“bias makes you stupid”

It’s Reassuring To Know I’m Not The Only One With Hopelessly Trump Deranged Facebook Friends…

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

One of Ethics Alarms’ five commenters, indeed one whom I have had the pleasure to meet in person, took the plunge I will not take and wrote a Facebook post focusing on the Minneapolis I.C.E. shooting, noting that so many critics of the agent involved are displaying ignorance regarding the kinds of instant decisions “first-responders” must make in unpredictable and dangerous situations.

Since his was, typical of his contributions here, persuasive, measured, articulate and non-confrontational, one might assume that the responses to his post might reflect thoughtful consideration. In most cases, one would be wrong in that assumption.

One bright commenter wondered why the agent who fired on I.C.E.-defying protester Good didn’t “shoot out a tire” as her car came at him. Another analogized the Good scenario to this: “So when a masked man with no identification breaks down your door in the wrong house, brandishing a gun and yells at your terrified wife to drop to the ground and it takes her 5 seconds to understand the situation as she is frozen in fear, then turns to run it is perfectly fine for her to get 3 headshots because she might have had a weapon?”

I don’t know how it is possible to respond to someone who thinks that is a valid argument, except with the “Cheers” classic. “What color is the sky on your planet?”

Continue reading →

Confronting My Biases #27: Middle-Aged Men Wearing Basball Caps Backwards

/ Jack Marshall / 31 Comments

I started really being annoyed at this when “The Gilmore Girls,” an annoying chick TV series to begin with, began featuring the single mom’s boyfriend who wore his cap like the guy in the photo. The graphic is a screen shot from a Tik-Tok video in which the guy is railing against wearing caps like that because you look like an idiot when you do. Verdict: True. In fact, I assume anyone who wears a baseball cap that way IS an idiot. It looks stupid, it defeats the purpose of the brim—there is no excuse for it whatsoever, except, in the opinion of the guy in the video, it is an attempt to look “like a ‘bad boy.'”

Oh. Well that’s all right then!

Continue reading →

More Thoughts On “Trump Derangement”

/ Jack Marshall / 19 Comments

[The Powerline weekly meme collection is especially deft today]

Again I was preparing a detailed analysis of why I believe Trump Derangement is important as a category, a diagnosis, and an acknowledgement of spreading national psychosis, not as an insult or an ad hominem attack. Again I was derailed by what I laughingly call “life.” But at the risk of piece-mealing a topic that deserves serious focus: I was reminded of the issue when a good friend wrote on Facebook last night to the usual unanimous praise and agreement of the Bubble after another fact-free rant, “If you voted for Trump, de-friend me and fuck yourself!”

You see, I view that post as signature significance for clinical Trump Derangement. She doesn’t know how many of her friends voted for Trump in 2024, or why, but no matter what her relationship with them may be, however much they may care about her, how many acts of kindness or love they may have blessed her with, regardless of what they have achieved or suffered and who they have helped in the other spheres of their lives, the simple, civic act of voting for the current President of the United States is sufficient justification in her jaundiced eyes to condemn them and demand that they cut themselves out of her life.

That’s nuts.

Continue reading →

Yup, Mayor Mamdani Is a Deluded Utopian and This Will Not End Well For New York

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

At all.

Ethics Alarms has repeatedly pointed out that it is unethical to waste time, passion and civic debate on nice, hopeful, idealistic policy objectives that are literally impossible. The anthem for these positions, again as I have noted ad nauseam, is my least favorite John Lennon song, “Imagine.” Yes, I regard anyone who takes that tripe seriously as mentally-challenged and historically, economically and politically illiterate. The official political ideology of these misty-eyed utopians is, of course, Communism.

Utopians, which include at the lower levels of delusion progressives generally, persist in the belief that human nature isn’t an immutable constant and that certain principles of reality can somehow be wished away if we all close our eyes and hope hard enough. Thus we keep hearing that there shouldn’t be wars, violence, hunger—President Franklin Roosevelt, in his cynical, pandering “Four Freedoms” speech, actually said that there should be freedom from “want.” Riiiight, Franklin, like that’s going to happen.

New Yorkers, in their infinite ignorance, elected utopian (and communist) Zohran Mamdani as their mayor. The charismatic demagogue ran on all sorts of claims that various things should be achievable by government without his having any experience whatsoever in making and executing policy. Yesterday, the New York Times reports, Zohran engaged in a signature significance example of irresponsible wishcraft, handing out vouchers for free tickets to a theater festival featuring experimental works. “The shared laughter in a crowded theater, the eager debrief after a musical, the heavy silence that hangs over all of us in a drama — these are moments that every New Yorker deserves,” Mamdani said.

Got it. Everyone deserves live theater, see, so there. It costs too much, though, so “POOF!” let’s make it cheaper.

Continue reading →

Just Because She Can’t Be Sued For It Doesn’t Make Hillary’s Latest Shameless Lie Less Damning

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

My sympathy for Hillary Clinton has finally run out.

For a long time, I have wanted to give Clinton every bit of leeway imaginable since her fluky, statistical anomaly Electoral College loss to Donald Trump in 2016. It’s an ethicist thing; the Golden Rule is strong here. What must it feel like to be that close to achieving your dream and to have it yanked from your grasp at the last moment? Oh-oh…I’m making Hillary sound like Moonlight Graham.

Still, I can understand why she has been so bitter and angry ever since. On the other hand, to go from “Field of Dreams” to “The Godfather”: this is the life she has chosen. “Politics ain’t beanbag.” It’s been 10 years. Time to grow the hell up.

Hillary’s latest outburst of Trump Hate—always wrongly placed because her own ineptitude, corruption and foolishness lost her that 2016 election—-came on the anniversary of Teddy Roosevelt’s death—wait, no, that was the worst thing that ever happened on a January 6th, but Hillary was using the date to misrepresent the stupid January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. Clinton posted a comment on X, declaring, “Five years ago today, Donald Trump urged his supporters to attack Congress and the Capitol over a proven lie.”

Continue reading →

Unethical Headline of the Week: CNN

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias!

Funny, though: they left out her love of puppies, how she volunteered at a soup kitchen, and cried at the end of “The Way We Were”…

Eww! Who Wants To Get In A Pool With Those Icky White People? [Expanded…With A Song!]

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

I would really love to hear one of the woke DEI hypocrites in my life try to defend that flyer, promoting a program in Eugene, Oregon, another state, like Minnesota, where rampant bias has lowered the average IQ by double figures. It reads,  “We invite BIPOC youth to join us where they are at being comfortable in the water. Whether working on increasing water safety skills or pursuing lifeguard certification, this cohort is here to support your goals. Funded by the community safety payroll tax in partnership with the Youth Empowerment Program.”

“To join us where they are at being comfortable ” sounds like Ebonics, or perhaps English as written by the Somalis who run the “Learing Center” in Minnesota.

Or does it suggest that “BIPOC” youths are more comfortable in the water when they don’t have to be around those icky whites?

Continue reading →

Signature Significance For Mayor Mamdami

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

Let us pause for the nonce from observing the seditious and dangerous conduct by Minnesota radicals, including its governor and mayor of its largest city, to ponder the completely predictable conduct by another sanctuary city’s mayor, in this case, New York City’s. I’m speaking, of course, of Zohran Mamdani, the Communist tyro who convinced New York vast mass of clueless voters to give communist a chance, as John Lennon would be singing now. I knew my once wise retired lawyer Facebook friend’s brain had done a Fonzi and jumped the metaphorical shark when he wrote that the completely inexperienced and naive anti-American huckster’s inauguration speech extolling “the warmth of collectivism” was a “breath of fresh air.” It was as much of a breath of fresh air as if he had proclaimed, like Dorothy Parker, “I an Marie of Romania!”

What Zohran did this week, however, was even nuttier than that. He appointed the ridiculous Cea Weaver to run the Mayor’s “Office to Protect Tenants.” Now charged with overseeing housing policy in the city with the most rental units in the U.S. is a Far Left racist, sexist lunatic who…

Continue reading →

Further Ethics Observations On the I.C.E. Shooting In Minneapolis…#1: The Right and Wrong Isn’t In Question [Updated and Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 56 Comments

The Trump Administration, I.C.E., and those standing for the enforcement of the law are in the right, with the ethics of this incident and its context entirely on their side. The pro-open borders Left, including the “resistance,” radical progressives (but I repeat myself…) and the Democrats as well as the leadership of sanctuary states and cities, are entirely wrong in theory, practice and conduct. The group in the wrong, which includes much of the news media, is primarily responsible for the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good. However, she was part of that group herself, and bears some of the responsibility for her own death.

Continue reading →

Unethical New Years Resolution of the Month: Chicago Teacher’s Union

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

Hey, here’s a bold new idea for a teachers union resolution: How about “teach students to read, write, do math and think”?

Here is what the Marxist Chicago teachers union, which isn’t much different from other teachers unions except that they are louder, announced as its resolution for 2026 with that graphic above on “X”:

“Our New Year’s resolution: Speak truth to power. We do it in our classrooms by teaching the truth. We will protect academic freedom and ensure students learn honest, inclusive history that reflects their lives and communities. We’ll also speak truth to power by defending Black and brown and immigrant communities who are targeted by federal agents. From Know Your Rights trainings to walking school buses to rapid response teams, we will continue to create spaces where students can learn without fear. And we speak truth to power by fighting back against an administration trying to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and roll back civil rights protections that generations have fought to secure. Speaking truth to power means refusing censorship, rejecting criminalization, and choosing solidarity every time. In 2026, CTU recommits to telling the truth, protecting our communities, and organizing for a future rooted in dignity and care.”

Continue reading →