Ethics Dunce: The National MS Society

Here comes “The Saint’s Excuse”! The non-profit is furiously back-peddling after behaving cruelly, intolerantly, ungratefully and unforgivably toward the 90-year-old volunteer above. It will, of course, insist that it should be forgiven and trusted despite its smoking gun unethical conduct, and just watch: it will be, because of “all the good work it has done for a good cause.”

What prompted the kiss-off letter above was that 90-year-old Fran Itkoff, who had been an active volunteer for the the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for six decades (her husband perished of MS), had naively asked why names on documents she had received from the organization were accompanied by parenthetical pronouns. This, the Woke Nazis in command of the non-profit determined, marked her as hostile to its new “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion guidelines” and thus unfit to work for the care and cure of the dread disease (which runs in my family, incidentally).

The episode was flagged on social media by the indispensable Libs of TikTok, and an interview exposing the debacle hit YouTube. The National NS Society’s immediate instinct was to circle the metaphorical wagons, denying that it treated the volunteer the way it had, and implying that a 90-year-old woman made others feel “unsafe” because she dared to ask why stupid and presumptuous pronoun preferences were suddenly “a thing.” The organization also cautioned staff and volunteers to keep mum about the incident.

It didn’t work. The MS Society was bombarded with declarations from donors that they would cut off the charity. News organizations were closing in, with a Fox News senior meteorologist who suffers from MS, Janice Dean, threatening to give the story nationwide exposure. Yesterday, the MS Society issued an annoying apology:

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Incompetent Elected Official of the Month: North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown

Why do communities keep electing officials who are ignorant of the law, history, and the U.S. Constitution?

Three days ago, North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown, (Guess which party!) announced on social media that her city would host a Black-owned business fair this coming weekend at the conclusion of Black History Month. The fest would feature local black vendors, community resources, an art corner and an area for children. Food trucks and live entertainment would enliven the proceedings. It would be a fun day of promotion for all participating—black-owned only!—businesses.

Who could have a problem with that?

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Ugh. Ann Coulter Was Right. I Hate When That Happens…

Performance artist pundits as a breed are an ethics stain on public discourse. These are the glib, often attractive loud mouths who make their living selling books and getting speaking fees for being outspoken and outrageous. Many of them, not all but too many, don’t really hold the some of the opinions attributed to them. They calibrate what position is most likely to attract rage, controversy and publicity, and issue statements with the Machiavellian calculation of a hedge fund investor. Prominent examples of this slimy, manipulative breed are Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Bill Maher, Candace Owens, James Carville, and today’s topic, Ann Coulter, who might be the most cynical of them all.

She is not dumb, however. Occasionally she is even perceptive, as much as I hate to admit it. This was one of those times.

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The Harvard University Ethics Train Wreck Not Only Isn’t Slowing Down, It’s Picking Up Steam

A Harvard University faculty group. the“Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine,” had the anti-Semitic cartoons above appear on its Instagram page. It is a newly-formed organization of Harvard University faculty and staff “committed to supporting the cause of Palestinian liberation,” as the group explains on its webpage. It “wholeheartedly reject[s] accusations that critique of the Israeli state is antisemitic.” One hundred and twelve members signed a statement that attacks “Israel’s genocidal war and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.” The group does not mention Hamas or the terrorist attack that thrust the terrorist organization and Gaza into war with Israel.

Rabbi David Wolpe, the Harvard Divinity School scholar who resigned from the anti-Semitism advisory committee set up by disgraced ex-Harvard president Claudine Gay, wrote at the time that he had concluded that “the system at Harvard… is itself evil.” In reaction to the above cartoons, Wolper wrote on Twitter/X, “The cartoon is despicably, inarguably antisemitic. Is there no limit?”

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Three Ethics Dunces I Try To Ignore Turn on Each Other

Few pundits are as worthy of being ignored as Jon Stewart, Mary Trump and Tucker Carlson. Unfortunately, they imposed themselves on my consciousness, which really is needed elsewhere, by turning on each other for saying things one or more of them didn’t like. In doing so, they again drew my attention to the unethical habits of people who should not have the influence on public opinion that they do.

I briefly and reluctantly defended Tucker Carlson against hypocritical critiques from the Left that there was something unseemly about his interviewing Vladamir Putin, when liberal journalists have been interviewing various international villains for decades without similar criticism. It’s the typical double standards tactic that we now see constantly from our corrupt punditry. Jon Stewart piled on in his return to Comedy Central, where he again is posing as a comedian playing a pundit and a pundit doing comedy simultaneously. Stewart’s “clown nose on, clown nose off” act is tedious and obnoxious as well as corrosive: I hold him responsible for the all-progressive political propaganda organs that the late night talk shows have become, dividing the country by taking the unsustainable position that only conservatives are ridiculous.

Stewart also should be held responsible for further lowering the civic literacy of the younger generations, who regard him as a trustworthy source of news, and he is not. Stewart chooses which items to talk about according to what he thinks his leftward fans will laugh at, not what they need to know. As a comedian, he does not feel any obligation to be fair or to include facts that might weaken his jokes. He would have no obligation, except that he aspires to be taken seriously when he wants to be.

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When Ethics Alarms Don’t Ring or Perhaps Because You’re an Idiot: U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s Gaffe

I know I’ve used this song from the musical “Li’l Abner ” recently, but it was all I could think of after hearing about another one of Joe Biden’s incompetents’ latest exploit, so Marryin’ Sam and that big Yokum kid’s duet is back for an encore.

When U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield defended the U.S. veto of a ceasefire resolution at the Security Council today (everyone else voted to make Israel stop punishing Gaza, except for the U.K., which boldly abstained), she said,

“We’re eager to continue working with the Council on this proposal – one that would see a temporary ceasefire as soon as practicable based on the formula of all hostages being released and one that would get aid into the hands of those Palestinians who so desperately need it. All told, we intend to do this the right way so that we can create the right conditions for a safer, more peaceful future. And we will continue to actively engage in the hard work of direct diplomacy on the ground until we reach a final solution.

A final solution! The controversy involves Israel, which is being accused of “genocide” for deciding that it can no longer trust a region governed by terrorists after its citizens were slaughtered in a sneak attack. Meanwhile, Palestinian adversaries have made it clear that their mission is to wipe Israel off the map, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations describes the U.S. objective in the region as “a final solution,” thus quoting Adolf Eichmann, Hermann Göring and General Reinhard Heydrich.

Thomas-Greenfield didn’t blanch as she read the words, and it wasn’t an off-the-cuff gaffe, but was contained in prepared remarks. A verbal botch of that magnitude would justify firing for cause in my administration and any competent one, but this administration doesn’t fire anyone, no matter how poorly they perform. Maybe Democrats can use the incident to defend Biden’s stream of dementia-triggered gibberish. “See?” they cans say. “Joe’s never said anything that stupid!”

True.

The U.S. is working with Israel on a Final Solution in Gaza.

Brilliant.

The country’s in the very best of hands…

Shock Ruling: The ADA Doesn’t Require an Employer to Keep Someone in a Customer Service Job Who Can’t Help Calling Customers “Fucking Assholes” or Worse.

That this case even got this far is depressing.

Cooper v. Dolgencorp, LLC, decided by the Sixth Circuit this week, involved a Coca -Cola delivery merchandiser who delivered products to customer stores, and who also suffers from Tourette Syndrome. Tourette Syndrome, a rare malady that TV writers find infinitely amusing, causes unwanted, involuntary muscle movements and sudden, often loud verbal outbursts. Cooper, the plaintiff, has a rare Tourette Syndrome problem known as coprolalia, which causes him to shout out obscene, profane, or other inappropriate words, including racial slurs. As you might imagine, this behavior sparked many customer complaints.

Cooper’s employer, Coca-Cola, felt that it had to reassign Cooper to a lower-paying non-customer-contact warehouse position. Cooper’s doctor had advised that while Cooper could work as a driver, another employee had to be with him to handle customer contact. That was not feasible.

Cooper sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, arguing that that Coca-Cola was not accommodating his disability, and violating the law by taking him out of his more lucrative job just because he might suddenly call a customer a “nigger.” Coca-Cola won in a summary judgement.

The Court stated that it was clear Cooper’s Tourette Syndrome made doing his job at the level the job description required impossible, and that there were no reasonable accommodations Coca Cola could make that would allow someone likely to shout out “Cunt!” while dealing with a customer a safe employee to place in a customer service environment. Because customer service was an essential function of Cooper’s job and the driver’s malady made it impossible to perform it, there was no violation of Americans with Disabilities Act.

In my view, an ethical, competent lawyer should have informed the plaintiff that he had no case. However, the comments on the story at the link below are surprising, for many commenters seem to think Cooper was the victim of “discrimination.”

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Source: Volokh Conspiracy

More Smoking Gun Evidence of Where “Advocacy Journalism” Leads…

I almost framed this post as a parody of those public service ads begging us for donations to help “Johnny,” who is suffering from some dread disease. Read the Times op-ed titled “Democrats Have a Better Option Than Biden.” It’s like a parody itself, so I decided another layer of satire would be excessive. The author, Ezra Klein, was one of the pioneers of so-called “advocacy journalism.” He founded JournoList (sometimes referred to as the J-List), a private Google Groups forum where 400 progressive journalists, academics and others could plot how they would spread the Left’s propaganda and slant the news. He founded Vox, the all-progressive bias all the time website, which is approximately as trustworthy as a news source as MSNBC or Breitbart.

His Times piece (it’s out from behind the paywall) is both sad and funny. This is whistling a symphony past the graveyard—he’s obviously terrified that his favorite party will lose the White House in November and the evil Donald Trump will undo all of Joe Biden’s good works. I’d feel sorry for him if Klein wasn’t such a long-running dissembling, manipulative hack. The piece is funny, because it is so transparent and Klein’s spinning is so desperate. For example:

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This Question to the Ethicist Sends Me to the Wood-chipper

[That would be my foot sticking out. I’m sure my good neighbor Ted would be willing to get me through…or any one of the thousands of people I’ve infuriated over the years.]

You can read Kwame Anthony Appiah’s answer to the most discouraging question he’s ever been asked (my description, not his) if you like. Essentially “The Ethicist” says (I’m counting here), “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and no!” As usual the New York Times “Ethicist ” is thorough, but he could have written his response in his sleep, as I could have, and if you’re reading an ethics blog, so could you.

Here’s the question, and hold on to your heads…

A close friend of many years whom I’ve always thought of as an extremely honest, ethical person recently confided in me that she shoplifts on a regular basis. She explained that she never steals from small or independently owned businesses, only from large companies, and only when no small business nearby carries the items she needs. She targets companies that are known to treat their employees badly, or that knowingly source their products from places where human rights are violated, or whose owners/C.E.O.s donate to ultraconservative, authoritarian-leaning candidates, etc.

My friend volunteers in her community and has worked her entire life for nonprofit antipoverty and human rights organizations. While she isn’t wealthy, she is able to afford the items she steals and believes that she is redistributing wealth; she says she keeps track of the value of what she’s stolen and donates an equal amount to charity. She thinks of her actions as civil disobedience and says she will accept the consequences if she’s caught.

When she told me, I thought, Stealing is wrong. But as we discussed it, I realized I was oversimplifying a complex moral issue. Is it wrong to steal food to feed your starving children? What if I stole a legally purchased gun from a person I knew was about to commit a mass shooting? Are those who bring office supplies home from their workplace also thieves? I find myself struggling with the question of whether an individual’s actions are morally defensible if they do more good than harm. — Name Withheld

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When JFK Called Ike: Will We Ever See the Like Again?

For some reason the Kennedy family waited a long time to release this recording; strange, because it reflects well on the sainted JFK. I just encountered it recently.

In the midst of the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962, President Kennedy called former President Eisenhower to brief him on the situation and extract any wisdom he could from his predecessor.

This is how our system is supposed to work, with leaders, officials and politicians interacting with each other respectfully and in the best interests of the nation. Ike and JFK were hardly pals: after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, White House staff reported hearing Eisenhower reaming out Kennedy from behind a closed door.

Nonetheless, this phone call shows two Presidents from opposing parties working together and showing each other the kind of courtesy and civility essential for productive cooperation. Our republic and our culture were healthier then, even as World War III loomed.