Entries Tagged 'Rants' ↓

I am not a lawyer but I played one on television.

Nevertheless, many Don Imus fans and apologists are up in arms that he has now lost both his television and radio jobs in the wake of his now infamous, racist and sexist comments directed at the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Some people apparently think they should always have the right to use public airwaves to say anything that comes into their head, no matter how offensive. They seem to think that people of color and women and gays and immigrants and fat people and the disabled and whoever else they target are “just too sensitive” and “ought to lighten up.”

Countless times this week I have seen television news reports or newspaper stories where someone (usually a young white male) is interviewed, and after making the statements above, he tacks on, “What ever happened to freedom of speech in this country?” As if!

The right to freedom of speech was written into the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1791. It reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Following the Revolutionary war, having just broken free from British rule, the framers of the constitution were especially interested in preventing any head of state or governmental body from silencing the people’s right to voice their opposition to laws they deemed unfair. Historically, the first amendment has been applied to protect the news media from government censorship, protecting their right to investigate and report on such things as the Watergate break-in.

“Freedom of speech” has nothing to do with individual citizens having the right to talk out of their ass without subjecting themselves to repercussions from other groups of citizens. “Freedom of speech” does not mean that those who hear and are offended by certain forms of speech have to simply put up with it. They too get the right to express their opinion. In other words if you call someone a “nappy-headed hoe” you may have every legal right to say that, but others also have the right to say, “We don’t like what you said, and we don’t think you belong on public airwaves.” Dissenters have free speech rights too.

It is from government censorship that we are protected and thus private companies, such as MSNBC and CBS, are well within their legal right to establish terms and conditions for appropriate behavior in their workplace, including prohibition against the use of forms of speech corporate management deems offensive.

So the next time those who are as insensitive to the feelings of others as they are ignorant of the law want to cry about how their rights are being infringed, tell them to shut the fuck up.

That’s me exercising my right to free speech.

Ok, I’ve had enough of this fuckin’ heat. I can’t take it. It was 83 degrees this morning around 7:00 am. If I leave the house for five minutes, I’m drenched in sweat. My air conditioner and ceiling fan have been running nonstop. I can’t imagine what my ConEd bill is gonna look like next month. I take about three showers a day just to cool off.

Every winter somebody asks me, “How can you live up there with all that cold and snow?” Hell, snow is easy. You put on a coat and boots and keep stepping. But this summer heat saps my energy. I don’t feel like doing anything. I’m sleeping in a ball of sweat. It’s too hot to cook or go to the gym. I’m just miserable.

I don’t know if this is a real result of global warming or just a cyclical thing. They said we had a similar stretch of high heat like this back in the 1930’s. But I need it to end and soon.

Time for another shower.

A jumble of thoughts and emotions have been running through my head for days now on this immigration issue and I had hoped to be able to sit down and compose a thoughtful essay on the topic. Alas, my emotions have gotten the best of me and they are all coming out now in pretty much of a rant.

First off, let’s get the terminology correct. They are “undocumented workers” not illegal aliens. The overwhelming majority of foreign nationals that come here, do so to work, not freeload, and they lack proper documentation to get in.

Why? Because the U.S. government has placed restrictions on the number of immigrants that can come in from certain countries. Which countries? Primarily nations in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Hmmm…anything look suspicious to you? If we were talking about immigrants from, say WHITE COUNTRIES, would anyone be using the term “illegal aliens?” I think not. And this is the underlying point of this debate.

White America is afraid of all those Black, Brown and Yellow-skinned people taking over the nation. Plain and simple. “Illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” is this year’s code word for “those other people we need to fear” just the way “urban” and “inner city” have always been code words for “those US born Black people we need to fear.”

What pisses me off are the number of Black folks who just don’t seem to get this. WAKE THE FUCK UP! The draconian immigration reforms being proposed in Congress are not ones we need to embrace. They were not proposed for our benefit at all. Don’t be suckered into thinking you will be at all protected if they become law. It’s just another way to divide and conquer the “colored” people.

The other very obvious truth about the timing of this debate is that it is yet another strategy by the Right to divert people’s attention from the failed policies of the Bush administration. This is an election year. This president has a 36% approval rating. The Republican controlled Congress has a 30% approval rating. Indications are the Democrats may actually win back control in this November’s elections.

Having made a shambles of Iraq with no exit plan, driven up the federal deficit to record heights, and had scandal after scandal after scandal plague this administration, THEY DON’T WANT US TO TALK ABOUT ANY OF THAT! So, they created a bill and an unnecessary debate about immigration. This is a smokescreen issue, a ploy to divide the country along racial and ideological lines, galvanize their conservative voting base and maintain control of Congress. CAN’T YOU SEE THIS!?!?

The ONLY illegal immigrants who have ever come to these shores came when Europeans arrived. The same folks who claimed to “discover” a land that already had indigenous people living and thriving on it, drove those same indigenous people off the land by waging war and spreading disease, then created governments and a system of laws to justify their illegal land grab. Did Columbus or the Pilgrims get Green Cards? How dare their descendents call anybody illegal!

This country would close up tighter than an asshole on a cold toilet seat if all the undocumented workers were sent back to their home countries. The food we eat from the time it is picked to the time it reaches either our grocery store or our dinner table at a restaurant, has been touched many times by immigrant hands. Remove those folks and you starve. As a result of whatever is left of the domestic textile industry in America, we have clothes on our back. A plethora of necessary and largely unseen tasks are done by undocumented workers that are essential to the daily functioning of this country.

But the argument that “these people are stealing jobs from Americans” is pure bullshit. They are mostly doing jobs native born Americans have long ago decided they no longer want to do. Immigrants are willing to take on the work Americans deem beneath them. How many Americans do you know willing to pick vegetables in the hot sun or bus tables at restaurants for minimum wage?

Corporate America has shipped the good-paying low skilled jobs overseas. Blame them for the loss of your jobs.

Undocumented workers have come to this country for the same reason as every other ethnic group that didn’t arrive in shackles, to make a better living for themselves and their families. Plain and simple.

IF unbalanced US trade policies and World Bank debt service didn’t keep most Latin, Asian and African nations well below the poverty level, perhaps these folks would have something to look forward to in their home countries. But the US is the richest nation on the planet and the jobs are here. How well could you live on $100 a year?

The level of overt racism and abject stupidity being expressed by those in favor of building fences and shipping people back has me ready to kill. OPEN YOUR FUCKING BRAINS PEOPLE!

Rant not quite off. Approach carefully.

I ride the subways and buses in NYC almost every day, and it never ceases to amaze me some of the downright ignorant things people do:

• Why do some people carry around three or four expired Metrocards and hold up the line to get on the bus going through all of them? And of course, none of them have any money left. (Black folks, you know who you are.)

• Why do some other people try to get on the bus with dollar bills? It’s either a Metrocard or cash, no paper money. (Tourists, you know who you are. Read a damn guide book before you visit the city.) Now frankly, I think the MTA needs to change the machines to accept paper but that’s beside the point.

• And why, oh why, do some people (almost always women) wait until they are right in front of the turnstiles before they go digging in their pocketbooks for their Metrocard? Ok, when you were walking down the street, did you not know you were headed towards the subway? When you saw the sign that said “Subway” and went down the stairs, didn’t it occur to you that you would need your card to get into the station? Why, in the middle of morning or afternoon rush hour, with people lined up behind you and the train pulling into the station, does it suddenly occur to you to look for your damn card? I see some woman do this at least once a day, every day of the week.

• And I know what the women are thinking right about now. “Why do men always sit on the train with their legs spread, taking up so much space?” Simple answer. A dick and balls. When the family jewels get to hang freely, blood doesn’t rush to our heads (the big one). But when we’re forced to squeeze our legs together, the pain is excruciating and we can barely make it to the next station. Which brings me to my next point…

• Why do some people insist on squeezing their fat asses into seats that clearly aren’t wide enough? Especially now, with everybody wearing winter coats, the space on the train is at a minimum, but some people always think their butt can still fit. I’m not picking on any particular gender, but if I was to keep track of who does it more often…

• And you assholes reading the New York Times piss me off. There was a time in this city when Times readers knew how to do “the fold.” But with all the yuppie transplants and college graduates living here for their first job, there’s a new clueless generation that doesn’t understand how to fold it into smaller sections so they don’t bump and annoy the people next to them. They want to impress everybody by reading an adult newspaper and must think they’re sitting in their fucking living rooms. (See below for instructions on how to do “the fold.”)

• And you people with cell phones really piss me off! On the bus, you’re the assholes who have to hold a conversation so that everybody can hear it. We don’t give a shit about your boring life, shut up already. The call ain’t that important.

• When the 1 train comes above ground at 125th Street, why does everybody have to whip out their cell phone to make the call saying, “Yeah, it’s me. I’ll be home in five minutes.” WTF! You’ll be home in five minutes, why do you need to call? Every day I see this. In english and spanish. Idiots!

• Why do teenagers make so much damn noise on the train? In the morning, adults are reading the paper or a book or catching some z’s, but the obnoxious little bastards, all standing right next to each other, are shouting at the top of their lungs, swearing and using the “N” word. If that doesn’t make the case for birth control I don’t know what will.

• And will you people walk all the way into the center of the car! There are people behind you trying to get on the train, and you stop right in the doorway! Are you completely stupid? “Well, I don’t want to go too far in ‘cause I’m getting off in a few stops.” Well, we’ll step aside and let you off then, but move in so we can get on.

• Finally, when the train is jam-packed, like in the morning, why do some people insist on getting on anyway? (White folks on the Upper West Side, you damn sure know who you are!) Trains run back to back to back in the morning and if you can’t fit on one, there’s another one right behind it. “But I’m already late for work.” Well squeezing on this one ain’t gonna make yo’ azz on time!

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point. You probably have some of your own public transportation pet peeves. Bring ‘em on.

How to fold the New York Times. This used to be fairly common knowledge, but somewhere along the line people either forgot or never learned. If you learn it, you won’t get nasty stares from riders sitting next to you.

The New York Times is a “broadsheet,” a rectangular newspaper that is longer vertically than horizontally. The front page and most inside pages, have six columns from left to right and a horizontal fold midway down. You can compact it initially just by bending it along that fold. But you can read any page of the paper easily by first, folding the newspaper vertically between columns 3 and 4, cutting the size in half vertically. If you then bend it again along the horizontal middle fold, you now have a paper that is one-quarter its usual size, and which can be held in one hand.

But articles often start on one page and continue somewhere else. So unfold it at the horizontal middle so that you have the full length with the vertical fold between columns 3 and 4. Turn back the next page to that same vertical halfway point, keeping the fold between columns 3 and 4. If you need to read any part of the paper that is on the inner side, along the newspaper’s spine, simply turn back the newspaper along the spine, keeping the size to one-half vertically. To turn any more pages, just repeat this procedure. You can again fold it along the horizontal middle to reduce it to one quarter.

Weekdays, the Times usually has four sections. Work with a section at a time, not the whole paper. There is never a legitimate reason to sit on a crowded subway train trying to read the Times (or the Wall Street Journal; this works with it too) with your arms fully extended and the paper spread wide open. You will only piss me off!

Jay Smooth has been covering the “Hot 97” fiasco on his site. Check entries from January 28 where he talks to Todd Lynn, WQHT-FM morning “personality” and so-called comedian who created the “Tsunami Song”.

See also January 27 regarding communication with station owners and advertisers.

And today’s New York Daily News has the latest on the fate of the idiot deejays.