Category Archives: Ethics

‘Flesh-Eating, Zombie Apocalypse’

Ethics, Etiquette, Media, Morality, Pop-Culture, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, The West, The Zeitgeist

The plethora of piss-poor, potty mouthed writers, who’ve attempted unsuccessfully to satirize contemporary cannibalism in the West, attest to what Thomas Fleming diagnoses as,

…partly the fault of a very sick popular culture that dotes on the perverse movies of George Romero, Anne Rice’s novelistic gushings over vampires, and the teen-exploitation books, movies, and TV shows in which ghouls, werewolves, and vampires are basically not bad creatures who just need a little understanding. We are teaching ourselves not just to celebrate evil but to elevate it. Good people trying to muddle through in a difficult world are boring: Evil is way cool.

Of course, I would not use the word “exploitation” to describe the maladies afflicting the Millennials, who’ve been allowed by errant adults to turn feral.

Millennials are a generation of youngsters that reveres only itself for no good reason. They have been unleashed on America by progressive families and educators (Democrat and Republican alike) who’ve deified their off-putting offspring and charges, and instilled in them a sense of self-worth disproportionate to their actual worth.

One can disagree with Dr. Fleming on this or the other point or perspective. But his erudite, highly intelligent and cultured perspective in “Eating People is Wrong”—whereby he eviscerates the smarmy “Amateur philosophers and pop culture critics,” who rushed “to ascend their cracker barrels and deliver their explanations for the hysteria”—strikes the right tone, avoiding stupid spoofs on the one hand, or platonic theorizing on the other.

The Pain In Bain

Business, Capitalism, Critique, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Ethics, Fascism, Free Markets, Hillary Clinton

According to Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, a defense of “Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s former firm,” and “the paragon of capitalist evil,” must be rooted entirely in corrupt self-interest. So there’s not even a smidgen of truth in Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s condemnation of the Obama campaign’s attacks on Bain? How about the other two prominent Democrats to defend Romney and his work? (Read on.)

“Booker went on Meet the Press and angered hordes of Democrats when he condemned the Obama campaign’s attacks on Bain as ‘nauseating,’ equating the anti-Bain messaging to the GOP’s sleazy use of Jeremiah Wright, and then demanding: ‘stop the attacks on private equity’ (in response to the backlash, Booker then released a hostage-like video recanting his criticisms and pledging his loyalty to President Obama).”

Without explaining the mechanism by which the private equity firm achieved this feat, Greenwald asserts further that the likes of Bain Capital are “destroying the middle class in order to enrich greedy vulture oligarchs.” AND, “We also all know that the Democratic Party is the defender of the middle class and the bold adversary of corporate pillaging.”

Do we?

DITTO Deval Patrick. HuffPo uses the same “reasoning”—“a history of ethically questionable connections to financial firms”—to condemn the Massachusetts governor for his defense of the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney [05/31/2012] … during TV appearances.”

“The Democratic politician was supposed to be serving as a surrogate for President Barack Obama. Patrick, who has a history of ethically questionable connections to financial firms, applauded Boston-based Bain Capital, implicitly criticizing the Obama campaign’s attacks on Romney’s record at the private equity firm.”

Patrick is the second Obama surrogate with strong ties to the financial industry to defend Bain, following in the footsteps of Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, who ignited a week of outrage from Democratic Party strategists for describing the Obama campaign’s slams against Romney’s Bain work as “nauseating.”

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE. One other major Democrat has defended Romney and his job record. “This is good work.” “I don’t think we ought to get in a position where we say this is bad work,” said Bill Clinton.

The DC Decoder’s correspondent floats yet another crazy ad hominem: “Bill may be intentionally sabotaging President Obama in order to set Hillary up for a run in 2016,” which, to her credit, she doesn’t quite buy.

Others suggest the former president simply misspoke. But we don’t buy that either.
Here’s the thing: Clinton’s comments weren’t just “off message.” They were a declaration of war on the message. They underscore a fundamental split within the Democratic Party that’s less about Romney’s record at Bain than it is about whether the party as a whole is perceived as a friend or foe of Wall Street and the world of business and high finance.

Worse Than Watergate?

Barack Obama, Crime, Democrats, Ethics, Government, Religion

As has transpired from the interview Fox News’ Sean Hannity conducted with Ed Klein, the author of “The Amateur: Barack Obama In The White House,” Reverend Jeremiah Wright had “told Klein that Erik Whitaker, a long time friend of Obama, sent an email to him asking him [Wright] not to preach until after the November [2008] elections, and that Whitaker, through another member of the Church, offered $150,000 in hush money. [To whom?] Klein told Sean about other bombshells including how Obama apparently begged Wright to attend a secret meeting with him and the lengths to go to trying to keep it a secret.”

The malfunctioning mass media has been less than diligent in exploring and verifying this story. There are no words to describe this dereliction of journalistic duty.

The appropriate parallel?

Dan Rather was right to expose President George W. Bush, who “thanks to his family’s high-level connections, was given preferable treatment in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and then ditched his duties entirely.”

The media burying the Klein story is akin to Rather failing to give us the goods on Bush, the no-goodnik. Or worse: imagine that Watergate had been covered-up or covered partially? (Once a writer for the far left HuffPo, Edward Klein’s last post there is dated October 12, 2010.)

The New York Times’ JANET MASLIN dismisses The Amateur, saying that “Mr. Klein has no capacity for explaining specifics.”

Certain evidence [or hearsay cited] was witnessed, says Maslin, by “a toy poodle, and Seamus, a chocolate lab and ‘a few old friends.’” This is a “skimpy, bitter book … more interested in combining anti-Obama bumper-sticker phrases with very energetic branding,” she claims.

I haven’t read the The Amateur. I’m put off by a Sean-Hannity approved author, who’s known for “a string of maudlin books” about the Kennedy family. But let’s see a discussion (and refutation, if need be) of the alleged bribe, especially, in mainstream.

Obama proxies attempting, allegedly, to buy the president’s one-time minister’s silence: Is this not worthy of an honest, media investigation?

UPDATED: Blame The Beast (DC) For Big Business’ Moral Bankruptcy

Business, Capitalism, Ethics, Free Markets, Government, Morality

Myron Pauli sends along an interesting series of Venn diagrams, reflecting the intersection between The DC Beast and Big Business, and purporting to “show how corrupted American ‘democracy’ really is.”

Registering his disgust, Myron writes this (with his usual flare):

“While the American Booboisie gets distracted with this ‘election,’ where the grandson of a polygamist
debates the son of a polygamist on ‘gay marriage,’ as the Welfare-Warfare-Deficit-Jail State
goes on – 800,000 arrested for marijuana last year – hundreds wounded or maimed in Afpakistan,
trillions of new debt and malinvestment, television cameras proliferating everywhere to catch
American citizens (e.g. ‘criminals’) violating an ever increasing list of ‘crimes’ ….”

Agreed, except that companies don’t have much option. Without buying and paying for a plant to do their bidding within the State apparatus, they are doomed to be investigated and prosecuted non-stop by the government’s alphabet soup of regulatory agencies; the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, on and on. Business gets dragged into court every other day and sued. By necessity, entire departments and budgets within corporate America are given over to lobbying and pacifying The Beast.

“When Bill Gates neglected to schmooze Washington, Joe Klein, the Justice Department’s top dog, picked up the scent and gave chase. The lesson being that if he wants to survive, the entrepreneur must also pay protection money to his political masters.” (“CONGRESSIONAL CHURLS TROLL FOR VOTES”)

Our “overlords who art in DC” “are the ones who force the entrepreneur to replace viable, voluntary trades and transactions with bureaucratic, politicized decision making. Rather than concentrate on satisfying consumers, proprietors must divert resources from innovation and production into getting around the bureaucrat’s tax and regulatory laws.”

“Unlike government (and CNN’s Anderson Cooper), you can keep private enterprise honest. Business aims to please its constituents, the consumers. …”

Downsize the state, strip it of its police-state powers—and business will shape-up. Capitalism is moral if practiced. We do no longer practice it.

UPDATE: Yes, Myron, why can’t I get this URL to work? I found another valid hyperlink for “18 Venn diagrams showing how corrupted American ‘democracy’ really is.“