U.S. Society

Regarding Tucker Carlson’s Newly Revealed J6 Surveillance Videos [UPDATED!]

/ Jack Marshall / 50 Comments

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was given access to more than 44,000 hours of video from the Capitol rioting on January 6, 2021. Carlson and his staff reviewed the video for three weeks (that’s not enough) and last night began showing footage that he believes exposes the false narratives about the event being pushed by the House’s partisan J6 Committee and the news media. He will continue tonight.

Observations:

  • I do not endorse Tom Fitton’s characterization of the video because I have not seen it all, nor do I know what was “knowingly false.” Bias does make one stupid, after all, and regarding January 6, 2021, its hard to be more biased than Democrats, the Trump-Deranged and the mainstream media.
  • Whatever benefits Carlson’s expose may have (other than boosting his ratings), choosing him as the messenger guaranteed that the footage will be dismissed, ignored, and get less attention from those who need to consider it than if Speaker McCarthy had chosen a reliable media figure (true, there may not be any) who has a well-earned reputation as a two-faced weasel. Just last month, emails were revealed in which Carlson ridiculed claims that the 2020 election had been corrupted while be was aggressively boosting such theories on hos show. Elon Musk handled the “Twitter Files” the correct and wise way, entrusting them to independent commentators like Matt Taibbi, whose agenda appears to be the old fashioned, out-of-date, ethical journalism mission of finding the truth.
  • For what it is worth, Carlson’s video clips cast doubts on three stories that were accepted as truth by the J6 witch hunt and the media. Jacob Chansley, who is in federal prison for being the absurdly garbed “QAnon Shaman” that became the symbol of the riot, is seen being given a personal escort through the Capitol by police without indicating any violent intent at all. At one point, the officers are seen walking Chansley past seven other police officers outside the Senate chamber. They then escort him to various entrances of the chamber that appear to be locked, and eventually  help him open a door to enter the chamber. Chansley, a 33-year-old Navy veteran, has been jailed for almost two years years for “obstructing an official proceeding.” In a jailhouse interview he tells Carlson, “The one very serious regret that I have [is] believing that when we were waved in by police officers, that it was acceptable.” There is now a question of whether this footage was presented at trail in Chanley’s defense.
  • Carlson next showed a video of Officer Brain Sicknickwearing a helmet and walking inside the Capitol among the “insurrectionists” after  media reports described him as being fatally bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher by the rioter. President Biden repeated this falsehood. Sicknick died of a stroke the next day, and there has been no credible connection established between the riot and his death. No officers suffered fatal injuries on January 6.

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Reflections On The First Stupid, Virtue-Signaling Lawn Sign Of Spring….

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

obxoxious sign

For the second time this week I find myself grafting substantial sections of an archived Ethics Alarms post to a new one. (I promise not to make a habit of it.) The occasion is the appearance on one of my Alexandria, Virginia neighbors’ lawn the idiotic sign above. Once again I was seized with the desire to ring the house’s doorbell and cross examine the residents. Can they explain and justify what’s on that sign? I am almost certain that they cannot, just as my other neighbor who STILL displays a medieval suit of armor next to a 5 x 4 hand-made, painted wooden sign reading BLACK LIVES MATTER in block letters could not justify that obnoxious lawn ornament, since it is, after all, more indefensible than ever now that the movement it stands for has been exposed as cynical hustle.

In 2021, New York Times’ woke propaganda agent Amanda Hess was given a rare slot on her paper’s front page to opine on the sign above, which was apparently the beginning of the the viral Announce to your neighbors that you’re a smug, simple-minded idiot!” epidemic. Ethics Alarms has had several posts about similar signs, but I did not realize that I had missed Patient Zero.

Hess’s analysis by turns informed readers that the sign has “curious power” (to make me detest the homeowner?); that the mottoes are “progressive maxims” (so progressives really are that facile and shallow!), that “Donald Trump is out of office…But nevertheless, this sign has persisted” (Oh! It’s all Trump’s fault?), that the sign is “directed at the adults in the room, reminding them of their own mission” (Really? Open borders? Man-boy love? Anti-white discrimination? Marxism? Why is a sign aimed at adults so naive and childish? ), that it is “the epitome of virtue signaling: an actual sign enumerating the owner’s virtues. There is something refreshing, actually, about the straightforwardness of that.” (There is something refreshing about smug idiots placing signs on their laws that say, “I am a smug idiot”?).

I learned other things from that article:

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Unsolved Ethics Mystery! How Could Ethics Dunces As Unethical And Dumb As The Ethics Dunces Running Newton North High School Be Permitted To Handle Sharp Objects Much Less To Educate Children?

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

I don’t understand this episode at all, and it also makes me angry. As it should you. Or anybody.

In Newton, Massachusetts, once considered a gem of the Bay State’s public education crown, the race-obsessed, woke and irresponsible fools (I’m not going to be diplomatic or restrained in this post) in charge of the school and school district allowed the school’s Theater Ink program to put on a student show titled “Lost and Found: Our Stories as People of Color.” According to the show’s audition packet, the production was designed to be “a reserved safe space for this exploration and for people of color to be vulnerable and support one another.” Not only is that wokey gibberish (schools should not be encouraging students to speak gibberish), it is also illegal, as in “unconstitutional.”

When time for auditions came around, and all the young theater geeks, aspiring singers and hopeful chorus line members licked their collective chops for the annual event, the show’s Asian-American student director posted a video to the show’s website declaring that “All BIPOC [Black, indigenous and people of color] students at North are invited to audition,” clearly meaning “No whites, Irish or dogs allowed.”

Ah, yes…”good discrimination.” Assholes. Bigots. Virtue-signaling bigots. All green-lighted by adults with degrees in education.

Yet they pretty much got away with it. The show went up as scheduled in January; the somnolent parents of Newton (my Arlington High School chess team used to play Newton North; we usually beat its team too; they weren’t as good as Newton South) apparently just stood by with their fingers in their noses and let this insulting, racist fiasco occur, their children excluded from a school activity because of their color. The first complaint came in when the director’s discriminatory video went live, but the matter was allowed to crawl through the Department of Education’s investigation process—it is still crawling—and you just know that Joe’s gang sees no reason why public schools shouldn’t favor “BIPOC” theater-loving kids over those racist white snots who are part of the evil race that brought slavery to our shores and voted for Donald Trump.

Naturally, the school’s first line of defense was “it isn’t what it is,” the favored rationalization (#64 on the list) of progressives, Democrats and anti-white racists for quite some time now.

School district flacks told the media that Newton North..

“is committed to encouraging all of its students to participate in the theatre program, particularly students of color, who have been vastly underrepresented in our programs….While centered in the stories of the lives of our students of color, no one is turned away or excluded from participating or having a role in the ‘Lost and Found’ production of Theatre Ink, Newton North’s teaching and working theater program. The Newton Public Schools do not exclude students based upon color, race, ethnicity, or religious background.”

Then these weasels turned around in their fur and mouthed their support for the exclusionary exercise, saying,

“We are proud of our students for the hard work they do to not only assemble a diverse group of performers, but also to challenge each other to have difficult conversations around societal issuesTheatre Ink has consistently provided opportunities for students to tell and celebrate the narratives and stories of those who have been historically underrepresented. Amplifying the stories, experiences, and history of students of color is just one component of our diverse fine and performing arts programs,’ the statement continued, additionally offering that it fully supports ‘the premise and educational value of this performance.”

 Here is the cast and crew of “Lost and Found.”

Disparate impact, anyone?

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My Yearly Reminder Of Why I Am Furious At John Belushi And Those Who Helped Kill Him…

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

I have to remember to post this clip from Saturday Night Live every year at this time: the first Saturday in March. Every time I see it, I laugh…then I get sad, and finally I am furious.

Don’t tell me that drug abuse is a “victimless crime.”

Belushi was a once in a generation comic talent. As a director and writer (and occasional performer) of comedy, I immediately recognized his presence, technique, timing and physicality: he had a gift, and it should have been a gift to the world. He wasn’t political, or partisan, or mean. He was just brilliantly, creatively funny, with the rare opportunity to make millions laugh for decades, and to keep the world a happier place. John Belushi sqaundered that gift with his stupid, selfish, irresponsible love for drugs, encouraged and nourished by the smug pro-drug culture of the time, epitomized by Saturday Night Live, its Sixties-rooted sensibilities and its smug, elitist writers and performers.

Their irresponsible—but effective!—cultural advocacy killed Belushi as surely as the drug overdose that ended his life. He himself is primarily responsible, of course, but the culture that created, encouraged and applauded his obsessions and addictions share much of the blame. It won, of course. On the way, that culture robbed us of the potential joy we might have derived from Belushi, Prince, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brad Renfro, River Phoenix, Tom Petty, Brittany Murphy, Jim Morrison, Heath Ledger, Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston and so many more.

With so many more to come.

Speaking Of A Sign Now In The Ethics Alarms “Res Ipsa Loquitur” Files….

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

  • From the New York Post: “Notified of the botched road sign Sunday, red-faced New York City DOT officials said the gaffe would be fixed “immediately.” That’s the real problem: they had to be “notified” of the problem.
  • The sign, which hangs at Myrtle Avenue and Forest Park Drive in Queens, speaks eloquently of so much that is wrong in American society…and especially New York…that it should be allowed to remain, as Paul Newman says of the smoldering ruin at the end of “The Towering Inferno,” as “kind of a shrine to all the bullshit in the world.”

Reactions of locals covered most of the bases, as Jackie might say:

  • Quana Martin, 32, said,  “How do you not know how to spell his name? He’s a well-known figure.” Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Quana. Cultural literacy is on the wane. In fact, all forms of literacy are…

  • Queens teen JP Ward: “It’s fucking stupid. I wouldn’t say it’s disrespectful, but it’s definitely stupid.” Indeed. Hence the designation of our tiles as “The Great Stupid’!

  •  City Councilman Robert Holden:  “You don’t have a few eyes looking at these signs? DOT is a mess.” It is not only the New York Department of Transportation that operates like this, though. How many people saw this sign, shrugged, and decided it wasn’t their problem even if they noticed the spelling mistake? This is the work ethic, or lack of it, suffocating American productivity and lowering the quality of life. How many of those in the chain of custody had “quietly quit”?
  • “That’s just government,” Queens waitress Aurora Terranova said. “Most of the time shit just goes wrong because of stupidity or oversightedness.” Bingo! Now ask Aurora what party she routinely votes for, and why she thinks government can and should solve  her problems.

And all these years, I’ve been embarrassed by the “Wafle House” sign a few blocks from our house…

____________________

Pointer: JutGory

Oh Come ON, Ann! Is Althouse Really This Naive?

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

In her post about how US. World and News Report is accusing law schools opting out of its yearly rankings of de-emphasizing test scores and grades to prepare for an end-around the likely SCOTUS ban on affirmative action, retired law professor and usually Smart Person Ann Althouse writes,

“If law schools can’t directly take race into account, why would they make an adjustment that puts less emphasis on test scores and grades?”

Huh. That’s a real puzzler!

I haven’t read the comments, but I assume they enlighten her about this impenetrable mystery.

Saturday Ethics Round-Up, 3/4/2023: A Well-Earned Divorce, A Policeman’s Lot, Cori Bush, Murdaugh, And Donna Brazile’s Hackery

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

I’m seriously thinking about developing a cell phone users code of ethics. If so, I’ll need some help. I have a file on the topic, but I don’t use a smartphone or cell phone myself at all if I’m not traveling, so I’m sure there are many obnoxious practices that haven’t occurred to me.

Yesterday it was raining icy drops in Alexandria, and I had to run a quick—well, it should have been quick–errand. The 7-11 parking lot was packed, and three cars came into the lot right behind me, waiting for someone to leave. A patron of the convenience store came out and got in his SUV almost immediately, his tail lights came on, and…nothing. All of us waited, and waited. He wouldn’t pull out and vacate the space. I knew what he was doing: staring at a little lighted screen. (I confirmed it later when another car finally left the lot and I could park.) Asshole.

1. Only six years too late. Hallelujah! Kellyanne Conway and her mega-jerk husband George are finally getting divorced. A spouse who not only interferes with his partner’s job as George Conway did but also uses his connection to his partner to gain publicity and influence while attacking her employer is contemptible. I still don’t understand why President Trump allowed it, and Kellyanne was irresponsible, disloyal and incompetent for not putting a stop to it.

2. A harbinger of things to come. Austin, Texas has over 300 vacancies looming in the police department, with 77 officers expected to retire before the end of March to go with 264 existing vacancies, according to the Austin Police Association. The reason should be apparent to all: the outright hostility toward police emanating from Austin’s overwhelmingly woke wesidents, sorry, residents. The Austin Police Department is so understaffed, 911 calls are being redirected to the 311 non-emergency number “If you come home and find your home burglarized, calls like that are now going to 311,” said police union president Thomas Villarreal. “You’re not getting a police response to many property crimes if it’s not a violent crime that is currently ongoing.”

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Let’s Play “Guess What Party!” Today’s Challenge: Maine’s Anti-Cat Bill!

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

“Yes, all you intrusive government-lovers out there in TV Land, it’s time for the game show sweeping America: “Guess What Party!” It’s the exciting contest where our competitors try to guess the party affiliation of the state or national legislators by the nature of the bills they have introduced.

“It’s not as easy as you might think! For example, Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur filed legislation (SB 1316) mandating that bloggers writing about the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Cabinet or Legislature to register with the state. Bloggers daring to comment on such elected officials must also report any compensation they receive or may receive. Registration would be required within five days of any blog mentioning an elected state official, and thereafter, bloggers would have to file monthly reports on what posts mention those officials.

Can you say “Chilling free speech”? How about “undue burden”? Sure you can! Sen. Brodeur must be a Democrat, right? After all, that’s the party that is now actively hostile to the First Amendment (among others) and slowly but surely moving toward a totalitarian system in which thoughts, words, and personal liberties would be tightly controlled “for the greater good” and to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion. But if you buzzed in with that answer, you’d lose the round of ‘Guess What Party!’

You would have forgotten how incredibly ignorant and stupid that bill is! The bill is unconstitutional on its face, and if we had a competent education system, any 6th grader would know it. Brodeur is a member of the Republican Party—you know, the party so bone-headed that it somehow managed to almost get wiped out in the mid-term elections even in the middle of epic inflation under an incompetent Democratic administration that makes Jimmy Carter seem like Franklin Roosevelt. Brodeur is a GOP deep thinker in the great GOP tradition of George Santos, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Herschel Walker and Michael Steele. You better not leap to conclusions on “Guess What Party!”

Now here’s today’s challenge, panel….

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Idaho Student Massacre Ethics…And A “Hate Speech” Issue

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Issue I: The Banned Subreddit. Above you see a posted photo of some sick fan-girls’s shrine to University of Idaho student massacre suspect Bryan Kohberger. On the massive social media site Reddit, a “subreddit” titled “Brynation” emerged after Kohberger’s arrest late last year for the murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The Reddit group, which included women professing to be infatuated with the accused killer as well as amateur sleuths who maintained that he was innocent, had grown to more than 500 members before it was banned from the platform for allegedly violating Reddit’s Moderator Code of Conduct. As is typical with such social media bans, Reddit didn’t specify the exact offense.

Reddit can ban whatever and whoever it chooses; the question is when it is ethical to do so. There are too many arguably sick subreddits to list, including many involving fetishes, which the common phenomenon of women being smitten by murderers certainly is. At this point, Bryan Kohberger is presumed innocent in the eyes of the law. I just heard an “expert” opine that social media outlets have an “obligation” to control and minimize “hate speech” on their platforms, which he defined as speech that could provoke violence or “harm” individuals, and cited Reddit’s action as an example of responsible social media management. The Fox News interviewer just nodded like one of those plastic dogs people used to put in the rear windows of their cars.

How is chatting online about an accused murderer “hate speech”? The expert’s fatuous (but popular!) position demonstrates exactly what’s unethical about the anti-“hate speech” movement on the Left: the term literally can mean any speech the censors don’t like, disagree with, or find “icky.” The participants in the banned subreddit were not doing anything likely to result in violence: has anyone ever become a serial killer to be more attractive to women? Thinking isn’t dangerous; talking on line about one’s thoughts isn’t dangerous either, or unethical.

In a purported democracy, the culture should lean hard in the direction of free expression, with all expression given a strong presumption of legitimacy. People like Fox’s “expert” do the opposite, and are working to shift our culture toward concepts of GoodThink and BadThink, with the distinctions being dictated by powerful corporations, Big Tech, social media, the news media, educational institutions and, of course, the government.

Weird people have rights too.

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