Today is the anniversary of a regrettable ethics precedent: Walter Mondale chose the forgettable and undistinguished Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running-mate on the 1984 Democratic Presidential ticket to vie against President Reagan in his bid for re-election Literally nothing qualified Ferraro for the position except her lack of a Y chromosome, but that was enough, in the early raisingof the ugly head of “equity, diversity and inclusion,” to justify placing a mediocrity “a heartbeat from the Presidency.” It was historic, you see. Well, at least she was a more responsible choice than Kamala Harris.
I am also reminded (Pointer to JutGory) that on this date in 1979, Major League Baseball had one of its more irresponsible and idiotic episodes. Chicago White Sox executive Mike Veeck, in the spirit of his father Bill Veeck who was best known in baseball lore for sending little person Eddie Gaedel up to the plate in an official game, agreed to schedule “Disco Demolition Night,” in which two Chicago disc jockeys would blow up a pile of disco records on the Comiskey Park field between games of a double header. Fans were urged to bring disco records to add to the pile, but the team never collected the platters as promised. First, members of the 40,000+ crowd began flinging the records like killer Frisbees. Then, after the promised detonation., thousands of the disco-haters rushed onto the field, tearing up the grass, lighting bonfires on the diamond, and generally engaging in what Democrats call “an insurrection.” Efforts to clear the field failed, and the visiting Detroit Tigers were awarded a win over the ChiSox by forfeit.
1. More school ignorance of that First Amendment thingy…The Cherry Creek School District in Denver suspended, then expelled, 15-year-old “C.G.” over a Snapchat post showing him in a Nazi military cap with the caption “Me and the boys bout to exterminate the Jews.” C.G. deleted the post and apologized for it within an hour, but it had already been seen by a classmate and shared with parents, who forwarded it to the Cherry Creek School District, resulting in the discipline. His parents sued. The Snapchat message was sent off campus outside of school hours, did not identify the school or target any student, and was sent on a personal cellphone to a private circle of followers. Nevertheless, federal judge dismissed the case in August 2020, finding the school properly disciplined him. For an obviously facetious social media post. That was none of the school’s business. Appropriately a 10th Circuit panel ruled last week that the suit should go forward after all. “Plaintiff has properly alleged that defendants’ discipline of C.G. for his off-campus speech is a First Amendment violation that cannot be dismissed at this stage,” Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Kelly wrote in a 21-page opinion.
Continue reading →
Ethics Alarms 