Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Condoleeza has a lot of enemies. I am not one of them. Her account with me has a sky-high balance.
But alas, she’s just decided to make a large withdrawal.
Rice Calls Imus Remarks ‘Disgusting’
The Associated Press
Friday, April 13, 2007; 5:44 PMWASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the highest-ranking black woman in government history, said Friday the racist, sexist comments that got radio shock jock Don Imus fired were “disgusting.”
In her first public remarks on the controversy, Rice said Imus had insulted not only female athletes but all young black women by referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos.”
“They’re 18- and 19-year-old women,” she said. “And what were they doing except showing that they’re really fine athletes, playing under extraordinary pressure in which for them was a dream season.
“And it gets ruined by this disgusting _ and I’ll use the word ‘disgusting’ _ comment which doesn’t belong in any polite company and certainly doesn’t belong on any radio station that I would listen to,” Rice told talk show host Michael Medved.
“I just thought that it was an attack on women’s sports, first of all, and secondly an attack on very accomplished young black women in a way that was really offensive,” she said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the State Department.
Rice declined to offer an opinion on Imus’s firing but said she was “very glad that there was, in fact, a consequence” for the remarks.
There was also an apology for the remarks. And a meeting with those offended by the remarks. And a suspension…which almost certainly is not the consequence to which Dr. Rice was referring.
This country recognizes equal rights of everyone, by conferring on disparate demographies different “special” rights at different times. We play, in essence, a game of “Musical Rights.” And right now, some of these demographic groups enjoy the right where if you insult them intentionally or otherwise, there is no clemency.
Consequences are dealt out — so you may mend your ways? It would not seem so. I don’t know of anyone who’s going to follow Don Imus around to make sure he’s learned his lesson. Nobody in this farce seems to have given a rat’s ass about what Don Imus thinks about the Rutgers ladies, save for when he’s on his way to one more negotiating table to drop one more pound of flesh.
And not that I’m worried one tinker’s damn about his retirement plan. But it’s a little disturbing that his come-uppins have everything to do with eradicating his income and nothing at all to do with seeing to it that he mend his ways. Don Imus was dealt with by being…erased. To ensure that nobody hears his hateful words again? Don’t make me laugh. What panoply of healthy, wholesome, mind-expanding electronic programming are we left with. Get back to me on that as soon as American Idol is over, will you?
No, he was erased. To punish him. Because assassinations aren’t legal yet.
Imus is a gazillionaire — but Imus is Imus. This was done, clearly, to create a precedent so it can be done to someone else. Anyone with half the impressive menagerie of personal achievements to which Dr. Rice can lay claim, should have the intelligence to see that. And you know, maybe she’s such a rocket scientist that she can find a way to reconcile this with her oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.
But I don’t see any such reconciliation. The firing of Don Imus, in intent as well as in effect, was prologue to ensuring that all transmitted ideas in this culture are supervised. We’ll figure out who has that supervisory authority later. But the issue at hand was, whether we have it in us to uphold the right to free speech, even speech we don’t like.
And we don’t have it in us. I wish it was somehow more complicated than that. It isn’t.
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Victor Hanson Davis says re the precedent setting of the Imus affair: “…the industry established the penalty long ago. Ask ESPN after releasing Rush Limbaugh for far tamer remarks that race not ability was a factor in the media support for Donovan McNabb.”
- dstanley777 | 04/14/2007 @ 15:37