Ethics Quotes

Look! Intersex Track And Field Athlete Caster Semenya Is Back In The News With An “It Isn’t What It Is” All-Time Classic

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Let’s see: the last time I mentioned Semenya was at the end of last year, musing about what to do about another mutant in sports, Jeremiah Johnson, then a 12-year-old junior high school running back from Fort Worth, Texas who weighed 5-foot-11 and weighed 198 pounds, counting his facial hair. (I’m afraid to check on what size he is now.) The question is how schools and sports organizations should treat outliers who break all the rules naturally, and clobber the competition. Semenya, you will recall (we have discussed her a lot) is intersex, meaning that she has some of the primary and secondary characteristics of both sexes. It also gives her testosterone levels about 15 times higher than her female competitors. Though she has won many international competitions and set many women’s records (in the 400m, 800m, 1,000m and 1,500m races). A Swiss ruling in 2019 banned Semenya from international races between 400 meters, and Switzerland’s highest court backed the decision. To compete, she would be required to suppress her natural male hormones, which she refuses to do.

Writing about both Johnson and Semeya, I wrote last year,

“We can’t have special leagues and categories for however many gender categories science identifies and activists fight to have recognized, and there is no justification for creating artificial standards to eliminate outlier performers. The “solution” imposed on Caster Semenya—force her to take drugs that eliminate her natural advantage—is horrifying. How is this different from banging brilliant kids on the head until they have brain damage and no longer dominate their less gifted fellow students in school? What right do the sports czars have to declare an unprecedented, unique competitor unfit to compete because her, or his, unique qualities are advantageous? Why are so many woman condemning Caster as a cheat, when they should be defending her as a human being with as much right to compete as she is as anyone? Because she’ll win? Because it’s unfair that God, or random chance, or her own dedication rendered her better at her sport than anyone else?”

The unique physical characteristics of many, many other elite athletes can be said to have bestowed the exact same kinds of “unfair” advantages that allow Semenya to excel. The only question should be: Are these her real, natural abilities? If so, it is unethical to punish her for being born superior. Meanwhile, biological men transitioning into womanhood are allowed to dominate women’s sports competitions in the U.S. This makes no sense at all.

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Unethical Quote Of The Month: Nikki Haley

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

“You’re just scum.”

—-GOP Presidential nominee hopeful Nikki Haley, taking her feud with debate troll Vivek Ramaswamy to the next, uncivil, level in last night’s debate.

Nice. I suppose this is a victory for feminism, as the first Presidential candidate debate participant to resort to direct personal insults is a woman. Yay! I knew they could do it! Prior to this, the limits of what had been considered over-the-line personal denigration had been Barack Obama’s snotty “You’re likable enough” faint-praise shot at Hillary Clinton, and, though technically a Vice-Presidential debate, Lloyd Bentsen hitting Sen. Dan Quayle below the metaphorical belt by saying that he was “no Jack Kennedy.”

Ramaswamy and Haley have been spitting criticism at each other from the first debate, but when the tech entrepreneur accused the former South Carolina governor of hypocrisy for criticizing his having a TikTok account while her adult daughter also uses the the platform, the feud escalated quickly.

“She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” Ramaswamy said. “So you might want to take care of your family first before preaching to anyone else.”

“Leave my daughter out of your voice!” Haley said, doing her best imitation of Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. When her derivative line prompted a few claps after his remark had sparked some boos, Ramaswamy added, “You have her supporters propping her up — that’s fine.”

“You’re just scum,” Haley responded wittily.

Nice. Be proud, Republicans! It was only moral luck that we were not treated to an ensuing exchange of,

“Bitch!”

“Asshole!”

“Slut!”

“Dickweed!”

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Unethical Quote Of The Month & Incompetent Elected Official Of The Month: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

“Many of these lawmakers on the other side of the aisle who had their hair on fire about what appears to have been an inadvertent action taken by Congressman Bowman, to which he is now being held accountable for, within the criminal justice system, regularly defend violent individuals who overran the Capitol on Jan. 6, as part of an effort to halt a peaceful transfer of power. And these violent individuals brutally beat and seriously injured 140 police officers, on the day of the insurrection. And many of them, who are having a panic attack, publicly, about Jamaal Bowman have actually defended or refused to comment on the violent mob on January 6.”

—House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the man every Democrat in the House voted for to be Speaker, “explaining” why Rep. Bowman shouldn’t be censured by the House for breaking the law, indeed two laws, as well as violating the House ethics code. 

To be blunt, this statement by Jeffries exhibits the approximate ethical comprehension of a Cocker Spaniel. It reveals him to be a shameless liar and an ethics corrupter:

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Unethical Quote Of The Month: Barack Obama

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region….”

—–Former President Barack Obama, sticking his nose into a matter that he should have no say in, and further enhancing his established record as a foreign policy incompetent.

The former President’s advice comes in an annoying post on Medium titled, “Thoughts on Israel and Gaza.” Primarily, his comments are stupid, but individuals with out-sized influence on public opinion, like irrationally popular ex-Presidents, have an ethical obligation to avoid allowing their stupidity to infect public affairs. How could anything “further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” when for generations Palestinians have wanted to kill as many Jews as possible and wipe their nation from the map? Is Obama warning Israel that they risk really, really making Palestinians hate them? And nothing Israel does that isn’t suicidal will assist “efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region.” There will be peace and stability when the Palestinians genuinely condemn terrorism and accept that Israel is a legitimate nation…in other words, never.

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Unethical (And Stupid) Quote Of The Month: Eric Levitz, Who Ironically Enough Writes For NY Mag’s “Intelligencer”

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

“Last night, I asserted that this report indicated that babies were beheaded. This was an overstatement. I should have said that the report established that babies were found headless, a fact that lends plausibility to claims of beheading, but which does not prove them.“

—New York Magazine reporter Eric Levitz on Twitter/X, going for the all-time record in Hamas-excusing spin.

Oh. What?

Yes, it’s come to this: a progressive reporter, naturally inclined to make excuses for the Palestinians because they are “of color” and supposedly oppressed, twists reality and his brain into pretzel-shapes in order to discredit the confirmed reports of Hamas terrorists beheading Jewish babies.

Let me see, what else could explain baby carcasses with missing heads? 1) Maybe they never had heads in the first place. 2) Maybe their heads just fell off, like the coughing jaybird’s head in the old song. 3) Maybe the heads were still attached, but these were turtle-human hybrid babies, and they just pulled their heads inside. That’s about all I can think of. You?

Old friend (and one of my board members at the American Century Theater) John Podhoretz caught this one, commenting, “I suppose there has been a worse set of sentences ever written but I can’t quite imagine what they might be.”

Unethical Quote Of The Week: “Squad” Member Cori Bush (D-Mo.)

/ Jack Marshall / 30 Comments

“I am grieving for every Palestinian, Israeli, and American life lost to this violence, and my heart breaks for all those who will be forever traumatized because of it. War and retaliatory violence doesn’t achieve accountability or justice; it only leads to more death and human suffering.Today I am introducing the Ceasefire Now Resolution, vital legislation that calls for de-escalation and an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Occupied Palestine, and for humanitarian assistance to urgently be delivered to the 2.2 million people under siege and trapped in Gaza. The United States bears a unique responsibility to exhaust every diplomatic tool at our disposal to prevent mass atrocities and save lives. We can’t bomb our way to peace, equality, and freedom. With thousands of lives lost and millions more at stake, we need a ceasefire now.”

—Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), idiot.

To be fair, I could have found equally fatuous and ethically inert quotes from any of the anti-Semitic, intellectually vapid and ethically-challenged “Squad” members, but all indications have been that Bush is the most afflicted by the Dunning-Krueger Effect of them all, even more than Rep. Bowman of “I thought that pulling a fire alarm would open the door. Who wouldn’t? What’s the big deal?” fame, and the ridiculous AOC. Moreover, the offensive, dishonest and irresponsible statement by Bush came as she introduced an offensive, dishonest and irresponsible resolution urging the Biden Administration to push for a “ceasefire” because the October 7 Hamas sneak attack on Israel civilians was just “armed violence” (not terrorism), ‘American hostages? What American hostages?’, and “the targeting of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law.”

Of course, Israel is not targeting civilians; Hamas, like the evil terrorist organization it is, is using civilians as human shields and hoping for mass civilian casualties to wield as a propaganda tool against Israel. Like so, so many on the Left for too many decades to tote up, Bush, “The Squad” and their ilk don’t get that “war” thingy.

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A Ruthless CEO Explains What To Do “When Life Hands You Lemons”

/ Jack Marshall / 40 Comments

Mike Flannagan (not the old Orioles pitcher) is a rising star director/screenwriter in the horror genre. His brilliant and complex mash-up of “The Haunting of Hill House” was as good as any horror movie or series I’ve ever seen, and his two follow-ups, one a re-thinking of “The Turn of the Screw,” are also smart, original and excellent. Now his mash-up of Edgar Alan Poe tales in a modern day horror story evoking the Sackler family and the opioid scandal is on Netflix. As with the previous three, “The Fall of the House of Usher”—the Ushers are the Sacklers— is cast substantially with his “rep company” including E.T.’s Henry Thomas and Annabeth Gish.

Last night I saw the episode in which the Faux Sackler family head and chief villain, played by Bruce Greenwood, gives a spontaneous speech about what smart businesses do when “Life hands them lemons,” and boy, it sure isn’t “make lemonade.” The second I heard it, when I had stopped applauding, I decided that the speech was an instant classic, much cleverer and better than Oliver Stone’s celebrated “Greed is good” speech that he wrote for Michael Douglas in “Wall Street.” It should be appearing soon in business school lectures across the country, and maybe laws schools too. I’m going to use it in an ethics seminar.

Flannagan’s speech for the bitter Usher family head is at once funny, chilling, revealing and true, perfectly encapsulating the ruthless logic of 21st Century capitalism as well as the soul of entrepreneurism.

Hypothetical Ethical Quote Of The Month: Rep. Jamaal Bowman

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

To be absolutely clear, the hypothetical apology by Rep. Bowman that follows can’t occur now; it is too late. He has not only lied too much, but most of his allies are now totally committed to his lie, so he couldn’t back out if he wanted to.

However, there was one, brief, shining moment, as King Arthur sings in “Camelot,” when Bowman, realizing that his illegal and unethical conduct had been caught on video, had an opportunity to do a very good deed that would have created immense benefits for him, for his party, for Congress, for young American, for young African Americans, for Congress, for society, and for the nation. Bowman didn’t take that opportunity,because he is corrupt and stupid, and even today probably couldn’t be made to understand why issuing the following statement was the wise and ethical course. But it would have been.

Here is what I would have advised Rep. Bowman to say, had I been his ethics consultant:

“As has been widely reported, a video shows me pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon Office Building before the House’s vote on the interim funding bill. Let me be straightforward and honest now, because the American people deserve no less from their elected representatives. I did this deliberately, in a foolish rush to delay the vote, even though I knew at the time, as I have known all of my adult life, that it was a crime, and was wrong. I have no excuses for this. I committed the same mistake that we all must learn to avoid as we proceed through life: never make decisions rashly, in an emotional state, under the pressures of time and passion. Yet that is exactly what I did. I am ashamed of myself. This conduct was a serious betrayal not only of my constituents and my state, but also of my party and the nation I serve.

I apologize to all of them. I also betrayed myself and my values, and also  every young person in America who should be able to look to me, as they should look to all elected officials, as role models. At this moment, I am not a fit role model. I have a long journey back to be deserving of trust.

In recent months there has been a lot of public discourse about double standards in our justice system, and the dangerous political use of our laws. I am stating right now that I will not be the beneficiary of any such double standard. I broke a law and an important one: I should face the same penalty as any citizen. After this statement, I plan on presenting myself to the proper authorities. There is no need for any investigations. I am guilty, and I will accept any punishment and consequences that the District of Columbia and Congress deem appropriate.

Polls show that there has been a terrible decline in the public’s trust in its democratic institutions. I am overwhelmed by regret and remorse that my conduct in this incident has probably exacerbated that. Today I vow that as part of my contrition and restitution for what I did in the Cannon Building, I will, if I am allowed to remain a member of Congress, dedicate myself to restoring that lost trust. I also call upon my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to join me in that mission.

Thank-you.

Too bad he couldn’t see it. Too bad none of our members of Congress would, in all likelihood.

Unethical Quote Of The Week—And ‘Will No One Rid Us Of This Troublesome (And Incompetent) Paid Liar?’—White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

“This President has been so zeroed in, so laser-focused, on lowering costs for Americans — and we’ve done that!”

—Incompetent, insulting, dishonest and embarrassing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who not only has wrapped up the title of the worst White House mouthpiece in history, but also may be the most incompetent Presidential staff member in history as well.

She is also a Rationalization #64, “It isn’t what it is” champion, which is quite an achievement in a tough field. For example, more than one member of the Biden Administration has claimed that the “border is secure.”

Biden hasn’t lowered the cost of anything. That statement is an absolute, irredeemable lie. Here is one list of how prices have gone up since Biden was elected, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

  • Groceries up 20%
  • Food away from home up 18.5%
  • Energy costs up 43%
  • Gas prices up 62.5%
  • Electricity prices up 26%
  • Used cars and trucks up 33%
  • New cars up 20%
  • Furniture up 17%
  • Clothes up 11.4%

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Unethical Quote, Column And Mind Of The Month: NYT Pundit Michelle Goldberg

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Apparently this is going to be Unethical New York Times Op-ed Columnist Day. First David Brooks proves beyond all question that he’s an asshole, and now Michelle Goldberg pulls ahead in the neck-and-neck race to be the most outrageously left-biased writer in the Times stable (“And as they round the turn, it’s Paul Krugman in front, with Charles Blow coming up fast on the inside…”) by ending her column attacking retiring Fox News creator Rupert Murdoch with this:

“The electorate that Fox helped shape, and the politicians it indulges, have made this country ungovernable. An unbound Trump may well become president again, bringing liberal democracy in America to a grotesque end. If so, it will be in large part Murdoch’s fault….”

Only a committed and ethics-free leftist propaganda agent who is confident that her readers are Marxists or morons could squeeze out such offal. Oh, I’m sure Goldberg believes this, which is scary in itself: the disgusting thing is that a publication that imagines itself as the flagship of American journalism would deem such a “bias makes you stupid” outburst as worthy of publication.

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