U.S. Society

Justice Alito Responds Predictably and Accurately to the Unethical Plot to Force Him to Recuse From Trump-Related Cases [ Link Fixed]

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

…and pretty much exactly as I would have, touching all the bases Ethics Alarms did in its posts on this epically stupid—but useful!—controversy.

It is stupid for all the reasons Justice Alito (and I mentioned, in the first 5 posts here). Here is the letter.The fact that he even felt he had to rebut two shameless U.S. Senators who went on the record with a “This SCOTUS Justice must recuse because his wife displayed two flags that some people may think show support for the idiots who stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago because some of them carried similar flags” argument so obviously contrived that it makes my teeth hurt is embarrassing, or should be, to Democrats. Unfortunately, at least in the matter of Trump-Derangement, they are immune for such feelings. Anything goes, but wow, was this “anything” ridiculous.

Let’s see, Alito felt he had to point out…

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So It’s Come To This: Baseball Destroys Its Hallowed History and Statistics To Signal Its Abject Wokeness, DEI Complaince and White Guilt

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

How sad. How transparent. How self-destructive.

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that it is now incorporating statistics of the Negro Leagues and the records of more than 2,300 black players who played during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s into its own record books. This, of course, makes no sense at all: it is The Great Stupid at its dumbest. It is the epitome of DEI fiction and manipulating history. And, naturally, when everyone wakes up and realizes how brain-meltingly stupid this was, it cannot be reversed.

Because doing that would be “racist.”

Thus, lo and behold, legendary catcher Josh Gibson (above) becomes Major League Baseball’s career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb’s .367. Gibson’s .466 average for the 1943 Homestead Grays became the season standard, followed by the immortal (I’m kidding) Charlie “Chino” Smith’s .451 for the 1929 New York Lincoln Giants. These averages surpasse the .440 by hit Hugh Duffy for the National League’s Boston team in 1894.

Gibson also becomes the career leader in slugging percentage (.718) and OPS (1.177), moving ahead of Babe Ruth (.690 and 1.164). Gibson’s .974 slugging percentage in 1937 is now the MLB season record, with Barry Bonds’ .863 in 2001 dropping to fifth (that stat is also corrupted, but for a different reason). Bonds now trails legendary (kidding again) Mules Suttles’ .877 in 1926, Gibson’s .871 in 1943 and Smith’s .870 in 1929. Bonds’ prior OPS record of 1.421 in 2004 dropped to third behind Gibson’s 1.474 in 1937 and 1.435 in 1943.

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Ethics Hero: George Mason Prof. Jeremy Mayer [Link Fixed!]

/ Jack Marshall / 23 Comments

This sort of thing shouldn’t warrant an Ethics Hero designation, it really shouldn’t. If substantial numbers of public experts, pundits, opinion-leaders and academics were all open-minded, professional, civil, lacking hubris and arrogance, capable of taking criticism without taking it personally—I could go on—Prof. Mayer’s cordial and collegial visit to Ethics Alarms to continue a discussion I began ( a bit more nastily than I should have, but, sigh, that’s me all over) by criticizing a column he authored for that Weekly Reader of daily newspapers, U.S.A. Today, would have been nothing remarkable.

But most of the people I write about here are not like that, and members of our academic bastions particularly these days are simply not in the mood to do what Prof. Mayer has done this week, engaging in good humored and provocative discussions with members of the EA commentariat on this post. This has been a gift to the readers here, and also shows class, guts, respect, humility and confidence.

I still am convinced that the professor is dead wrong about Biden being able to drop out at this stage and not trigger a catastrophe for his party even worse than what it faces by allowing him to run. In fact, I wish I could think of an amusing wager to make with him: maybe he’ll have some ideas.

And I wonder what he thinks of Monty Python….

Ugh. Say It Ain’t So, Ethics Sage!

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Steven Mintz, Professor Emeritus from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and also known as “The Ethics Sage,” is a serious, thoughtful, aspirational ethics commentator whom I have enjoyed reading for a long time. Thus it is with profound sadness and disappointment that I must report that his perception and objectivity have been corrupted badly, probably, I’m guessing, by living in California and by being stuck in the biased bubble created by his colleagues in academia. That someone like Mintz could be so addled regarding his perceptions is a cautionary tale.

In his most recent post, “The Fallacy of D.E.I.,” Mintz begins with a list of what he says are evidence that “We have lost our moral compass as a society and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.” Here is the list:

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A Quick Note of Interest…

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

Prof. Mayer has responded to my critique of his USA Today Editorial. I was hardly restrained or respectful, but his rebuttal is measured, spirited, and appreciated. How I wish more objects of criticism here would join in the discussion.

This was diabolical of the professor, because now I can’t help liking him.

He concludes by saying “Let the roasting begin!” Don’t let him down, now.

And remember, the topic is ethics.

A Serial Killer’s Mother’s Lament

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

I was watching an old “48 Hours” episode last night about Todd Kohlhepp, a serial killer convicted of murdering seven people in South Carolina between 2003 and 2016. He also kidnapped and raped at least two women and claims to have killed many more. The interesting part of the show was the interview with his 70-year-old mother.

Even though she had been told about her son confessing to committing seven murders, including a mass shooting in a bicycle shop where he wiped out the entire staff, she insisted that her son was misunderstood. “He’s not a monster,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “He’s a good person.”

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American Airlines and the Offensive Defense

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

Oooh, I’ll be using this one in a legal ethics seminar for sure.

A sicko American Airlines flight attendant (Estes Carter Thompson III, above) allegedly hid a camera under the First Class toilet seat and filmed the nether regions of several little girls between the ages of 7 and 14 during a seven-month span last year. One of the victims, aged 14, spotted a phone’s camera flash underneath the toilet seat, which was covered by tape. She took a cell phone photo of it and showed it to her mother. As you might expect, the girls’ parents were perplexed.

A lawsuit ensued by the parents of another victim, age 9. The American Airlines lawyers came up with a true “Hail Mary” defense theory, stating in court filings, “Any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff, Mary Doe, were proximately caused by plaintiff’s own fault and negligence, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”

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‘Why Kerry, It Profit a Kennedy Nothing To Betray a Brother For the Whole World. . . But For Joe Biden?’

/ Jack Marshall / 36 Comments

Kerry Kennedy, one of RFK’s gazillion offspring, is proving that not only does bias make you stupid, bias plus Trump Derangement makes you a lousy sister.

She has allowed herself to be co-opted by the Biden campaign to undermine her own brother’s maverick Presidential run. It is planning on using Kerry Kennedy and other family members to condemn RFK Jr. in swing states if he makes it onto their ballots (despite the DNC’s conscerted efforts to block him. You know: democracy!) “I’ve told the Biden campaign that I’ll campaign wherever they want me to go,” she told the New York Times. For its part, the campaign says, “We’re honored to have the Kennedys’ support, and we look forward to working with them to spread the message on the campaign trail about how the president is carrying on the Kennedy legacy,” in the words of Lauren Hitt, a campaign spokeswoman.

How exactly would Joe Biden carry on “the Kennedy legacy”? Youth and vigah? Dazzling exchanges with reporters? Throbbing charisma? Bedding young women instead of just sniffing them? Exciting oratory? Solidarity with campus protests? Maybe Hitt means the legacy of Joe Kennedy Sr. when he was a doddering fixer for his scandal-addicted sons.

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Ick, Unethical, or Illegal? The Fake Scarlet Johanssen Problem

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

This is one of those relatively rare emerging ethics issues that I’m not foolhardy enough to reach conclusions about right away, because ethics itself is in a state of flux, as is the related law. All I’m going to do now is begin pointing out the problems that are going to have to be solved eventually…or not.

Of course, the problem is technology. As devotees of the uneven Netflix series “Black Mirror” know well, technology opens up as many ethically disturbing unanticipated (or intentional) consequences as it does societal enhancements and benefits. Now we are all facing a really creepy one: the artificial intelligence-driven virtual friend. Or companion. Or lover. Or enemy.

This has been brought into special focus because of an emerging legal controversy. OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, debuted a seductive version of the voice assistant last week that sounds suspiciously like actress Scarlett Johansson. What a coinkydink! The voice, dubbed “Sky” evoked the A.I. assistant with whom the lonely divorcé Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with in the 2013 Spike Jonze movie, “Her,” and that voice was performed by…Scarlett Johansson.

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