Frank Ramblings

Barbara West of Orlando’s Eyewitness News WFTV-Channel 9 recently interviewed Sen. Joe Biden, asking him to respond to accusations that Sen. Obama’s policies are Marxist:

The Obama/Biden campaign was so angered by this interview that they canceled a scheduled interview with Jill Biden, stating “This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election.” I applaud Ms. West and WFTV for asking the questions we’re all dying to have answered. I love how much her calm demeanor bothered Biden, who was visibly hot under the collar and really wanted to tell her off. It clearly took all his willpower not to explode and start ranting about how high is IQ is or making racist remarks.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2008/10/obama-campaign.html

I just saw this on someone’s laptop and it totally made my day. Awesome. If I seen it a month ago, I would have SO bought one for myself. “Keep the Change.” Classic!

Well what else is new, you ask? Let me start by telling you about the awesomeness that was last night’s episode of Smallville. On the surface, the story doesn’t even sound all that great. At least, I didn’t think so. Clark’s best friend and confidant Chloe Sullivan and her fiance Jimmy Olsen (yes, that Jimmy Olsen) are kidnapped by a madman after their engagement party and strapped to electric chairs. They are given a polygraph test, and when one of them lies, the other gets a shock. The purpose of the test is to gauge their loyalty to one another. In an effort to save them, Lois and Clark pose as a couple and get themselves kidnapped as well. Sounds mediocre. Well, my friends, it was AMAZING. Especially towards the end. Lois was forced to admit her feelings for Clark, causing some major awkwardness between them. Later, back at the Daily Planet, they found themselves on an elevator together. Lois wanted to avoid the tension by trying to take the stairs, but Clark encouraged her to stay, saying that the elevator is “statistically the safest way to travel.” MAJOR GEEK-OUT MOMENT. That’s a classic line from the Superman movies, usually used by the Man of Steel when he saves a doomed aircraft. While I really don’t like those movies, I still LOVED the brilliant usage of that line. Lois then went on to claim that she had slipped the electrode from the polygraph off her finger and lied, so she didn’t really love him. It was a bad lie, and Clark seemed to almost buy it, but there was clearly still some doubt in his mind. Either way, the awkwardness receded and Lois crawled back into her protective shell of the tough, intrepid reporter. It was a great episode that hinted at things to come. The trailer for next week’s episode shows that charismatic paramedic Davis Bloome will begin to undergo his slow and gradual transformation from all-around great guy to the evil Doomsday, Superman’s nemesis and eventual killer. I can’t WAIT!

This week’s comics weren’t all that great. Trinity #20 was once again awful and had pretty much nothing to do with the characters after whom it is named (Superman, Batman, & Wonder Woman). Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen Special #1 was decent. It told a pretty good story of Jimmy on the trail of a hot mystery that could spell doom for Superman if it isn’t solved in time. I haven’t had a chance to read DC Universe Decisions #3 or Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2 yet. When I do, I’ll let you know. Well I’m off to work. I have a 2:00 appointment in the Writing Center.

Have you ever been talking among friends and referred to another friend or even someone outside your group as “that one”? You know, stuff like, “Oh that one’s got a future ahead of him,” or, “That one’s gonna get a rude awakening.” No big deal, right?

Now imagine you’re John McCain. You’re talking about your opponent’s Senate voting record in a town-hall debate. In reference to a particularly unfavorable bill you say, “Guess who voted for it? That one. Not me.”

Still no big deal, right? Well, that’s what I think, anyway. But apparently some people don’t. As I was listening this evening to a local radio station, WLIB AM, a predominantly African-American-run station, I was shocked to hear the host say that John McCain was being a racist when he called Barack Obama “That one” because he was objectifying him and treating him as sub-human. He argued that African-Americans have a long history of being objectified and McCain was only the most recent high-profile white person to express his racist views. Does anyone else think this is ridiculous? Seriously. It’s a figure of speech used by people in conversation literally every day. But as soon as it was used by John McCain against Barack “Socialist Propaganda Incarnate” Obama, the world goes into an uproar. Not surprisingly, the infamous Huffington Post has already jumped on this as an opportunity to rip McCain to shreds.

PLEASE PEOPLE. Get over yourselves and get over Barack Obama! You’ve taken an average Junior Senator (dare I even call him “less-than-average”? I’ll let you decide what I think about that) and elevated him to an almost god-like level! Are you serious? Can you really all be this brainwashed by this inexperienced nobody from Chicago? He’s got nothing going for him! I guarantee you that if this man was of any other party, Republican, Libertarian, Independence, Constitutional, Communist, Socialist, Green, Blue, Orange, Aquamarine or what have you, the media as a whole would have thrown him under the bus on day one for his total and utter lack of any relevant/executive experience whatsoever. Those who would compare him to John McCain (OR Sarah Palin, for that matter) would have been laughed out of their careers, and Hillary Clinton would have ascended her throne in all her pantsuit glory, dragging her lowlife husband (dont’ even get me started on him) back into the White House as he scoped out the interns for fresh meat. But I digress.

Why would you consider that a racist comment unless you yourself would have thought of using it in a racist context? The thought never even ocurred to me as I watched the debate. Much like the so-called “leaders” Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (both of whom I believe Martin Luther King would have disowned, by the way), anyone who would use this comment to condemn McCain as a racist are only aiding the spread of racism by going out of their way to keep the concept alive and kicking in the public’s mind. The answer isn’t to label everything as racist so people will remember that racism exists. Rather, be a little more careful about how you throw around that R-word so that actions and words that are legitimately racist are condemned and, listen to this now, those actions that are not racist are appropriately not labeled as such. If you call even innocent actions and comments racist, you only serve to widen the shrinking racial gap. It’s two steps forward, one step back.

So go ahead. Call me a racist. Tell me that I don’t understand and that I never will. I don’t care what you say, you will never convince me that “That one,” when used in that context, was meant as a racial slur. Nor will I believe that it was a Freudian Slip. If you believe it, you have my sympathies. Leave a comment and I’ll recommend a good psychiatrist.

What say you? Am I alone on this? There are comment links below. Use ‘em.