Note to every non-Black person in the whole wide world (a.k.a. the real www): you have no reason to use the n-word, and if you do, there is no acceptable explanation for your doing so.
Note to Michael Richards: you're an idiot, and you're through.
Well, that was my comment prior to watching the Letterman apology clip. Now that I've seen it (thank you, YouTube), I guess my note to Michael Richards is: seek help and get to the bottom of the rage that caused you to lash out at Black people in such an ugly manner. And then prepare to eat crow for the rest of your days. Oh - and maybe get a job outside of the entertainment industry, because it's going to be really hard for people to find you entertaining when you are ceaselessly apologizing for and referring to this miserable episode. And therein lies the kicker: it's a stain that won't go away. If you mention it, there it is. If you don't, there it is times ten.
[Sidebar: Jerry Seinfeld's sober admonishment to the audience during Richards' apology, "Don't laugh - it's not funny," made Seinfeld seem like some sort of statesman of comedy - as well he should, I suppose, given the power he wields in that realm.]
I have to say that personally I think the worst part of this whole thing is how it has permanently impaired my ability to enjoy "Seinfeld" reruns. Kramer's entrances and other antics will never tickle me in the same way because I will be thinking in the back of my head how weird it is that Michael Richards is a racist.
One final thing - of course Michael Richards proclaimed on Letterman (and no doubt is doing so everywhere else he goes now) that he is not a racist. But guess what? Marching back and forth across a comedy club stage yelling the n-word -
at Black people, no less - is a racist act.
You in big heap o' shit, Kramer.
It's baffling that in this advanced technological age, no one is able to come up with an innovation that will effectively put the kabosh on spam email. And when I say no one, I'm thinking Google, Microsoft, the WWW consortium, etc.
[Sidebar: Who in the fuck has the time & energy to waste generating all of that shit anyway?!]
I operate both an iMac and a ThinkPad; on the former (Mac Mail) I receive about 15-30 spam emails daily. On the latter (Outlook Express), the number is more like 300. I am loathe to open my email on the ThinkPad, and therefore only do it every few days. Which means each time I'm dealing with 900-1200 spam messages.
Mac Mail has a much more sophisticated Rule function that makes it a lot easier to set up spam-blocking rules. Outlook Express is weak in this department. I currently have junkmail filters in place only through my server and my email clients. Now that I've reached the point of blogging about spam, I realize it's time to identify a spam-blocking program for my ThinkPad. I just can't keep dealing with the rage this topic inspires, especially in the midst of my workdays.
WTF?!
I am in something like Dave Matthews Band Hell right now. My music library contains about 2.3gb of live DMB recordings - in other words, every officially released live recording they've made.
Well, if you've been here before you may be aware that I've been on a campaign to listen to all of the songs in my library that I have not yet played since importing them into iTunes. The bulk of the DMB live recordings are in this category.
After three days I'm about a quarter of the way through Live Trax 6 (Fenway Park) - with Stand Up and the Complete Weekend on the Rocks eight-disc set still on deck.
Who knew that listening to live DMB recordings for three days could become akin to water torture?!
Anyway, when this spell is over Dave Navarro is up and then it's on to what looks like it will be about a week of David Bowie - studio, live, and boots. At the moment I'm looking forward to getting to Bowie because it's been a long time since I've listened to him at length.
Hope I won't be writing about Bowie Hell in a week's time.
"Cease fire, friendlies! I'm Pat fucking Tillman, damn it!"
The story of Pat Tillman leaving the NFL to enlist in the Army has always boggled my mind, and his subsequent senseless death even more so. His recently released last words - prior to being shot to death by members of his own squadron - only make his story one hundred times more devastating.
War is shit.
Probably the most astute comment I've heard George W. Bush make in the past six years.
That sounds preposterous on some level, I realize, but after watching Couric on Larry King last week, I was impressed by her intelligence, humor, and apparent competence. She seems like an appropriate person to resuscitate the CBS news entity in the Internet age. And you've got to admit - it's pretty damn cool that a woman now holds the post of anchor of a network evening news broadcast.
So to all the Katie haters, I say give her a chance. In her new capacity, and on many levels, she represents CBS making a good faith effort to keep up with the times.
