"Just Shut Up!"
So says Laura Ingraham, about what the title of her next book should be after listening to this celebrity know-nothing moron on The Charlie Rose Show:
This doofus is supposed to represent the Heartland of America? God, if it were true, it'd hurt so bad...
This doofus is supposed to represent the Heartland of America? God, if it were true, it'd hurt so bad...
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 2/13/2007 01:22:00 PM
4 Comments:
The heartland of America hunh? I live in the heartland of America, Wordsmith. It ain't true so you don't have to hurt! :)
The only good thing I got out of watching this is there was a fish in the second one. It reminded me that I needed to feed mine.
I can't watch the vid. I've had it up to here with those clowns. They don;t speak for anyone but themselves and I have just as much claim to the heartland as that idiot does.
"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
That quote came to mind when I saw this. I looked it up and Abraham Lincoln actually said it. I didn't know that.
dean barnett:
Thursday, February 15, 2007
American Fool
Posted by Dean Barnett | 11:24 AM
Confession time: I’m a huge John Mellencamp fan. I’ve been one since I was in high school and “Jack and Diane” ruled the charts. His music, especially his 1987 album “The Lonesome Jubilee,” meant a lot to me. I’ve seen him in concert probably 20 times, although not once in the past decade since I started being an adult and found the spectacle of middle aged men cavorting around the stage like teenagers to be sad, pathetic and undignified.
Because I’m a longtime fan, I’m not exactly a newcomer to Mellencamp’s politics. Even as a college student, I could tell that Mellencamp’s political beliefs came purely from the heart and excluded the brain. While I believe he’s a smart guy, I know for a fact that he doesn’t use whatever intelligence he has to guide his politics.
I decided a long time ago to overlook Mellencamp’s moronic worldview. I’m a fan because I like his music. Period. My fondness for his work has nothing to do with an admiration for his geo-political analyses. It’s this same paradigm that has allowed me to enjoy the Dixie Chicks’ music (which I like immensely) even though their lead singer appears to be an obnoxious troll.
I WISH I COULD SAY I was surprised when I saw Mellencamp’s now-notorious interview with Charlie Rose where Mellencamp said that we shouldn’t have responded militarily to Osama bin Laden after 9/11. For good measure, he added that we shouldn’t have responded militarily to Japan after Pear Harbor, either.
This interview was typical of Mellencamp’s politics – ignorant, idiotic and childishly contrarian. Of course, there was also the irritating grace note of moral superiority. Mellencamp wants peace, everyone else wants war. Therefore, Mellencamp is the superior being, the enlightened artist.
While I was offended by Mellencamp’s latest foray into commentary cum idiocy, I also felt bad for him. He has no idea about the backlash that may come his way. He’s blissfully ignorant that he’s about to become the poster-child for sub-moronic entertainment-community politics.
Speaking of blissful ignorance, you have to wonder what goes through a guy like Mellencamp’s mind when he’s asked to talk politics for 30 minutes on national television. If someone asked me to spend 30 minutes on TV discussing particle physics, I would respectfully decline. I don’t know a blessed thing about particle physics, and I wouldn’t want to take the chance of being exposed for the ignoramus that I am. And yet Mellencamp, a man so ignorant that he didn’t seem entirely familiar with Pearl Harbor, willfully walked into Charlie Rose’s den. Unbelievable.
Mellencamp’s performance with Charlie Rose was so execrably offensive that it actually forces me to revisit my paradigm for dealing with artists’ politics. Yesterday, I made a little crack that referenced the reluctance of some Jews to buy German cars. The reason some Jews felt (and feel) this way wasn’t to get some payback for the Holocaust.
When I was a kid, I asked my uncle who could have afforded any car and yet drove a hideously clumsy Lincoln Continental why he just didn’t buy a Mercedes or BMW like everyone else. (American cars in the late 70’s weren’t renowned for their quality.) He told me the thing about German cars. I said, “Come on. That was 35 years ago.” He responded that yes, the Holocaust was decades ago, but there are still a lot of Germans who don’t like Jews. Since they don’t like him, why should he give them his money?
There’s wisdom in this. In the future, I’m going to be a lot more reluctant to financially support artists who likely consider me a neocon warmonger. Given how annoying Mellencamp’s ubiquitous Chevy commercial is, not purchasing Mellencamp’s new album will probably be a painless first step.
Post a Comment
<< Home