Valentine’s Day

A Happy Valentine’s Day To All, And To “A Friend,” A Gift!

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

Behold (below) yet another “smoking gun” delineating the bias and lack of objectivity and integrity of the New York Times. The paper is the very model of a modern “dishonest waiter”, for all of its double standards, contradictions and hypocrisy goes one way: to advance progressive agendas and Axis propaganda. See?

Yet for years now, self-banned commenter “A Friend” has comment section-bombed Ethics Alarms with defenses of the New York Times when it is criticized here, usually with posts beginning with “Come on, Jack!” These get sent to EA Spam Hell when they show up as soon as I see them of course, each one putting “A Friend” even deeper on the black list than he already is.

Today, however, to show my love for all of this blog’s readers, even the trolls, deranged and assholes, I will offer a symbolic temporary suspension of “A Friend’s” ban, if he offers a sincere, rational, defense of the Times’ “Nah, There’s No Mainstream Media Bias!” performance in this case.

Can he (or anyone) rebut my conclusion that the Times, forever allying itself with climate change confirmation bias victims, has proven that it will contrive an argument that literally any occurrence, statistics or phenomena is proof of the dire effects of climate change according to “scientists,” which often means to the Axis media of which it is a charter member, “some old guy with a duck on his head holding the Bozo Chair in Chemistry at Itawamba Community College that we found after searching for a week.”?

The offer will stand for 48 hours.

I’m expecting great things.

Friday Forum: Just Don’t Talk About Valentine’s Day, Please…

/ Jack Marshall / 23 Comments

I’m dreading tomorrow. I have a lively, interesting and strange life, but in almost two years since Grace died, I have concluded that 1) I really hate being single, 2) I didn’t tell her how much I loved her enough, 3) I see no possible path to ever having serious female companionship again, and 4) it is amazing that I had the four serious romantic relationships I did have, since all of them were started by the women involved, because in that realm, I am and have always been the ultimate weenie.

The compensating factor is that I have known, admired and loved an amazing group of brilliant, talented, powerful, funny, strong, tough and challenging women over the years—my mother and younger sister qualify—and all of them either married someone else, or scared off men so much that they never married at all.

But enough whining: Last night I was musing about how to find more reliable, non-ideological news aggregators. There may not be any. Ann Althouse likes memeorandum, which I have come to realize is as partisan as the old Drudge Report. Mirabile dictu, I woke up this morning and without even searching for it, stumbled over an article from last spring titled, “10 Great News Aggregator Websites You Should Check Out in 2025.” I use some of them, including #10, which despite its ostentatious leftward bias is great source of marginal news, but I was not aware of many of the others, including The Morning News, #8.

Longtime reader Fred spent a couple years being my ethics story scout, and while many of you regularly send me links and suggested stories (and I am duly grateful), I’ve never felt like I have been close to covering my dauntingly vast (and important) topic since Fred went on other pursuits.

Now please, make some noise. I’ll be listening…

How Do People Get These Crazy Ideas About Right And Wrong?

/ Jack Marshall / 18 Comments

I always review the “Social Qs” advice column on Sundays, and frequently have a disagreement with the advice offered by columnist Philip Gallanes. (He’s pretty good, though.) This time, however, his column bothered me from a different perspective, namely, “What the hell is the matter with these people?” I found Gallanes’ advice reasonable and ethical throughout, but in three of the four letters, the conduct described was so obviously wrong that I found myself once again feeling that my insignificant efforts to try to promote good ethics decision-making skills (a task that takes up about three hours a day, seven days a week, 365 ,  366 this year, days a year—Do NOT tell my business partner!—are an irresponsible waste of time that I will want back when I am dying  of COVID-19.

First, a college freshman wrote that her boyfriend had given her  a 50 dollar gift certificate for Panera on Valentine’s Day. When she told the guy, whom she said was “great,” that his gift was terrible, he replied, “Well, at least I got you a gift.” Continue reading →

Ethics Dunce: Crane Interiors in Woodbury, Tenn.

/ Jack Marshall / 25 Comments

"Hi! I can't answer the phone now, but please leave a message!"

Teresa Danford’s son, Lance Cpl. Mark Rhyne, is deployed in Afghanistan, where he is only able to call home once or twice a month. He has been overseas for seven months. On Valentine’s Day, Teresa, an employee of Crane Interiors in Woodbury, Tennessee, received one of her son’s precious phone calls at her job, on her personal cell phone. She was promptly suspended for three days without pay, for Crane has a no cell phone call policy for employees. Her manager informed her that she would be fired if it ever happened again. Continue reading →