Category Archives: ethics

Appropriateness of Thuggery

Posted on by
Reply

Here is the core BLM position according to Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York:

If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.

He went on:

I don’t condone nor do I condemn rioting[.]

BLM is indifferent to rioting, at best. Supposedly. Never mind that BLM actively participates in the rioting going on in so many Progressive-Democrat-run cities.

Now we have Progressive-Democratic Party Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris saying

We must always defend peaceful protest and peaceful protesters. We should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence, including the shooter who was arrested for murder. Make no mistake, we will not let these vigilantes and extremists derail the path to justice.

Yet she actively supports violent gangs like BLM.

I actually believe that “Black Lives Matter” has been the most significant agent for change within the criminal justice system[.]

This is what we can expect, even more widely spread, under a Progressive-Democrat, a Biden-Harris, administration that so bluntly supports “peaceful protesters.”

Science Agency and “Diversity”

Posted on by
Reply

Heather Mac Donald wrote about “woke science” in a number of Federal agencies in her Thursday op-ed.

Her thesis centered on the…foolishness…of allegedly science-supporting agencies like NIH, NSF, and CDC diverting taxpayer monies toward efforts at agency diversity for diversity’s sake. For instance,

Earlier this year the NIH announced a new round of “Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research.” Academic science labs could get additional federal money if they hire “diverse” researchers; no mention was made of relevant scientific qualifications.

Mac Donald closed her piece with this:

Mr Trump should order that federal science initiatives return to a color- and sex-blind basis.

Indeed. If NIH, NSF, CDC (et al.) were serious about improving “diversity” (whatever that is), they would devote their diversity efforts and funding to improving the pre-K and K-12 education opportunities for our children, with particular emphasis on those stuck in “underserved communities.”

Absent that, those agencies, diverting themselves from their missions like they are, are wastes of taxpayer money, and they should be disbanded (not merely defunded) and replaced with other, newly constituted agencies whose personnel will be serious about their actual missions.

Irrationality

Posted on by
Reply

Senate Progressive-Democrats are growing increasingly hysterical over the thought of President Donald Trump nominating someone—anyone—to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court and the majority Republican Senate confirming the nominee (never minding that confirmation is far from a done deal). It’s especially overt with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY):

All the rights enshrined in our Constitution that are supposed to be protected by the Supreme Court of the United States. All the rights that could be undone or unwound by a conservative majority on the court.

Never mind that preserving and strengthening these rights are the explicit goals of those 18th Century Liberals who wrote and ratified our Constitution and of today’s Conservatives and conservative Republicans. Never mind that it’s the liberal, living Constitution bloc on the Court and Progressive-Democrats generally who demand to be able to alter that conservative document or to disregard it altogether.

Schumer went on.

By every modicum of decency and honor, Leader McConnell and the Republican majority have no right to fill [the empty seat].

Of course. Because there is no modicum of decency and honor in satisfying a Constitution-originated obligation to fill a Supreme Court seat—or any other vacancy—promptly so the Court—or any other agency—can function at maximum efficiency.

All Schumer—all the Progressive-Democratic Party—have to offer is this sort of wholly illogical, irrational “argument.”

Be very wary of the Supreme Court Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden would construct were he elected and Progressive-Democrats seize the Senate.

Testing Criteria

Posted on by
Reply

The FDA wants to add new Wuhan Virus vaccine testing criteria to emergency use authorization applications—weeks after several pharma companies’ Phase III trials (the last phase requiring substantial data collection before EUA can be requested, the phase whose satisfactory completion is required before general use authorization can be requested) already have begun.

As part of the new guidelines, manufacturers seeking authorization would have to follow trial participants for at least two months after a second vaccine shot.
The new standards would also reportedly ask developers to identify a specific number of severe COVID-19 cases in patients who received a placebo in trials.

These data collection steps would be useful; however, it’s ridiculous to try to make them Critical Items for EUA. The FDA has known the structure of existing tests all along—it approved those tests’ advance into Phase III trials. If the FDA really thought these new “standards” and data collection criteria were important, it would have levied them on the original pharma companies at the time it approved their Phase III trials.

Waiting until this late date to try to add them is suspicious.

Court Packing

Posted on by
Reply

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) was asked, on a conference call involving conference call Wednesday with Senators Tammy Baldwin (D, WI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D, RI), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY)

if they support “stacking the court” in response to the GOP proceeding with the nomination to fill the vacancy.
“I would say we want to take it one step at a time,” Stabenow replied. “We’re focused on what we need to do right now to be able to get [] four Republicans to join us.

That’s a pretty clear indication that Stabenow considers packing the Supreme Court to be a viable step. She and her cohorts’ first step will be to give uppity Republicans a chance to fall in line “voluntarily.”