I have no idea if the various scandalous theories about the Paul Pelosi beating have any truth in them, but I will say this: the Democrats and members of the media that immediately leaped to the Gabby Giffords replay that Republican rhetoric seeded the attack richly deserve to be humiliated, which they will be if the incident turns out to be a gay hook-up gone wrong. The Axis immediately defaulted to exploiting the incident before they had the facts—if they are settled, I haven’t seen them— and now there at least appears to be some chance that the whole thing was misrepresented. The key takeaways ethically are 1) leaping to use the attack as a political weapon was indefensible and 2) if we had ethical journalists, reporters from major outlets would be digging to find the facts. Right now, it is only the fringes of the conservative media and blogosphere that even appears curious. Why did Paul Pelosi refer to his attacker as “a friend”? Why wasn’t there evidence of a break-in? Is there security footage, and what does it show? Glenn Greenwald tweeted, “Many journalists see the glaring questions and evidentiary holes in the Paul Pelosi narrative. But they also know how important that narrative is to Dems right before the mid-terms. So why stick their heads up, provoke a liberal Twitter mob, and be branded? That’s the climate.”

Well, it’s an unethical climate.

1. How hard should we be on Eric Burton? The Texas native and the founding member of The Black Pumas took the field at Minute Maid Park to start off Game #1 of the World Series with his rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and botched the lyrics. This has happened to many more prominent singers before, most famously Robert Goulet, in a performance he was mocked for until the end of his career. Having botched lyrics I know cold in a public performance myself (more than once, in fact), I am inclined to be kind and forgiving, but his rendition was also pitchy, and just didn’t sound very good. To my ear, it seemed that he was more interested in showing off his voice and riffs than actually doing the song justice, and that song deserves respect.

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Wow. The news media and Democrats are really going all in in trying to use a sick maniac’s attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband as a campaign issue. Again, desperate, and as usual, stupid. The theory is that this can be a tipping point, except that it will take more than the usual mainstream media selective obfuscation of facts to make it even fly as high or as far as the Spruce Goose. Pelosi’s attacker was and is a long-time wacko. There is as much in his rants and beliefs to link him to either side of the political spectrum. The Left has had an absurd amount of success blowing up single incidents into generalizations (See: Trayvon Martin; George Floyd; the Capitol riot) but this is lame. Naturally we’re getting the “prove you don’t approve by condemning it!” tactic aimed at Republicans, a trick that somehow never is dusted off and employed when Republican, conservatives or their family members are attacked. I’m not surprised that Trump hasn’t issued some pro forma expression of sympathy or condemnation. He should, of course, but Nancy Pelosi has treated him with more disrespect than any House Speaker ever treated a President, and graciousness is not in his vocabulary. I just hope he avoids saying, “Good!”

The current narrative that Republicans have used hateful rhetoric against Democrats while Democrats have not equaled or surpassed them in pure viciousness is so transparently a lie that even Democrats can’t believe it. The President called Republicans fascists and a clear and present danger to democracy just a month ago! Never mind, though: they have nothing better now. Any voter who is going to hear and read this garbage and think, “Gee, I better vote for Democrats because a mentally-ill Canadian attacked the husband of the Speaker of the House with a hammer” is so incompetent that his or her votes could probably be bought by a promise of Twizzlers. Friends of the party and its media propagandists would be kind to whisper, “Just stop. You’re embarrassing yourselves.”

1. What should one make of this? Trans comedian Jordan Gray, on the UK comedy show “Friday Night Live,” ripped off his clothing, and, naked, began to play his keyboard with his erect penis while singing his song “Better Than You.” It’s lyrics included, “I’m a perfect woman, my tits will never shrink. I’m guaranteed to squirt, and I do anal by default … I am the lizard king, and I can do anything that any other woman can’t … I used to be a man, now I’m better than you.” We are told that the audience was delighted, but the misogynist lyrics have feminists up in arms.

Two words: Freak show. That’s all: this is in the same category as Joseph Pujol, better known by his stage name Le Pétomane, who entertained vaudeville audiences by farting out melodies. If trans individual wanted to be regarded as better than circus acts, freaks of nature and exhibitionists, they need to avoid behaving like this. It seriously undercuts their claims of being normal, respectable members of society. [Pointer: Mrs. Q]

In a related category is this jaw-dropping video, which was released on Disney Plus last year but is only being widely discussed now:

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I’m being pummeled by ethics annoyances left and right, and I don’t have time tonight to do them all justice, so here are some matters that deserve attention, even if I can’t give them enough…

1 A new IIPTDXTTNMIAFB! Imagine if President Trump had said something a ridiculous as Joe Biden today announcing that the price of gas was “five dollars” when he took office, claiming he had brought the price of gas down. The news media would be calling it a lie, or claim that it was proof that he needed to be replaced under the 25th Amendment. My guess is that Joe wasn’t lying, he just was confused.

2. Talk about unfit for office...New York Gov. Kathy Horchul made two jaw-dropping statments in the lat 24 hours that demonstrate that she is without a clue regarding society, civilization, and human development, as well as proving that she has the instincts of a totalitarian.

Last night, when confronted in their debate by Republican challenger Lee Zeldin over the state’s controversial bail reform law, Hochul responded to his complaint that criminals were not going to jail under the Democratic Party’s policies, including the state’s controversial bail reform law, she responded, “I don’t know why that’s so important to you.” It’s a mystery! Why would anyone want criminals off the street? Then today, announcing new mandatory health regulations, she justified masking requirements for students because “children are used to masks.”

Oh, I’m sure children can get used to all sorts of things: child abuse, shoes that don’t fit, racial indoctrination, non-heterosexual propaganda, red armbands. Masks impeded socialization and social interaction, facial signaling, speech and communication, but hey, as long as they get used to it, no problem!

I know nothing about Lee Zeldin, but Horchul cannot be trusted with a governorship. If New Yorkers elect her, with all of the evidence she’s provided of manifest incompetence, they deserve what they’ll get.

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On this date in 1994, a baby boy was born to an unmarried Russian girl, who gave him up for adoption. Six months later, my wife and I flew to a grim orphanage in Samara, Russia and engaged in a mad race to adopt the child renowned there as the healthiest infant in the place and get him out of the country before an already-passed ban on international adoptions went into effect. We made it by less than a day, but got Grant Viktor (his Russian name) Bowen Marshall home to Alexandria, Virginia. Here he has grown up to be an all-American male with little in common with his father except scorn for convention and a determination to do it, as Frank and Elvis sang, his way. I am very proud of him, and while most of my aspirations, dreams and projects have ended in disappointment or dust, getting him to these shores to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (in his case, automobiles) will be more than enough legacy for me.

Of course, the 27th of October also marks the banner day in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox, my obsession, burden and joy since I was 12 and the source of some my most strongly held ethical perspectives on character, fate, and what really matters in the losing battle called life, finally won the World Series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals after coming back from a 0-3 deficit to shock the New York Yankees, who richly deserved it. Grant said, during our household celebration, “Now I know you’ll never forget my birthday.”

He knows me well.

1. Memoir ethics breach: Mathew Perry. The “Friends” actor who has never really soared in his career since the long-time hit sitcom ended, has reached the state where writing a book about his addictions was the best remaining option. He wrote in it, among other observations shared by Variety and the New York Post,while remembering rising young actor River Phoenix whose life was cut short by a drug overdose, “River was a beautiful man, inside and out—too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Pheonix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” For some reason admirers of Reeves, and probably the actor himself, though he hasn’t spoken up yet, had a problem with this. Social media began a full on assault. Perry, sensing impending pariah-hood, now says it was just a misunderstanding: “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake,” Perry told People. “I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.” Right. He’s either an idiot for randomly choosing a star and colleague to denigrate for no good reason, or Perry is lying that it was truly random. Well, he can just blame it all on his addictions…

2. I forgot: in the previous post about the many unethical ways the Left is rallying desperately around John Fetterman, I neglected the rampant use of the worst of all rationalizations, #22 Comparative Virtue, or “It’s not the worst thing.” Many would-be defenders of Fetterman have pointed out that Georgia Republican Herschel Walker has been more or less incoherent on many occasions, and he can’t even claim a stroke as an excuse. No doubt, Walker is an awful candidate and frequently makes no sense, but his lack of fitness for the Senate doesn’t make Fetterman any more fit. A similar flawed theory was used to discredit MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell, who broke ranks with most of her colleagues by telling viewers the truth: Fetterman was very shaky in the debate. This tweeted reaction was typical of many angry MSNBC viewers: “Andrea Mitchell has an agenda. She degraded John Fetterman when talking about last nights debate. All about his stroke. What’s her excuse? She can’t find words when trying to form a sentence.”

So far, there hasn’t been an uptick in desperate media analysts noting that President Biden and Kamala Harris frequently make as little sense as many of Fetterman’s debate responses.

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I don’t watch Tucker Carlson, but I literally landed on Fox News for three minutes last night to hear the pundit note that the mainstream media was now dedicated to making the public disbelieve what it could see with its eyes and hear with its ears. “When that succeeds, the result is slavery,’ he concluded. This is nothing but warmed-over Orwell, but it is right nonetheless. I assume what prompted Carlson’s observation was the frenzied reaction of most (though not all) of the biased news media and Democrats to John Fetterman’s horrific performance in his debate against GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.

Yoo’s Rationalization, or “It isn’t what it is” was a late addition to the Rationalization List, but it has been the Rationalization of the Year each year at least since 2019. 2022, however, has broken all records. As I so sagely predicted months ago when it was obvious (or should have been) that Democrats would be facing an electoral backlash this November, they and their news media are engaging in more and more transparently dishonest and misleading rhetoric, and much of it is of the Yoo variety. Unable to prevail by the superiority of their policies and measurable positive results, the panicked Left is now weaponizing denial as well as one rationalization after another. Fetterman’s ugly performance, with his loss being seen as likely leading to GOP control of the Senate, has kicked this unethical strategy into a new gear.

Let’s begin with reality. Fetterman has refused to release his medical records, and has not recovered sufficiently from a May stroke to be able to speak clearly, form sentences, and understand what is being said to him without technological assistance, meaning that he wouldn’t be able to function in the corridor discussions and informal meetings that are so central to the operation of the Senate. He should have withdrawn when he had the stroke and his party should have replaced him, but in an excess of arrogance and hubris, both were certain that he could prevail against the Trump-endorsed Oz, who was seen as weak alternative. (And he is). Nobody apparently felt that the citizens of Pennsylvania deserved a fully capable representative in the Senate—all that mattered is that Fetterman would be a reliable Far Left vote. The news media scrupulously downplayed the degree of Fetterman’s problems (“Democrats Must Win” is the mission) until NBC reporter Dasha Burns, after having significant contact with Fetterman in October, concluded that Fetterman’s impairments were so significant that even assistive technology didn’t help. She noted that “it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.”

She was immediately attacked by journalists and party loyalists for putting her assessment of the facts above ideological loyalty….you know, what used to be called “journalism.” Then the debate made it clear that Burns was correct. What should have happened after the debacle was for all journalists to report that Fetterman clearly was not fit to serve in the Senate at this point, that voters must decide if they want to gamble that he will recover sufficiently to do the job if elected, and that to that end, his release of his medical records is paramount. Voters, regardless of their political affiliations, ought to be in agreement.

But no.

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I don’t want to belabor this too much, as Ethics Alarms has been making the same point for more than a decade, but I like posting that “Casablanca” clip, and I must ask: How long will it take the majority of people to realize what a pie-in-the-sky con job and “It isn’t what it is” exercise in magical thinking the climate change emergency is?

Here’s the New York Times: Continue reading →