open forums

Friday Open Forum: 13 Ethics Issues…

/ Jack Marshall / 39 Comments

…or whatever you can come up with.

I have a tough day (and night) ahead with a major deadline looming, an anxious client, and some kind of digestive disruption that has me guzzling Pepto-Bisnol like there’s no tomorrow. I’m counting on the commentariate to keep things ethical and lively around here if I’m unable to add much.

One minor note of interest: apparantly at some point or other, as she’s been boasting about her eventual bust in the Capitol, Kamala Harris slipped up and referred to herself as the first Veep “of color.” This prompted several conservative news sources to bring up a fact check from USA Today in 2021 that pointed out that while Harris was the first female U.S. VP, the first black (sort of) VP, the first VP of “South Asian ancestry,” and the first woman of color to be elected to the office, first U.S. Vice-President “of color” is not on her dance card, that distinction going to this guy…

…Charles Curtis, who was Herbert Hoover’s VP from 1929-1933. His mother was one-quarter Kaw Indian (his father was all-white) making Curtis 12.5% Native American. Blecchh. Who…Cares? By my standards, Curtis isn’t “of-color” but white, and how I long for the day when these kinds of “historic distinctions” end up in history’s metaphorical dustbin where they belong.

Fun Fact: William M. Evarts, Rutherford B. Hayes’ Secretary of State, was the highest ranking U.S. official in history with a third nipple! Okay, I made that up, but that’s about the level of distinction Curtis deserves for having one Native American great-grandparent.

Now I have to get to work, and so do you….

Friday Open Forum: It’s a Marshmallow World!

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

Ironically, the very song that triggered my blue Christmas reflexes as described in last night’s post (I heard it on Sirius-XM’s Christmas Traditions channel, where 99.6% of the artists featured are dead and most of them are dearly missed) became relevant this morning, as we Northern Virginians woke up to a snow-covered landscape and big, fluffy flakes falling. (Climate change, you know!) The song was written in 1949 by Carl Sigman (lyrics) and Peter DeRose (music), and Bing Crosby—of course!—introduced it. Bing’s recording was a hit, but over time it is Dino’s version that has become iconic, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a frivolous song about enjoying snow, and Martin’s inimitable slurry, cheery rendition is perfect for the mood. Another Christmas song in the canon is all Dean’s: he aced “Let it Snow!” as well.

So many of the modern seasonal songs have truly terrible lyrics (and some traditional carols too), but “Marshmallow World” has a lyric for the bridge I regard as excellent, and also ethically inspiring:

Oh, the world is your snowball, see how it grows
That’s how it goes whenever it snows
The world is your snowball just for a song
Get up and roll it along!

Today let the open forum be your snowball, and see how it grows…

Post Thanksgiving Open Forum [Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 29 Comments

I’d be interested in anyone’s anecdotes from yesterday about their confrontations over dinner with family on political matters. At the (fantastic) Shirlington Dog Park in Arlington, VA, I chatted with a freind with whom I have never discussed politics (and never will), who said she was spending the holiday alone because she wasn’t speaking to any of her relatives. They feel, she said with a voice dripping with contempt, that “the public should respect an elected President even if he did probably rape a 14-year-old.” Hey! Look at that beautiful Vizsla!

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Write Your Own Ethics Movie Treatment In Today’s Open Forum!

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

The condign justice article in the New York Times right now is the news about how badly comedies and drama are doing at the movie box office. Good. Hollywood deserves it, and has for a while. The gift link is here, but the article is biased and incompetent. When the Times gets around to theorizing about why this is happening, guess what it omits?

The Wuhan Virus freakout and lockdown, which Hollywood’s wildly woke pals in the news media, the medical profession, the teachers’ unions and in government agencies inflicted on the nation and the culture. Ending the important social binding function of shared audience experiences is just one of the collateral catastrophes the mass, partially politically-motivated fearmongering created.

Continue reading →

Open Forum! Round Three?…

/ Jack Marshall / 50 Comments

After a long period of wan responses to the weekly Ethics Alarms free-for all, the last two installments have been historically lively and erudite. I am hoping for another round of equal quantity and quality.

I would like someone to explain to me the strange phenomenon of the EA collective posts, like this one yesterday combining 6 topics to which I would usually devote full individual posts to, attracting such few comments. It is one of the reasons I suspended the practice of doing one of these every day. I know if the MIA veteran EA commenter Eeyore were still roaming this blog, the photo of Sydney Sweeney in all of her—well, something—would have inspired a reaction, and probably a funny one. (I miss Eeyore.)

Anyway, let’s see if you can keep the streak of superb open forums going….

Open Forum, ‘Cause Ethics Is Goin’ Like a House a’Fire!

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

Sorry, late start today, which is unfortunate, because there are a lot of ethics fires breaking out…

That video above is a Halloween decoration, believe it or not. Amanda Peden and Sam Lee are a South Carolina couple who are obsessive about elaborate Halloween displays. Since 2023 they have been featuring a “burning house” theme complete with rising smoke; it’s completely safe, and their family goes happily about the day while passersby think there is real fire in the neighborhood. Apparently it fools a lot of people and the fire department is now accustomed to getting calls about a house fire. Amazingly, the firer chief says its all in good fun and he doesn’t mind. I almost made this an Ethics Quiz. The article I first read about the extreme “decoration” said that some members of the community think such a display should be illegal. I’m not far from that belief as well, but ultimately it’s art. As long as no one tries to claim it’s a symbol of democracy under Trump, I’ll support the impulse.

Now burn up the internet with your ethics commentary….

Yes, It’s Another Open Forum…

/ Jack Marshall / 30 Comments

The second in three days. I wrestled over whether to skip the regular Friday Forum, having launched an emergency Wednesday forum just days before. I decided to keep on schedule because 1) a lot is happening in the Wonderful World of Ethics right now and 2) the Emergency Forum has amassed a whopping 51 comments, and its my experience that may readers won’t take the time to drill down that deep, though they miss a lot of excellent commentary as a result.

So open forum away, I say with tongue in cheek, since I hate hate hate the current fad of turning nouns into verbs (“Let’s movie!”).

Friday Open Forum, Recovering Edition [Extended]

/ Jack Marshall / 30 Comments

My major theatrical project, in the works for three years, the revue honoring the 50th anniversary of the musical theater organization I inadvertently founded at Georgetown University Law Center, was completed last weekend and judged a success. It is the only student operated theatrical organization at an American graduate school, and alums of the school and the group traveled to D.C. from all over the country to be part of the celebration. If they wanted to be in the show itself, I promised that I would find a way to let them do it, meaning that the production never had a single rehearsal with the entire cast available, a handicap that extended to the individual numbers, some of them quite challenging. Naturally I’m still exhausted, desperately trying to catch up, and now I’m sick. (But the infected leg is much better, thanks.)

At the end of the gala after the final performance, an alumnus of the group who was in several numbers, a lawyer in his 30s whom I had not met before the show, pulled me aside. He pointed out two two young children playing outside in an enclosed area outside the party space, and said, “Those are my kids. My wife and I met during one of the shows here, and it changed every aspect of my life. If you hadn’t started this wonderful organization that kept me sane during law school, my children wouldn’t exist, and I just wanted to say thank you.” Then he shook my hand, gave me a hug, and walked away.

Meanwhile, in the “I’m smart!” Fredo category, I was amused to see that Pajamas Media columnist Stephen Kruiser this morning virtually duplicated my post from last night about Kamala’s book excerpt, not that my analysis took much thought since its conclusions should be obvious. But I was reminded once again about how often the rebuttals from the Trump Deranged when I’m debating with them consist of saying “Oh, you’re just reciting [Fox News/ some other conservative news or opinion source/Trump’s] talking points” when as far as I know they are just echoing my analysis. Kruiser’s Morning Briefing column is often an amusing read, and his link farm is, if single-minded, informative. Here’s a head-exploding story I might have missed: Hizzoner: ‘Law Enforcement Is a Sickness’ In Chicago I Will ‘Eradicate’

ADDED: On the other hand, Ann Althouse beat me to the punch regarding Harris’s fatuous musings on the VP choice that never was, and was spot on.

Enough from me: I have to take some DayQuill and go back to bed….It’s all up to you what this space is covers now, as long as the topic is ethics.

Open Forum, and a Note Having (almost) Nothing to Do With Ethics

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

It’s Friday, time for the last Open Forum of the month, and my infected leg is much better, thanks, so EA should be returning to normal soon.

Probably not quite to normal, because from now until mid-September all of my nights and weekends will be occupied as I return to my theatrical side, in mothballs for a decade, to direct and write a musical revue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Georgetown Law Center Gilbert and Sullivan Society, the only student-run theatrical organization at an grad school in the country. Alums will be flying in from all over; the show itself is going to have a student-alumni cast of more than 70, and it promises to quite an adventure.

I’m overseeing the show because I unwittingly started the tradition with a guerilla production of “Trial by Jury” when I was a first year student, directed the next six yearly shows after that, and have returned to the scene of my former triumphs (that’s a Gilbert quote: which show?) for the 20th, 30th, 40th and now 50th anniversary blow-outs (actually this is the 52nd anniversary because of two postponements.)

That’s a cast photo from the 1977 production of “H.M.S Pinafore” that I directed in GULC’s Hart Moot Courtroom above. (Can you spot me?)

The lesson of this saga is that you never know what the things you do in life will prove to be most significant. That organization has launched successful show business careers, sparked romances, marriages, and lifetime friendships, changed the culture of the school, and made many thousands of people laugh and cheer over the course of over 150 productions including the G&S canon, Broadway musicals, dramas, comedies, Shakespeare, and a production of “Twelve Angry Men” (my first) that is credited with starting the process of turning the classic movie into a successful stage show.

Me, I was just trying to address my boredom with law school and had no idea what I was starting. Yet if I get squished by a piece of space junk tomorrow, I’m pretty sure that theater organization will be my most lasting legacy.

Go figure.

But that’s enough about me. Time to write about ethics…

Open Forum: Normalcy Is Just Around the Corner, I Swear

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

(The first and perhaps the last time I will echo Warren G. Harding…)

I know, I know…for another week, I have failed to get more than two posts (on average) up per day, and even those posts have been shorter and less substantive than usual. A confluence of the many obstacles this persistent infected hematoma in my leg has imposed on my activities and an usually heavy workload in other areas have created the problem, but the leg is getting better….for example, the tips of my toes are no longer purple, and, sitting at my desk just aches rather than causing stabbing pain. Here’s an example of how loused up I am: I haven’t watched an entire Red Sox game in August, something hadn’t happened since I was 10.

Meanwhile, speaking of Boston, when did the city of my birth morph into the Confederacy? Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has been making defiant statements and Bluesky posts (signature significance, by the way) about the city in her charge being “safer” because it refuses to cooperate in enforcing Federal law. Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, vowed to “flood the zone” with federal immigration enforcement in response.

Good. I don’t understand how the sanctuary states and cities can be allowed to get away with this return to the “nullification” movement in the South that was a catalyst to the Civil War. I don’t understand the logic of Wu and other Democratic mayors and governors arguing that impeding the enforcement of laws enhances safety. I don’t understand why the Democrats have lashed themselves to the pro-illegal immigration anchor: how can this possibly help the party regain trust and respectability?

As a footnote, Wu amuses me when she boasts about Boston being the “safest major American city.” All of America’s major cities are unacceptably crime-ridden; all of them are governed by radically progressive and woke Democratic mayors. Saying that one of them is the “safest” is like raving about the best episode of “Three’s Company.”

Well, enough from me. This is your space: use it wisely and well.

Oh! One more thing: today I was offered a contribution from a new commenter that read, “Daha enerjik ve canlı bir masaj deneyimi isteyenler için İzmir masöz kızlar iyi bir tercihtir.” Sadly, I did not deem this worthy of admission to the ranks of privileged commenters.