Afternoon Ethics Respite, 5/22/2019: The Stupid Edition, With A Poll

Good afternoon, Music Lovers!

[Unrelated to the Stupid theme, but of interest: my mostly Democratic audience for today’s sexual harassment training  had no sympathy whatsoever with Joe Biden’s shameless groping, nor with his party’s hypocrisy in supporting him (so far.) Another interesting exchange—I was ready for the question—was when an attendee asked about “the current occupant in the White House” and his sexual harassing ways. “Has he harassed anyone while President?” I asked. She said, “Not that we know of.” Then I put up one of Uncle Joe’s groping photos. “How can a party that nominated someone who openly harasses women on camera challenge same but speculative conduct by the President?” I asked.

It’s also interesting that the un-American and unfair concept of presumed misconduct has so infected progressive thought where Donald Trump is involved. This was the answer I got repeatedly from one of our Self-Exiled Warriors of the Left before his exit: he knew that the President had colluded with the Russians and stolen the election because that’s just the kind of person he is.

What kind of governments oppress, accuse and punish people based on the kind of person they are?]

Stupid #1. In my back yard of  Richmond, Virginia, a woman left instructions in her will that Emma, a healthy Shih Tzu mix, be put down. The Chesterfield County Animal Services , where Emma was residing, appealed to the executor of the dead woman’s estate. “We did suggest they could sign the dog over on numerous occasions — because it’s a dog we could easily find a home for and re-home,” said Carrie Jones, manager of Chesterfield County Animal Services. Nope. Representatives took Emma in custody to be euthanized. The dog’s remains were cremated, and her ashes were placed in an urn to be returned to the “authorized representative of the estate.

There’s no excuse for this screaming example of human arrogance, narcissism, cruelty and idiocy. As a matter of public policy, testamentary wishes involving the killing of anything  should be declared unenforceable by law.

Trust the humans, Emma: they have decided that you’ll be happier dead.

Stupid #2: Boy, I don’t know if Kamala Harris is beatable in the Ethics Alarms contest to be the worst candidate for the Democratic nomination.

To begin the week,, Harris announced  her plan to close “the gender wage gap in the United States,” which is largely a fake talking point the Democrats have been flogging for decades. Her proposal would require that businesses submit  their payroll to the federal government, and if employees in the same position are not paid the same (absent legitimate reasons like seniority or merit, the company would face fines, including a fine of 1% of the company’s profits for every 1% of a “wage gap” that exists.—after expensive appeals, of course. Good plan!!!

But I digress. After Harris’s announcement,the Washington Free Beacon  investigated her own staff’s salaries and found the the median male salary disbursement was $34,999 and the median female salary was $32,999, a 6% gap.

How smart, responsible and competent would a candidate have to be to make certain that her own staff salaries showed nothing that could even be claimed to be a “gender gap”by grandstanding a proposal like hers?

Not very, but apparently Harris can’t even clear that low bar.

Stupid #3: In New Jersey, Colette Tretola, a Ridgewood High School parent, stood up at this week’s Board of Education meeting and revealed that her child’s teacherhanded out extra credit in exchange for students buying a $20 ticket to a fundraiser. The teacher sent a fundraising announcement to the class and encouraged her students to buy a ticket to the  event, offering extra credit on their grade as an incentive. Students in the class who were queried confirmed the episode. Tretola also said that her had asked the same teacher if she  could do work for the class to get extra credit, but the teacher said she didn’t give extra credit that late in the quarter. “How is it too late on day to do curriculum work for points but the very next day you can buy them?” the parent asked.

Here’s my favorite stupid sentence in the news report, however:

“Tretola is asking the board to create a district policy to ensure students can’t pay to get a better grade.”

Stupid #4: In Torrington, Connecticut, the  police department negotiated a deal with fugitive Jose Simms in which he agreed to surrender if the police Facebook post with his  online wanted poster got 15,000 likes. Lt. Brett Johnson revealed  that Simms had contacted him through Facebook and agreed to turn himself in if the post containing his poster got 20,000 “likes.’ but Johnson was able to talk him down to 15,000.

Whether Simms surrenders or not, Officer Johnson should be suspended and busted down to walking a beat.

Stupid #5: TWO school Stupids out of five! Why am I not surprised?

I was scooped on this one in today’s Open Forum, but it was already on my list…from the Chicago  Chicago Tribune:

“The Oak Park and River Forest High School board has decided to reprint the 2018-2019 yearbook after more than a dozen photos of students engaging in the “circle game” were discovered inside. The high school will pay Jostens $53,794 to reprint the yearbooks… Last week, administrators announced the yearbooks would not be distributed in their current format after officials found 18 photos inside of students making an upside-down “OK” gesture. The school said the students flashing the sign were of “of various races, ethnicities, genders and grades…” The “circle game” hand gesture began as part of a juvenile “made-you-look” game but has been appropriated in recent years by white supremacists.”

Neither the “OK” sign nor the “made you look” game have been “appropriated” by anyone. Trolls and pranksters have exploited the absurd fearmongering and speech policing of the totalitarian Left to prompt organizations and weak-kneed, -spined, and -minded middle managers and bureaucrats to behave like fools, just as the Chicago Cubs did in another recent “OK” episode. Here’s the sad and frightening blather from the School Superintendent Joylynn Pruitt-Adams:

“I want to be clear that we are not making any presumptions about students’ intent in using the gesture. Regardless of intent, however, there is a real and negative impact. Many students, not only our students of color, experience this gesture as a symbol of white supremacy. Potentially subjecting our students to this trauma is simply not acceptable. We are concerned that the gesture will become more closely associated with white supremacy in the future. Publishing the photos in question could not only harm students today but could subject students to potentially a lifetime of questions or penalty from colleges, employers, etc.”


  • So the school will waste over 50 grand to eliminate a sign that they can’t prove means anything at all other than “let’s troll our Dumb Education Masters by panicking them with the “made you look sign.”

Got it, Joylynn. You’re an idiot.

  • Oh, some students “experience” the sign as a a symbol of white supremacy, do they? You mean like some people “experience” a benign red campaign hat as a racist statement justifying their beating up the wearer? Wait—isn’t this a school? Aren’t teachers supposed to teach things, like “Being traumatized by expressions and symbols, shivering in terror over a hand-gesture, and requiring adults to protect you from what you might be thinking no matter how silly, is no way to go through life, son”?

In my graduating year, we were told that political gestures like the peace sign would not be permitted in the yearbook because it was disrespectful to school graduates fighting in Vietnam. I’d  estimate that there were about 50, usually “disguised” by putting the “V” sign—which also could have meant “victory” behind the head of the student next to them. No, they didn’t reprint the books.

  • You are spending 50, 000 today just in case a gesture comes to mean something on the future. You really said that.


  • Has anyone ever, ever, heard of a potential employer investigating a candidate’s high school year book? Here’s a translation of that excuse: “We want our students to be in the best possible position when the nation is in the thrall of Fascist from the Left, who will mete out harsh punishment based on perceived political correctness breaches in high school yearbooks.”

That’s all the stupid I can handle today. Here’s your poll:





26 thoughts on “Afternoon Ethics Respite, 5/22/2019: The Stupid Edition, With A Poll

  1. Let’s see… #2 is Kamala being Kamala being a Leftist Talking Head. #3 is a professional reducing education to whoever has the cash (I wonder if she favors increased taxes earmarked for education so that poor students can “catch” up to the wealthy?), #4 is a professional reducing law enforcement to a popularity contest on social media and #5 probably doesn’t pay any of its teachers an annual salary that amounts to what it wasted on the yearbook reprint.

    But I voted for #1 because it’s a betrayal of man’s best friend, because I would do almost anything to be able to pet my late dog, Lucky, right now and because I truly believe dogs know what’s happening to them on that table at the vet’s place.

    So, call me unobjective here, but killing a devoted living creature because you can’t imagine how they would live life without you is remarkably selfish and cruel. The others are just stupid.

    • Agreed. What’s worse than having to put a pet dog down? Not much I can think of. And yes, they can smell death at any vet’s office. As they got older (twelve and sixteen, respectively) our daschunds would literally shake when they realized the car had stopped in front of the vet’s. The younger one would even shake as soon as I took her out the door when we lived within walking distance of the vet in Amsterdam. It was uncanny. Unbeknownst to us, her kidneys were failing for the last year of her life. Anybody who would put down a healthy, fully adoptable dog is awful in my book. Nearly sociopathic. Stupid is certainly close enough to devoid of empathy.

    • A.M. Golden: “killing a devoted living creature because you can’t imagine how they would live life without you is remarkably selfish.”

      Your comment immediately triggered my recollection of that Futurama episode. If you know Futurama, you know the episode. If you don’t, google “Futurama dog episode” and watch it if you can. It does not have to do with killing a creature because you can’t imagine how they would live life without you, but shows the dog living it’s life without Fry, the central character.

      Then, you will know what people are talking about when they mention “that dog episode.”


  2. I vaguely remember the “OK” sign being originated by R.A.F. pilots in either WW1 or WW2 to indicate that the aircraft was…well…”OK” before taking off. Haven’t actually looked it up.

    • The Ok sign is the internationally recognized symbol for ” no problems” underwater by scuba divers.

    • Actually, It looked this up on Wikipedia… and was stunned to learn that it has been in use for at least several thousand years.

      There are statues of Buddha making the gesture (boy, who knew he was a white supremacist?)

      The Greeks used it as a symbol of affection (are Greeks white? Jack could help out here)

      The Romans used the gesture as we use today, at least as far back as Jesus’ time (To be fair, the Romans made slaves of everybody)

      The English noted the use as far back as 1644

      The gesture is used in Japan, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Turkey, Tunisia, and Kuwait, albeit with different meanings in those places (How can these people be white supremacists?)

      The symbol is used in yoga to denote ‘union of consciousness,’ whatever that means

      Native Americans use the sign (man, those nasty nazis get around!)

      Translation: Progressives are, once again, using bullshit to advance their narrative. Logic, history, rational thought, and consistency have nothing to do with it.

  3. Killing Emma is not stupid it is inhumane. Stupidity can be excused or at least laughed at in most cases but putting an otherwise healthy pet down for your own demands is inhuman. My question is what vet participated in this atrocity.

    If I had been the executor or the vet I would have hidden the dog and given the estate a box of ashes. Screw her and her testamentary wishes. In this case, let ethics be damned if I am wrong.

    • If it’s ethical to tell the Nazis at your door that there aren’t any Jews in the attic, then therefore, et cetera. Cooperation with evil is never moral, and I’d bet it’s not often ethical. One could quibble about the deception regarding the box of ashes, but said one would be an opponent to thwarting evil in favor of accurate bean counting. Such ones deserve the deaf ear we’d give them and probably some derisive name-calling as well. I’ve seen philosophical debates regarding the act of lying to Nazis to save lives, and the moralist nerds who do this for fun have one thing in common: it’s never okay to tell the Nazis the full truth.

      “Mental reservation” is the preferred ideal answer, if anyone’s curious. It requires more interpersonal savvy, though. I wouldn’t try it when human or dog lives are at stake unless I was confident I could succeed.

      Come to think of it, handing over a box of ashes without ever actually saying they belong to the dog in question would qualify…

      • In the story, “The Hiding Place”, Corrie Ten Boom tells the story of her family’s hiding of Jews in Holland during WWII as a conviction of their Christian faith. Her sister had people hiding under the table in her home, with a rug over the trap door.

        When the authorities arrived and demanded to know where the people were, Corrie’s niece – a teenager – laughed and said, “They’re under the table!”. They got mad at her and left.

        And she was telling the truth. 🙂

        • Now, this is the most masterful act of mental reservation of all: to tell the direct truth in such a way as the hearer disbelieves it. When I quibble with moralist nerds again, I’m bringing the big guns.

  4. Typo on “Officer Simms.”

    I give them a pass on this. Attempting to secure a voluntary surrender is safer than trying to apprehend someone by force. Play to the deficiencies (stupidity and vanity in this case) of the suspect, if you need to. This is standard protocol in many ways.

    My region Will have had 2 warrant clearance days in the first half of this year. Great idea! Get people with outstanding warrants to come in voluntarily with the promise that they will get processed and may not get arrested. I think this is mainly for misdemeanors where you have missed a court date, and they would likely not face arrest. Get cases resolved, teduce the number of fugitives, and reduce problems that could result from pursuing someone with outstanding warrants.

    If the idiot says he is willing to turn himself in for likes, he is much more likely to be apprehended peacefully.

    It’s worth a shot.


    • It makes a laughing stock of the police and law enforcement. Reminds me of the Black Mirror episode where kidnappers said they’d release the Princess if the Prime Minister had sex with a pig on live TV. The guy is a punk who skipped bail. He doesn’t deserve any considerations at all.

      • Well it reminds me of the scheme in Sea of Love where they sent people with warrants a notice that they won some prize and just arrested everybody who showed up (but Pacino turned away a guy with a kid, saying, “Catch ya later”).

        Or, the story about the guy who called 911 to complain he had been cheated on his meth deal; they told him to come down and file a complaint, whereupon he was promptly arrested.

        I see your point, Jack. But, on the one hand, apprehensions are dangerous; on the other hand, while I do not like deception and subterfuge, they are prominent tools for law enforcement.

        I would bet that your opinion differs greatly from the law enforcement community.



    I…. think this is all mind-numbingly stupid, but I’m going to play “think like a progressive for a second”.

    Can we name *ANY* other situation where the answer to a perception of cultural appropriation is to remove the culture that’s being appropriated from the people who is was appropriated from? No, really. If white supremacists started wearing dreadlocks, are black people who were so belocked supposed to shave their heads on punishment of a good old fashioned milkshaking? Is the answer to a Polish owned taco stand to burn every Mexican owned restaurant to the ground?

    No… This is manufactured. The left doesn’t care about cultural appropriation. If they did, and they identified this as an issue of appropriation, they would deal with it the same way they do to other forms of appropriation… They would vibrate their way through the floor in righteous anger towards the appropriators, support the appropriatees in the most ham-fisted of ways, and then go home to knit a hat that loosely resembles a vagina.

    But no, they’re not doing that, they’re just yelling at people who are contextually obviously making the OK sign,because progressives don’t really care about appropriation, they care about power, and they think their outrage makes them powerful.


    … and the school has elected to enforce that appropriation, on behalf of the white supremacists? What are they going to do if the next thing they lay claim to is, for example, bread? Or wiping properly?

  7. Has anyone ever, ever, heard of a potential employer investigating a candidate’s high school year book?


    (May God have mercy on our souls)

  8. They all were pretty stupid, but the police thing less so. At least I learned more about a gesture that is not appropriated by white supremacists (see above.)

    The further the left pushes this sort of stupid, the better for the re-election of President Trump and the draining of the swamp.

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