I’m Us

 Entertainment  3 Responses »
Apr 132007
 

You’ve by now become aware of the media shit storm over Don Imus’s comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team and how they got him canned not only from his MSNBC simulcast, but got him booted from his long running radio show. Harvey Fierstein has a op-ed in the NY Times today. RudePundit echoes some of what Harvey is saying.

I only knew Imus from the stuff that Howard Stern used to say about him. I think my uncles listen to him. I never liked the guy. I think his humor is stupid and old and boring. I couldn’t understand the guy most of the time. I really don’t give a shit that he’s gone even though I’m sure he’ll pop up somewhere, probably on Sirius or XM.

The Wall Street Journal had a good point…that things like this normally wouldn’t have been noticed or kept going except that now clips from your show can be posted on the Internet, preserved and commented upon. Dinosaurs like Imus have to realize that the game has changed. Both CBS and MSNBC have been condoning his patriarchal old white dude shtick for years. The most recent comments were probably middle of the road for him, but it somehow caught a lull in the news cycle and the huge corporations that host Imus decided they couldn’t stand the heat.

The reason Imus was canned is as plain as his own last name, I’m Us. Nobody wants to face that, so let’s get rid of him, make ourselves feel better for a few minutes and get back to what we were doing.

[tags]donimus, firing, cbs, msnbc, rutgers, harveyfierstein, nytimes[/tags]

 Posted by on April 13, 2007 at 12:58 pm

In Memoriam: Vonnegut

 Entertainment, Humor, News, Politics  No Responses »
Apr 122007
 

The Internets are full of acknowledgments of the death of Kurt Vonnegut who died last night from complications of a fall he recently took. He did seem a bit frail and out of it the last time he was on The Daily Show to promote his last publication, a collection of essays called A Man Without A Country. I first read Vonnegut in either 1992 or 1993. Breakfast of Champions, Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and Welcome to the Monkey House were among my favorites. His writing is amazing. I never did get to hear him speak in person. It sounds like I should check out God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Anybody have any other recommendations besides the ones that I’ve mentioned?

I have one interesting story related to Vonnegut. When I was living in Manhattan, there was a bookstore at the corner of Stuyvesant and Third Avenue, if I remember correctly. I can’t recall the name. Anyway, I was in there one afternoon buying something and I heard the clerk talking to a guy at the front of the checkout line about Vonnegut. I looked up and there was Woody Harrelson with a handful of Vonnegut books. It was clear he had decided to check out Vonnegut for the first time and was grabbing several of his books to read. I recommended Breakfast of Champions. I think Harrelson was in town to film Money Train at the time.

Not to imply that Rollins is on Vonnegut’s level, but tomorrow night is the beginning of the second season of The Henry Rollins Show on IFC at 10pm CDT. I really enjoyed the first season. He gets a good mix of guests for the interview portion and the musical performance. He kicks off with Marilyn Manson as his interview guest and Peaches, who interviewed last season, as his musical guest.

[tags]kurtvonnegut, death, woodyharrelson, henryrollins, ifc[/tags]

 Posted by on April 12, 2007 at 9:55 am

WTF? 6-year-old boy shot while jumping on trampoline

 Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Apr 112007
 

The Statesman’s reporting that a 6-year-old boy in Hays County near Kyle was shot and killed yesterday while jumping on a trampoline.

They suspect it was a stray bullet from one of the other surrounding properties. You typically move to suburbs like Kyle to get away from stray bullets. Damn.

Update: News8Austin says they caught the guy that may be responsible. He’s been charged with manslaughter.

 Posted by on April 11, 2007 at 9:43 am

links for 2007-04-08

 Links  No Responses »
Apr 082007
 
 Posted by on April 8, 2007 at 11:17 am

links for 2007-04-04

 Links  No Responses »
Apr 042007
 
 Posted by on April 4, 2007 at 11:17 am

The Party’s Ooooover

 Politics  No Responses »
Apr 042007
 

Anybody who reads this blog regularly…(just waiting for the crickets)…knows about the massive man crush that I have on Rude Pundit. Today, he shines again. Instead of just burying this in a del.icio.us link post, I fell compelled to quote:

For years, Bush has been the pampered only child, given the easy questions, the soft pitches, the free run to the endzone. He got all the presents, all the love and attention. And then, all of a sudden, like every overprotected manchild, he’s gotta face the real world, and the real world doesn’t give a fuck what he thinks he’s entitled to. Democracy, even though it’s so often a dance among well-connected rich people, is a goddamned fight to the finish. Reid and Nancy Pelosi are schooling Bush, and, indeed, the rest of America, on what it means to live in a democracy.

…

Of course, you know, the problem is there’s always a Cheney heaving through the foliage, inconspicuous, malevolent, prepared to leap out at a moment’s notice and tear us all apart.

Pure genius.

[tags]rudepundit, gwbush, harryreid, checksandbalances, democracy, smackdown[/tags]

 Posted by on April 4, 2007 at 10:41 am
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