I can’t say it’s a good morning..

…since it’s been raining for three days already, with no end in sight..

1. I wonder how long before he’s fired? Instead of renewing his earlier call to repeal the Second Amendment, resurgent lone conservative New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens spoke truth to abused power by condemning the news media in today’s column. He writes in part,

When Donald Trump takes his swipes at the “disgusting and corrupt media." and tens of millions of Americans agree, it’s not as if they don’t have examples in mind. Consider this week’s implication by major news organizations that the president described all illegal immigrants as “animals." during a White House roundtable with California officials. That would indeed be a wretched thing for him to say — had he said it. He did not. The Associated Press admitted as much when it deleted a tweet about the remark, noting “it wasn’t made clear that he was speaking after a comment about gang members.." Specifically, he was speaking after a comment about members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang, infamous for its ultraviolent methods and quasi-satanic rituals. To call MS-13 “animals." is wrong only because it is unfair to animals….We have a president adept at goading his opponents into unwittingly doing his bidding. They did so again this week. Those who despise him for his deceits should endeavor to give no impression of being deceitful in turn.

Bingo.

2. Briefly noted…Today’s Times editorial is a graphic about how “Congress has dithered as the innocent get shot,” despite the fact that no “sensible gun control measures” would have prevented yesterday’s shooting in Texas…just gun confiscation, if that were possible, which it isn’t. Two letters in the letters section make the same contradictory, yet probably sincere, point. “Another day with the reality that sane gun control is a national emergency.”

3. I have to think about this when I’m not running out the door to a seminar...There are lots of stories out there now about James Harrison, an 81-year-old Australian known as “The Man With The Golden Arm.” Like this one:

James Harrison, 81, has an antibody in his blood that is used in the production of Anti-D, a medication that prevents Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn. The potentially fatal condition can cause anemia, liver and spleen enlargement, brain damage, heart failure and even death in newborn s.Anti-D injections keep a pregnant woman who is Rh(D)-negative from developing antibodies in her immune system that could harm an Rh(D)-positive baby. Approximately 17 percent of pregnant women in Australia need the injections, which come from a  pool of less than 200 Australian donors.Harrison made his 1,117th and final donation to Australia’s Anti-D program on Friday, May 11, after a six-decade blood-donation span that helped an estimated two million Australian women and their babies, according to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.Harrison’s donat…ions helped Australia to become the first country in the world that can supply enough Anti-D for its own use, according to Red Cross spokeswoman Jemma Falkenmire. In 1999, Harrison received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the country.

Did Harrison’s magic blood  obligate him to turn himself into a lifetime human blood supply? If it had been discovered that he had life-saving blood, would there be any ethical argument that his country could force him to donate? Is he the human exception to Kant’s Categorical Imperative?

4. Well, ethics points for candor: Andrew Sullivan in his latest column.

In one respect, it seems to me, the presidency of Donald Trump has been remarkably successful. In 17 months, he has effectively erased Barack Obama’s two-term legacy….If Trump has destroyed Obama’s substantive legacy at home and abroad, the left has gutted Obama’s post-racial cultural vision. And those of us who saw him as an integrative bridge to the future, who still cling to the bare bones of a gradually more inclusive liberal order, find ourselves on a fast-eroding peninsula, as cultural and political climate change erases the very environment we once called hope.

I’ll examine the column in more detail in a later post. For now, I’ll only comment:

• Little of Obama’s so-called “legacy” was real or positive.
• “Post-racial cultural vision?” Post-racial rhetoric, maybe. Nothing Obama actually did promoted any post-racial vision, just a racially divisive culture.
• Those of you who saw him as an integrative bridge to the future were conned, and many of us saw that years ago.