Around the World

Ethics Dunces: 17 Democratic Senators

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

To be specific: Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Rafael Warnock (D-GA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Yikes, what a rogues gallery! This unethical group voted for three resolutions submitted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seeking to block transfers of crucial weaponry to Israel. Their logic is the same as the Hamas-supporting student protestor who harassed Jewish students on campuses across the country, as well as the anti-Semites who dominate the United Nations. let’s listen to the career-long ethics dunce, Senator Durbin. “This war must end,” Durbin said in a statement after the vote. “Israel’s strategy of deadly attacks on and near civilian populations must end as well. The United States should not be sending arms and ammunition that continue to take the lives of innocent people. It is time for real humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian people. I will stand by Israel, but I will not support the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Palestinians are no more innocent of the terrorist attacks against Israel than the citizens of Germany and Japan were of the war-mongering of their governments. The war being fought by Israel “must end” when that nation is no longer a target for genocide by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. It is astounding that the same party whose President is risking World War III by escalating the Ukrainian conflict is pressuring a loyal ally and a true democracy (the Ukrainian government is still a somewhat shaky republic) to forgo a just and necessary war in the interest of its survival.

No Republicans voted for the resolutions, and even the Biden White House, like a stopped clock, was right this time: “Disapproving arms purchases for Israel at this moment would … put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas at the worst possible moment,” it told the Democratic Senate contingent.

America’s Pop Culture May Save Us Yet: The “Trump Dance”

/ Jack Marshall / 18 Comments

This is the most wonderfully strange country, isn’t it? I have mentioned here before how the United States “won” the World’s Fair called “Expo 67.” A huge, imposing Soviet Union pavilion displayed threshers, tractors and other farm equipment, tanks and satellites, perfectly capturing the harsh gray gravity of life in the USSR. Not far away was the United States pavilion, housed in a giant transparent geodesic dome (courtesy of Buckminister Fuller), filled with joyful explosions of American pop culture: Raggedy Ann dolls, artifacts from the baseball Hall of Fame, cool cars, rock ‘n roll and classic movie clips running on loops. There was Gary Cooper alone in the dusty street; Cary Grant being shot at by that crop duster; Julie Andrews spinning on the mountain top at the start of “The Sound of Music,” Gene Kelly singing in the rain. Tough choice for the international visitors: which country would you want to live in?

And now, after one of the bitterest Presidential campaigns in our history, following almost a decade of a constantly widening breach in our politics, values and discourse, the essential light-heartedness (and habitual triviality) that has always been a feature of our national character is pulling us together.

I didn’t see this coming.

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Comment of the Day: “Pop Ethics Quiz! What Is The Ethical Response To An Adult Who Posts This Fatuous Meme…”

/ Jack Marshall / 52 Comments

I love this Comment of the Day from the blog’s resident Canadian commentator, because it opens a discussion that I believe is essential for an understanding of the peculiar culture here in the United States, raised by someone who, unlike citizens here, has every reason to misunderstand it. I am especially sympathetic because an astounding number of U.S. citizens don’t understand it, in great part because of their failure to absorb the history of their own nation. So, in a slight departure from the usual format for EA Comments of the Day, here is Humble Talent’s COTD on the post asking of the meme above, “…What Is The Ethical Response To An Adult Who Posts This Fatuous Meme…?”, to be followed by my explanation in response to the question he poses.

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Ethics Quiz: The Maori MP Protest

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

Wow. Now THAT’s a protest!

New Zealand’s Parliament was temporarily suspended yesterday when Māori lawmakers suddenly launched into a haka, a traditional group dance. It was intended to demonstrated the nation’s Indigenous people’s community’s passionate objections to a bill that would reinterpret the country’s founding treaty with the Maoris.

When the proposal was read, and Māori lawmaker Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was asked how her party, Te Pāti Māori, would vote on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. The response was what you see above.

‘So, you’re not in favor of it, then?”

Other opposition members joined the performance on the floor, and onlooker is the gallery also started dancing. The chamber’s speaker, Gerry Brownlee, temporarily stopped the session. Maipi-Clarke was suspended over the protest.

I’m not going to get in the high weeds of the bill, but will only present…

Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day, which is…

Was this an unethical demonstration—disrespectful, disruptive, and a breach of proper decorum—or an ethical one?

I am decidedly undecided on this one. I sure don’t want to give AOC any ideas. The routine was cool, though, and effective.

Ethics Dunce: Nils Von Kalm, Whoever The Hell He Is…

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

For the second time in two days, Medium, to which I apparently have a minimal subscription to that allows me to read “public” articles, has sent me a “What are we going to do? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO??” piece in response to Trump’s election. It was titled, “Responding To The Reality Of Another Trump Presidency.”

As with the other one, I just got the beginning and was informed that “The author made this story available to Medium members only. Upgrade to instantly unlock this story plus other member-only benefits.” Yeah, bite me. As I did in this post, I tried to see if the article was available elsewhere. It began,

Well, it’s happened again. This time though, Trump’s election victory wasn’t the stunning upset it was in 2016. It’s still caused incredible shockwaves across America and the world though as we all ponder what it might mean.

So, strap yourselves in folks; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

As the world comes to terms with how the next Trump Presidency might impact us all, much has already been written about the best way to respond. I have to confess to probably going a bit over the top with some of my emotional responses. When someone as divisive as Trump comes along, emotions can be pretty overwhelming.

Whatever our reactions and thoughts though, now is a time of great opportunity, an opportunity to bear witness to the Gospel loud and clear. Not the dualistic gospel that says you can get to heaven when you die if you just believe the right things; nor the same gospel that says you’re going to hell if you don’t believe those things.

I’m talking about the actual good news of Jesus, the one who came to inaugurate God’s reign of love, justice, peace and compassion right here on earth as it is in heaven. I’m talking about the good news that another world is possible and another…

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Ethics Quiz: Dead Influencers

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

How unethical is Nelson Muntz here?

Oscar Wilde, mocking Charles’ Dicken’s “The Old Curiosity Shop,”quipped that “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.” This was my immediate thought when I read about the drowning deaths of Aline Tamara Moreira de Amorim and Beatriz Tavares da Silva Faria, both Brazilian social media “influencers.”

Sailing in a small vessel in dangerous waters off the coast of San Paulo, the two women, guests at a yacht party, refused to put on life jackets as directed because, the captain said, “They were taking selfies.” Indeed it has been confirmed that at least one of the women shared photos of herself on social media while out at sea. At least one of the women also didn’t know how to swim. “They said that life jackets would get in the way of their tanning,” the captain added.

On the their way back to land from the yacht in a smaller vessel, a large wave washed over the boat. All of the seven passengers survived except the well-tanned influencers.

Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…

At what point, if ever, does one’s reckless and stupid conduct forfeit the privilege of sympathy when it kills you?

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The 2024 Election Ethics Train Wreck Births the “Puerto Rico Is An Island of Garbage” Caboose

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

So it’s come to this.

The 2024 election is its own, massive ethics train wreck, as the tag will show you. It officially began with Democrats (and the news media, but I repeat myself) spending too long lying to the public about Joe Biden’s deteriorating mental state and deciding to select a Presidential nominee Soviet-style bypassing all democratic norms and processes. The party broke all previous campaign records for hypocrisy by taking this course while already making the dangerous claim that Republicans are the threats to democracy, and that Donald Trump as President would never allow another free election again. Amazingly, the campaign has gone downhill ethically since that point.

Just as tornadoes sometimes spin off little baby cyclones that still are deadly enough to kill people, the big Ethics Train Wrecks (or ETWs) as designated by Ethics Alarms, like the 2016 Post Election Ethics Train Wreck, the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman Ethics Train Wreck and the Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck (which spawned the Biden Presidency Ethics Train Wreck), often generate related ethics train wrecks that cause a lot of their own damage.

But I did not foresee that a Don Rickles-style “roast comic’s” jab at an ongoing news story would or could, even in the Age of the Great Stupid, turn into a controversy dominating headlines when the election is so near and serious matters should be the public’s focus.

I’ll summarize the events as efficiently as possible to get to the main point:

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Tales of the Great Stupid Across The Pond: Idiocy Test For the United Kingdom [Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

The BBC tells us, “Commonwealth leaders have agreed the ‘time has come’ for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade, despite the UK’s desire to keep the subject off the agenda at a two-day summit in Samoa.”

Great! Has the “time come” for everyone to paint themselves blue, speak in squeaky voices, and to run naked in the streets singing show tunes? I bet the Commonewealth, made up of former members of the British empire, would love to have poor, declining Great Britain transfer millions to all the “victims” of the nation’s imperial and colonial ways. The UK would be permanently crippled, but right is right.

England banned the slave trade in 1809, more than 200 years ago. Ah, but evil is forever! Besides, just imagine every all the other things Great Britain had to own up to. I think it should be forced to pay reparations to all descendants of slaves in the U.S., and all the people in the world, especially Native Americans, permanently wounded by our awful country. After all, the “1609 Project” says the United States was founded on slavery. But that’s just the beginning. The American music industry should get reparations as compensation for the “British invasion” in the Sixties. At least for Herman’s Hermits….

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Now THIS Is Incompetence…

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

I don’t believe a lot of commentary is needed here…

The town of Stadtallendorf in western Germany lost its state-of-the-art fire station, which cost the municipality tens of millions of euros, when it burned to the ground yesterday in part because the building had not been equipped with a fire alarm. A fire started in a vehicle and quickly spread; although about 170 firefighters battled the blaze—that’s one advantage a fire at a fire station has: it doesn’t take long for the firefighters to get to the fire—10 fire engines were destroyed and the building was a total loss. Members of the local volunteer fire brigade tried to help.

At least no one was injured although, though the town planner will have to wear bags over their heads for the foreseeable future.