Actor James Woods, who mastered the art of playing slimy yet somehow charming villains and assholes before Jon Voight gave him solid competition for seven years on Showtime’s “Ray Donovan,” has been more or less blacklisted in Hollywood for his non-conforming conservative perspective and his lack of shyness about expressing them. He appears to tweet all day now, and “X” has become his podium. The exchange above doesn’t exactly qualify Woods for Ethics Hero status, but it was refreshing and deft nonetheless.

1. Speaking of the national scourge of DEI that has inflicted Claudine Gay, inept White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, incompetent DOT Secretary Pete Buttigeig, lying DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Vice-President Kamala Harris and so, so many more unqualified officials in important jobs on the nation, the New York Times readers gave the fading “Grey Lady” a jolt by reacting to “‘America Is Under Attack’: Inside the Anti-D.E.I. Crusade” by Nicholas Confessore with a mass Bronx cheer. The first five comments rated most highly:

• “The New York Times presents this piece as some kind of Pentagon Papers-esque exposé. But I guarantee you that a majority of Americans – including probably most Democrats — believe that DEI/Anti Racism went too far post George Floyd and we need to get back to aiming for a color blind society.”

• “I don’t agree on much with Elise Stefanik, but she is right about DEI. When a movement requires zealous adherence, will abide no decent, and actively persecuted dissenters, then that movement is an enemy of free speech and the active exchange of ideas, whether it comes from the right or the left.”

• “This article makes the same assumption that the DEI movement does: opposing any aspect of the DEI program is an opposition to diversity and thus is racist itself. Why cant it be okay to think that the DEI program is the wrong approach to achieving diversity?”
• “Getting rid of these DEI programs would be good for the US. We should get back to trying to be a meritocracy. Choose the best candidates, not the most diverse ones.” 
• “This article attempts to discredit the view that DEI has gone too far by linking this view to politicians most readers will find distasteful. Yet the article avoids any discussion, analysis or statistics about the underlying question. It is undeniable that higher education is staffed by teachers and administrators that are far more progressive than the U.S. as a whole, that college courses are heavily tilted toward the progressive narrative, that administrators (including ‘the college presidents’) selectively protect free speech depending on the message, and that applicants’ race has been the determining factor for many students at elite universities. Many Americans think this progressive bias is wrong. The fact some unsavory characters may agree doesn’t negate the point.”

There is hope! (Pointer: Ann Althouse)

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Let me begin this frustrating post this way: I can’t locate the damn things. Allegedly, Rasmussen, the conservative-leaning polling organization, has conducted two separate surveys of the attitudes of 1,000 “members of the elites.” “The Elites” is a buzzword on the Right like “the walking dead”: Laura Ingraham, for one, uses the term constantly. These surveys, as I will show in a minute, apparently show that a small cabal of leftist, fascist lunatics with disproportionate power and influence in the U.S. have frightening beliefs and objectives. They also define “elites”: Americans having at least one postgraduate degree, household annual income of more than $150,000, and a residence in a zip code with more than 10,000 people per square mile. We are told this is approximately 1% of the total U.S. population. The results of the survey has been written about in alarming terms by the likes of the Wall Street Journal and Instapundit; it has prompted headlines like on Powerline’s “Are Our Elites Crazy?” post this morning, but nobody (that I can find) is revealing a link. (Powerline: “There is more at the link.” No link!) Since these apocalyptic surveys are purportedly by Rasmussen, I checked the Rasmussen site. No such survey is mentioned. I searched for “elites” on the site. Nada.

I have no idea, kid.

Now here is what various conservative sites are claiming that this mystery survey says: (From Powerline)

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From the New York Sun just now:

The accusation from the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, that the estranged wife of the special prosecutor in her employ with whom she is accused of having an affair is “interfering” in her prosecution of President Trump — and conspiring with one of his co-defendants — promises further chaos for a case that appears to be going off the rails.

Ms. Willis’s accusation comes in an emergency motion for a protective order in the superior court of Cobb County that attempts to quash a subpoena for her testimony in Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade’s divorce proceedings from his wife of 26 years, Joycelyn. Ms. Willis accuses Mrs. Wade of working in concert with one of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman…Now comes Ms. Willis to argue that on January 8, three things happened “contemporaneously” — Mrs. Wade issued her subpoena, Mr. Roman petitioned for the divorce proceeding to be unsealed, and Mr. Roman filed for Ms. Willis to be disqualified. Ms. Willis alleges that all of this suggests coordination between Mrs. Wade and Mr. Roman to undermine Ms. Willis as she prepares for one of the most anticipated trials in American history…Ms. Willis does not deny — or admit — that she and Mr. Wade conducted an affair. Instead, she reasons that “because the parties agree that the marriage is irretrievably broken and the concept of fault is not at issue, there is no information” that she could provide that “might prove relevant to granting or denying the divorce.” She calls her role in the split “irrelevant.” …the district attorney claims Mrs. Wade is motivated by a desire to “harass and damage” Ms. Willis’s professional reputation and is acting in order to “annoy, embarrass, and oppress” her. The district attorney goes further, though, accusing Mrs. Wade of having “conspired” with Mr. Roman by coordinating that the subpoena and the request that the divorce docket be unsealed landed on the docket simultaneously. The implication is that the contents of the docket could be embarrassing to Ms. Willis, as could the testimony that she will be required to deliver should the subpoena stand…

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The Federalist recounts some of the furious reactions when Florida became the 26th state to adopt constitutional carry in July 1, 2023:

“Following mass shootings, DeSantis signs permitless carry bill,” one NBC News headline complained. In the article, the producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show” sneered at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for trading what he dubbed “modest gun safeguards” for an “extreme” and “controversial” law. Forbes [quoted] gun control groups including Giffords claiming the pro-Second Amendment law is “dangerous” and “will drive gun violence up and further jeopardize the safety of our families and communities”…“It is shameful that so soon after another tragic school shooting, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a permitless concealed carry bill behind closed doors, which eliminates the need to get a license to carry a concealed weapon,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote. “This is the opposite of common sense gun safety. The people of Florida — who have paid a steep price for state and Congressional inaction on guns from Parkland to Pulse Nightclub to Pine Hills — deserve better.”

“Common sense gun safety.” That’s another one of those BS tell-tale deceitful phrases—like “gender-affirming care” and “reproductive freedom” that should start your ethics alarms ringing. But I digress..

Well waddya know! Florida’s biggest cities saw a significant decrease in violent crimes, including shootings, in 2023. Murders and homicides fell 6 percent in 2023 from the previous 2022 in Jacksonville. Miami. had 49 homicides in 2022, nut last year only 31, the least ever on record. Miami also experienced a 34% in non-fatal shootings 124 fewer “non-contact” shootings than in 2022.

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“Own up to the fact that, to the best of your knowledge, no significant part of you is Norwegian.”

That was the ultimate advice of Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Times’ ethics advice columnist, to an inquirer who discovered from taking one of those genealogy tests that a Norwegian family he had visited abroad on the assumption that they were relatives weren’t really related to him at all. There was some chicanery around his father’s real progenitor, or something. Prof. Appiah’s questioner wanted to know if he was obligated to tell those nice Norwegians who he enjoyed so much and who were so kind and loving to him that he was mistaken: he had no Viking blood in him at all.

Of course you do, quoth The Ethicist. That was an easy call. How could one reach any other conclusion? Meanwhile, I see no reason to ever take a 23andMe, Ancestry or one of the other tests. I’m perfectly happy with what I know, or think I know, about my genetic history, and it’s not important to me in any event. I’m the same whether I’m related to Agamemnon, Red Cloud, or Jack the Ripper. These tests are a bi-product of the sick and divisive tribal obsession inflicted on the culture by the political Left.

Still, I guess I have to own up to the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, no part of me is Norwegian either.

It sure feels good to finally get that off my chest.