“If debates had been forums where legitimate policy differences were explored in a long-form, meaningful way, then I’d probably be frustrated by this chaotic turn. But they weren’t, they sucked, and now they’re (mostly) dead.”

—Reason’s Liz Wolfe reviewing the Haley-DeSantis debate along with Trump’s counter-programming “town hall” on Fox News

She adds elsewhere in her article,

“Has the old-school debate format been broken? In the past, debate stages were crowded, debates were relatively few, and nobody really dared opt out of them—even during primary season. Now, it’s all just chaos… if you didn’t watch any of the debates or counterprogramming, you probably made a good choice.. it’s actually kind of awesome how the pageantry of debates has been cracked open, how more formats than ever before are being experimented with…and how candidates such as Trump are making unconventional campaigning choices—opting out of all primary debates—in lieu of playing the game.”

It’s too bad, but Wolfe is right. From the very beginning, debates have injected random, misleading factors into the election process. For every instance where a debate legitimately illuminated something important about one of the candidates, there have been 20 where they had a disproportionate effect on public opinion. The main problem is that debating skill, or even public speaking skills, are not necessarily markers of leadership competence. Vivek Ramaswamy has been giving a master class on that.

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Social media-user “Casual Thursdays” reported on this story as it unfolded:

Connor Padgett was the name eventually attached to the unforgettable image. It has yet to be explained how or why Padgett got himself wedged into the urn. In her long reign as TV’s top comedienne, Lucille Ball’s writers got her head stuck in a loving cup and her whole body trapped in a suitcase, but never an urn. It is clear, however, that Padgett was not inclined to stay in good humor during his ordeal. Moreover, thanks to the inevitable cell phone video, his humiliation has “gone viral” and will either haunt him until the end of his days, or become a treasured piece of family lore.

He was eventually broken out of his restraints with a hammer. The urn was reputedly worth thousands of dollars, which Connor presumably has to pay to the owner. Some of the social media reactions were clever: “He should have to live his life in there like a hermit crab” was my personal favorite.

But back to ethics: what is the ethical response to Connor? The Golden Rule tells us that we should treat him like we would want to be treated, except that if I did something this stupid, I would be abasing myself mercilessly, particularly after getting the bill.

My verdict is that this is a Nelson:

What do you think?

I’ll be damned if I’ll call them “insurrections.”

1. Free the Peshawar tree! Here is a flagrant example of unethical treatment of vegetation. 125 years ago, an inebriated British officer, James Squid, was staggering toward a tree in Landi Kotal, a town near the Torkhan border of Pakistan. Convinced that it was the tree that was moving rather than him as he tried to lean on it for support, Squid declared the tree under arrest. It was then duly chained to the ground, and the chains remain to this day. This plaque tells the tragic tale:

2. Moving on to humans, Greta Thunberg, who just turned 21 and no longer can claim the credulity of extreme youth to excuse her demagoguery, quietly took down her tweet from 2018 quoting a distinguished scientist’s conclusion that the human race was doomed if global warming wasn’t shut down in five years.

3. Is THIS a frivolous law suit? Jonathan Turley thinks so, but I have my doubts. Frustrated New York City Major Eric Adams, beside himself over his charge actually having to live up to its proud status as a “sanctuary city,” announced this week that he is suing bus companies, seeking $700 million in damages for their carrying illegal immigrants into the Big Apple. Turley reminds us that the Biden Administration is flying the same scofflaws to New York.

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Wait for it…..!

I don’t think that guy is going to get his sentence suspended now…

I’m going to begin this examination of the disgraced ex-Harvard president’s reprehensible op-ed in the Times by arguably “poisoning the well.” I am stating up front that her essay, titled “What Just Happened at Harvard Is Bigger Than Me,” is one of the most self-damning public statements I have ever encountered. Right now I can think of only two examples from the past that even approach it: Richard Nixon’s angry and pitiful “You won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around any more” attack on the press when he lost his 1962 bid to become Governor of California, and Hillary Clinton’s deliberate disinformation in defense of her lying husband, when she told Today’s Matt Lauer in 1998 that the Lewinsky scandal was the fault of a “politically motivated” prosecutor allied with a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” But Gay’s op-ed is worse, far worse, than either of those. Just a few days ago, I felt sorry for Gay: I imagined her stunning fall to feel like Jackie Robinson would have felt if he had become the trailblazing black man who broke through baseball’s apartheid, only bat .176 and field so poorly that the Dodgers shipped him to the low minor leagues. Gay’s op-ed, however, in its attempt to claim victim and martyr status and to refuse to accept personal responsibility, is the equivalent of that alternate-reality Jackie claiming that the umpires, fans and sportswriters conspired against him. It stands as a decisive indictment not just of her own poor character, but of the ideology and the movement she represents. I have no sympathy with her at all, and Harvard’s selection of her is decisively proven irresponsible and incompetent by her own words.

I’m going to go through the entire, ugly thing, making observations as I try to keep my gorge down. Ready or not, here it comes…

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