Ebola Czar Hypocrisy

Back in the Bush administration there was a time when avian flu was causing concern. Actually more than concern.

President Bush appointed Stewart Simonson to coordinate monitoring and preparation. He was a lawyer. Democrats criticized the appointment because he was inexperienced in medical response issues. Republicans either supported or kept quiet on the experience issue.

Recently, President Obama appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer, to coordinate monitoring and response to Ebola (Klain is sitting on the couch in the image).   I presume some Republicans are criticizing the Klain appointment and Democrats defending it but I can't find any particular critics or defenders who also had comments in the avian flu situation thus I can't identify any body as specifically hypocritical. However, the if time goes on some of the most vigorous and well resourced (from a research standpoint) critics of the avian flu appointment (e.g., Move On and The New Republic) don't say anything, that would make them hypocrites. The difficulty of documenting that someone hasn't made a comment will prevent me from making the hypocrisy accusation in the case of silence.

Anyway, a Washington Post story goes back in time to give examples of the criticism of the Simonson appointment, here.

One criticism of Klain's appointment is implicit in a recent cold start.

Carol Costello and the hypocrisy of violence commentary

Carol Costello is an on air reporter for CNN. She is the recipient of various media reporting awards.

One of the events Costello reported on was the Ray Rice affair. In July 2014,she criticized the NFL, Ray Rice, ESPN defenders of the NFL, etc. and used her experience as a victim to do so.

Then in October 2014, Costello aired audio from an altercation involving Bristol Palin (who was struck during the altercation). Costello did that with evident glee.

People pointed out the hypocrisy and Costello has apologized (in writing) for the Oct 2014 airing (although Costello does not seem to understand why her October 2014 on air actions are evidence of left wing media bias). This story has still to run as Costello has, as of the time of this posting, yet to give an on air apology nor has CNN taken any action (such as suspension or a fine).


Costello's July 2014 criticism of the NFL is here. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/26/opinion/costello-ray-rice-domestic-violence/

A Washington Post article summarizing both the July criticism of the NFL, etc. and the October glee at the violence used on Bristol Palin is here.

Leonardo DiCaprio Preacher for Carbon limits but Mega User of HydroCarbons

I've done the green hypocrisy idea before but this opportunity was too good to pass up. The Daily Mail (of England) had a long article with lots of images on Leonardo DiCaprio's speech, Sept 23, at the UN (first image) which warned of greenhouse warming as well as images of DiCaprio's houses (the image shows a house owned by DiCaprio in Palm Springs, California).

It turns out that DiCaprio has 4 houses (2 in California and 2 condos in NYC). He also is a frequent flier on private jets, rents mega yachts, etc. 

The carbon footprint of Mr. DiCaprio is essentially off the charts. I would estimate it as two orders of magnitude above the average world per capita. The best thing here is that Mr. DiCaprio apparently thinks that because he sometimes drives a Prius hybrid and sometimes bicycles, he is 'not guilty' of carbon hogging (and of hypocrisy). 

I think he is guilty of both.

The Daily Mail article is here

A oddly honest admission of possible hypocrisy

An organization called "Transparify" did a study of the transparency of think tanks.

Of course transparency is partially subjective and the definition of a think tanks is also partially subjective.

There were two interesting thing about the study:

1. They found that one of the least transparent think tanks was an organization called "Open Society Foundations" which advocates for transparency.

2. After some additional research they were able to determine that Open Society Foundations is 100% funded by George Soros (the website of Open Society Foundations states that Mr. Soros is the founder of Open Society Foundations but gives no information on the source of funding.

3. Open Society Foundations funded an organization called "The Think Tank fund of the Open Society Foundation". The Think Tank Fund is the only funding source of Transparify, the organization which did the study (the image shows interlocking interests in media companies in the USA).

With respect to Mr. Soros being a hypocrite, the analysis would have to deal with the issue of whether a primary funding source (Mr. Soros himself is not a 'think tank' I presume) needs to deal with the same standards as the various directly (or indirectly) funded organizations.

For now I just appreciate the oddity of the situation.


Study result here.

Appeals Court Catches the EEOC in hypocrisy

The US Equal Employment Commission had taken action against the Kaplan Higher Education Corporation and others. The EEOC charged that Kaplan was discriminating against blacks by looking the the credit history of job applicants.

The court's (US court of appeals for the 6th circuit) begins their opinion with the following:

"In this case the EEOC sued

the defendants for using the

same type of background check that the

EEOC itself uses. The EEOC’s personnel handbook recites that “[o]verdue just debts increase temptation to commit illegal or unethical acts as a

means of gaining funds to meet financial obligations.  Because of that concern, the EEOC runs credit checks on applicants for 84 of the agency’s 97 positions. The defendants (collectively,“Kaplan”) have the same concern; and thus Kaplan runs credit checks on applicants for positions that provide access to students’ financial-loan information, among other positions...."

 

However, the hypocrisy was not the determining fact in the decision in favor of Kaplan. Instead, the court found that the EEOC was unable to demonstrate a disparate impact. This was because Kaplan did not require racial information when people applied for positions at Kaplan.  Instead, the EEOC created an evaluation method where the drivers license pictures were evaluated by a team of 'racial identification experts" who opined on the race of the applicant.Here is what the court had to say about that,

"...The EEOC brought this case on the basis of a homemade methodology, crafted by a witness with no particular expertise to craft it, administered by persons with no particular expertise to administer it, tested by no one, and accepted only by the witness himself...."

 

So, even though there was hypocrisy, it was irrelevant to the decision.

The court's decision is here.

Plastic Bag Hypocrisy?

The NY Times had an editorial endorsing a bill to require retailers to charge $0.10 for each plastic bag they provide custormers.

There were several news articles on this bill, and although I am not sure, I think the charge does not require the NY Times to charge for the plastic bags they provide customers.

Of course it is possible, though unlikely, that NY Times editorial writers think the ill effects of plastic bags described by the NY Times (litter, clogged storm drains) do not come from newspaper bags. If they are that clueless, then they are not hypocrites.

The NY Times editorial is here.
A news report, from another publication is here.

Hillel Foundation, the American Studies Association and Hypocrisy

 A few weeks ago, the American Studies Association (ASA) voted to boycott all Israeli scholars (I think that means no Israeli could present papers at meetings - of course, why any Israeli would be presenting papers at meetings of the American Studies Association is an open question. The ASA boycott was based, on the 'lack of effective academic freedom of Palestinian scholars and students...".  The ASA boycott was opposed by numerous organizations including the Hillel Foundation.

For some years, the Hillel Foundation (We are contributors to the Hillel Foundation), has had a policy to reject the formal participation of those who boycott Israel at official Hillel events.

Recently, one Hillel (the Swathmore campus Hillel) voted to call itself the 'open Hillel' and to allow such participation.

Supporters of the Hillel at Swathmore have accused the national Hillel foundation of being hypocritical in opposing the ASA boycott while undertaking a boycott of their own. 

For Hillel not to be hypocritical, there must be substantive difference between the two cases, and, there is.

1. The ASA policy bans all Israelis, whatever their belief, whatever their academic merit, whatever the topic of the presentation or paper. The national Hillel policy bans only individuals.

2. The ASA policy aims at a highly tangential population and seems odd on its face. After all, how many Israelis are even interested in American studies. The national Hillel policy bans a group that is much larger (a lot of anti Israel groups are on American campus).

3. The ASA policy seems to single out Israel and, in fact, their boycott policy falls under the national Hillel policy (which dates a few years before the ASA boycott). That is, the national Hillel policy mentions boycotts and those with double standards (the ASA doesn't seem to acknowledge that some groups are discriminated against other than Palestinians). 

Thus, I don't think Hillel can be fairly called hypocritical in this case.

Notwithstanding that, I personally, don't understand the national Hillel policy. It seems to me that national Hillel ought to allow, on a case by case basis, supporters of the boycott, those with double standards, etc. to address Hillel if such persons are otherwise of good will.

The open Hillel policy is here.
The national Hillel policy is here.
Information on the ASA policy is here.
A NYTimes editorial following a NYState Legislature action is here

You're a slease; Oh yeah, you're worse, you're a hypocrite.

The primary for the Democratic candidate for Governor of Maryland is this year. The leading candidates are Doug Gansler (left, the current Attorney General of Maryland) and Anthony Brown (right, the current Lieutenant Governor of Maryland).

Gansler implied Brown was unethical because Brown's campaign had accepted some $30k or so of donations from individuals in firms with ongoing contracts building, maintaining or managing the State Healthcare website (the Maryland health care website is arguably the third worst of the nations worst performing health care websites - Oregon and Minnesota are worst. In addition, Brown was formally tasked by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley with leading the website effort).  Gansler does not use the word 'hypocrite' nor does he imply any criminal or civil wrong doing. He does however fail to mention that the $30k involved is below 1% of the Brown campaign funds raised so far.

Brown countered by accusing Gansler of hypocrisy because Gansler's campaign had accepted contributions from individuals in companies that do business with the State (the scale of this is unknown). 

Gansler then said that the latter contributions (that is the ones to the Gansler campaign) are less important that the former (that is the ones to Brown) because the individuals in companies that contributed to the Gansler campaign were awarded contracts based on bidding while the firms that contributed to Brown are in an ongoing effort managed by Brown. Gansler could have said (he did not) that the contributions to Brown's campaign were a type of protection racket given that many of these firms should be fired for bad work.

First up, Gansler. He didn't accuse Brown of hypocrisy. 
Next up Brown. He did accuse Gansler of hypocrisy. Gansler's defense, that is, that the two situations are dissimilar, is a reasonable one even if the dissimilarity isn't that much (by the way, Gansler's implication that all Maryland contracts awarded by bid are on the up and up is laughable - bidding language can be, and frequently is 'tilted' to produce certain results- and selection panels are easily influenced by 'hints'). 

In fact, I think that maybe the issue that Gansler was trying to emphasize was that the website that Brown was 'in charge of' isn't working.

The idea for this post came from Irwin. He had seen an article in the Baltimore Sun that reported on these issues.

Update on Professor Schwyzer

It turns out there is more to the story below. The Professor recently was driving under the influence of alcohol and injured a woman in an auto accident. In addition the Professor admitted that he had continued to date students for several years after he had claimed to have broken the habit. He also admitted (or perhaps bragged) that he had conned his way into a position in the gender studies department at Pasadena City College.

The above courtesy of a post at insideHighered

Professor Admits He is a Hypocrite but is he

At the left is Professor Hugo Schwyzer, who is a professor in the Gender studies department at Pasadena City College in California.

He is known for teaching a course on pornography, once bringing in a famous porn star to lecture the class (his academic training is in history and literature). He is also known for appearing on the Ricky Lake show to brag that he had a circumcision at the age of 37. He was also known an a principle contributor to the 'good men project'. One issue that he influenced was the doctrine that to be a 'good man' you should confine yourself to marriage and prior to marriage you should date women your own age.

He recently sent a series of tweets admitting to unfaithfulness with much younger women. In an admission to a reporter, he said that these things were acts of hypocrisy, but, that it was because he was weak willed. If he is telling the truth about the weak will he has found an exception to the hypocrisy definition but if he was just sorry he was going to be caught he is a hypocrite.

A tweet indicated that he would not teach further courses in gender studies and hoped to teach a Western Civilization course (which would be consistent with his academic study).

The above could be an article in The Onion but its not.

Professor Schwyzer's bio is available at wikipedia.
The interview noted above is courtesy of the Daily beast.

Matt Damon and Public Schools

Matt Damon has been an advocate for public schools, for more public spending on public schools, for more status for public school teachers, etc. His mother is a public school teacher and he attended public school growing up. The image shows Damon with his wife Luciana Bozán who was at the time pregnant with a girl who was later named Stella Zavela. He also adopted Luciana's three children from an earlier marriage. Matt and Luciana have three children together (that's six for the family).

Damon moved to Los Angeles in 2012. He recently enrolled all his kids in private school. Some people have accused Damon of hypocrisy.

Damon's argument against enrolling the family in public school was an odd one, it amounted to 'the public schools aren't progressive enough'.

Since I have no idea what 'progressive enough' means in that context and because Damon could have used the privacy argument in justifying private school and because Damon never actually advocated that rich people send their kids to public schools, I'll give Damon a pass on this. 

Interestingly enough though, Damon is starring in a movie called Elysium, about a  future in which rich people live in above ground luxury while the poor live in ground level slums.

A Huffington Post article on this is here.

An article in a Florida paper about this subject using the word 'hypocrite' is here

A wikipedia article on the movie Elysium is here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_%28film%29

Grand Mufti of Kashmir and Jammu - music hypocrisy

The Telegraph carries a new report of a religious leader attending, and apparently enjoying a musical show. This same fellow, one, Grand Mufti Azam Bashiruddin Ahmad, had earlier given a fiery anti music sermon and fatwa. That's the Grand Mufti in the hat.

I wondered whether there was some distinction between listening to music (OK) and playing music (not OK) that would justify the Grand Mufti's actions. As near as I can tell, both listening and playing music are criticized by Mohammud. Also since Mohammud's actions are, per scripture, praiseworthy, they are to be emulated and besides the criticism seems to be divinely initiated.

I suppose that the Grand Mufti's actions could be defended if there were some greater purpose; that is, enjoying the music this one time would help some overarching objective but no such defense has come out. Thus I'm going to have to call this one hypocritical. As for the seriousness, it would seem it isn't trivial because, assuming Muslims aren't supposed to listen to music, the pictures of the Grand Sheik enjoying music would weaken the resolve against music (I'm assuming the Grand Sheik is pretty important). Of course if the entire hadith against music is wrong, then it is the sermon that was a problem and the enjoyment of music actually improved things.


article in Telegraph is here
quotes from anti music hadith are here (this source is anti Islam but no muslim has criticized this content as false)

Mira Sucharov Agonizes over Hawkings Supposed Hypocrisy

Several weeks ago, cosmologist Stephen Hawking said he would not attend a conference in Israel in protest of Israel's policy (Hawking claims Israel is occupying Palestinian land but the policy could also be called 'partially administrating' or something (I'm not sure whether Hawking thinks Israel inside the green line is an occupation).

Several opinions came out accusing Hawking of hypocrisy because he uses Israeli made devices to communicate (including the communication of his non attendance at the conference). 

The accusation of hypocrisy, is I think, incorrect because Hawking didn't say 'everyone should attend the conference and then didn't' or 'no one should denounce Israel and then did, both of which would be hypocrisy. Since the two issues are separate, I don't consider it hypocrisy.

However, I may be in the minority. 

An Haaretz blogger named Mira Sucharov, who is also a professor (the second image is her), assumes that this is hypocrisy and agonizes over it and over an event in her (Mira's) life that she thought was hypocrisy but justified, that is, she bought something from a store with a Nazi poster. (something I would not consider hypocritical unless she had previous said to boycott all stores with Nazi posters).


Mira's column is here.

An opinion piece in a British Newspaper on the Hawkings non attendance of the Israel conference is here.

An Endorsement of Hypocrisy

Larry Flynt (that's him in the image) is the publisher of Hustler magazine. In today's news was word that Flynt is endorsing former Governor Mark Sanford for a House seat in South Carolina. Flynt is also donating funds to Sanford's campaign.

The reason Flynt gives is that while he dislikes Sanford on policy, he likes Sanford for exposing the hypocrisy of traditional marriage.

Actually, Flynt means to say (I think) that Sanford is a hypocrite and also was a pro family value conservative.  (Sanford, while governor of South Carolina) famously flew to Argentina to carry on an affair while telling his wife and the media that he was hiking the Appalachian trail.

I'll not comment on whether Sanford was a hypocrite or Flynt is one. Its just interesting that someone puts money into his pro hypocrisy opinion.

News article on Flynt's endorsement of Sanford is here.

 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/larry-flynt-endorses-mark-sanford-449105

MJ Rosenberg says Hagel is a bad liar, not a hypocrite

M J Rosenberg is a political analyst, columnist and consultant (that's him with Obama).. 

He has had a long career. He worked at AIPAC, he worked as a political appointee in the Clinton administration. He was a foreign policy chief of the leftist org Media Matters.  He is currently known to be a critic of Israel's policy in the West Bank. Some would say he is more than a critic and has crossed the line to Israel hater. Whatever.

What concerns this site is his comments on Chuck Hagel, the nominee for DOD Secretary.

MJ Rosenberg asserts that Hagel was lying in his testimony to Congress and that Hagel's difficulty with lying made him (Hagel) come across as stupid. M J does not use the word hypocrite.

Here is a post by MJ on this subject.

Glenn Greenwald Resists the Hypocrisy Label

Glenn Greenwald is an American lawyer by training who writes a column for the British newspaper 'The Guardian'. He focuses on civil liberties related issues (that's him on the left - pun intended).

He recently wrote a column entitled,

DOJ kill list memo forces many Dems out of the closet as overtly unprincipled hacks

 The column points out some of the people and groups that harshly criticized President Bush for various executive actions taken (e.g., drone warfare) while either excusing or ignoring President Obama's actions of the same sort. An example is, 

" ... quoted Jennifer Granholm, the former Michigan governor and fervent Obama supporter, as admitting without any apparent shame that "if this was Bush, I think that we would all be more up in arms" because, she said "we trust the president"."

"... polls now show that Democrats and even self-identified progressives support policies that they once pretended to loathe now that it is Obama rather than Bush embracing them...."

The point to me is that Greenwald does not use the word 'hypocrisy'. Instead, as in the title, he declares what others would call hypocrites as 'overly unprincipled hacks' (how many hacks are principled I wonder?). Interestingly, while pointing out that former candidate Obama was one of the people who criticized the tactics President Obama now employs, Greenwald chooses not to call Obama a hypocrite or a hack. 

Interesting Greenwald cites the lack of hackery (or lack of hypocrisy - Greenwald uses neither word however) of the Republicans in this particular instance.

"  What also made this last week unique was the reaction of the American Right. Progressives love to recite the conceit that Republicans will never praise Obama no matter what he does. This is a complete sham: conservatives, including even Cheney himself, have repeatedly lavished praise on Obama for his embrace of Bush/Cheney policies in these areas..."

 

The Greenwald column is here.  

Related column in Salon webzine is here

What Difference Does It Make?

Secretary Hillary Clinton was testifying before the Senate on the issue of the Benghazi terrorist attacks. One of the highlights was a statement made in response to a question that had the words, "...we were misled..." where the statement seems to actually be a question of  'were we misled' regarding U.N. Ambassador Rice's statement on five different news shows that the Benghazi attacks were protest of a video on Youtube rather than a planned terror attack.

Here is a piece of the answer:

“With all respect, the fact is we have four dead Americans was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans,” Clinton shouted. “What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator.”

I seems to some people that the "What difference at this point does it make?" contradicts "It is our job to figure out what happened..." 

or is it

One possible way of looking at "What difference ..." is classifying it as a rhetorical question. If so, it does not contradict the "It is our job...". Of course, that way of looking at it would mean it was, in fact an admission that "...we were misled..." so that is not likely the way Secretary Clinton intended it but who knows.



Video of Q&A here

Colin Powell and dark vein of intolerance

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell defended former Senator Chuck Hegal's use of the term 'jewish lobby' a few days ago (reported by  Bloomberg new service as a remark that while insensitive was not really insulting (the phrase 'jewish lobby' was used in place of the more correct description 'pro Israel lobby' and of course, the pro Israel lobby includes a lot of non Jews)..

But at about the same time, (reported by Politico) Powell criticized Republicans for long ago remarks using phrases Powell deemed to be racially insensitive, e.g., criticizing President Obama as 'lazy' after his performance in the 1st 2012 debate (btw, I don't understand how that is racially insensitive but let's assume Powell actually believes it is).

The two events were within 48 hours of each other. 

Incidentally, NY Gov (a Democrat) used the phrase 'shucking and jiving' with respect to Obama back in 2008; an event which passed unremarked by Mr. Powell.

Hypocrisy?

Unless Powell is very, very forgetful or very stupid, this does appear to be a case of hypocrisy. 

But this brings up a question. Why would Powell be so oblivious to the hypocrisy problem? It seems that because he is viewed favorably by most people, especially in the media, he can get away with it.


Politico article is here
Bloomberg report is here       
Report on the 2008 incident by Huffington Post is here.      .

NBC's Gregory and the Efficacy of Armed Guards at Schools

Dave Gregory is a journalist. He has children who go to a private school and that school has armed guards.

Dave Gregory recently went on something of an on-line rant scoffing at the the notion that armed guards could prevent multiple killings at schools (this was during an interview with an NRA official). 

Hypocrisy?

Nope. 

Here's one reason: Gregory is not in charge of the school's security; for all we know he may not approve of it. 

Here's another reason: Gregory may approve of the security but on the grounds that the security at the school protects the kids (Sidwell Friends), not so much from crazed killers but from nosy journalists (since Gregory is a journalist himself this brings up a new layer of issues, but I'll ignore it).

Article on the issue is here. Picture of Gregory is from Wikipedia on him.

Senator Mike Crapo and the DUI

US Senator Mike Crapo (pronounced KRAY-PO) was arrested on Dec 23, 2012 for DUI in suburban VA. There was no accident and no one was hurt (he ran a red light). His blood alcohol was 0.11 (the upper limit there is 0.08).

All this is unremarkable except that Senator Crapo (R-ID) is also a Mormon, at one time a bishop in a church whose doctrine prohibits alcohol (there may be a medical out on this but Crapo didn't claim this) and one who has proclaimed his alcohol abstinence as a personal value.

Is this hypocrisy?

No. As I see it, it's sin.

If Crapo would, after being arrested, said something implying that it was OK for him to drink but not for others, that would have been hypocrisy. 

It reminds me of the joke where the Priest says to the Rabbi,  
"just between the two of us, have you ever had pork" to which the Rabbi says 'yes'. Then the Rabbi says to the Priest, "just between the two of us have you had sex since you became a Priest" and the Priest says 'yes'. Then the Rabbi says, "beats the heck out of pork, doesn't it?"

Newspaper article on the DUI is here.