Category Archives: ethics

Voice Mimicry

Posted on by
Reply

Amazon is bragging about a new capability it’s developed for its Alexa service. It’s bad enough that Amazon can eavesdrop on private, often highly personal, conversations through its Alexa device.

Now the device can mimic voices—including those of deceased persons—and Amazon says, with a straight face, that this is so cool.

On the other hand, so much for voice recognition as part of a two- (or more) factor authentication regime.

And, here’s another forger’s tool brought to market.

I suppose this might be an improvement in certain circles….

Airbus Thinks It’s Special

Posted on by
Reply

Or at least, more important than the existence of a nation.

Airbus is pushing against sanctions on Russian titanium sales, amid a flurry of restrictions on the export of other Russian goods ranging from vodka to steel.

After all,

About 65% of Airbus’s titanium supply comes from Russia, according to consulting firm AlixPartners.

Of course, Russia should be let off the hook regarding its naked and barbaric invasion of Ukraine, and Ukraine should be made to pay with its existence for Airbus’ consciously developed business decisions. Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury:

We think sanctioning titanium from Russia would be sanctioning ourselves[.]

And

Russian titanium sales are “one of the few areas of business where it is in the interest of no party to disrupt the current situation,” he told reporters at an aviation gathering in Doha, Qatar.

Because Ukraine and Ukrainians are just bits of trivia and flotsam, not worth the notice. This is in stark contrast with Boeing:

…before the war purchased about one third of its titanium from Russia, said at the onset of the invasion of Ukraine that it would suspend its titanium joint venture in Russia and halt purchases of the metal from there.

It’s true enough that Russia is the second largest producer of titanium in the world (behind the People’s Republic of China). On the other hand, Ukraine is—or was before the barbarian’s invasion—the fifth largest producer of titanium.

However, Russia doesn’t even make the list of the top fourteen nations with titanium reserves.

Pulling Patriotic Products

Posted on by
Reply

Harris Teeter, a supermarket chain, used to sell, among other things, products that were distinctly pro-American—things with slogans like “Give me liberty or give me death” and “America, love it or leave it.”

Then a customer complained about their presence on store shelves—they were insensitive, after all, in light of recent mass shootings. Apparently, being pro-American, being patriotic, is insensitive today. Never mind that slogans like these have been around for decades and all the way back to the runup to our Revolutionary War.

Harris Teeter promptly folded.

Thanks for reaching out. As soon as these items were brought to our attention we put a recall request into place and these items are being removed from all store locations.
We appreciate your concern[.]

Not to be outdone, another person complained to Kroger, a chain of supermarkets and department stores, about the presence on its shelves of coozies with Arms Change, Rights Don’t printed on them. Not to be outdone by Harris Teeter, Kroger promptly folded and pulled the coozies.

Harris Teeter and Kroger may think this is a sound business decision, but it’s likely they’ve badly misread their customer base. In any event, it’s certainly true that the recall is decidedly unpatriotic and amoral.

Maybe it’s time we Americans educated these two store chains about the nature of their customer base by no longer being their customers.

Border Control Failure

Posted on by
Reply

…by our Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden and his pet (Harry Reid’s term) DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:

Lawmakers in Congress are sounding alarm after 15 illegal migrants with suspected terrorists [sic] ties were caught crossing the border in a single month, raising worries that some might eventually reach the stage of launching an attack.

Failure? Customs and Border Protection agents caught them, didn’t they? How is that a failure?

Congressman Andy Biggs (R, AZ) said border agents are increasingly overwhelmed processing the nearly quarter million illegal migrants who are crossing monthly and that means more dangerous players are sneaking across perilously undetected.
“You have probably 80,000 to 100,000 people coming into the country that we don’t interact with, we don’t we see them, we don’t stop them,” Biggs told Just the News.

That’s a rough estimate, to be sure—”don’t see” means don’t see. However, say it’s an overestimate by 100%—that’s still 40,000-50,000 illegal aliens not interacted with at the border, and that’s a large population within which terrorists could be mixed and go undetected and so uncaught. It only took 19 terrorists to perpetrate 9/11. On the other hand, if Biggs’ estimate is an underestimate by half, the number of terrorists getting in could be much larger.

That doesn’t get to the so-called got-aways—illegal aliens spotted crossing our border but who escape capture and succeed in penetrating to our interior and secreting themselves. By Mayorkas’ own April testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee, there were nearly 390,000 got-aways in FY21. In April 2022 alone, there were 58,000 got-aways, nearly double the monthly average of Mayorkas’ FY21 admission. How many of those got-aways are terrorists or have terrorist ties?

Catching 15 potential terrorists out of all of that is no success. Not at all.

Here’s an Idea

Posted on by
Reply

The Biden administration is becoming more open about transporting illegal aliens (which administration personnel and too many in the press cynically call “migrants”) into the interior of our nation.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is drafting plans to drop off migrants in American towns hours past the US-Mexico border, Republican lawmakers say.
The potential policy is one way DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is seeking to ease the influx of migrants to US border towns….

It’s being done behind the backs of the Congressional Representatives in whose districts the “recipient” towns sit and whether or not those towns agree to the moves, too. Congressman August Pfluger (R, TX) formally asked DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about it, saying in part,

San Angelo is a welcoming community, but the locality has not volunteered for this mission, nor are they responsible for the burdens of the border crisis.

Pfluger also noted that he only found out about the DHS plans after local law enforcement in San Angelo informed him. From that, he asked Mayorkas what communities Mayorkas already was targeting with illegal alien transport, what steps he was taking to ensure the illegal aliens being so transported would pose no danger to the victim recipient towns, what procedures Mayorkas was using to

notify and alert local, state, and Congressional leaders that illegal immigrants will be transported to an area….

and

How much notice do you provide these entities before illegal immigrants arrive?

Ease the influx of “migrants:” here’s an idea—work with me on this, it’s apparently a difficult concept for those on the Left and in the present administration—stop letting the illegal aliens in in the first place. Stop them at the border and keep them out. Push Mexico to stop letting them in at the Mexican southern border and detain the illegals as they enter that country.

In short, reimplement the border and immigration policies of the prior administration.