Hypocrisy Watch category archive

In the Guardian, George Monbiot considers how the rich conclude that wealth equals virtue:

If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy.

Click to read the rest.

Annette John-Hall considers wingnut reaction to a black talk radio jock’s statement that black folks should support President Obama because he’s black.

Aside: I’m old enough to remember white folks saying that white folks should support George Wallace because he was white and right (wing, that is).

Here’s a snippet from the article:

Is this call to blackness that Joyner espouses some kind of diabolical plot, some secret code intended to erase the post-racial nirvana some think we achieved with the election of a black president?

I could almost see Jason Johnson, professor of political science at Hiram College in Ohio, rolling his eyes.

“Identity politics is only a problem when minorities do it. Whites do it all the time,” Johnson argues.

“It’s absolutely naive to question the unified behavior of a minority group, given the fact that [historically] the majority has always been unified in their oppression.”

He’s got a point there. I guess there’s a reason it took us so long to get to our first black president.

Read the whole thing.

Underneath all the guff, the reality that apologists for the Confederacy refuse to face (or wish to conceal–depending on the apologist) is that slavery was ultimately about trading persons as in the markets and then using them, like draft animals:

One hundred and fifty years after the start of the nation’s bloodiest war, the audience sat rapt as a professor displayed a screen image of a single page in a slaveowner’s account book that showed slavery was today’s equivalent of a $100 million-a-year business.

Bob Molinaro, discussing rumors of another college conference reshuffle in my local rag:

. . . yet another reminder that television and boosters – not administrators – call the shots at the top of the football food chain.

(snip)

As you may have noticed, tradition in college sports doesn’t exist anymore. Unless you’re talking about the tradition of winking at ethics and decency.

NCAA is holding a retreat to consider ways to fix the cesspool that is big time NCAA athletics.

The Boston Globe has an excellent editorial on this. Here’s a bit:

The meeting comes in the wake of a torturous spring of embarrassments for collegiate sports. They include the NCAA’s stripping the University of Southern California of its 2004-2005 football title because of illegal payments to running back Reggie Bush, the resignation of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel after players got illegal gifts from the owner of a local tattoo parlor, the suspension of University of Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun for recruiting violations, and an ongoing investigation of the University of Tennessee’s football and basketball programs.

My guess is that they will be more concerned with whitewash than with deep cleaning.

I’ve lost interest in college sports. The parade of cheating–in the front offices, not on the fields–the exploitation of the players, and the sell outs to the media have done me in.

I’ll watch the bowl games on New Year’s Day, but that’s about it.

At Tampa Bay dot com, columnist Don Wright has prepared a medley of politicians’ apologies for bad behavior, complete with footnotes.

It is most delightful how they all flow together into one mind-numbing procession of puerile phrase-mongering.

No excerpt. Just hop over there and have a look.

Keeping the privileged from hiding their dirty linen in the UK.

I have to say that twits might have actually found a positive use for twitting.

The child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is in the news again. This time, the statute of limitations has not expired and there have been arrests, including the arrest of a church official in charge of overseeing priests for endangering children.

I tend to avoid discussing this; I’ve known enough good, dedicated priests, priests who work hard to do right and to do the right things that I do not wish to see them wounded more than they already have been by the actions of their management.

For it has ultimately a management problem. Weakness amongst clergy of all religions and persuasions is not uncommon. The crime was the cover-up.

In this situation, the cover-up was truly worse than the crimes, for the cover-up protected abusers so that they could continue to abuse.

Nevertheless, in the face of this, in which an honest man is punished for honesty, . . .

In a move that infuriated some students, Chestnut Hill College abruptly terminated the teaching contract of an adjunct professor, saying his 15-year relationship with another man defied Roman Catholic Church teachings.

(snip)

On Friday, though, the college issued a statement accusing him not only of being gay, which it called contrary to traditional Catholic doctrine, but also of misrepresenting before he was hired that he was a member of an independent branch of Catholicism.

He denied both accusations Saturday, saying he never hid his sexuality or his affiliation with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of the Americas from school officials.

The college recruited him, not the other way around, he said. In a meeting with officials, he recalled asking: “You know I’m not a Roman Catholic priest, right?“

. . . it is difficult to think that the American Catholic Church–the management, not the persons on the ground trying to do right–has become little more than RICO in robes.

Afterthought:

Ronnie Polaneczky addressed the firing of the professor, Father Jim St. George, in her column yesterday.

Bob Cesca highlights the Department of Inconsistency, Double Standards Division, as regards a warning about a video game.

(Link fixed.)

The worst aspect of priestly abuse amongst the Catholic priesthood was not the abuse. It was bad and worse, but not worst.

You will find sickos in every profession, though they are more noticeable when their career choice entails publicly scolding others for their behavior.

The worst aspect was that management not only failed to stop it, but also covered it up for decades.

Now a jury has hit management where it hurts: in the budget:

A jury awarded abuse survivor John Vai $30 million in damages for the childhood sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of defrocked priest Francis DeLuca today, and found that St. Elizabeth’s Parish was grossly negligent in its failure to supervise DeLuca in the late 1960s, and should pay at least $3 million of that damage award.

Sometimes, eventually is a long, long time, but eventually it arrives.

Wasserman:

Read this. It is too good to excerpt.

More here. Listen to the interview at the link or read the transcript, if you do nothing else.

Blue Cross used to be non-profit. Now it is non-principled:

After months of fierce insurance industry opposition to the bill, Blue Cross is working secretively with conservative front group American Legislative Exchange Council to use the issue of states’ rights as a pretext to declaring health reform unconstitutional.

The next step, of course, will be to close the public schools hospitals rather than admit darkies non-rich patients.

In a follow-up story, the local rag quotes the emails exchanged amongst members of the Huntington Valley Swim Club.

All those code words really aren’t very pretty.

Aside: Persons don’t get up in the morning and say to themselves, “Oh, gee, I think I’m going to do something hypocritical today.”

They are often not even aware of the contrast between their stated beliefs and their actions.

That’s one thing that differentiates them from frauds.

Think about it.

The “but” is almost always followed by a list of why whatever is being discussed is actually completely impossible and just can’t be done.

And “I am not racist, but . . .” means–well, if race were not at least part of the equation, it wouldn’t get mentioned, now, would it?

“The racial animus . . . and the racially coded comments” by club members at the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley (Pennsylvania–ed.) were the reasons the club revoked Creative Steps Inc.’s contract, according to a 33-page report by the Human Relations Commission that was released last night by an attorney for four of the campers.

The members and the management of the swim club have denied from the beginning any racial basis. And I suspect they deny with sincerity. This racism stuff can go so deep that we may not even recognize it in ourselves when it’s in play.

Heck, when I was growing up in Jim Crow Virginia, I didn’t realize I was part of a social system founded on racism. It was just Our Way of Life(TM). And I will never be so arrogant as to claim that I have expunged all the vestiges of that upbringing–and I’m pretty good at arrogant. (Perhaps that’s why this issue is one of my hot buttons.)

We can lie about our motives, even to ourselves. But our behavior calls us out.

Read more »

I gather that O’Reilly (not Tim; the dumb one, Bill) has been trying, but no one’s noticed this year.

Anyhoo, here’s a fascinating history of what we think of as our Christmas traditions.

As a trained historian–and as someone who has ploughed through the Bible about five times–I can say that both the Biblical and historical information appears to be pretty much accurate, though I’m not qualified to comment on the finer points of, say, the history of St. Boniface, and I’m too lazy to do any research today.

Warning: In addition to the history, there’s also polemic. It’s really good polemic and I agree with much of it. That should give you a hint as to who might find it distasteful.

From your friendly local Bush Administration. You know, the folks who gave you poisonous FEMA trailers.

Cassaday said he later observed his colleagues returning to KBR’s camp with equipment they had stolen from the U.S. military, including refrigerators, artillery round detonators, two rocket launchers, and about 800 rounds of small arms ammunition. After he informed the KBR camp manager of the thefts, Marines searched the camp with dogs to recover the stolen property. For his trouble, Cassaday said, KBR security officers jailed him in his tent for two days. He then spent another four days in “protective custody” before being transferred, against his will, to work in a laundry.

The practice of stealing equipment and supplies destined for the U.S. military was so pervasive that KBR employees invented a slang term to describe it: “drug deals.” But thefts were not limited to military supplies, said Linda Warren, another former KBR employee who testified at the hearing. Upon her arrival in Baghdad in 2004, she was shocked by the number of contractors involved in criminal activity. “KBR employees who were contracted to perform construction duties inside palaces and municipal buildings were looting,” she said. “Not only were they looting, but they had a system in place to get contraband out of the country so it could be sold on eBay. They stole artwork, rugs, crystal, and even melted down gold to make spurs for cowboy boots.” Like Cassaday, when she complained to her superiors about the thefts, she was punished. She said her vehicle was taken away, her movements were closely monitored, and her access to phones and the Internet were cut off. Eventually, she was transferred out of Baghdad.

Those troops they were stealing from included my son.

Crooks and liars. Them and them what hired them.

Via Harry Shearer.

Gets away with murder.

Again.

Blackwater Worldwide, the security contractor blamed by an angry Iraqi government for the shooting deaths of 17 civilians, is not expected to face criminal charges — all but ensuring the company will keep its multimillion-dollar contract to protect U.S. diplomats.

Natch. They’re Bushie Groupies.

What other outcome could be expected?

Rule of law my ass.

Addendum, 5/10/2008:

Tbogg takes the case.

There’s really nothing to add to this:

When Edward Frawley went to welcome home his 22-year-old son, who was returning from a tour of duty with the 82nd Airborne Division in the mountains of Afghanistan, he was in for a shock.

So, Frawley did what any concerned citizen does — he posted a video on YouTube two weeks ago, containing still photos of moldy ceiling panels, broken toilet seats, backed up sewage water flooding a bathroom, exposed pipes — and demanded that viewers contact their congressmen.

Fortunately, First Son lives off-base.

H/T Linda.