Evening Ethics Depression, 11/11/2021: Ozmandias Again.

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

Don Maddox died. He was 98, and the last surviving member of a country music family and band you probably never heard of. Ken Burns told some of the story (above) of The Maddox Brothers and Rose in his fascinating documentary “Country Music.” They were important, they were successful, they were famous, and nobody under–what, 80?—remembers them. These stories fascinate me, and depress me. I’ve got to stop thinking of “Ozmandias“…it’s not healthy…

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Time for Cher…

1. Someone should be fired for this, but the culture at this company has clearly curdled beyond easy fixes. Kyle Rittenhouse, standing trial for his life in his teens, took the stand yesterday (something O.J. wouldn’t do) and told his version of the chaos that ended with him shooting three people and killing two. He broke down sobbing at one point, so whoever is in charge of the Miriam-Webster twitter account quickly issued this:

Tears tweet

Apparently the company wants to project an image of being run and staffed by cruel, biased assholes.

Got it!

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Infrastructure Bill Partisanship, Deception And Ethics

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

infrastructure

Stipulated: the nation really does need to spend a lot of money on infrastructure, and has for decades. The longer the essential repairs and upgrades are kicked down the road, the worse the economy will perform, and the more expensive the eventual bill will be. Yes, during a period of massive inflation caused in great part by an irresponsible Democratic Party spending spree is not the ideal time for trillion buck outlays, but there is no ideal time for trillion buck outlays, and this one is really in that category of things the government has to do.

Only 13 Republicans joined with House Democrats to get the already scaled down bill passed, and those thirteen are being excoriated by conservatives, most Republicans, right-wing blogs and Donald Trump as traitors, dupes and RINO’s. This is because the bill, needed though it is, will supposedly give President Biden a “victory,” and we can’t have that. No, it’s better to have cholera outbreaks and bridges collapsing.

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Ethics Quote Of The Day: Craig Calcaterra

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

Legal-Career-Suicide

I wish I could bring myself to subscribe to Craig’s baseball newsletter, I really do. (If you are vaguely intrigued, you can do so here.)

I used to be something of a web friend of Craig’s in his earlier incarnations, first as a part-time sports pundit who was mainly a lawyer (over at “The Baseball Prospectus,” for whom I eventually contributed baseball ethics essays until I got sick of being treated like an afterthought—an occupational hazard of my field) and later after Craig made the brave choice to ditch law and work as a baseball blogger for NBC Sports. But Craig’s political biases ultimately ruined his commentary for me, despite the fact that when he could keep his knee-jerk wokism out of it (which was and is increasingly rare) he still is among the best, smartest and wittiest analysts of the game I love. (Imagine a sane Keith Olbermann, if you can).

I still get a courtesy free edition of his “Cup of Coffee” substack product once a week, as Craig trolls for subscribers. In today’s edition, he was moved to describe what he learned from Kurt Vonnegut, his favorite novelist. Craig’s full of crap on a lot of topics, but regarding what constitutes an ethical life, this quote is excellent.

Describing the moment when he decided to give up the practice of law, he wrote,

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PEN America’s Ignorant And Sinister Support For School Indoctrination

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

Ink blot

In a new report released Monday, the writers organization PEN America argues that efforts to prevent the teaching of Critical Race Theory and related anti-white, anti-American propaganda to captive public school students constitutes a threat to the free speech and the First Amendment.

Hey, that’s funny! Tell us another, PEN!

The registered 501(c)(3) organization,headquartered in New York City, was founded in 1922. PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 centers worldwide that make up the PEN International network—I guess the latter is how the organization is now supporting Marxism. PEN claims to be devoted to ensuring that “people everywhere” have “the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others.” More than 7,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals are members, according to the group’s website.

Gee, wouldn’t you think out of all those writers, there would be a lawyer around—John Grisham maybe?—, or a law professor, to keep PEN from making a public ass of itself?

“These bills appear designed to chill academic and educational discussions and impose government dictates on teaching and learning,” the report says. “In short: They are educational gag orders. Taken together, the efforts amount to a sweeping crusade for content- and viewpoint-based state censorship.”

I guess we should be happy that PEN has shown its colors, not that anyone who pays attention should be surprised in the least that a group of writers is dominated by the extreme Left when so many institutions that are supposed to be objective have already been poisoned by bias and political motives. “Poisoned PEN!” That has a ring to it, don’t you think?

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Ethics Dunce: Camilla Parker Bowles [Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

Fart manners

This goes right into the “Stop making me defend Joe Biden!” files. And, if I had one, the “Princess Diana was right about Camilla” files.

During the recent virtue-signaling, wasteful gathering in Scotland to discuss climate change, at which, for some reason, the wife of Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles, The Duchess of Cornwall was attending, the President of the United States had occasion to spend a bit of time chatting with the woman who “crowded” Princess Di’s marriage.

And, during this bit of time, Joe Biden emitted an involuntary flatulent outburst. Now, even forgetting for the nonce the fact that Joe is older than dirt, this can happen to anyone in public, and the most basic Golden Rule-based manner of reacting to it is not to. Never elling anyone else, especially the media, about said discharge is even more required by etiquette, empathy, and reciprocity. [ Note of correction: That “not” got dropped in the original version posted last night. Ugh. Sorry.]This is true no matter who the unfortunate farter is, but it is certainly true when the individual is a world leader who must try to maintain an image of strength and dignity.

But what was Camilla’s reaction? The Daily Mail reports that Parker Bowles “hasn’t stopped talking about” Biden’s accident. The fart was, per the Daily Mail’s source, both “long” and “loud,” and also “impossible to ignore.”

This is despicable on her part: unkind, cruel, and a breach of respect and diplomacy. As Danielle Cohen observes over at “The Cut”: “Is there not a “discussing farts” section in the royal etiquette curriculum? I can’t believe Meghan Markle got in trouble for wearing nail polish and Camilla is allowed to do … this.”

Judicial Ethics Villain: Judge Amy Berman Jackson

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

Thoughtcrime

You just can’t do this.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama-appointee, has made her animus against Donald Trump clear for years. She ordered Trump ally Paul Manafort into solitary confinement and was cavalier about law enforcement against Roger Stone. How anyone, including the judge herself, could think it was appropriate for her to preside over the fates of any of the January 6 rioters, is beyond me.

Nonetheless, she did, and is, and just demonstrated what kind of justice any of them can expect.

Michael Sibick is one of the more egregious rioters. He was arrested and charged with assaulting and robbing a Metropolitan Police Department officer of his police badge and radio during the attack on the Capitol, and stands indicted on 10 counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, robbery, and engaging in physical violence on the Capitol grounds. Though most defendants with far more extensive charges are usually granted bail, he has not, and has been incarcerated since March.

Last week, lucky Sibick had his renewed motion for bail considered by Judge Jackson. In a groveling letter to her, he wrote, in a letter to Judge Jackson, Sibick wrote:

“January 6th was a disgrace to our nation that left a scar Trump is ultimately responsible for, but we are strong and we will heal from it.  While many praise Trump, I loathe him.  His words and actions are nefarious causing pain and harm to the world. He is not a leader and should be ostracized from any political future, what he honestly needs to do is go away!”

Gee, Mike, why were you so upset about the election, then? Well, never mind: the whole idea of these prosecutions is to make the idiotic rioters blame Trump, so go ahead. The letter seemed to satisfy Jackson, even though the Biden Department of Justice wants to keep him locked up—domestic terrorist, don’t you know! Still, she had some special conditions if the now fully converted Trump-Hater was going to be able to breath free, even for a little while.

Jackson added conditions to the bail order that to gain release, Sibick had to agree not to watch “any news programs or political programs or talk shows” and not to attend any “political rallies.” Nor can Sibick “use any social media–including, but not limited to, Parler, Gab, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Twitter, SnapChat, TikTok, and any similar platform–on any electronic device (e.g, phone, table, computer, laptop).” By use, I assume that means “read.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution prohibits the government from directly imposing a particular ban on constitutionally protected activities, and the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine means that it cannot ban simply taking in ideas (as in rallies, online or from TV) as a condition of of pre-trial release. Do notice how the first social media platforms Jackson mentions are the conservative ones.

This case would be an ideal one to challenge for an American Civil Liberties Union that, sadly, no longer exists. Once, liberals would find this totalitarian-style restriction on thought as offensive as conservatives. So far, the only pundits I see sounding alarms are the conservatives.

___________________

Pointer: Legal Insurrection

“Rust,” Guns, And The Barn Door Fallacy

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

Barn door

The Barn Door Fallacy drives me crazy, and right now a particularly absurd outbreak of it is underway. The phenomenon, named after the old saw about “locking the barn door after the horse is gone,” is the product of pure emotionalism trumping reality: take extreme measures after a rare and perhaps preventable (though not necessarily) tragedy or accident as if doing so will change the fact that the unfortunate event happened. The “defund the police” madness was an obvious example: see, if there are no police, no police officer will ever unjustly kill an unarmed black man ever again! Problem solved! Brilliant!

These over-reactions are many things, all of them wrong. They are virtue-signalling by public officials who care less about solving a real problem than showing their empathy and outrage at something that “shouldn’t have happened.” They are irresponsible, because they advocate rushing into radical “solutions” to problems that are magnified by the proximity of the tragic event, and because the barn door fallacy advocates usually are insufficiently knowledgeable, often shockingly ignorant, in fact, regarding what they are grandstanding about. Moreover, the nostrums frequently are fueled by logical fallacies and rationalizations, such as “We have to do something!” and “If it saves just one life…!”

Much of the time, measures inspired by the Barn Door Fallacy make many things worse without making anything better. That is the likely result of the current Bran Door Fallacy freakout over the fatal gun accident on the set of “Rust,” in which a prop gun wielded by the movie’s star and producer, Alec Baldwin, fired a bullet that killed one and wounded another.

Now many in the movie industry are demanding that real guns be banned from all movie productions. Dozens of cinematographers have signed a pledge not to work on projects using functional firearms. A state lawmaker in California is drafting legislation that would ban operational firearms from sets.

Now, here’s a quiz: how many deaths from firearms have occurred on movie or TV production sets in the last, say, 50 years? Think about all the hundreds, thousands of gun battles and shootouts you have seen or know about. How many shooting deaths?

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They’re Shocked—SHOCKED!—That Trump Officials Deliberately Violated The Hatch Act

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

Henry Kerner heads the Office of Special Counsel, and his new report following investigations into violations of the 1939 vintage law, known as the Hatch Act, that prohibits Federal employees from using their position to campaign for political candidates fingers thirteen of President Donald Trump’s senior aides, including his son-in-law and his chief of staff. It shows that they blatantly breached the law during the last weeks of the 2020 Presidential campaign, calculating that the Office of Special Counsel would not have time to investigate and issue findings before Election Day.

I’d say that calculation was correct, wouldn’t you? The report has come out more than a year later.

“Senior Trump administration officials chose to use their official authority not for the legitimate functions of the government, but to promote the re-election of President Trump in violation of the law,” the report concluded, adding, “The administration’s willful disregard for the law was especially pernicious considering the timing of when many of these violations took place.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what are you gong to do about it, other than make faces and write mean things? The Hatch Act is a perfect example of the principle that if people can cheat to obtain power or keep power, they will, if they know the penalties will be minimal or less. This is why mail-in ballots corrupt the electoral system, along with other holes in voting integrity. The Hatch Act isn’t enforced, so all administrations allow their officials to violate it. I don’t know if the law is enforceable. It is naive and irresponsible to expect Trump’s aides or any Presidential underlings regardless of party to eschew this unethical practice when they know they can get away with it, and the potential benefits of the violations are significant.

A President has to show that he regards the law as important. I can’t recall any President doing that as long as I’ve followed politics.

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There Is Hope: They Stopped Complaining About The US’s Broken Higher Education System, And Did Something About It…[Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

U of Austin

A group of distinguished scholars, iconoclasts and activists, alarmed “by the illiberalism and censoriousness prevalent in America’s most prestigious universities,”will establish a new university dedicated to free speech.”

It will be called the University of Austin, or UATX. Next summer the project will begin modestly with “Forbidden Courses,” a noncredit program designed to offer a “spirited discussion about the most provocative questions that often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities.” The next phase will be masters programs and if all goes well, undergraduate degrees will follow.

The campus, a real one, not a virtual campus, will be set in the Austin, Texas, area. The new university’s president is Pano Kanelos, the former president of St. John’s College in Annapolis. Several famous dissenters from the current culture of woke conformity and campus censorship that has poisoned the university experience in the U.S. led him to this point. Bari Weiss, the exiled Opinion editor for The New York Times; historian Niall Ferguson of the Hoover Institution; Heather Heying, an evolutionary biologist; Joe Lonsdale, a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm; Lawrence H. Summers, the former Harvard president; Steven Pinker, a Harvard linguist and psychologist; David Mamet, the playwright; and Glenn Loury, an economist at Brown are among those involved.

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Ethics Quiz: Indoctrination On Sesame Street

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

Seseme St Covid

I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming.

Big Bird tweeted a few days ago, “I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy. Ms. Hill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!” Naturally, President Biden, who watches Sesame Street religiously (yes, it’s a cheap shot, but I’m in a bad mood) tweeted back, “Good on ya, @BigBird. Getting vaccinated is the best way to keep your whole neighborhood safe.”

This set off an immediate partisan and ideological debate, with conservative hone-schooling mother, blogger and pundit Bethany Mandel taking a leadership role. She wrote in part,

Just as “Sesame Street” isn’t content with allowing parents the freedom to guide their children’s own moral compass, so too are they uncomfortable with the idea of parents making individual risk assessments for their children’s health and safety. There is a moral absolutism necessary to be part of the left, which is where “Sesame Street’s” writers appear to fall. The messaging on COVID-19 vaccination has become yet another absolutist position. Big Bird’s tweet doesn’t exist just on Twitter. It’s part of a larger campaign from the series to “educate” parents on the vaccine.

Earlier this year, she wrote about the iconic children’s educational show shifting from ABCs and vocabulary into the culture wars:

Those in charge of messaging and programming children’s media have positioned themselves as arbiters of our children’s moral compass. And that Soviet-style demand for a universal, well-curated set of beliefs from a particular coastal lens should concern all parents — not just those with religious or personal beliefs that make them uncomfortable with a particular episode of “Sesame Street” aired during Pride Month.

Parents should take note: The aim of children’s media is no longer just to provide free, education-minded babysitting while you get ready for work.

Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…

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