Category Archives: Ethics

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.“

UPDATED: ‘Return to Reason’ One of the Most Popular Columns on WND …

Ethics, Ilana Mercer, IlanaMercer.com, Labor, Reason, South-Africa

My column, Return to Reason, was among the three most popular columns on WND for the month of April. Return to Reason is WND’s longest-standing, exclusive, libertarian weekly column.

I thank my readers for doing their part …

Alexa US Ranking for WND: 423
Alexa World Ranking for WND: 1,832

UPDATE (May 26): A pleasant surprise awaits you, Myron, in the new, improved, softcover edition of The Cannibal,, wherein you are now mentioned.

Anyone who wishes to read this bonus material should petition The Cannibal’s Publisher to supply Amazon with Cannibal copies, via the Amazon-approved channels. This is the very basic commitment of publishing. Without Amazon a work has no life.

Amazon is the lifeblood of any worker-bee writer.

UPDATED: The Law of Rule In The New South Africa

Business, Ethics, Etiquette, Ilana Mercer, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Race, South-Africa

Eugene Girin reviews “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa” at VDARE.COM: “…what rule of law can exist in a country ruled by a party of racially-motivated terrorists whose unofficial anthem is the song ‘Kill the Boer’ and whose current president’s favorite song is ‘Give me my machine gun,” he asks.

MORE.

MAÑANA. I’d like to be able to offer you the softcover copy of The Cannibal. It has been collated and features bonus material. I know I’ve promised courtesy copies to Dr. Victor Niederhoffer and other deserving parties.

The new, softcover issue should be available sometime soon—although do take into account that the Pacific Northwest is not Manhattan. After almost a decade in this region, I can safely say that, with a few treasured exceptions, people outside the Microsoft workforce (who, with Boeing, is the main employer here) have a hard time acting professionally and honorably.

So, all I can say is that the softcover of The Cannibal is coming “Mañana,” Pacific Time.

Or, Inshallah, as we say in the Middle East.

Keep a look out; it’s worth it.

As my tiny, treasured parrot (T. Cup) used to say, “It’s coming.”

UPDATE: The review says the word “whites” a lot. The book doesn’t. As I mentioned in “National Review Eunuchs”:

I cop to Western man’s individualist disdain—could it be his weakness?—for race as an organizing principle. For me, the road to freedom lies in beating back the state, so that individuals may regain freedom of association, dominion over property, the absolute right of self-defense; the right to hire, fire, and, generally, associate at will.

The Cannibal jibes with that sentiment.

UPDATE: This evening, Peter Brimelow emailed to tell me that, following the review on VDARE.COM, The Cannibal shot up to “Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,531 in Books .” Just looked. Many thanks.