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...
Jalapeno Double-Standard
More cutting-edge insight from that sage of wisdom, Bryant Gumbel, courtesy of sportswriter Chris Russell…
Gumbel should be blown out
February 16, 2006
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I didn’t see it, but I sure did read the unofficial transcripts of what Gumbel said on the show that he hosts, a show that normally has some very interesting features.
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In case you missed it, which apparently a lot of people did, Gumbel delivered a commentary on the Winter Olympics. “Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention,” said Gumbel.He went on to basically dismiss the Olympics, which are televised by his former employer at NBC, and talked about how he’s looking forward to March Madness. I wonder if Gumbel would have said what he said about the Olympics if he was still working for the peacock network.
So far, everyone who’s seen fit to comment on Gumbel’s blatherings, Russell included, has gone on to reverse the blatant double-standard — setting up a hypothetical in which a white man refuses to watch the NBA because there are too many black guys in it. With his comments raised to a publicly-visible pedestal, and given the weight of some kind of authority or endorsement, would we tolerate that? Obviously not.
However although I agree with that assessment, and what it says about the underlying fairness or lack thereof, I disagree with the approach. This is a “Jalapeno” double-standard. You know what Jalapenos are, right? They’re really, really hot peppers you can find in most sports bars, sometimes served as a garnish with an order of Nachos. Every once in a great while, someone will make a show out of eating Jalapenos. Maybe they’ll have a Jalapeno-eating contest. And the guy who wins is one really, really tough guy who gets lots of attention.
And yet…even the toughest among us, would never dream of living on Jalapenos for a week. If anyone ever did, and somehow survived, they’d never want to see a Jalapeno ever again.
Maybe that’s the answer. I’m barely old enough to remember a time when my mother taught me how to be a lifetime non-smoker: She let me smoke, at seven. There are legends of some parents, way back in the day, catching their teenage children sneaking a smoke behind the garage, and forcing said children to finish off the whole pack. The results, reported by those children once they grow up and tell the tale, are the same.
I think there’s some potential here. Let’s have a festival of celebrating the double-standard. Make it three months long, or so. Let’s freely trash any and all activities that have too many white guys in them. Day and night. Put some money into it so it reaches everyone. Our model should be the first season of “Survivor,” during which you couldn’t do anything without hearing about this hot new show: work, eat breakfast, eat dinner, commute, play golf, work out — certainly you couldn’t watch TV. Make it so that everyone hears from someone, every hour of every day, slamming this, that, or some other silly thing for being way too vanilla. Seinfeld, Norway, the Luge, the Skull-n-Bones society, New England…the list goes on and on.
Every day. Three months. The taboo against speaking ill of anything for being “too chocolate,” would remain in full force. And let no one protest, either. Hey, if a little of something is good, a lot of it must be better.
At the end of that…let’s just see how much “tolerance” we have for the double-standard which, until now, we have politely overlooked. Let’s see whether we think, at that point, that it’s compatible with a civilized society which upholds equal protection FOR ALL.
Then we figure out what Mr. Gumbel’s ultimate fate should be.
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