U.S. Society

Sunday Ethics Pick-Up, 3/10/2024: Pre-Oscars Ceremony That I Won’t Be Watching Installment

/ Jack Marshall / 32 Comments

Well, I’ll include one movie-related note. Grace, the late Mrs. Marshall, was amazing in her ability to spot continuity errors in films, and logical gaffes and plot holes annoyed her greatly, even more than they do me. (The “impact tremors” when the T-Rex is approaching in “Jurassic Park” was a particular target of her scorn: water would ripple in the glass, but at the climax of the film the dinosaur somehow creeps up on everybody to surprise the raptors and rescue the heroes. Grace mentioned it every time we saw the film, which was often.) The Times has a feature called “As Oscars approach, an honest look at beloved sports movies’ glaring plot holes.” The holes cited are the kind of things Grace would hate, but these are hardly “beloved sports movies.” In fact, almost all of them stink. Not one comes close to being on my list of the best sports movies (which are all ethics movies too.) You would have to staple my eyelids to my forehead to get me to watch “Happy Gilmore.”

1. Stop making me defend the public school system! On what must have been a slow outrage day, the Daily Caller took after this assignment, allegedly screen-shotted by a 16-year-old student:

Yeah, it looks like a dumb assignment, but absent context and the class work around it, there is no fair way to be sure. But what struck me about the Daily Caller’s critique was this: “If your child is incapable of writing more than 10 or so sentences on World War I, you have failed to educate them. Therefore, you have failed as a parent and you’re continuing to do so if you keep allowing schools to get away with not doing their job — a job you pay them for with your taxes every year.”

The failure of parents to do their duty of educating their kids as well as the deterioration of public education are important issues, but World War I illiteracy isn’t proof of either. I had a very good public school education, and my father was teaching my sister and me history all the time, but The Great War was largely ignored by both. It has always been a black hole of U.S. history along with the War of 1812, for a variety of reasons. There’s a lot more to American history than that remarkably pointless war, and the Revolution, the Civil War and World War II get most of the limited time the schools have to cover conflicts, as they should.

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A Note on Civic Competence, Respect, and Responsibility

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

Sigh.

I’m trying to find out the name of the guy (it is a guy) above, but not too hard, because his name doesn’t really matter. Like a good and concerned citizen, he signed up and testified before the Missouri House against HB1650, a bill that would ban drag shows for audiences of children. The worth of the bill isn’t what I’m interested in right now, nor are the arguments for or against it. My concern is the demeanor of the testifying citizen, who was, I’m sure you will not be shocked to learn, on hand to show his opposition to the bill. As far as that goes, good for him. He is participating in the democratic process. He is civically engaged. I listened to some of his remarks; they seemed sincere, articulate, and thought out, if, in my view, misguided, but again, that’s not the issue.

The issue, an ethics one, is this: what THE HELL did he think he was doing showing up to testify dressed like that?

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Today’s Headlines: Gaslighting, Deceit and Denial

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments


No wonder the American public is confused. The mainstream media, in its opinions,news reporting and features, seems determine to either make Americans dumber or to drive them insane.

This struck me this morning when looking at the first set of headlines—“Top Items”— on Memeorandum, the useful and only slightly biased news aggregation site. I’ll discuss each of them briefly; remember: when I recorded them, the site regarded these as the top stories of the moment, what the public needed to know. Note that none of the “top headlines” included this one, from the Federalist: Exclusive: Liz Cheney, January 6 Committee Suppressed Exonerating Evidence Of Trump’s Push For National Guard…

1. Ross Douthat (New York Times): Why It’s Hard to Explain Joe Biden’s Unpopularity  This one is what initially drew my attention to the seemingly deliberate avoidance of reality in the headlines. It’s not hard at all, and i have to wonder about the acumen or honesty of anyone who would think it is hard. Douthat comes close to explaining how bias has made him stupid when he writes, “Some of this mystification reflects liberal media bias accentuated by contemporary conditions — an unwillingness to look closely at issues like immigration and the border, a hesitation to speak ill of a president who’s the only bulwark against Trumpism.” Some? Douthat works in the New York Times bubble: that must explain his weird puzzlement. Biden was never especially popular as a Senator or Vice-President. He has always had the reputation of being a gaffe-prone boob. His policies have triggered a national debt crisis and massive inflation, especially in consumer items like food. He’s a serial sexual harasser; he has enabled influence peddling by his black sheep son, and lied about it. He chose an incompetent for Vice President, Secretary of Transportation, Press Secretary and more; he is obviously in mental decline. His snap withdrawal from Afghanistan was a debacle; Russia attacked Ukraine on his watch; he’s trying to play both sides against the middle in Gaza. He promised to be a unifying President and gave a speech accusing at least a third of all Americans of being fascists. His Attorney General has used the power of his office to intimidate parents; he has allowed his party to pursue a strategy of using criminal law to eliminate political enemies. His administration’s DEI obsession is deservedly mocked; major cities are experiencing crime waves enhanced by the rhetoric of Biden’s allies. He is not eloquent, comforting or especially leader-like; he is not an orator or particularly likable. The only reason he is President is because he was the least offensive of a terrible group of alternatives to Donald Trump, and his election was still tainted by dubious voting procedures.

The headline is as insulting as one asking, “It’s hard to explain why people don’t like Donald Trump.”

2. Dan Rather / Steady: President Biden Upends the GOP Narrative  Oh, please. I assumed that Biden could struggle through an 80 minute speech using a teleprompter. That he did proved nothing and “upended” no narrative at all. And Biden slurred plenty of words, embarrassed himself when he went off script, lied as usual and seemed hopped up on something. Only a pathetic, partisan has-been like Rather would make such a statement.

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Hack Attack Warning! Pre-State of the Union Address Temperature-Taking: The News Media’s All-in and The Smell of “It Isn’t What It Is” Already Wafts Through the Air

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

I promise I won’t make a habit of this, as tempting as it is going to be. But the Axis (let me know when I don’t have to explain or link to a description of this handy Ethics Alarms term every time I use it) is in full panic, say anything, “AHHHHHHGGGHHHH!!!” mode when it isn’t spouting insulting boilerplate, and I have nobody here right now to rant with (Grace was very, very good at that). So hear we go:

1. Try to catalogue the dishonesty, misdirection and sophistry in that MSNBC discussion among Jenn Pasaki and her team of shameless hacks regarding illegal immigration. It’s a phony issue! If you are concerned about it, you’re a racist! There’s no difference between illegal immigration and legal immigration (the usual trick when progressives riff on this issue.) It’s so hilarious that anyone would be concerned about it! This is a Hanlon’s Law challenge: is it possible that wokeness has made all of these women that stupid, or are they just Goebbels-level evil?

2. I also will try to stop using “hack” so much to describe shameless hacks like the most Unethical Famous Presidential Historian Ever, lapping the Kennedys’ lackey Arthur M. Schlesinger, Michael Beshloss. I wonder how they treat this shill for any and all Democrats at historian conventions. Today he said (on MSNBC, natch, where being a regular “contributor” is signature significance for a h…sorry, a historian with no shame) that “this is a real historical moment” and warned, “We could be a dictatorship next year if Donald Trump is elected and carries through on his threats and carries through on his threats to suspend the Constitution. That’s what’s at stake.” (Pssst! Mister Historian! Donald Trump never “threatened” to suspend the Constitution.) Hey, can I use “asshole”?

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Ethics Observations on Great Britain’s Persecution of Sam Melia

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

But you know and I know an awful lot of people, including elected officials, educators and journalists, who wish this could happen here, will do what they can to see that it does happen here, and regard themselves as enlightened and virtuous for believing this.

[Aside: I first (and last) heard that Mothers of Invention riff when I was a freshman in college. I made me laugh then, and it just made me laugh now. Yes, I am looking for things that will make me laugh.]

Sam Melia is an activist who was recenly sentenced to two years in prison for making and distributing offensive stickers, including thos saying,

  • “It’s OK to be White”
  • “White Lives Matter”
  • “Love your Nation”
  • “Stop Anti-White Rape Gangs”
  • “Stop mass immigration”
  • “Reject white guilt”
  • “They seek conquest, not asylum”

Other stickers are unquestionably racist or anti-Semitic. One asked: “Why are Jews censoring free speech?,” for example. He’s a member of neo-fascist Patriotic Alternative, and is clearly an asshole, distributing printable stickers and encouraged his followers to download them and sick them them up in public places. In January, at Leeds Crown Court, Melia was found guilty of distributing material “intended to stir up racial hatred” and “encouraging racially aggravated criminal damage,” though there was no such damage. Last week he received his sentence of two years in jail, and British progressives are just thrilled about it.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says that when Melia was arrested in April 2021, police “found in his wallet” stickers that expressed “views of a nationalist nature.” When police searched Melia’s home, they “discovered a book by Oswald Mosley” and other evidence “of Melia’s ideology.” Yes, in Great Britain, home of the Magna Carta, Locke and W.S. Gilbert, you can now be imprisoned for what you believe and what opinions you express.

Thanks to the First Amendment, the U.S. has been spared that step into totalitarianism so far, but the double standards applied to the January 6 morons and the George Floyd marauders show that the potential for erosion is strong.

British political writer Brendan O’Neill spends more time explaining what’s wrong with Melia’s persecution than he should have to, but he finishes his critique strongly:

“We need to trust ourselves more to confront hateful thinking and to ensure our communities are safe for everyone, rather than inviting officialdom to restrict and punish ideas we don’t like. Censorship both expands the state’s jurisdiction over the individual’s mind and weakens social solidarity by discouraging the public from directly confronting bigotry in preference for asking the government to cover our eyes and ears. The impact this has on the free society is devastating.

Even some liberal campaigners might feel uncomfortable defending the free-speech rights of a bigot like Melia. They need to get over themselves. As the American essayist HL Mencken said: ‘The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.’

And that is exactly why our aspiring censors—in the Congress, in the White House, in the news media, in universities, in DA offices—need to be stopped now. Immediately. This year.

It’s Good to Know That We Can Depend on Good Ol’ Snopes For Hilarious Pro-Democrat Spin in the Coming Months…

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

My friend Tom left for home today after keeping me sane and helping me cope in the week since Grace died. Now I’ve awakened to an quiet and empty house, more ugly tasks and thoughts to face during the day, and a big confused and needy dog. But I also woke up to Snopes, bless ’em, showing all the shameless depths its fake “fact checking” services will go to try to cover up for Democrats as the election approaches, and it genuinely made me laugh.

You never know where support will come from in such difficult times.

In this post yesterday, Ethics Alarms made the easy call that a high VA official sending out a memo telling its hospitals to remove the iconic Times Square V-J-Day kissing photo demonstrated the warped values and priorities of Joe Biden’s Woke is Everything administration. The uproar over her dumb and dumber memo was such that VA Secretary Denis McDonough immediately stepped in and rescinded it (and you just know he didn’t want to). This was legitimate news and illustrative of a serious problem as well as the cultural stakes at issue in November, but the memo went out to the Axis of Unethical Conduct —“the resistance,” Democrats and the mainstream media, now allied to defeat the Republicans and Trump by any means necessary—that this is just another “Republicans pounce” story if it is anything at all. MSNBC ignored it. CNN pretended it didn’t happen. (Fox News did cover the story, which proves it is just a shill for the GOP, of course: if you know about what the VA did, see, you’re just a Fox News zombie…). The New York Times: “Memo? What memo?” Of the Usual Suspects when the news media is ordered to do a clean-up on Aisle Woke, only The Hill broke the embargo.

Aside: Doesn’t this phenomenon bother you? Shouldn’t it bother everybody? The way the MSM had handled the story is as ominous as the story itself. This is election interference by disinformation, and it is going on right now.)

But that wasn’t enough; the dishonest fact-checkers had to get into the act. Snopes, which Facebook used(maybe it still does) to decide what information to censor, got itself declared an Unethical Website and banned as a source here in 2016 when it spun absurdly for Hillary during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Its effort to do the same for the Biden Administration Ethics Train Wreck is, if anything, even worse:

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In Memory of Grace: “The Amazing Mouthwash Deception: Helping Alcoholics Relapse For Profit”

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

When I last re-posted this early Ethics Alarms entry from 2010, I called it, “Since Ethics Alarms Appears To Be The Only Source Trying To Publicize This Problem, Here, For The Third Time.” Not much has changed since then, except that my wife is dead. Listerine played a major role in killing her: Grace’s last major relapse—she battled alcoholism her entire adult life—occurred right before the pandemic when she impulsively drank down an entire jumbo bottle of the vile stuff and shortly thereafter took a nearly fatal fall off a curb outside our home. She never fully recovered from the effects of that fall, though other, less catastrophic relapses involving the mouthwash occurred at regular intervals.

As I explained in an earlier introduction, the original post “raised an important and shamefully under-reported topic, one that despite my exhortations then has yet to be adequately examined in the media.” In 2016, when I googled various combinations of “mouthwash,” “Listerine,”‘alcoholism,” and “alcoholic,” the first result was still my post. [UPDATE: The Ethics Alarms post is now about 100 deep, behind such links as “Should I switch to alcohol-free mouthwash?” Note that since 2016, Google’s algorithm buries EA in its searches because it is insufficiently in tune with the Axis.]

“Most people who are not afflicted with the disease of alcoholism have no idea that mouthwash is a popular stand-in for liquor, or that is used to deceive family members who think an addict is no longer using or intoxicated,” I wrote in the 2016 intro. First I was prompted to re-post the essay after I had been shocked to hear a physician friend who treated alcoholics plead complete ignorance of the links between mouthwash and alcoholism. The last time, it was the surprising reaction of my own physician, who is usually up-to-date on all medical research, and had treated alcoholism sufferers at the VA. He had never heard anything about the problem.

I’m re-posting this time because of Grace. The quote from my 2016 intro is still valid:

“Despite my frustration that what I regard as a true exposé that should have sparked an equivalent article in a more widely read forum has remained relatively unknown, I am encouraged by the effect it has had. Most Ethics Alarms posts have their greatest traffic around the time they are posted, but since 2010, the page views of this article have increased steadily…More importantly, it has drawn comments like this one:

‘Am looking after my twin sister who is a chronic alcoholic. She has been three days sober and then she just walked in and I couldn’t work out what the hell happened. She was in a stupor , but there was no alcohol and I am dispensing the Valium for detox period and she smelt like mint!! Found three bottles of it !!! This is my last big push to help her and she pleaded innocent and no idea it had alcohol in it! Hasn’t had a shower for two days but keeps her mouth fresh and sweet !! Thanks for the information. Much appreciated XXX’

“Most of all, I am revolted that what I increasingly have come to believe is an intentional, profit-motivated deception by manufacturers continues, despite their knowledge that their product is killing alcoholics and destroying families. I know proof would be difficult, but there have been successful class action lawsuits with millions in punitive damage settlements for less despicable conduct. Somewhere, there must be an employee or executive who acknowledges that the makers of mouthwash with alcohol know their product is being swallowed rather than swished, and are happy to profit from it….People are killing themselves right under our noses, and we are being thrown of by the minty smell of their breath.”

Here again is “The Amazing Mouthwash Deception: Helping Alcoholics Relapse For Profit.” Maybe this time it will help someone to avoid Grace’s pain and her ultimate fate.

I’m so, so sorry, my darling, that I couldn’t give you the peace you needed to fight this curse.

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When Ethics Alarms Don’t Ring AND When Bias Makes You Stupid AND When You’re Not Too Bright to Begin With AND You Don’t Know Much About History AND You’re A DEI Hire Who’s Unqualified For Your Position…

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

This…

…triggers you to issue this:

One word: Unbelievable.

My beloved Grace was a World War II history fanatic. She died on the day this spectacularly offensive memo was released. If she had been in perfect health and read the swill above, it very well might have killed her.

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Pondering the Incompetent and Irresponsible Blatherings on “The View”…

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

You might well ask why spending a second of one’s relatively short time on earth considering, much less listening to, the idiotic ladies of ABC’s (that’s Disney, remember: this is something else to blame Disney for) “The View” is anything but self-abuse. I forced myself to watch the outpouring of stupid punditry regarding the SCOTUS decision on the Axis disqualification plot, and have been sitting on a post since because I can’t muster a definitive answer. But right now I need something else to think about before I start another day of trying to put my head, heart, house, business and life back together, so let’s look at this mess, and come back to why at the end.

Easily the most brain-popping comment of the stupidity orgy came from Whoopi, who once was obviously the smartest person on “The View” panel, was when she said the unanimous Court had given Donald Trump “a rubber to put on and walk through the poo.” I’m not sure what that even means, but it’s a disgusting image, and all the ladies nodded with approval. Later she said that in ruling as it did, the current Court resembled “the pro-segregationist Supreme Court I grew up with.”

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The Google AI’s Values and Priorities: Scary (But Funny, I Guess…)

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

The people who set up Google’s artificial intelligence bot “Gemini” had their biases and priorities exposed hilariously (including here) when it was discovered that the freshly-minted AI bot would not create a Causasion image, even going to the extremes of transforming historic white men like George Washington into blacks. Google quickly put out a an “Oopsie!” statement: no big deal here, just a little glitch! and everybody had a good laugh. Except the likelihood is that the event had signature significance. It means that right now, at least, we can’t trust AI, not a little bit. It also means we can’t trust Google, if we were ever foolish enough to do so in the first place.

Astronomer, computer expert, programmer, theoretician and professor Mario Juric announced on Twitter/X:

Sad—I suppose. Scary would be my word. This high-tech monster decides what we read; it also decides how easily people find Ethics Alarms, and my business services in ethics.

Elon Musk posted yesterday,

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