Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Guns Don't Kill People



To recap....

You can not say "Nappy headed ho" on radio because that may offend people. However, you can buy a gun on a Friday and then kill 32 people the following Monday. I'm glad we have our priorities straight in this country. Thank God Imus is forever out of our lives while semi-automatic weapons are still part of them.

Listen, I'm not some "Ban the guns" liberal. I think the right to bear arms is a basic right guaranteed to all Americans by the founding fathers of this country. However, our forefathers had muskets. They also had the foresight to make the constitution amendable. If Thomas Jefferson was starring down the barrel of a glock I'm not so sure he would have just blindly signed off on the issue.

People need to get serious and realize semi-automatic weapons need to be outlawed for use by private citizens. The argument you need a semi-automatic weapon to defend your home is complete nonsense! There's nothing one of those weapons will protect you from that this can't.





And this can't fire hundreds of rounds per minute.

People have the right to protect their homes, loved ones, and personal property. They shouldn't have the right to walk into a gun shop on a Friday and buy a gun with, no waiting period, and endless amounts of ammo for that gun. Or better yet, at many gun shows every weekend, just walk in and walk out with any gun you want!

"There are background checks in place"

Yeah, well, ask those families in West Virginia today how effective those are.

Then again, maybe Chris Rock had it right. Maybe the answer isn't "gun control."

Maybe the answer is a whole lot simpler.


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Monday, April 09, 2007

Save Imus?

Unless you live under a rock you've heard the outcry from the Black Community this week concerning Don Imus and his recent remarks about the Rutgers Woman's Basketball team. If by some reason you haven't go here for the story.

Anyway, now the Black Community is outraged and calling for his job and I'm getting emails from NOW (The National Organization of Women) asking me to join their email campaign to have Imus fired from his job.

A few points I must make.....

1. Don Imus is a jackass. Always has been, always will be. I think what he said was disgusting and insensitive. With that said, he has every right as an American to say whatever he likes. It's called "freedom of speech" and the only thing it doesn't protect you from is PERSONAL taste. Imus has every right to say what he did and you have every right not to like it. However, you have no right to try and take away his livelihood because you don't agree with it.

2. I'll bet 90% of the people calling for his job today weren't even listening to his show when the comments were made. If he didn't need your support in the first place why should he or MSNBC care if they have it now?

3. The same people calling for his job are the very people who supported the Dixie Chicks last year and cheered when they won five Grammy Awards last month. The Chicks were slapped down and boycotted, threatened and almost lost their right to make a living because people didn't like something they said. You can debate the "level" but in the end it came down to people simply not liking what they said. Same thing, different day.

4. I heard a black sportswriter calling for the FCC to remove Imus from the air. For what? Did he curse? Say anything that violated FCC guidelines? No, he said something that offended you. The FCC doesn't have time to run around protecting people's feelings.

5. Al Sharpton is calling for Imus' job. Al Sharpton! One of the most corrupt people walking the planet. I'll tell you what Al, I will support your war on Imus as soon as you apologize to the Police officers in the Tawana Brawley case.

Saying you're sorry should work both ways.

6. As George Carlin once pointed out... "The Radio has TWO dials. One switches it off, the other changes the station!!!"

7. Imus is preaching to the choir every morning. In fact, his audience has increased by 33% during the past ratings period. His been saying this type of shit for YEARS and YEARS! People find it funny. Just because I'm not one of them doesn't mean I have the right to take away their chosen form of entertainment. No matter how disgusting I may find it. Again, personal taste.

8. I'm getting tired of the "leaders" in the black community that come out to condemn this type of speech while ignoring the current weeks hot rap cd. The one that came out using this exact same language against women of color. The black community in general needs to stop acting with "shock" and stop being "offended" every time a white person refers to them using language they LEARNED from black produced media. Hell, the first time I heard the "N" word just thrown around freely was on a NWA record when I was 12 years old. That word wasn't allowed in my house growing up. My mother wouldn't have it. The first time many white kids in these last two generations learned that language was when they bought a rap album, watched a stand up special, or watched a movie featuring it.

If I, as a white person, ran around selling and marketing records where I called every white man I saw a "honky" or white women "Cracker Ass, stringy-hair sluts" I wouldn't act "shocked" when it became a part of American pop culture. In fact, I would have only myself to blame.

9. I'm getting REALLY tired of white people finding this type of stuff funny! While the black community needs to do a better job representing themselves white people need to do a much better job just KNOWING better. This type of garbage is not funny. Those young women didn't deserve to be made fun of in that manner.

Ultimately, is it okay with me if Imus loses his job someday? Of course.

However, only when people make a choice to stop tuning in on their own. Not because some political group threatens his station or some black leader threatens the sponsors of the program. White men, the majority of his audience, need to step up and say "enough is enough"

In the end, all this backlash does is further prove we haven't come half as far as people like to believe we have in regards to race in this country. The fact that Imus has a huge following after years of this type of behavior only illustrates the point. Simply making it "go away" doesn't help solve the problems or work towards the solutions. We need people like Imus to serve wake up calls to those turning a blind eye to reality. He helps keep the conversation alive.

After all, simply choosing to pretend people like him don't exist doesn't make it so.

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