
(6)…and when CVS and Walgreens close in those neighborhoods, this is the first elected official who will cry ‘racism’.
(6) And she’s factually wrong as well. Those items are being stolen by organized groups for immediate resale.
Sometimes on the same street as the store from which they stole. If you steal a $3 tube of toothpaste and sell it for $1.50 or $2.00, you’ve made a profit.
#5 Some years ago I tutored all levels of math that Madison College taught. Nine times out of ten when a student came in for Calculus or Physics tutoring I had to send them to my Algebra tutoring class because that was where they were lacking skills. A week or so of intense Algebra tutoring to brush up on their skills and they were doing well in their Calculus or Physics class. My Algebra tutoring group was the largest group I had, Geometry was the second largest.
That’s because they are supposed to learn that in high school (or middle school) and the public schoolteachers aren’t.
My tutoring experience was mostly back in the 1990’s.
If I remember correctly; “most” of the people that were actually enrolled in Calculus just needed a rapid core refresher because they had been away from it for a time. The ones that needed most of the attention were the students taking Intermediate and College Algebra because they either hadn’t take it, or had done really bad in High School. One thing that helped a couple of the Calculus students reinforce their Algebra skills was, I had them help some of the less skilled students, this really helped them get their heads in the right gear.
#6 Holy shit, that Sociommunist actually said that crap aloud, in front of microphones? What a fucking moron.
#4 “Superintendent Clint Mitchell urged the board to vote no because it would put the district at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring counties; no one would want to work there if testing was required.”
That’s damn near an open acknowledgement that a large portion of their teachers have a drug abuse problem and the administration is going to do whatever they can to enable their teachers to continue their drug abuse.
Our 21st century absurdities continue to roll through our society. It’s amazing how many of negatively affect K-12 students.
#1 As far as I’m concerned, Ibram X. Kendi is an anti-white racist, yes he’s a racist.
#2 I’ve worked in theatrical shows that included children, my daughter was in a few of them. While participating in shows that had children I always let the director know up front that I would be at all rehearsals and I would stand up for all the children and not allow any of them to be abused in any way. Sometimes all it took was a really stern look from me to ring the Directors’ or a staff members bell and stop what I considered to be abusive behavior with children, and get them back on track. There were times that it got a bit contentious, but the behavior was always corrected before rehearsal could continue.
I remember one time the Director was using the “God Mic” at a tech rehearsal run-thru, literally screamed at Peter Pan (I’ll never forget it), I quote “YOU’RE NOT DOING WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO, I SHOULD HAVE CAST SOMEONE ELSE!” in a very abusive tone. Everyone was shocked at the abusive tone, the Stage Manager didn’t say a freaking word and should have, and Peter Pan immediately started crying. I was pissed! I was at every rehearsal and immediately walked down centerstage, looked right at the Director in the house and whipped out my Army Drill Sergeant voice and yelled something like “I’VE BEEN AT ABSOLUTELY EVERY REHEARSAL AND YOU HAVEN’T ONCE TOLD PETER PAN WHAT YOU WANT HIM TO DO AT THIS POINT IN THE SCRIPT”. How dare I do such a thing to the Director! This completely stopped the tech run-through, I asked the Stage Director to bring their blocking notes to me, and between the two of us we confirmed that there was no blocking instruction given to Peter Pan at this point in the script. I informed the Director that Peter Pan was owed a formal apology over the “God Mic” before we would continue with our run-thru after a short break for Peter Pan to regain his composure. The director eventually complied, apologized appropriately, didn’t give any additional instructions to Peter Pan, and we were able to continue our run thru after a short break. There were more problems with this Director’s memory during other rehearsals, they were non-confrontational and not abusive, the Stage Manager had her hands full with the Director’s memory, and it turned out that this particular director was retired from her Company Artistic Director position after the show completed its run.
If influential adults stand up for the children on set and not allow narcissistic arrogant directors and staff to abuse the children, things can really go well and everyone can actually have a good time.
“If influential adults stand up for the children on set and not allow narcissistic arrogant directors and staff to abuse the children, things can really go well and everyone can actually have a good time.”
Agreed. An on-set teacher of child actors once told the story of how actor John Astin implored her to allow a child actor to stay longer than needed to finish a scene and was very unhappy when she stuck to her guns. Later, when his own children were acting, guess who he wanted as the on-set teacher?
I am reminded of the former Ellen Page who recounted how, before she even believed she was gay, X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner outed her in front of the rest of the cast. I have long wondered just who was standing there among the cast. Were they just newbies who depended on this gig to make it big and felt intimidated enough not to stand up for her? Were Sir Patrick Stewart or Sir Ian McKellen there? If so, did neither of them have enough clout to push back on Ratner? Hugh Jackman?
6) Galagher: A simplistic and naive misrepresentation of one of the destructive habits common among those coddled by the democrats, DSA, etc. Their narrow childish vision leaves them surprised, and everyone else increasingly diminished, by the ultimate degradation of society.
“Paul and I talked about holding a national convention to call attention to the issue of the exploitation of child performers which the news media continues to shrug off. It’s an ethics issue, and I still think such a convention is a good idea.”
I’ve attended fan conventions for years, though I’ve got no experience organizing or running one.
What format would this convention take? A large gathering? Tickets sold? Former child actors making appearances? Could it be expanded to include panels about kids on travel sports teams or other types of expensive activities that take a lot of time away from being a child? (A teenage girl I know in travel choir doesn’t compete until midnight some nights and doesn’t get home until 2 or 3 AM on weekends, leaving her exhausted). Could it include Guinness World Record aspirants, Olympics-bound athletes, kids whose parents are pushing them to become pro-golfers, putting them in beauty pageants or even those awful influencer parents who stream their kids’ growing up years for likes? There could be panels on kids manipulated to lie about parental abuse or neglect (or even to commit crimes) to illustrate how they don’t always make informed choices or are even sometimes coerced into certain behavior or activities.
To me, the child actor experience is just a different side of the parental manipulation coin. It’s a form of Munchhausen by Proxy, even if the child isn’t being medicated or taken to unnecessary doctor appointments.
These are just some thoughts off the top of my head.
Yes, large gathering, several days presentations of papers and research, break-out sessions, speeches and presentations by former child stars like Melissa Gilbert, Cory Feldman, Sarah Polley, the Fanning sisters, Danny Bonaduce… parents of child actors, like Andie McDowell. Special sessions on the PBS Jon and Kate plus 8, child athletes, infants in shows and ads, the possible use of AI to address these problems, child predators in Hollywood, child performers in other cultures. Also lawyers on the various cases and controversies, legislators and activist on proposed laws. Panel discussions, debates, networking events. A special award for Paul. In the evenings, showings of great child acting performances—Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew.
I know it would be great, well publicized, highlight the issue, and well-attended. It’s all in my head. Now all I need is a staff, money, and an organization…..
I think it’s a fantastic idea. Corey Feldman was at the convention I attended this weekend, too. That guy is not well.
I wonder if Sean Astin, current President of SAG-AFTRA and former child star (who was also at the convention), might be interested in something like this?
I would think so. His mother, Patty Duke, was frequently a guest in round table features on TV about the child star issue Brooke Shields, like Patty, had an exploitive stage mother but survived her. If it were up to me, I’d dedicate the conference to June Havoc, Gypsy Rose Lee’s sister (“Baby June”) who was the ultimate survivor.