Don Imus fired: have we ignored the First Amendment again?

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.

What Don Imus said was tasteless. I am in full agreement with those who want to lambast Imus for his “nappy headed hos” comment. I’m somewhat disbelieving that it’s considered perfectly fine to print and say the phrase over and over, while the N Word, as it’s now euphamistically called, has finally become so taboo that even the outspoken Whoopi Goldberg says she will no longer use it. My only question is: why is “nappy headed hos” more acceptable than that word? Maybe it’s because this particular phrase could only be offensive to women, and not to men, since we rarely refer to male prostitutes as “hos?” It’s something to think about.

The big Circuit City letdown

When I first heard about Circuit City firing workers because they made too much money (the company uses the cheerful euphemism, “wage management initiative”), I was somewhat skeptical. I thought it couldn’t possibly affect any of the truly highest-paid workers; it would only affect the people on the front lines.

Whadd’ya know, I was right. Anyone making a measly 51 cents or more per hour over their arbitrary cutoff amount was invited to leave the store. This leaves the newer and lower-paid employees to handle customers. So in a way, CC has sacrificed the big fish and left the little fish alone.

That’s so gay… cheers and jeers

In case you haven’t heard, the phrase “that’s so gay” definitely contains a homophobic undertone, no matter the context. In a previous post I praised the Ubuntu Linux community for taking a stand against this phrase.

Now a student in California has been disciplined for using the term, and has filed suit over the action. I feel I must say that this is very likely taking things too far on all sides. Why couldn’t the student have simply been instructed by her teacher that the phrase was not to be used, with an explanation of its hate-speech bearing? As it stands, the school marched her in front of the principal and entered the incident into her records.

Reading the news story, it seems as though some other students should have been in front of the principal as well. “That’s so gay” was the girl’s response to questions about her having 10 mothers from students who were obviously completely ignorant of all things Mormon. I have recently been amazed by people who are convinced that the Mormons are somehow different from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is, itself, different from the “LDS,” and that some combination of the three actively promote polygamy. The students can’t really be blamed for their ignorance. Again, a missed opportunity for a learning experience, since the school could have used this to instruct the students on the realities of Mormons (no matter how wacky I really think their religious beliefs are). Basically, her response was to teasing which probably amounted to hate speech in itself.

The lawsuit bothers me most of all. Instead of attempting to force the school to turn this incident into a learning experience for all involved, the selfish parents have pulled out the big cannons. The school system, for its part, has aimed their own big cannons right back at the parents.

All this over three little words.

Four more years! Four more years!

MSNBC announced that they’ve signed Keith Olbermann, host of Countdown, to a contract that lasts through 2011.  That gives us time for 3,120 Worst Persons in the World, assuming Keith doesn’t get sick, receive any mail from terrorists, or take a single day of vacation.

6-foot-10 of good lookin’ gay man

And another pro athlete comes out of the closet.  I wonder if this will make it easier for others to do the same.  What am I saying?  Every time this happens it triggers a flood of new announcements.

Bravo to John Amaechi for his honesty.

So who’s next?