WEEKLY COLUMN:
JDM vs the WORLD

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FINE PRINT

Agenda-pushing blowhards have overrun the media and entertainment industries. Could it have happened at a worse time? Though visions of the Twin Towers collapsing are fresh in American minds, the usual suspects--their stale ideologies securely in tow--are trying to ram a fistful of idiocy down this great nation’s throat. Some folks are buying it.

I’ve no qualms with pointing fingers. Before I do, I just want to set the record straight. My tolerance for nonsense is roughly equivalent to zero. Someone wants my opinion? All they’ve got to do is ask. Sometimes I give it free of charge--when it’s wanted, even when it’s not. Where I stand is where I stand.

Political correctness, good intentioned or otherwise, is identical to skirting the issues. People need to stop hiding behind their fears of offending others. Especially when they’ve got no plans for doing so.

I’m a wordsmith, but words are not my thing. Communication is based on message. I wholeheartedly believe in this ideal. For example, all the world’s euphemisms couldn’t change Hitler’s message of hatred. It was rather blatant, no matter how pleasant he tried to make it sound. The Holocaust didn’t “purify” jack shit. Pardon my language, I’m just telling it like it is.

Nothing--and I mean nothing--could have satisfactorily justified the slaughtering of six million innocent Jews. Not words. Not notions. Nothing.

The ever-evolving trend of political correctness has begotten bad things. I’m not saying that it’s put Americans on par with Hitler. Far from it! But it does tend to go overboard. Just like the Hollywood-induced depreciation of violence and gratuity, American excess has lessened the collective ability to fully comprehend the scope of certain things.

The evidence for some degree of emotional regression is undeniable.

Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union defended NAMBLA--a borderline criminal outfit that promotes grown men making “love” with underage boys--on the ridiculous grounds of freedom of speech. So, hypothetically, if the next wave of terrorists were to openly discuss their plot, would that be protected by the First Amendment as well? Didn’t think so.

Then, in May, Mother’s Day was heralded as offensive to homosexuals. As if they didn’t have mothers.

More recently, the National Organization of Women took a stand against the death penalty for Andrea Yates. This would be the same woman who committed five murders of her own when she drowned her children in a bathtub one June afternoon. NOW’s fallacious post-partum depression argument was based on the fact that she must have been insane. Aren’t all murderers? How about those people who murder their unborn children? Because NOW defends them, too.

And, of course, I’d be remiss if I neglected the old favorite, the always riddling Bill Clinton and his scheming semantics. Maybe Republicans made a bigger deal of the Monica Lewinsky affair than was called for. That doesn’t change the fact that a country shouldn’t trust a leader whose own wife can’t trust him. The wedding vow explicitly states, “Till death do us part.” Mere words, I suppose.

Now, in the midst of an unparalleled wave of patriotism, our American pride has been taken to task by haphazard political correctness. Several incidents have occurred around the country in which display of the American flag has been deemed insulting.

No, really, I’m not making this up. Some people are calling Old Glory offensive.

The American flag is a symbol. It’s composed of fabric, or plastic, or construction paper and crayons. It’s absolutely nothing, in and of itself, but it stands for a whole lot. People who find it offensive find America offensive. Be it liberty or freedom, democracy or capitalism, they find every American principle despicable. Am I seriously the only person who sees protecting these people as self-defeating?

This irrelevant line of thinking has run rampant in the wake of tragedy and terror. Take Cablevision. Here’s a company that owns, amongst other things, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. It also owns electronic retailer The Wiz. It’s an enormously wealthy media conglomerate and it’s banned the American flag on its News Channel 12.

Look, I can respect journalistic integrity. I understand their desire to appear unbiased. But whom, pray tell, are they trying to appease? Anyone who finds the American flag offensive is an enemy of freedom. Enemies of freedom should not be afforded said freedom, and therefore should not be allowed to live here.

Cablevision’s actions are hypocritical. They’ve put a pox on the very symbol of the capitalist economy in which their company made its vast fortunes. My advice to Cablevision is to give back its billions, pack up shop and beat feet on out of here. They’re villains of the state, if that’s their attitude.

Then there are the three Miami firefighters who refused to respond to emergency calls unless their chief removed an American flag from their truck. Some heroes they turned out to be. They called the flag a symbol of “oppression.”

Actually, caving to such an appalling notion is true oppression.

It’s a pity, since hundreds of brave firemen lost their lives in the World Trade Center rubble. I didn’t hear those men complaining about our country. If the Miami threesome finds our version of freedom oppressive, how about they seek freedom in another country? Perhaps Communism is more their speed. I hear China is nice this time of year.

Of course, many would argue that these three men are entitled to their opinion. True, America guarantees that privilege. This is precisely why they should not harbor such contempt for the Stars and Stripes. It’s one situation where difference of opinion cannot be tolerated. Keep in mind that the terrorists also enjoyed liberty’s spoils just prior to attacking its institution from within.

Hence, my disaffection for political correctness.

All the same, there are some things one just shouldn’t say. John Cooksey, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, recently referred to turbans as diapers. Forget the words. The context was awful. Though George W. Bush has insisted this will not be a holy war, with talk like Cooksey’s it will be.

Similar sentiment has infected many traditionally fair-minded people. We’ve become so enraged by terrorism that we’ve turned to assault on random Arabs and innocent Muslims. What’s next? Shall we deport anyone not native to America? Shall we outlaw Islam? Why stop there? Why not just go for genocide? Give me a break.

It’s a truly precarious situation, this pending war is. New alliances are about to form. Old ones are about to crumble. Soon, there will be no races, no religions, no genders, no previously existing categorizations of any sort. It will come down to two groups: those who love liberty and those who love death. I don’t care who they are, where they’re from, what they believe in--if they love liberty, if they’re willing to defend liberty, they’re on my side.

Yet those who oppose American freedoms are frighteningly large in number. These people sincerely irk me.

I’d go so far as to say that Bill Maher makes me sick. He’s the smug and smarmy host of a late night talk show called Politically Incorrect. The ABC network has got a lot of respect for this program. So much that its been given a wonderfully unpredictable time slot, running from whenever Ted Koppel gets tired to whenever late night Oprah is ready to air.

Politically Incorrect is laughable, but not in the way that comedian-turned-nonsensical-social-commentator Bill Maher thinks. I’ve said this before but it upsets me enough to warrant saying it again: people who hide behind comedy when making political statements skate on divisively thin ice. Bill Maher’s a pro when it comes to this.

Indeed, he represents political intolerance of the worst kind, as his close-mindedness masks itself as open-mindedness. His routine is typical. He invites four guests every episode, three of them liberal, one of them conservative. He then goads his fellow liberals into ganging up on the lonely conservative. That’s political incorrectness if I’ve ever seen it.

Safety in numbers is just the sort of philosophy I’d expect from sheep like Bill Maher. Every now and again, however, some sheep go astray. On a recent program, he said of the American military: “We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.”

The American military is cowardly, huh? No, in truth, Mr. Maher is the coward. He only knows bravery when it’s four-on-one. And even then, he needs a red light to remind his audience when to laugh at his pathetic and unoriginal quips.

I don’t make this stuff up. And, to be quite honest, I don’t think I need to go into detail as to why these comments are putrid. Mr. Maher’s reputation precedes them. His career is a practical joke. I’ve thought so since he first aired on Comedy Central. The rest of America, as well as his sponsors, are now seeing through his spiel.

The same can be said for several Bushwhacking telejournalists who have forsaken commonsense in their coverage of America’s ongoing crisis. I am talking about Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. The big boys. The latter saved some reputation points by crying on David Letterman’s show recently. I’ll admit, that moved me. But, by and large, these men have been responsible for the only examples of partisanship in this newly begun era of American solidarity.

The media’s a leftist entity, let’s be honest. That’s okay, I suppose--it’s got to be something. But for crying out loud, can’t it be fair? These men simply cannot handle the fact that Al Gore lost Election 2000, and, in the face of incredible turmoil, their inability to let go is transparent.

For awhile there, Americans were under the impression that President Bush was stupid. The unashamedly biased media had told them to think so. They couldn’t bash George’s values or his courage, so they pegged him with ignorance instead. Here’s the reality: under a Democrat for eight years, the education system utterly failed American children. An entire generation of stupidity is upon us, thanks.

To these people, I’d like to note that one needs smarts to win two gubernatorial elections and a presidential contest to boot. Last time I checked their dossiers, they had nary an accomplishment of that order amongst them. Who cares if Dubya consults his father? I do too and I’m damned proud to admit it.

Right now, nine out of every ten Americans approve of President Bush. That just shows how woefully out of touch the news stalwarts can be. Kudos, however, to Bill O’Reilly. He’s been a real voice in the wilderness, using his public forum to lobby for border patrol and airline regulatory reform for well over a year now. Too bad nobody listened. It could have prevented a whole lot of trouble.

I’ll give credit where it’s due. Alanis Morissette, Moby and Dave Matthews--three musicians whose political beliefs I do not agree with--have joined the efforts to raise money for disaster relief. Of course, had they not so adamantly decried Alaskan oil drilling, perhaps we wouldn’t be so dependent on some of the countries we’re about to go to war with.

And then there’s Rudy Giuliani. His mayorship has always been a blessing for the city of New York, though many people refused to admit it. His leadership since September 11th has been stellar. It’s an encouraging testament to a man whose sensitivity has unjustly been called into question on several occasions. The man’s cleaned up New York not once but twice now. Give him his due.

Which reminds me--where’s Al Sharpton in all this? He’s quick to tag most every arrest as police brutality and/or racial profiling. The NYPD has lost many good men sifting through the ashes that once were the city’s grand attractions. A survivor is a survivor, skin color be damned. The NYPD has validated its worth. Where’s Sharpton to verify his?

Agendas. Everyone’s got them.

Personally, I don’t buy into the whole politically correct thing. I tell it like I see it. It all comes down to message, not words. And if anyone’s hearing noise in my message, they can go and press their paper cups against a different door. Obviously, they’re barking down the wrong one.

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