—–The statement from DCCC Chairman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.).
Let’s play “Find the False Representations!”
For some reason, I’m dreading this one…
To be frank, it’s not much of a cure: I’ll probably finish this post after I return from a diagnostic test that I’d rather not have to take, and I’m still a bit stressed about it. this is also one of those regrettable days that will live in ethics infamy, the anniversary of Jim Jones’s evil 1978 mass suicide by his cult members in Guyana. I don’t want to talk about it.
1. Is this headline unethical: “Cow struck and killed by milk truck”? Ann Althouse, who needs a vacation (as do I, but she can actually take one), seems to think so. “And this is news because….? ” she writes. “It’s a test of whether you’re an asshole — i.e., did you think it was funny? The irony or something. Poetic justice? What’s the literary term that applies when a humble being is further humbled by the force that has been humbling it all along?” Jeez, Ann, take a chill pill. Of course it’s news. It would be local news here, and this isn’t even dairy country. It’s also obviously ironic, and kind of funny. As for the “unintended rhyme”—wow. Writing stuff that rhymes is one of the many silly things I do for a living, and that rhyme didn’t even register on me. Now, if the headline had been, “Cow killed and milk spilled,” you might have had a point.
I think the editors must think it’s funny. The struck/truck rhyme is evidence. Or do you think the headline writers are so inept with language that they don’t notice and fix unintended rhymes? Actually, that’s what I think.
2. Will Rep. Adam Schiff ever get his just desserts? He actually has a self-aggrandizing book out, and it is getting positive reviews for the most part from the lackey news media. Here was the best he could do when he was confronted with the fact that the Steele Memorandum and the entire “Trump colluded with Russia” hoax that he loudly enabled for years finally were exposed his party’s scheme to derail Trump with the assistance of the “Deep State”:
“I don’t regret saying that we should investigate claims of someone who, frankly, was a well-respected British intelligence officer. And we couldn’t have known, of course, years ago that we would learn years later that someone who is a primary source lied to him. [Igor] Danchenko lied to Christopher Steele and then lied to the FBI. He should be prosecuted. He is being prosecuted. And I’ll tell you this, if he’s convicted, he should not be pardoned the way Donald Trump pardoned people who lied to FBI agents, like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn. There ought to be the same standard in terms of prosecuting the liars. But I don’t think there ought to be any pardon, no matter which way the lies cut.”
Don’t you love the way Schiff schifted the subject to Trump’s pardons, which have absolutely nothing to do with his shilling for a fake “treason” theory engineered to cripple the power of an elected President? [Pointer: Other Bill] Continue reading
This is another banner date in the long history of bad ethics. On November 16, 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, performed an epic double cross on the trusting emperor of the Incas, Atahualpa. Vastly outnumbered with only 200 soldiers to overcome several thousand Incas, Pizarro set up a feast in Atahualpa’s honor and then opened fire on the unarmed Incan guests. Trapped in tight quarters, ambushed Incan soldiers had no chance. Pizarro’s men slaughtered 5,000 Incans in an hour. Pizarro suffered the only Spanish injury: a cut on his hand. After the massacre, Pizarro captured Atahualpa, forced him to convert to Christianity, and finally had him murdered by strangulation.
On the positive side, the story was the inspiration for a spectacular Broadway hit, “The Royal Hunt of the Sun,” by Peter Shaffer, before he had even bigger successes with “Equus” and “Amadeus.”
What a horrible story.
1. Good. In Connecticut, repulsive right wing conspiracy contagion Alex Jones lost in court again, as a judge granted victory to the families of eight people killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. They had sued the perpetually lying broadcaster and his Infowars media outlet for defamation. I’d say that was fair: Jones had claimed on his show that the attack that killed 20 first graders and six educators was part of a government-led plot to confiscate Americans’ firearms and that the victims’ families were “actors.” How sick and stupid did someone have to be to believe such garbage? Whatever the answer, there were enough of them to harass the families on the street and at events honoring their dead children and threaten them online and in person. The decision, combined with previous rulings in Texas , means that Jones has lost all the defamation lawsuits filed against him by the families.
I would say that Jones is appealing, but that would be misleading. He says he’ll try to get a higher court to reverse the ruling.
2. Not surprisingly…mainstream media flacks and hacks desperate to run interference for Biden and the Democrats have been giving Yoo’s Rationalization, “It isn’t what it is,” a workout. (It’s also called “gaslighting,” “spinning,” or “lying.”) Recent examples:
Now there’s a rationalization for the ages! If one can scrape up the extra money to pay for something that shouldn’t cost so much, there’s nothing to complain about! Of course, what one now has to pay for X removes assets that one would have had, and was planning on having, to pay for Y. And, reasons Ruhl, as long as well-off, prudent savers who have invested wisely and own their own homes aren’t devastated by an extra dollar or more on the price of key products, who cares about those other losers? After Ruhle got roasted on social media for her elitism, she came back with a lament about “the two Americas.” See? She cares after all!
In the tricky practice of ethics train wreck taxonomy, placing the Rittenhouse trial in the proper category is a challenge. Is the Tale of the Gun-toting Teen its own media bias and activist -fueled social and legal disaster, or is it just an extension of another?
I lean toward assigning this fiasco to the latter category, making it just one more extension of the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman Ethics Train Wreck, which eventually begat the George Floyd Freakout, which in turn led to the contrived outrage over the police shooting of Jacob Blake that spat out Rittenhouse’s unhelpful improvisation. After all, Martin, Floyd and Blake all were episodes that had nothing to do with race but that were hyped into divisive racial controversies and trials by irresponsible demagogues, protesters, politicians and reporters.
What I especially like about attributing all of this societal wreckage into a single ethics train wreck is that it demonstrates just how disastrous President Obama’s inflammatory comments equating Martin to “his son” were—as Ethics Alarms pointed out at the time. Maybe if the blame is squarely placed at the metaphorical fish head, Presidents will stop shooting off their mouths like that. (President Biden, do recall, falsely called Rittenhouse a white supremacist.)
This is all prelude to pointing out what a projectile vomit debacle yesterday’s closing arguments were. Both the prosecution and the defense stomped all over proper criminal trial practice and professional ethics.
For the prosecution…
November, September, same difference…
Well, yesterday’s “Moby-Dick” reflections were supposed to be the intro to a warm-up that never was; it got too long and ate the post, just like Moby (or Mocha) would have. So here is what was supposed to follow, with a few updates…
1. This was almost an ethics quiz, but I’m pretty certain about the answer. Peloton has blocked users of its website from displaying hashtags reading “Let’s go Brandon” in their personal profiles.The company says the phrase violates their guidelines. The question is, does it? “Hateful, offensive, or obscene speech is strictly forbidden on the Peloton Service,” the company’s guidelines say. “This includes any leaderboard names, locations, profile pictures, Tags or any other User Content that promotes, relates to, or condones lack of respect, discrimination, or violence of any kind against individuals or groups based on [the usual list]… or political affiliation.”
Since “Let’s go Brandon!” is code for “Fuck Joe Biden,” it is “Fuck Joe Biden” just like “SOS” means “Help!” That certainly is somewhere in “hateful , offensive, or obscene” whether some people find it funny or not. [Pointer: JutGory]
2. The cliche for this is “kabuki theater.” The sham of the Glasgow climate change summit was highlighted at the very end, when China and India, among the world’s biggest burners of coal, raised last-minute objections to language in the unenforceable pact pledging a “phase out” of coal and demanded that it be changed to “phase down,” whatever that means. Since their only option was to accept this crucial weakening of the terms or not to have an agreement they could wave to claim “progress,” the change was accepted. COP26 President Alok Sharma said he was “deeply sorry” for the let-down. “I understand the deep disappointment. It’s also vital we protect this package,” Sharma said. Without China and India’s full commitment and supportive action, the goals of the climate change reforms can’t be met, making the sacrifices, if really made, by the United States and other nations virtue signaling without purpose….you know, like the Biden administration shutting down pipelines.
On this date in 1982, the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. It has one of the more remarkable stories of any memorial or monument in our Capital. A deceptively simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict arranged in order of death date, the striking and sober memorial was the design of Maya Lin, a Yale University architecture student who won a nationwide competition. Many veterans and veterans’ groups initially hated Lin’s winning design, which they felt degraded their service and represented the controversial war ” as an ugly gash in our history.” However, within months of the memorial’s dedication, either by design or kismet, it became the most dynamic memorial of them all, as veterans and families of the perished walked the black reflective wall seeking the names of their loved ones and then leaving notes, flowers, photos, dog tags and even cans of beer. That tradition hasn’t changed since: the spot is among the most moving in the city, or anywhere in the nation. A Smithsonian Institution director called it “a community of feelings, almost a sacred precinct,” and a veteran declared that “it’s the parade we never got.”
My law school and section classmate, Robert W. Doubek, was one of the dedicated veterans instrumental in making the memorial a reality. He also graced the cast of a couple of my Gilbert and Sullivan shows at Georgetown. Bob wrote about how the memorial was created here.
1. Good for him. Stephen Sweeney, the second most powerful lawmaker in New Jersey and victim of one of the most stunning upsets of all those that rocked his party on election day, conceded defeat last week. The loss had been close enough to justify waiting until all the votes had come in, but eventually Sweeney had to face reality: virtually unknown truck driver Edward Durr had beaten him with a threadbare campaign—he spent less than $2000— that nobody believed could succeed. Once, Sweeney was considered a future contender to be governor of the Garden State. No more.
“The results of Tuesday’s election are in. All votes have been fairly counted. And I, of course, accept the results,” Sweeney said. “I want to congratulate Mr. Durr and wish him the best of luck. The people in the third legislative district are the best in New Jersey. It has been an honor and a privilege to represent them in the state Senate and to serve as the president of the state Senate.”
That’s the way it’s supposed to be done. Hillary, Trump and Stacey Abrams, take note.
It may be just me, but I’m getting sick of the same ethics topics coming up over and over again of late.
You can help out (as many of you do) by sending me candidates for analysis and discussion (though no one can replace retired story scout Fred, whose assistance I miss dearly), but in the meantime I invite you to launch some here.
And good night, Mrs. Q, wherever you are…
Don Maddox died. He was 98, and the last surviving member of a country music family and band you probably never heard of. Ken Burns told some of the story (above) of The Maddox Brothers and Rose in his fascinating documentary “Country Music.” They were important, they were successful, they were famous, and nobody under–what, 80?—remembers them. These stories fascinate me, and depress me. I’ve got to stop thinking of “Ozmandias“…it’s not healthy…
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal Wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Time for Cher…
1. Someone should be fired for this, but the culture at this company has clearly curdled beyond easy fixes. Kyle Rittenhouse, standing trial for his life in his teens, took the stand yesterday (something O.J. wouldn’t do) and told his version of the chaos that ended with him shooting three people and killing two. He broke down sobbing at one point, so whoever is in charge of the Miriam-Webster twitter account quickly issued this:
Apparently the company wants to project an image of being run and staffed by cruel, biased assholes.
Got it!
In a new report released Monday, the writers organization PEN America argues that efforts to prevent the teaching of Critical Race Theory and related anti-white, anti-American propaganda to captive public school students constitutes a threat to the free speech and the First Amendment.
Hey, that’s funny! Tell us another, PEN!
The registered 501(c)(3) organization,headquartered in New York City, was founded in 1922. PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 centers worldwide that make up the PEN International network—I guess the latter is how the organization is now supporting Marxism. PEN claims to be devoted to ensuring that “people everywhere” have “the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others.” More than 7,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals are members, according to the group’s website.
Gee, wouldn’t you think out of all those writers, there would be a lawyer around—John Grisham maybe?—, or a law professor, to keep PEN from making a public ass of itself?
“These bills appear designed to chill academic and educational discussions and impose government dictates on teaching and learning,” the report says. “In short: They are educational gag orders. Taken together, the efforts amount to a sweeping crusade for content- and viewpoint-based state censorship.”
I guess we should be happy that PEN has shown its colors, not that anyone who pays attention should be surprised in the least that a group of writers is dominated by the extreme Left when so many institutions that are supposed to be objective have already been poisoned by bias and political motives. “Poisoned PEN!” That has a ring to it, don’t you think?
Ethics Alarms 