Ugh. It’s been a long time between multiple issue posts, and I apologize for that. When I neglect the inventory, important stories, issues and lessons get lost. It’s just been unusually chaotic around here, but that’s my problem, and it shouldn’t be yours.

I do have a satisfying follow-up to relate. This post, about my customer service experience at Staples, attracted some useful critical comments making the case that I was unreasonable. A few days ago I had to go back to the Staples I had sworn never to enter again, because it was the only convenient source for the specific ink cartridge the office required for the crummy HP printer we have (it was supposed tohave been replaced by now with a better model, but I’m behind in everything), and I had a deadline to meet. The manager whose responses to my complaints I had found so unsatisfactory (“We have no customer service”) made a point of chasing me down in the store and asking if he could be of any help. I replied that I was fine, and he said, “I wanted to tell you that I was sorry about our conversation last week. You should be able to expect better customer service than that, and I was being defensive rather than responsive. I promise we’ll do better if you give us the chance.” I told him that I really appreciated his apology, and that I had also been at fault for being so confrontational. Then he offered me his hand, I I took it, and went on to buy my ink. The fact that the ultimate outcome of my “showdown” was a good one doesn’t prove that I handled it correctly (consequentialism alert!), but it was gratifying nonetheless.

1. The Apocalypse is upon us…a few days after listening to a stand-up comic’s very funny riff on the excessive and inappropriate use of “awesome” as a superlative, DC’s Fox affiliate had a graphic on the screen telling viewers that the next day’s weather would be “awesome.” Apparently teenagers are now doing the weather segments. To me, awesome weather would mean cyclones, hurricanes and literal showers of cats and dogs.

I’m waiting for the next stage, which will be when the graphic says that the weather will be “Like, awesome.”

2. Speaking of Fox…the one news network that does not reflexively echo woke and progressive propaganda would benefit the nation and culture more if it at least tried to play its news reporting straight and not pander disgracefully to niche markets. The topic at hand was a poll released yesterday. From Axios:

NORC at the University of Chicago polled 1,019 adults this month by web and phone (margin of error: ±4%).

• Asked to describe the state of the nation’s economy, 1% (not a typo) chose “excellent.”
• 56% said a four-year college degree is “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt.”
• 33% said they have very little or no confidence in public schools.

Look at the tectonic shifts from a Journal/NBC poll 25 years ago, in 1998:

• Patriotism is very important: Dropped from 70% to 38%.
• Religion is very important: Dropped from 62% to 39%.
• Having children is very important: Dropped from 59% to 30%.
• Community involvement is very important: Dropped from 47% to 27%.
• Money is very important: Rose from 31% to 43%.

The bottom line: The poll quantifies a generational and political divide that shows a rot at the very soul of our nation.

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Imagine a society where these sentences in the New York Post account of the transgender 28-year-old former student, Audrey Hale, who shot and killed six people, including three kids,today at the Covenant School in Nashville can even be conceived, never mind published in a conservative newspaper:

In online profiles Hale had indicated they used he/him pronouns and also went by the name Aiden. It is unclear whether Hale identified as a man or woman at the time of the slayings.

“They” used he/him pronouns…?

Never mind imagining such a batty society; you’re living in it.

It’s important to know which sex “they” was (were?) identifying as when the guns were fired, to determine whether this was a typical example of a male mass-murderer, or the rare anomaly of a female shooter. The linked Times article hints that because the shooter was born female, maybe it’s fair to list “them” in the female category. But that can’t be right. Isn’t the rule that if a trans individual does something that earns awards or titles, she can pick her gender, but if it’s something bad, he must be a guy?  It was quite irresponsible for Audrey to fail to clarify this before getting shot herself.

I wonder what kind of a swimmer Audrey was….

You learn something every day, as the saying goes. This morning, it was that there is something called “digital blackface,” and Ethics Alarms engaged in it by posting the viral video of Tyra Banks flipping out on a contestant on her reality show “America’s Next To Model” 14 years ago.

Just to cut to the ethics verdict in case you have a sock drawer crisis: “digital blackface ” is G-A-R-B-A-G-E. Keep reading to learn why.

Naturally, CNN is promoting the concept, probably to intimidate people like me from posting videos of Don Lemon making an ass of himself. Here is how the article by CNN’s John Blake (who “writes about race, religion, politics and other assorted topics”) defines “digital blackface,” which he calls “one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism”:

Digital blackface is a practice where White people co-opt online expressions of Black imagery, slang, catchphrases or culture to convey comic relief or express emotions… racialized reactions…mainstays in Twitter feeds, TikTok videos and Instagram reels, and are among the most popular Internet memes… White people laughing at exaggerated displays of Blackness, reflecting a tendency among some to see “Black people as walking hyperbole”…  it “includes displays of emotion stereotyped as excessive: so happy, so sassy, so ghetto, so loud… our dial is on 10 all the time — rarely are black characters afforded subtle traits or feelings”…If a White person shares an image online that perpetuates stereotypes of Black people as loud, dumb, hyperviolent or hypersexual, they’ve entered digital blackface territory. 

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I am unshakeable in my belief that “DEI” is deceitful way of reframing institutional racism to make it seem benign, and that all positions in business, government and academia devoted to enabling this racket need to be abolished before the damage to society in irreversible. Nonetheless, recent implied criticism aimed at MIT’s DEI deans (why in the world would the school need six?) is unfair.

College Fix reports that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will host a scholarly debate on the value, or lack of it, of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with a panel of invited scholars debating the question: “Should academic DEI programs be abolished?”

The story also notes that MIT’s own “highly paid” diversity, equity and inclusion deans declined invitations to attend. The debate, which is scheduled for April 4, will be moderated by Nadine Strossen, past president of the American Civil Liberties Union, back when the organization was non-partisan and cared about the First Amendment.

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“Goodness gracious,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said before being rushed to the hospital, not because of this though it surely didn’t help, “Is this the caliber of legal expert with which President Biden is filling the federal bench for lifetime appointments? Is the bar for merit and excellence really set this low?”

Why yes, Mitch! It is the caliber, because skill, experience, and demonstrated qualifications are no more the Biden administrations priorities in naming federal judges than they were in Joe’s choice of Vice-President, Cabinet members or White House press secretary. Already, we have seen absurd spectacles like Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren, nominated to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Washington, and according to shameless partisan hack Sen. Patty Murray, very qualified for the job and “truly exceptional,” proving unable to explain under questioning the contents of the fifth or second articles of the Constitution—you know, that old thingy that district judges are supposed to know and understand?

Lucky for her, along comes another Biden nominee, U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews, also nominated to be a U.S. district judge, to make sure Charnelle doesn’t feel too bad. During his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing this week, Crews (above, left) was asked by Senator Kennedy (above, right) who also was the one who stumped Bjelkengren, to describe a Brady motion and the landmark Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland.

Crews could not. He had no idea what either were, saying that as he recalled Brady was a Second Amendment case! KABOOM! He was getting the crucial landmark decision, a staple of first year law school criminal law, mixed up with the so-called Brady Law, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Pub.L. 103–159, 107 Stat. 1536, enacted November 30, 1993), which mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the U.S.,and imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases. It has nothing to do with Brady v. Maryland.

At least he didn’t get Brady mixed up with “The Brady Bunch.”

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• Unethical quote, and a telling one: Sunny Hostin, arguably the most unethical member of “The View’s” panel of idiots though Joy Behar is far and away the dumbest and most obnoxious, said the quiet part out loud yesterday while making the legally ignorant claim that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has a “slam-dunk” criminal case against former President Donald Trump. “I think the goal is to never have this man be in a position of power again — not even [as] a crossing guard,” Hostin, a lawyer, said on the show. And there it is! Not only does Hostin admit that these various prosecutions are political, but she has no problem with that, which means that she has no problem with using the legal system for partisan warfare, and undermining democracy by criminalizing politics, banana republic-style. “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” boasted  Joseph Stalin’s infamous secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria. One of Stalin’s methods was to sic Beria on any political foe and count on his henchman to  find or fabricate a crime that justified imprisoning him or making him “disappear.” This has been the modus operandi of Democrats since the dawn of the “Destroy Donald Trump” era. People like Hostin are telling us who and what they are. Pay attention, and take them at their word.
• Later—I would say “incredibly” but sadly it isn’t hard to believe at all, CNN’s Don Lemon quoted Hostin on the air regarding the “slam-dunk” case. Yes, he really did quote a member of “The View” to inform CNN watchers on a legal issue. Jonathan Turley, an actual legal expert who isn’t welcome on CNN because he spits out progressive Kool-Aid, and is just a bit more reliable on such topics, has declared Bragg’s potential indictment as a “Frankenstein indictment….to convert a misdemeanor for falsifying financial records into a prosecution of a federal crime.” He added, “There are serious challenges to this prosecution, including an argument that time has expired under the statute of limitations.”

You know: a slam dunk. Continue reading →