This has been a very interesting ten days. I have sat back and watched the talking heads on both sides, and the worst part of the whole thing is that both sides have proven themselves to be total idiots time and time again.

Here it is in a nutshell.  Don Imus is an idiot. I have never liked Imus, and have always seen him for what he is, a cantankerous old man. Not a dangerous man, not all that funny. But some people liked him. He got paid to be an idiot. His recent 5 year 50million dollar extension and his history show that. It’s disingenuous for CBS to have fired him after rewarding him for the exact same behavior.

If they wanted rid of Imus for this kind of thing they could have done it hundreds of times before now. The difference is that until the voices of the panderers got involved it paid for CBS to have him on the air. That comment was no different than the hundreds of comments that he made before. That's why I didn’t listen to him.  The only thing Imus did differently this time was to break two of the golden rules of comedy and that is that comments must be true and must be funny*. He didn’t do it out of any mean spiritedness, more out of being an idiot in general. The panderers knew that as well, but to the Sharptons of the world, intent doesn't matter if you are a white male.

Chris Rock, who I love says things ten times worse and more racist about black people as well as whites, asians, and anyone else he can get a funny shot in at. The difference is simple. Chris Rock is funny. There are a couple of white comedians who do so called “black” comedy who also get away with it. Once again, the difference is that they are funny.

I honestly could care less if Imus got fired. I didn’t listen to him anyway. But the road we are on with these witch hunts will go both ways at some point. Bill Maher who I find insightful and funny probably could be fired 20 times a year if held to the standard of Imus. He made two homophobic jokes on this weeks show as pointed out by Sharpton on the same show.

To be honest keeping an idiot like Imus around for people who “get it” to laugh at would do much more for the cause in the near future than the termination begins to do.

One of the best articles written about this whole issue was written by Jason Whitlock, a sports reporter from KC who happens to be black who said:

“While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos”

Thanks god a black man said it, I can’t say it first in today’s culture, although I most certainly agree with the premise. To read the whole article (which everyone should) click here. That’s the really sad thing in the whole situation. The rest of us have to watch everything we say, as intentions don’t matter.

Yes, Imus’ comment was offensive to most of us. But has the US become so fragile a nation that a radio personalities comments create a national furor? And why this radio personality rather than someone like Bill Maher or Chris Rock, both of whom say things much worse, and both of whom reach a much wider audience. Could it be because the politics differ? Just asking.

This old dude (Imus) means nothing to people my age (40) and below, probably 90% of us don’t really see color anymore on a day to day basis to begin with. It’s just a generational thing. As someone who has owned and run several businesses over the last 15 years, I can tell you that race in hiring, promotion, or just about any other aspect of society means nothing anymore to 90% of us. Yet we continue to fight these two sided battles in which both sides just appear stupid and racist. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson look like idiots as much as Imus does in this furor. They appear as racist as Imus, and possibly more so when they go after an irrelevant old white dude with this kind of vehemence while letting slide the Chris Rock. For that matter they should be going hard after hip-hop music and attitude which is really anti-black, anti-white, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent. The difference there is a fairly simple one. Follow the money, and the liberal guilt and angst, and you can begin to intellectually understand why those racists are exempt.

For me, I don’t care what color you are, what religion you are, or for that matter what you do in your bedroom. But as I tell the boys my daughter brings around. “Get that damn metal out of your face” That's just stupid.

* Bill Maher on his HBO show April 13th, 2007