Mediaboss Marketing

The great American poet Robert Frost once wrote that good fences make good neighbors. He clearly never spent much time in New Jersey.

The Ethicist realizes it must seem like the Garden State is the epicenter for every moral dilemma coming down the, um, turnpike, but hes confident New York (and Connecticut) will get a turn soon enough.

In this episode, the jousting is focused on some upscale properties adjacent to Manasquan River Golf Club in Brielle, on the New Jersey Shore an hour south of Manhattan. There, homeowners have more on their minds than the standard complaints about being pelted by crooked tee shots from the venerable 98-year-old clubs members. Specifically, were talking about a 65-foot-high net one resident erected to keep Manasquans balls from hitting his clapboard. In an area where homes can sell for more than $1 million, the driving-range-style net isnt exactly being embraced as an improvement.

RELATED: Can a club expel you for playing too much golf?

Figuring it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission, Ron Dana put up the 130-foot-wide net in 2018 without securing any permits from the town. Predictably, neighbors who had their views of the course and the river disrupted howled in protest, and they put up an online petition that has gotten more than 200 signatures. The club came out against the net as an eyesore, too, saying it detracted from the riverfront view members enjoy. Both groups pressed the town to assess Dana for violations of various building and permitting ordinances, which it did in 2019, saying he broke rules limiting the height of fences in Brielle to no more than 12 feet high.

Dana responded by requesting a variance for his net to be exempt from the fence-height rule on the basis that a 12-footer wouldnt be much help against a pop-up slice. The town zoning board was unsympathetic and denied the variance. Undeterred, Dana refused to take down his netso the town and the club sued to force him to remove it. Dana countersued, and the parties are now faced off like the Nights Watch and White Walkers in Game of Thrones just before the dragons get involved. The wall is still up, the neighbors are aggravated, and theres about to be a big fight.

The dispute is one that would make a property developer question his or her capitalist bona fides. On the one hand, those with more libertarian leanings would say people have the right to do with their property as they please. On the other, everybody is a libertarian until something they dont like goes in next door and could tank their property values. Just ask Donald Trump. He fought for nearly five years to keep the Scottish government from putting a wind farm off the coast of his Trump International Golf Club in Aberdeenshire. He not only lost, he had to pay the governments court costs.

Manasquan River is in the fascinating position of being the venue that produces the wayward shots going into Danas yard while arguing he shouldnt have the blight of a net in his yard to prevent it from happening. But before were overcome with empathy for Dana, consider this: Anybody who buys a property adjacent to a golf holeespecially 200 to 250 yards from the tee on the right-hand sidehas to have some idea of what theyre in for. After all, the OG of golf properties, the Old Course Hotel at St. Andrews, has been shrugging off incoming fire from the Road Hole tee for 50 years.

The Ethicists solution? The club, town and Dana should lay down their weapons and make a deal that works for all sides. The club foots the bill for taking down the net and replacing Danas vulnerable windows with shatterproof panes should they get hit (a far less-expensive proposition than the route clubs like Winged Foot have taken when they straight up bought homes that proved to be too close to play). If Dana doesnt agree, the club should be free to put up its own net adjacent to Danas, but cover it with (outward facing) advertisementslike the Green Monster at Fenway Park.

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

ARE YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW INVOLVED IN A TRICKY, AMUSING OR JUST PLAIN STRANGE GOLF SITUATION?

Tell us about it, and the Golf Digest Ethicist might write about it in an upcoming column. To submit, describe your issue or send a news link to GolfDigest_Ethicist@discovery.com.

WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

Go here to read the rest:
This intriguing legal battle pits golf-home owner and neighboring course - GolfDigest.com

The profreedom and antiwar movement lost one of its most dedicated champions this past weekend. Jon Basil Utley was born in the Soviet Union in 1934. His Britishborn mother, Freda, had gone there as aprocommunist intellectual and writer. But after his father was spirited away to one of Stalins gulags (where he was executed in 1938), Freda fled with young Jon and became an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union, including in several bestselling books. They eventually emigrated to the United Stateswhere Freda hosted meetings of prominent anticommunists in their home. That is where Jon met many leading intellectuals and activists of the Cold War era, connections that lasted alifetime. He became an accomplished writer in his own right, as well as asuccessful businessman. He traveled extensively.

Jon was anearly ubiquitous presence at DC gatheringsand globally. He attended many events at Cato, as well as Grover Norquists Wednesday meetings at Americans for Tax Reform. He supported Reason magazine and the Reason Foundation, and many other libertarian causes. And he was proud to be associated with The American Conservative magazine, where he served on the board of directors, and as publisher.

Whenever Iencountered Jon at one of these meetings, he would always greet me with awarm toothy smile and afirm handshake. He made me feel so welcomed at these gatherings but he did the same for everyone else as well, as though he appreciated every single person in attendance.

But his warmth and affection for those around him concealed adeep and abiding hatred of Americas wars, and arelated sadness at his fellow Americans apparent disinterest in the suffering these wars caused for innocent men, women, and children all around the world. In meetings, he would often ask questions, or make comments, in his soft, almost lyrical, voice. Most of the time, his remarks conveyed his skepticism of these wars, even as he knew that many of those around him (mostly conservatives, but also some libertarians) wished desperately that he would just sit down and shut up. But that just wasnt his style.

Jon was apeacemaker within the oftenfractious liberty movement, too. His sadness about Americas wars was perhaps only exceeded by his disappointment that his friends in the antiwar movement were fighting with one another. He was anatural bridgebuilder with avery wide circle of acquaintancesand always on the lookout to make introductions and build alliances.

Last year, when it presented Jon alifetime achievement award, The American Conservative prepared afitting tribute video. Iknow and respect many of the people who offered their reflections on why Jon was worthy of such an award. TACs Executive Editor Kelly Beaucar Vlahos called him one of the bravest people that Iknow in Washington. To Ambassador C. Boyden Gray, Jon was one of the most gentle, generous men Ive ever met. My friend John Henry declared, simply, Jon is America.

This was particularly true in the post9/11 era, when conservatives, in particular, really didnt want to hear one of their own questioning the wisdom of George W. Bushs various foreign warsespecially the war in Iraq. Jon would be the only person to stand up and say the Iraq war made no sense, John Henry recalled, when everybody else was saluting, [and chanting] USA! USA!

The Heritage Foundations Lee Edwards counted Jons willingness to stand up for the truth as he sees it, regardless of what others say as his greatest achievement.

All of the wise men of the conservative movement, Edwards explained, believed that the United States should be waging war in Iraq. They would listen as Jon would question why. Then hed sit down. Afew moments of awkward silence typically ensued before the meeting moved onto the next topic.

But, after the luncheon was over, Edwards continued, people would come up to him and say Jon, keep saying that. Keep asking those questionsI havent got enough guts to do it, but you have.

Edwards noted that when the weapons of mass destruction werent found in Iraq, and most Americans came to realize that the war had been aterrible mistake, Jon didnt go around saying I was right. Itold you so and that, too, was to his great credit. Edwards congratulated Utley for speaking up when others were timid.

Jon was alongtime generous donor to the Cato Institute, and for that we are all grateful. But his influence ran much deeper that that. He was awarm and wonderful friend, and an inspiration to those of us who followed in his footsteps.

During this period of COVID-19, when all public gatherings have been postponed or canceled, we have more urgent things to attend to. But, when things return to normal, and Ifor the first time attend one of those meetings where Iwould have expected to see Jons kind smile and reassuring presence, Ifear that that is when the true depths of this loss will really be felt.

Rest in peace, my friend. Your legacy lives on.

Read the rest here:
In Remembrance of Jon Basil Utley (1934-2020) | Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute

READING the comments sections ofTCWand the wider conservative media, it is evident that a war within a war is raging, as proponents of freedom from authoritarian government do battle with proponents of self-sacrifice in the national interest. Yet both are fundamental conservative principles, for conservatives value the interests of both the individual and the community. Matters are immeasurably complicated because such are the unknowns that any calculation of costs and benefits medical, economic, political, psychological is impossible.

I have argued for the lockdown, but I fully recognise that powerful arguments can be marshalled on the other side. As Trump has said, the cure may wreak more damage than the disease.

What, I wonder, would the late Sir Roger Scruton have made of it all? Scruton always veered more to the communal than the libertarian strain of conservatism. For him, the essence of conservatism was family and community, not the market. But at the same time, there was no braver or more principled opponent of communism, of the totalitarian state, or proponent of the importance of private property and of the rights of individuals to enjoy lifes pleasures.

The key to Scrutons conservatism, I think, lies in Burke, Hegel and F H Bradley. For Burke, wisdom lay not in one mans private stock of reason, but in the the general bank and capital of nations, and of ages. For Hegel, the individual is ultimately a social being. We owe an absolute obligation to the state and its institutions because the existence of civil society is conditional on the existence of a state. And for Bradley, it is only because man is first a social being that he can realise himself as an individual. We have found ourselves, writes Bradley, when we have found our station and its duties, our function as an organ in the social organism.

Libertarians and individualists might be shocked at these sentiments and they are easy to misconstrue; but they were second nature to Scruton. He particularly admired Bradleys essayMy Station and its Duties, from which the above quote is taken, and often referred to it. His early essayHegel as a Conservative Thinkerbowled me over when I stumbled across it more than twenty years ago. The subtly woven arguments are beyond my ability to summarise, but consider the import of this sentence from the final paragraph:

An understanding of the human being as a social artefact shows inequality to be natural, power to be good, and constraint to be a necessary ingredient in the only freedom we can value.

Libertarian advocates of the minimal state will heartily disagree and warn of the path to totalitarianism. But for Scruton, the guarantee of our liberties, of the liberties we might truly value,wasthe state. Not a totalitarian state, to be sure, but a state to which we owed profound obligations.

It may be that those obligations have never been greater than they are now.

- Advertisement -

View post:
The duties we owe to the state - The Conservative Woman

Review by Brian Lowry, CNN

People who own big cats are unusual, we're told near the outset of "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," which proceeds to prove that -- and then some -- over seven jaw-dropping episodes. Netflix has made a lot of noise with unscripted programming, but it's going to roar with this beyond-bizarre docu-series distraction, which demonstrates that outlandish people who love filming themselves are a formula for TV that's grrrr-reat.

It's hard to know, frankly, where to begin with all the strange twists and turns, but directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin rightly assume that it's easiest to work backward from the (almost) end: Joseph Maldonado-Passage, an eccentric keeper of tigers, lions and other big cats in Oklahoma who goes by the name "Joe Exotic," allegedly having orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin, a woman who runs a facility called Big Cat Rescue, who had lobbied to shut down operations like his.

After that, though, there's a whole lot to chew on. Big cats, it turns out, are a kind of aphrodisiac, inspiring what can only be described as cultish devotion -- including Joe's marriage to not one but two men; another big-cat owner, Bhagavan "Doc" Antle, who is basically a polygamist; and Jeff Lowe, who comes into Joe's orbit later and brags about using exotic pets as a come-on to find partners for threesomes.

But wait, there's more: The colorful characters that Joe attracts to work for him (including one who loses a limb to a tiger attack); Joe's desire to create his own media kingdom, enlisting a former "Inside Edition" correspondent, Rick Kirkham, to oversee his TV efforts; and finally, Joe's forays into politics, running for president before mounting a libertarian bid for governor of Oklahoma, despite being a little unclear on what a libertarian actually is.

Finally, there's Baskin, who would seemingly be the voice of reason in all this, objecting, as she does, to people housing and trading in dangerous cats. Still, she finances those efforts largely through the fortune she inherited from her late husband, who disappeared under the kind of mysterious circumstances that even a "Dateline NBC" producer might consider too good to be true.

Because the big-cat owners are showmen (beyond the zoo, Joe fancies himself a country-and-western singer), there's a whole lot of vamping for the cameras. They also tend to document their actions extensively, which makes the occasional use of reenactments here feel especially gratuitous.

Still, even by the standards of reality TV -- a genre populated by exhibitionists and those seeking their 15 minutes of fame -- "Tiger King" is so awash in hard-to-believe oddballs that lean into their image it genuinely feels like a Coen brothers movie come to life, the kind of thing any studio would return to the writer saying the screenplay was too over the top.

During the final chapter, one of Joe's employees says there's "a lot of drama in the zoo world." That's about the only thing that's understated in "Tiger King," which -- even amid the current glut of true crime -- is the kind of juicy morsel that's almost impossible to resist.

"Tiger King" premieres March 20 on Netflix.

Read the original:
'Tiger King' is the weird docu-series distraction we can use right now - WICZ

The streets of Jordan's capital of Amman are seen empty after the start of a nationwide curfew, amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, on Saturday.

AP, Raad Adayleh

The country of Jordan has implemented one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus, forcing most people to stay indoors and temporarily shutting down even grocery stores andpharmacies.

The Middle Eastern country with its 10 million residents has so far arrested more than 1,600 people for breaking the five-day-old curfew, which bans even going for walks or allowing petsoutdoors.

After three days of complete lockdown, the government has commandeered city buses to deliver bread and other essentials directly to neighborhoods. It had considered ensuring distribution of cigarettes to smokers in a country with one of the highest smoking rates in theworld.

On Tuesday, Jordan began allowing a limited reopening of small grocery stores for those between ages 16 and 60. It kept a ban on driving. Security forces say they have impounded more than 600 cars for breaching theban.

The strict measures were taken after a less-severe curfew imposed the previous week was widely flouted, with some Jordanians continuing to hold weddings and other largegatherings.

Especially in countries without very much intervention, the infection rate can rise really very fast, says Dr. Najwa Khuri-Bulos, an infectious disease specialist and adviser to Jordans Ministry of Health. There is a window period where you can interfere effectively. Hopefully doing these kinds of very strict measures will make itmanageable.

As of Wednesday, the kingdom has 153 current confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, and the number has been rising steadily butslowly.

Jordan also hosts more than 600,000 Syrian refugees and the global pandemic had sparked fears that the countrys medical care system would be very quicklyoverloaded.

Last week, the country started placing arriving travelers, including Jordanians, in mandatory 14-day quarantine. About 5,000 people have been quarantined in hotels in the capital of Amman and the Dead Sea. Shortly after, it stopped all incoming and outgoing commercialflights.

The shutdown has had severe economic repercussions in the already poorcountry.

Nobody is in denial about the potential economic cost of the shutdown, but authorities perhaps believe that this cost is to be paid 10 times down the line if the virus spreads further. So the main goal is to reduce the human toll, says Nasser bin Nasser, director of the Amman-based Middle East Scientific Institute forSecurity.

Bin Nasser says most Jordanians seem to be accepting the restrictions. Maybe in the U.S. or other libertarian societies where freedom of movement is so ingrained in the national psyche this would be harder, he says.

Explore Nearby Adventures

See the rest here:
Jordan Keeps Coronavirus In Check With One Of The World's Strictest Lockdowns - OPB News