It’s been more than a week since the last one, imposed under my emergency powers, so I’m expecting great things…
U.S. Society
Morning Ethics Wake-Up, 10/21/2022: Krugman, Logan, Justice Barrett, Garbage And Poop
October 21 reminds me that I’m only up to Woodrow Wilson in the Ethics Alarms examination of qualified competitors for Joe Biden in the “Worst U.S. President Ever” Competition. Biden, as we can see every day, looks worse and worse, but this date in 1921 stands as a reminder that a President whom conventional historical wisdom usually relegates to the bottom of the barrel was more than the corrupt, sex-obsessed boob he has been portrayed as by predominantly Democrat academics. On October 21, Harding gave a brave speech in Alabama condemning lynchings, which at that time were occurring in the South at a rate of about two black men lynched a week. Harding, in contrast to his Jim Crow-supporting predecessor, Wilson, advocated full rights for African Americans as well as suffrage for women. He supported the Dyer Anti-lynching Bill in 1920, which passed in the House but died in the Senate, thanks to the determined resistance of Southern Democrats.
1. Garbage to the left of me, garbage to the right…today’s refrain on Fox News is that the record-setting early voting in Georgia “proves” that Biden and Stacey Abrams calling the new Georgia election law “Jim Crow 2.0” was race-baiting and lies. The Democrats’ despicable rhetoric was indeed race-baiting and dishonest, but the voting turn-out proves nothing of the sort. How could it? Less than 50% of the public votes; less than 50% would probably vote if all they had to do was to do so psychically. For all anyone knows, all the extra early voters haven’t been affected by the new rules at all, and would have voted if the law had never passed. Next, Abrams, who really is a horrible character, tried to answer the conservative media’s mockery by “clarifying” that she never meant that the new law would stop anyone from voting who was willing to put in the effort, just that voting should require no effort at all. Oh. But Jim Crow actually made it impossible for blacks to vote no matter what they did. I feel like I’m watching a debate between an idiot and a con-artist… Continue reading
Is Everyone Being Unfair To Kamala Harris?
I confess; when any public figure engages in such blatant oral obfuscation or convoluted rhetoric, I am suspicious of their trustworthiness from that point onward. Ann Althouse, however, defends Peterson, and, by extension, Harris (and Joe Biden and many more) by writing today,
We’re living in a time when your worst few seconds will be ripped out of context and held up to discredit you. Better never to speak on camera at all than to risk creating one of these horrible clips to be used against you. We’re created a mediascape where only the cocky and reckless will speak freely. Ironically, Peterson will be one of those people. Everyone else will shrink out of public view.
Is it unfair to expect public figures and those who opine and speak for a living to do better than that, though? I know I’ve had some bad moments on the radio and in public presentations over the years, but surely there is a level of gabled thought and rhetoric that can be fairly taken as signature significance, and proof that a speaker just isn’t worth paying attention to.
Or is that unfair?
The Curse Of The 10-Year-Old Rape Victim
Democrats really are relying on the Dobbs decision and the substantial blood-lust among a large segment of their constituencies for maximizing dead fetuses to rescue the 2022 mid-term elections from what should be, by all measures, a catastrophe for the Woke. Wow. Running primarily on abortion as the #1 national issue would be bizarre under any circumstances—it is, after all, a matter that specifically involves the ending of innocent human lives—but doing so this year, when so many other problems concern American citizens more than making it as easy as possible to off living human beings in wombs, is particularly weird. But then, as EA has noted before, it’s all the Democrats have other than claiming that Republicans are fascists while they act and talk like…fascists.
The rest is deny, deny, deny: The economy is wonderful! The border is secure! Gas prices aren’t that high, and you should be buying electric cars anyway! Crime surge? What crime surge? “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,” as the King of Siam would say.
The depressing thing is that for close to 50% of our under-educated, misinformed, gullible and dim population, this pathetic platform of rationalizations and lies will be enough, and their response will be, “Sound good to me!” It is the pro-abortion arguments, however, that are particularly outrageous. Yesterday Ethics Alarms noted an op-ed by a physician that called a procedure unrelated to ending a pregnancy “an abortion.” Yahoo! offered an article this week headlined, “America is facing a diaper crisis, and the anti-abortion movement is making it worse.” Such warped utilitarian logic is supposed to carry Democrats, if not to victory in November, at least to a less crushing defeat. Good luck with that. This is a party with no shame in 2022.
Mayberry Ethics
A theme here at ethics alarms is that ethics, unlike morality, is fluid and dynamic. Society gains in ethical enlightenment over time with reflection and experience.
Since I have been severely limited in my activity of late, I found myself watching an episode of the classic sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show.” Many, indeed most, of the popular shows from the Fifties-Sixties era feel stilted and naive today, but not all of them: “The Andy Griffith Show” is one that holds up beautifully. Like many TV shows then (but few today), the continuing saga of Sheriff Andy Taylor’s challenges as a single dad and the center of sanity in a small town full of Southern eccentrics often focused on societal values and ethics lessons, though it never crossed into preachiness.
The episode I happened across, “One Punch Opie,” was about peer pressure and bullying. A new kid in town is bullying the other children to do things they shouldn’t, like raid Mr. Foley’s fruit and vegetable stands outside his store and steal apples and tomatoes. When Opie (the then-unbearably cute Ron Howard) refuses to follow the gang, the much larger kid threatens him. Opie ultimately confronts the boy who quickly proves that he is a coward, and backs down, ending his malign influence over the other boys.
The bullying theme was not what struck me about the episode, however. The new kid breaks a street lamp with an apple, and Sheriff Andy has Opie round up the other boys who witnessed the crime so he can have a chat with them. (The troublemaking new kid refuses to come along.) The boys all say they witnessed the act, but didn’t throw the fateful fruit. Andy tells them that he’ll let their error in judgment go this time, but the next time, he’ll tell their fathers. “And you know what that means,” Andy says. “It means you’ll get a whippin’!”
Yes, in 1962, a wise and reliably benign TV authority figure casually referenced corporal punishment—probably with a belt, no less, as Andy didn’t say “spanking”—- as a fact of childhood and responsible parenting. Nobody blinked. Sixty years later, such a statement would cause an uproar, and be considered an endorsement of child abuse.
What accepted conduct today will seem equally wrongful in sixty years?
Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 10/17/22: “It Isn’t What It Is” Edition
I want to thank everyone who sent good wishes and good advice last week, which was a multi-level disaster here on all fronts. It drives me crazy, but I’m just going to resign myself to the reality that there will be no catching up on all the issues I wanted to write about and should have posted on here. Ethics stories and their related issues are relentless, and I’m still limited in the amount of time and energy I can devote to Ethics Alarms while sitting, typing and thinking are still painful. And I’m just going to try to stop obsessing about blog traffic. To hell with it…if a week of lighter than usual content chases readers away, that’s their problem.
1. On polls and manipulation The New York Times thinks it’s headline-worthy that their latest poll shows Republicans with an edge going into next month’s mid-term elections. This is because the overwhelmingly Democratic Party-allied pollsters have been desperately trying to convince their client’s supporters that all is well with obviously rigged, incompetent and biased surveys. There would literally be no historical precedent for Democrats not getting slaughtered in the upcoming elections. We have been watching a year-long disinformation campaign and an epic example of the Left’s “It isn’t what it is” gaslighting addiction on a grand scale. It’s more than just unethical: it is Orwellian, and that’s another reason the Democrats deserve to lose, and lose big.
Of the Times, Ann Althouse writes (so I don’t have to):
I’ve seen so many articles in the NYT that seem designed to enthuse Democrats. I’m heartily sick of them, and the efforts are ludicrous. They’re not even effective at doing this thing I don’t think the NYT should be doing.
Do you think the Times will ever figure out that they shouldn’t be doing this because it’s not journalism?
“Nah, There’s No Mainstream Media Bias!” Addendum…
This post should be seen as a footnote to the previous one, expressing gratitude that the Axis of Unethical Conduct (that’s the “resistance”, Democrats and the mainstream media alliance we have been watching attempting to strangle the democratic process since 2015, if not earlier) is now not even trying to disguise its methods and motives. The Wisconsin Senate race is another close one, and the media is as desperate as Democrats to keep the Senate in Democratic hands, making the defeat of incumbent Republican Ron Johnson Ron Johnson greatly to be wished. And thus, for the Greater Good and because the ends justifies the means, the august New York Times threw all standards of reporting objectivity to the winds and simply announced that Johnson is a poopy-head and his opponent is, as Lina Lamont would say, “a shimmering, glowing star in the political firmament.”
That’s not journalism. That’s campaigning, and cheap campaigning at that. “Leading peddler of disinformation” according to whom? Does Johnson lead Joe Biden? Adam Schiff? Donald Trump? AOC? Facts please! Evidence! Nah, none of that is forthcoming: this is just a “Vote Democrat” tweet, devoid of anything but naked partisan loyalty. NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham responded that “The New York Times is a leading peddler of misinformation.”
Indeed,
What’s going on here? Well, the Times assumes most of its Twitter followers are progressive partisans who won’t mind the paper exposing its increasingly obvious and destructive bias. They are probably right about that, but fairer Americans are paying attention. Why would anyone trust a news source that would allow something like that tweet to go out under its banner?
The self-banned commenter who hung out here for a while making excuses for the Times would doubtlessly say, “Oh, come on. So some low-level intern or someone similar screwed up. It doesn’t prove the Times is biased.” It proves that the Times doesn’t respect it readers, the public, its profession or its mission enough to take proper care regarding how its power and influence are wielded and who wields it. The fact that the Times hasn’t publicly rebuked whoever was responsible for that tweet and apologized to all, including Sen. Johnson tells us all we need to know, not that those of us who have been paying attention didn’t know it long ago.
Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck Update, Part 2: Hospital Masking
I actually witnessed this exchange three days ago, as part of my four-day Alexandria, VA hospital adventure:
Woman: Put on a mask! This is a hospital!
Man: Why should I? You’re not wearing one!
Woman: I am!
Man: You’re wearing it under your nose!
Woman: I’m still wearing it! Put one on, or I’m reporting you!
Man. Go ahead!
Whereupon the woman turned to the elderly volunteer manning the desk at the entrance. He wasn’t wearing a mask.
Are the idiotic pandemic masks the official symbol and attire of The Great Stupid? I think so. My experience at the INOVA hospital convinced me. At the Emergency Room entrance. a large sign mandated masks. A security guard ordered me to put one on (but not my wife, who was being checked in). The masks being handed out were those cheap paper things that are either completely useless or mostly useless, depending on who you talk to. During the four days of hospital visits, I didn’t see a single N95 mask on the faces of staff, patients or visitors.
Around the busy ER waiting area, there were unmasked people, masked people, and people wearing masks under their noses or chins. When my wife was being checked in, nobody appeared to care about the masks at all. The nurse processing us wore no mask. I didn’t; my wife didn’t. The attendants who took her to the temporary room did. Later on, all of the nurses and techs were masked, but some doctors were not. Nobody ever asked me or my wife to put one on. In the nearby rooms, the typical scene was an unmasked patient and a mixed crowd of masked and unmasked family members, shoulder to shoulder.
Later, when my wife was moved to a regular hospital room, the signs even disappeared. The Patients Entrance and Visitors entrance had cheap masks available, but there were no apparent requirements. Sometimes the receptionists were masked, sometimes not. Sometimes one was and the other wasn’t. I walked in maskless (let’s see…) eight times, and nobody said a word.
What’s going on here?
Madness, as Major Clipton said. Virtue signaling. Confusion. Mixed messages. Chaos. Fear. Stupidity.
Science!
Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck Update, Part 1
[There’s almost no traffic here on Saturday if I don’t get a post up before 10:30am; I guess I’m going to find out what kind of traffic there is if nothing gets posted before 4 pm. Ugh. I’m sorry. Sitting down at my desk is still very painful, more so, in fact, today than yesterday. I also don’t understand why an 18 inch bruise on one leg makes the rest of me feel so terrible. I feel like a weenie, and I’m sorry.]
1. Biden again extended the Wuhan pandemic public health emergency, which was set to expire last week. Now it will remain in place past the midterm elections. This keeps millions of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries who might lose their coverage enrolled for several more months, and allows allowed vaccines, testing, and treatments to be offered for free. It also requires states to offer continuous enrollment for Medicaid and CHIP, public health insurance programs for low-income individuals, in order to receive additional federal funding.
That’s nice, except that there is no emergency, and Biden’s previous public statements admitted as much. This is an abuse of Presidential power, no more ethical nor legal than a leader’s extending a curfew or martial law to seize dictatorial powers—it’s the same principle, and the same tactic. Congress should throw a fit, but it won’t, because Congress has no principles or guts: the measures benefit voting blocs, and though the President is abusing his emergency powers to bypass the requirements of legislation and rule-making, the public can’t comprehend such details like due process and the separation of powers, nor, apparently, basic honesty. If the President can declare an emergency (extending an emergency is not different from declaring one) when there is none and get away with it, why not martial law?
The Wuhan gravy train has benefited so many (while wrecking the economy, whole sectors of the economy and the education and social progress of our children, just to mention a few of the self-inflicted wounds) that ending it will undoubtedly cause many considerable pain. HHS estimates that as many as 15 million people will lose their Medicaid coverage—but then, they aren’t supposed to have medicaid coverage.
Many families will also lose supplemental money they received through the federal government’s nutrition program. But the only reason they were getting such funds was because of an emergency that no longer exists. Biden has already used the non-emergency to justify student loan forgiveness (we’ll see if he gets away with that) and make landlords continue to do without rent. HHS overrode state laws regarding which vaccines pharmacists could administer to certain age groups. Whether the nationalization of pharmacy vaccine rules will expire when the “emergency” is lifted is still open to question. Essentially, this is a scheme to spend more taxpayer money and extend nanny state benefits and ratchet up big government control, using the pandemic as the tool. It is both an abuse of power and a cynical exercise in bypassing democracy. Continue reading
Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 10/14/22: Bruised And Embarrassed Edition
The above is as close as I can get to the approximate predominant color of the bruise that runs from just above my left hip to below the back if my left knee. The thing is about ten inches across at its widest point. Then there’s the swelling, which reminds me of a joke in “City Slickers.” Thanks to everyone who has sent good wishes, both here and off site. I’m just embarrassed and frustrated, while metaphorically kicking myself for not buying that standing desk I was considering a few years ago. Right now, I’m just going to try to catch up a bit…
1. Apparently the Axis is really going with the “threat to democracy” narrative. I was watching the News Mix channel on DirectTV. Fox News is nestled between CNN and MSNBC, so you can watch all three channels at once. In the time that Fox was covering rising crime rates (and WaWa pulling stores from Philadelphia after a mob ransacked one outlet), police officers getting shot, the latest inflation numbers, the border mess, and the Justice Dept. being sued to force an explanation for why it allowed illegal protests in front of SCOTUS justices’ homes, the other two networks never budged from reports on the Jan. 6 Star Chamber, backed by films of the riot that occurred 21 months ago. News! Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias… Continue reading
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