open forums

Let’s Have An Open Forum!

/ Jack Marshall / 68 Comments

I’m about to do my first Zoom ethics seminar, fortunately  with the more than able assistance of Paul Morella, the acclaimed D.C. actor who has been portraying legal icon Clarence Darrow with me in one format or another for 20 years. Still, I’m nervous about it, so I would benefit from knowing that Ethics Alarms is in good hands: yours.

No topics are forbidden, as long as they they relate to ethics. As Jimmy Durante once sang to Bing Crosby, “Sing soft, sing sweet, sing gentle!” I should be back after 9 or so, unless I’m zoomed out.

Emergency Open Forum!

/ Jack Marshall / 124 Comments

 

I just can’t mount the energy or mental acuity to post anything coherent right now, but if I don’t at least open the lines, I may go nuts. I actually just had a WordPress nightmare…I’m serious.

If anyone wants to use this as an opportunity to play “Ask The Ethics Man!,” that might be fun. I think I could respond to direct questions and inquiries I often feature a song called “The Ethics Man” in my musical legal ethics seminars. Sung wittily and well, as always, by my partner Mike Messer, it’s a singalong. There are several versions; I keep updating it. I’m pretty sure you know the Billy Joel classic song it parodies:

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Quick Notes, And An Open Forum

/ Jack Marshall / 54 Comments

Before opening discussion up to the floor (I’ve got a bunch of deadlines to meet today), a couple of brief notes:

  • Ed Whelan nicely shreds a ridiculous letter from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse that I was going to take on myself before I saw his excellent job.
  • Earlier I wrote about the case of Aimee Stephens, now pending in the Supreme Court, whose employer fired her because she was transitioning to female and used the pretense that she was refusing to wear gender-appropriate garb. She just died before any ruling, but I assume this won’t render her case, or the issue, moot.
  • I will be writing about the ethical significance regarding the release of the “unmasking” list as soon as I figure it out. At very least, the list seems to show that several Obama officials, notably Joe Biden, have been lying.

And now, you’re on your own.

A Monstrous Halloween Open Forum, Starting This Evening…

/ Jack Marshall / 68 Comments

I am about to drive to New Jersey, where master singer/musician Mike Messer will assist me in presenting a special Halloween edition of “Ethics Rock Extreme,” our classic rock legal ethics seminar.  The three hour extravaganza will end around noon, whereupon my wife and I will commence the four+ hour trip back to Alexandria. I can’t promise that I’ll get a post or two up when I return, and I don’t want anyone thinking I’m dead if I don’t (liek last time), so here’s an open forum for Ethics Alarms readers to sound off and go crazy.

Ethically crazy, of course.

Open Forum, And An Idea….

/ Jack Marshall / 147 Comments

I’m traveling again today, so once more I’m asking readers to keep the ethics fires burning by taking over the blog and engaging with each other on whatever ethics-related issues and current events that come to mind. Several blogs I frequent do this regularly, and in most cases the exercise has  devolved into nonsense or worse in short order. Nothing like that has happened here, and it is a credit to the quality of active participants here that I’ve never seen any hint of that.

If I were on the open forum today, I’d probably want to discuss Bernie’s heart procedure (reminding us that 70-plus-year old Presidential candidates may not be responsible); the statement by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez that “billionaires should not exist”—nah, she’s not a Communist!—and the not-so-surprisng news that Rep. Schiff coordinated with the whistleblower before his complaint was filed.

But that’s just me.

That does lead me to my idea, however. For an Ethics Alarms project, I would like to launch a separate website dedicated to presenting all of the relevant news, evidence and commentary regarding the Democratic Party/ “resistance” impeachment efforts. This would be a non-partisan site where citizens could be informed regarding this fiasco without news media spin and hype. I can’t do this alone, however, so a condition precedent to going forward will be finding two or more partners to assist with the site.

If you are interested, please contact me off site at jamproethics@verizon.net.

 

Open Forum, Or “I Guess I Picked The Wrong Time To Start Driving All Over Virginia!”

/ Jack Marshall / 93 Comments

Today’s legal ethics smackdown in Richmond went swimmingly, but I only got home in time to change clothes and head off to the site of tomorrow’s repeat performance. I actually started a post about the unfolding New York Times smear fiasco (and the astounding number of pundits and pols who are trying to spin it away from the only possible and fair conclusion), but I just couldn’t get it done.

I’ll be back in the blog saddle til late tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am once again turning the keys over to you, dear readers. You haven’t let Ethics Alarms, or me, or ethics, down yet.

Go to it.