Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

No Left Turns Indeed

I’m on the road today (Montgomery, Alabama) with some time to kill, so I can blog for a change. Let’s see, what’s in the news:

I saw a squib yesterday, I think in Newsweeks latest "green" issue, that the UPS folks are using a new computer program to plan routes so that their trucks never make any left turns. They will make three right turns instead. They say this is to save fuel--who knew that holding for left turns wastes a lot of fuel and therefore contributes to air pollution and global warming--but this sounds like an esoteric homage to our namesake, Mr. Ashbrook. And another example of how solving these problems will come from the Right!

What’s all this about Don Imus? I’ve never found him either funny or interesting, but isn’t the Jesse Jackson-Al Sharpton gleeful sack dance just a little bit much? I watched the egregious Lou Dobbs spend almost his entire segment on CNN last night on this story, giving Jesse Jackson enough air time to roll out several new rhyming schemes.

Says here in the paper this morning that Def Leppard is doing a 50-city reunion tour, no doubt for their Def Listeners. Now, if Emerson, Lake, and Embalmer do a reunion tour, I might think about it.

Discussions - 16 Comments

Steven -- Are you going to see Genesis? I thought about huge arenas, and the cost of a ticket,and weather, and decided instead to buy a couple of digitally-remastered cd’s

As for Imus, he should probably have just been fired, but I am reminded, lately, of the Cultural Revolution in the PRC, and the public criticism rituals for counterrevolutionary actions.

Uh, Palmer is dead, I believe. Fairly recently.

Of course, Imus�s wife is a vegan and into green housekeeping--she�s written books about both and I just saw her touting the green housekeeping book the other day on one of those awful morning news programs. So perhaps that can score him some points and win him back some favor in certain circles? And Steve, your screed against Def Leppard only shows us your age. (As I, no doubt, am showing mine with my vague interest in the concert!) But I�m with Fung on this . . . a CD is just as good--in fact, after all these years it�s probably better.

Imus, it should be recalled, was the original "shock jock"--I remember learning about him in an Intro to Communications course that I took as a freshman in college. Like Howard Stern and many others, his entire career is built on being deliberately provocative. Eventually all of them end up going too far and offending a legally protected minority. Lord knows Stern has done that plenty of times; the amazing thing is that he manages to stay on the air (granted, now he’s on cable).

The post and comments about Imus are a tad imperious and too sophisticated for my taste -- as though the content of Imus’ casual racism and the seedy affront to accomplished young women are not the main event.

My point is that there used to be clear sets of standards that governed all of the media, from motion pictures to comic books to radio. A whole generation of radio personalities, starting with Imus, made names for themselves by deliberately defying the standards, and they were cheered by liberals the whole time. Now Imus learns that, well, there are some lines you just can’t cross. I’m glad to hear that there are, but I wonder why, for example, Howard Stern’s savage attacks on Catholics are still considered acceptable. I’m in no way defending Imus, but I’m wondering who’s drawing the lines these days.

Well, I will defend Imus -- to this extent. Howard Stern, for once, said something sensible when he urged Imus to say: "screw you, it was a joke."

A classy host would be obliged to apologize. But a classy host would not have made the comment in the first place. Imus is (or rather, was) an equal-opportunity offender. To argue that a racial group should be exempt from having its feelings hurt is childish at best, a raw power grab at worst. Criticize a punk for being a punk, not for attacking a sacred cow.

Ed:

Different Palmer. You are thinking of Robert ("Simply Irresistable") Palmer, who indeed very much dead. ELP’s Palmer is Carl Palmer, still very much alive.

Now back to our regularly scheduled Imus-bashing.

The problem for Imus is not that he made a racial joke. That would have been defensible, given his forum, and his audience. But, this was aimed at a team of young female athletes, whose efforts and talents were reduced to a couple of tasteless, stereotypical characteristics.

I heard that Palmer left ELP to pursue a career in professional golf.

David Frisk - Only a fool or an oaf would defend Imus, even to an "extent." Charles Barkley said today that Imus should not be fired just for saying something stupid. I agree, since this applies to professors too we may suppose.

The No Left Turns decision made by UPS is clearly more evidence of the vast neocon/straussian conspiracy led by Lincoln-worshiping Jews. I’m going to have to refortify my bunker . . .

I would like to be a fly on the wall when Imus meets Coach Stringer and the Rutgers team. What a prospect! - as those who follow women’s basketball know. Imus will emerge a changed person (or no person at all), and his fans will in future have to go to Howard Stern or others to get their vulgar satisfaction.

11: Steve, I do think an apology was owed to the players. It was not owed to anyone else. Imus certainly should not have been suspended, nor should he have been made an object of nationwide attack. "Screw you" would have been exactly the right response to Sharpton, both because Sharpton is human scum and because, even if he speaks for "the black community," which he doesn’t, no apology to the "black community" is required. The politically correct overreactions to this trivial remark, such as your brain-dead reference to me as "a fool or an oaf," have been far worse than the initial offense. Imus should not have been suspended. The civil-rights ideology, and the demands made in the name of "civil rights," have become truly Orwellian. The disproportionate reactions of people like yourself are enabling tyranny for the "white community" and everyone else, not constructive progress for the "black community."

Maybe you’re thinking of Alice Cooper, who has become a semi-professional golfer...weird world we live in!

According to an op-ed in today’s LA Times by prominent "civil rights" lawyer Constance Rice, Imus also has a good side -- many examples of sensitivity to blacks. One example Ms. Rice cited: After the lynching of James Byrd in 1998, Imus said that blacks simply should not trust white people. This was good, you see, not bad. Need I say more?

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