U.S. Society

Res Ipsa Loquitur! Sen. Hawley: “Can Men Get Pregant?” Democrat “Expert”: “Huminahuminahumina….”*

/ Jack Marshall / 37 Comments

I want to see this video posted on every clear-thinking person’s Facebook page to force the woke and obstinate of the Mad Left to try to defend this doctor’s response, or rather non-response. I want to have progressives with any semblance of integrity take this ethics test and pass by saying, “Yes, to simultaneously argue that science and not politics should govern policy and then refuse to answer ‘No, of course not to the question, ‘Can men get pregnant?’ is ludicrous, and shows that the Democrats are deep into ‘1984’ territory.”

I have a trans daughter now. I love hi…her—30 years habits are hard to break—unconditionally, and support her life choices whatever they are…BUT she is still a biological male, having a Y chromosome. (Intersex is an exception, estimated at .5% to 1.7% of the population, probably on the lower end, that proves the rule, and is too rare to be relevant in this conversation.) Deliberately denying facts to avoid dealing with a policy position’s weaknesses, flaws and problems is cowardly and unethical.

Shake this video in front of your progressive friends and relatives like a Jack Russell shakes a rat and make them respond, one hopes with more integrity to the ridiculous Dr. Verma. She needs to enter the Federal Cowardly Idiot Protection Program.

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*For the culturally deprived: this was the go-to babbling by bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) on “The Honeymooners” when he was caught, usually by his wife, beyond salvation in a lie, a scheme, or one of his inevitably disastrous deceptions.

Ethics Observations On the President’s Latest Unpresidential Conduct

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

President Donald Trump was caught on camera “flipping the bird” and shouting “Fuck you!” to a heckler who called him a “pedophile protector,” presumably referring to the contrived Epstein files obsession being used in desperation by Democrats. Of course the White House flacks are defending this latest indefensible outburst by the Vulgarian in Chief, but there is no defense. (The stated defense is just Rationalization #2A, Sicilian Ethics, or “He had it coming!”)

Further observations:

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Authentic Frontier Gibberish of the Month: Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Jackson

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

“Is treating someone transgender, but does not have, because of the medical interventions and the things that have been done, who does not have, uh, the same, uh, threat to physical competition and safety and all the reasons the state puts forward – that’s actually a different class, says this individual. So you’re not treating the class the same. And how do you respond to that?”

That was Joe Biden’s DEI Supreme Court nominee, who couldn’t define what a woman is during her confirmation hearing, talking like Kamala Harris during oral arguments over the challenge to two state laws banning biological men from competing in women’s sports.

What an embarrassment. Do any blacks think it really is helpful to overcoming racial bias in this country to have a babbling dope, also a flagrant partisan hack, as one of two African Americans on the High Court? To look on the bright side, at least Jackson relieves the only Hispanic on the Court, the consistently ludicrous “Wise Latina,” Sonia Sotomayor, from being the most obviously unqualified judge on the panel.

Banning Thoughts, Positions and Ideas in Higher Education Is Unethical and Unconstitutional….But Is Cultural and Values Surrender the Only Alternative?

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

Greg Lukianoff is the president and chief executive of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which has taken over the non-partisan role of First Amendment protector that the ACLU abandoned over a decade ago. In an essay for the New York Times titled, “This Is No Way to Run a University” (gift link), he easily smashes some low hanging conservative fruit: Texas A&M University introducing policy changes aimed at a sweeping review of course materials aimed at purging state disapproved assertions about about race and gender ( according to a bill passed last spring by the Texas Legislature) from woke curricula.

The bill is almost certainly unconstitutional as state forbidden speech. Lukianoff highlights the fact that the law was interpreted at Texas A&M as mandating the elimination of some Plato works from a philosophy course on how classical ethical concepts apply to contemporary social problems, including race and gender. That is clearly a ridiculous result. The free speech activist writes in part,

“Texas A&M seems to have concluded that the safest way to handle the ideas contained in a classic text is to bury them. This is no way to run an institution of higher education. University administrators and state lawmakers are saying, in effect, that academic freedom won’t protect you if you teach ideas they don’t like. Never mind that decades ago, the Supreme Court described classrooms as the very embodiment of the “marketplace of ideas”: “Our nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us, and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom…Within the Texas Tech University system, which has more than 60,000 students, a Dec. 1 memo warned faculty members not to “promote or otherwise inculcate” certain specific viewpoints about race and sex in the classroom. These include concepts like “One race or sex is inherently superior to another”; “An individual, by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive”; and “Meritocracy or a strong work ethic are racist, sexist or constructs of oppression.” The point isn’t that these concepts should just be accepted or go unchallenged; it’s that challenging them through a robust give-and-take is what universities are for.”

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Now THAT’S An Unethical Judge!

/ Jack Marshall / 21 Comments

Amy L. Zanelli, an elected Magisterial District Judge in Lehigh County in Pennsylvania, is in a peck of trouble due to some unjudicial conduct that can only be responded to with “What was she thinking?”

For example, when a court employee tried to whisper to her that she had made an erroneous statement in court about a defendant’s sentence, the judge first ignored the staffer, then when the woman tried to get her attention again, exploded with “I am the judge, and you are just a fucking secretary! I will decide and make the determination about what happens in this courtroom!”

Judge Zanelli has habitually used vulgar rhetoric, apparently being especially fond of the word “cuntrageous.”

Classy! The judge also brought into her office a desk calendar that contained explicit sexual messages”evidently intended to be humorous” in the words of the ethics complaint, such as “Bedroom Plants He’ll Have to Slice Through With a Machete If He Wants That Pussy.” This was displayed in the general work area until Judge Zanelli removed it after complaints from her staff.

But here’s my favorite: Zanelli possessed what she termed a “Book of Grudges” in her office, which had the appearance of an ancient leather-bound tome with papyrus pages. The “Book of Grudges” bore an inscription written by the judge which stated, “Upon this day, we shall begin to record within our Book of Grudges.” Zanelli entered notes in her book, like describing a local attorney as “Just a Dick.” The judge encouraged her staff to make additions to the notes in the “Book of Grudges” about other individuals doing business in Zanelli’s court. They declined, though Zanelli placed the “Book of Grudges” in a general work area accessible to all staff for them to add notations to it to it, if they wished.

Eventually she was persuaded to remove it, but judges are not supposed to advertise their “grudges.” Canon 1, Rule 1.2 of the Code of Judicial Ethics states:

“A magisterial district judge shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”

    Judge Zanelli also was routinely late for court, skipped work, often choosing not to preside on Fridays. The whole eye-popping complaint is here.

    A question: Has our judiciary always contained so many unethical, corrupt, biased, incompetent and just plain lousy judges, or is it just because of the internet that this is now so obvious?

    Right Into The Res Ipsa Loquitur Files: The Dumbest Anti-I.C.E. Meme Yet…

    / Jack Marshall / 25 Comments

    What else is there to say?

    A Facebook Communist friend posted that, and I know he believes it. What kind of indoctrination, propaganda, and unethical social bubble makes an intelligent man think that bigoted analysis is true, fair, reasonable or responsible?

    And I guarantee that no one will criticize or argue with that asinine post.

    More Thoughts On “Trump Derangement”

    / Jack Marshall / 19 Comments

    [The Powerline weekly meme collection is especially deft today]

    Again I was preparing a detailed analysis of why I believe Trump Derangement is important as a category, a diagnosis, and an acknowledgement of spreading national psychosis, not as an insult or an ad hominem attack. Again I was derailed by what I laughingly call “life.” But at the risk of piece-mealing a topic that deserves serious focus: I was reminded of the issue when a good friend wrote on Facebook last night to the usual unanimous praise and agreement of the Bubble after another fact-free rant, “If you voted for Trump, de-friend me and fuck yourself!”

    You see, I view that post as signature significance for clinical Trump Derangement. She doesn’t know how many of her friends voted for Trump in 2024, or why, but no matter what her relationship with them may be, however much they may care about her, how many acts of kindness or love they may have blessed her with, regardless of what they have achieved or suffered and who they have helped in the other spheres of their lives, the simple, civic act of voting for the current President of the United States is sufficient justification in her jaundiced eyes to condemn them and demand that they cut themselves out of her life.

    That’s nuts.

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    Random Ethics Notes On “The Big Crazy”

    / Jack Marshall / 19 Comments

    This isn’t a “Morning Ethics Warm-Up.” I am really just trying to keep up: right now I’m going to list quotes, videos and news developments relating to the apparent complete meltdown of the Axis of Unethical Conduct over the reality that President Trump is crushing so many of their schemes, dreams and delusions. The American way, the democratic way (ironically), would be to make fact-based, unemotional arguments, keeping the rhetoric civil, telling the truth, not trying to inflame the passions of the dumb, the illogical and the ignorant, and maybe even avoid saying “fuck” in the process.

    In the intro to todays Friday Open Forum, I mused about designating this chapter of “The Great Stupid,” the social pathogen launched in 2020 with the simultaneous weaponized freakout over the Wuhan virus paired with the cynical and dishonest weaponized hysteria over the death of a single, over-dosing black perp under ambiguous circumstances involving a white cop, as “The Big Crazy.” For now, at least, I’m going to do that.

    I chose that post above by Congresswoman Janelle Bynum (D-OR) to lead off as a perfect example of how Democrats are behaving. (Thanks to Matthew B for the pointer.) Here is a U.S. Congresswoman implying that the President of the United States has ordered law enforcement officials to shoot citizens. Law enforcement is “terrorism.” In past, non-crazy times, a public statement like that would be amply grounds for a bi-partisan Congressional rebuke.

    Meanwhile:

    —In New York City last night, a huge crowd chanted, “Kristi Noem will Hang!” and “Save a life, kill an ICE” as they gather to protest the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Nice. This is a violent party that has lost all ethical bearings.

    —This is the kind of divisiveness and bigotry the DEI and intersectionalism ideology has fertilized. Mamdani’s racist aide is another example. These are not outliers:

    —The lies that are being spread about Rachel Good are audacious, and yet many of my smart (well, they once were) Facebook friends are repeating them as fact. She was just an innocent, apolitical mom picking up her child from school and got caught in an I.C.E. raid! No, in fact Good was “an anti-ICE warrior” and part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota. After she moved to Minneapolis, Good joined “ICE Watch,” a coalition of activists dedicated to disrupting ICE raids in the sanctuary city. Colleagues have told reporters that Good was “trained” in methods of interfering with I.C.E. Ramming agents with cars has been one of the practices of ICE Watch across the country.

    —The NeverTrump conservatives who bloviate at “The Bulwark” apparently have neither shame nor comprehension of the English language. Tim Miller, a Bulwark podcaster and a contributor to MS NOW said that he was “shaken” by the number of people who thought assassination was the appropriate punishment “for not following a masked federal agent’s orders.” Yeah, that’s a fiar characterization of what happened in Minneapolis Rep. Dan Goldman and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani both the shooting “outright murder.” Who would believe any of these people after statements like those?

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    Friday Open Forum, Dedicated To Major Tipton…

    / Jack Marshall / 40 Comments

    Yeah, it’s crazy out there.

    I’m thinking of designating this chapter in The Great Stupid as “The Big Crazy.”

    And one whole side of the political spectrum wants it to be crazy. You can talk about whatever intrigues you here, of course, but I wanted to post this Twitter/”X” statement from “Cynical Publius,” an articulate and clever conservative, which I believe is spot on:

    Dear Democrat ICE Protestors:

    Hi. How have you been? I know we don’t see eye-to-eye on much, but I am hoping you will nevertheless give me 5 minutes of your time, if for no other reason than for your own protection. I am going to speak some hard truths. Please listen. First of all, everything Trump and ICE are doing with illegal aliens is totally legal. They are completely operating within the bounds of federal law. The deportations are legal. The raids are legal. The detentions are legal. Your Democrat leaders know this, and they know it would be politically disastrous to just say “ignore the law.” Instead, they are attempting to delegitimize ICE while skirting around the full legality of what ICE does. To accomplish this, they need to paint ICE as being truly, horrifically evil. Nazi-level evil. They NEED that to be the image the public sees. That’s where you come in. When Democrat politicians, “organizers” and journalists send you out in the street to obstruct ICE operations, they are doing so with the specific and deliberate attempt to create a situation where ICE kills a bunch of seemingly “peaceful” protestors, all for the cameras. They want another Boston Massacre. They want another Tiananmen Square. They want another Kent State. They are desperately hoping for the deaths and injuries of scores of people just like you. THEY WANT YOU TO DIE IN FURTHERANCE OF THE CAUSE. Did you not know that already? Renee Good was a nice start, but she screwed up by hitting the ICE agent with her SUV. What they need is dozens of Renee Goods who—based on what the cameras show and do not show—were murdered in cold blood by ICE. THAT IS THE GOAL OF YOUR LEADERSHIP. Did you realize that people like Tim Walz and Hakeem Jeffries see you as mere cannon fodder in their war on America? Did you know that? It’s not that they specifically want you, John Doe at 123 Main Street, to die, but if you are one of the victims, so be it. All for The Cause. Is this what you signed up for? To be a martyr? If so, good for you. But if not, please consider my words. For your own good.

    Best regards, CP

    Over to you, Clarence…

    Unethical Speech of the Month, and Probably the Year: Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey (D)

    / Jack Marshall / 36 Comments

    Unlike President Trump, DFH and Jacob Frey, I am not going to comment on what really happened that resulted in a “middle-aged white woman” being shot and killed by an I.C.E. officer after she deliberately used her vehicle to impede law enforcement activities. I will comment on Jacob Frey’s inflammatory, irresponsible rant in front of TV cameras, because I heard the whole thing, and was incredulous throughout. Points:

    Interestingly, the New York Times has ignore Frey’s diatribe, and concentrated on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz more measured response. This suggests to me that the Axis believes that Frey went too far, and the less focus on it the better.

    1. If President Trump’s tone and rhetoric were as deliberately provocative on January 6, 2021 as Frey’s were on January 7, 2025, I would have been more inclined to back the special prosecutor’s argument that Trump was trying to start an insurrection.

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