February 18, 2012

Chupacabra

Today's Overnight Open Thread over at Ace of Spades HQ reminded me of something I took notes on a few months back and didn't end up writing about.  The first topic of that thread is about AMC's show, Walking Dead, and some asinine liberal commentary from the goatsuckers at the Washington Post.

I missed the first season entirely and only heard about it as the second season was gearing up last October. The premiere had me hooked and I thought I'd be settling in for some appointment television for the foreseeable future.  Some of the criticism about deeper-than-necessary character development and low body count was justified, but if the characters were a bunch of rape deniers/enablers, why would I care if anyone survived? I liked the show so much that I even watched the live aftershow, Talking Dead, for no additional benefit.

Everything was going along just fine...until Episode 5, Chupacabra.

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon













Daryl is sort of a backwoods, survival type of southerner. His last name is also either a play on Dixie, or just taken straight from the Mason-Dixon Line.  Either way, he's from the south, so his ancestors owned slaves and he has probably lynched someone or burned a cross. In this episode, we find Daryl injured after a fall, trying to climb back up a hill.  I think he has just fallen back down the hill after getting near the top.  As he lies defeated in the mud, his deceased brother, Merle, played by Michael Rooker (the other guy in Days of Thunder), appears to him in a vision. Merle is sass-talkin' Daryl to get his ass up again, basically.  This is the pertinent part of their exhange:


DARYL: I ain't nobody's bitch

MERLE: You're a joke, is what you are. Playing errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, niggers, and Democrats.


I finished the episode, but I swore to never watch another.  It isn't enough that Daryl is a southerner...the ghost of his brother has to use slurs to make it authentic. And to top it off, 'Democrats' rounds out the chain, to imply that Daryl and Merle are Republicans.  That 'ni**gers' wasn't edited for television either - we got to look Merle right in the face and hear him say it. Nevermind that Republicans, of all colors, freed the slaves, and still fight to this day for equality. This exchange is just another incremental brainwash of Americans into believing that it wasn't southern Democrats who fought to keep slavery, or who enacted Jim Crow laws, but it was Republicans all this time.

So, like I said, I finished the episode, grumbling, and looked forward to Talking Dead afterwards because it's a live show and thought the use of 'ni**ers' might come up.  Not a peep.
Aisha Tyler



















This is Aisha Tyler: a comedian, actress, and the first black guest to appear on the Talking Dead (maybe the last, too, I also stopped watching the aftershow).  I'm not sure why she appeared after this episode - probably a big horror buff.  She has some writing credits to her name so she might be on the Walking Dead team. She and the host, Chris Hardwick, may be old friends, and someone cancelled on him and they needed a filler. I don't know.  But it's not like they just threw her to the wolves; she shared the couch with Michael Rooker (the other guy in Cliffhanger).

Michael Rooker

February 11, 2012

Dumb (Crowder) and Dumber (Gawker)

So last night at CPAC, Steven Crowder and Chris Loesch performed a rap song called "Mr. America".  It's a catchy, spoofy little number and could be tossed into a dance mix with most people being none the wiser.  But there is a section towards the end that, I think, has justifiably attracted some ire and that is the focus of this post. 

At the 2:49 mark of this music video (the performance video at CPAC plays the same track), the music stops and Crowder unfunnily defends an intentional near-homophone of the n-word.  The relevant stupidity begins around the 2:45 mark:



Yes, 'knickers'. Dumb dumb dumb dumb DUMB! If there was no break in the music, and therefore no spotlight on 'knickers' whatsoever (except the leg-point), any lies by the agenda-driven media (Gawker) would be laughable. But after Crowder utters 'knickers', the music does break, and Crowder protests to the black producer that he can, in fact, say 'knickers'. This is not a dog whistle, this is a bull horn. Notice the music didn't stop at 0:27 to clarify that 'principles' is not in fact 'principals'. 'I can say knickers' belies Crowder's intentions and is what earns him his place as Dumb in my metaphor.  And immature and reckless in addition.


Now for the reliably Dumber.

Crowder has just laid an obnoxious gift at the feet of whichever leftist coyote wants to pick him over. Instead, the ethical luminaries at Gawker decided to lie flatly and claim Crowder said 'ni**er' with the headline, Awful White Rappers Drop The N Word at CPAC, Receive Applause.  Big Journalism has rightfully called for a retraction, and when Gawker does (because they surely must?), Crowder will be granted more victim status than he certainly deserves.  And from Gawker's point of view, with Crowder willingly serving red meat on a silver platter, it does not get any DUMBER.


Evil destroys even itself - Aristotle

UPDATE: Edited for multiple 'Chowders'

In reply to comments I've been getting:

I say all of this as a fan of Crowder's videos and interviews when he legitimately engages and informs his subjects with the principles of freedom.  Let's just imagine for a moment that Crowder is in the same league as Chappell and South Park. His work is political and he is trying to defeat a traitorous president in the most important election of our lifetimes. The future of freedom is literally in the balance.  For better or worse, Crowder is an ambassador of the Tea Party and/or the conservative movement. That traitorous president is black. And you want Crowder's talent pissed away on what is essentially ni**er jokes? Last time I checked, Chappell and South Park don't explicitly endorse a political ideology.  When they piss people off, THEY piss people off.  A conservative conference is not collateral in painfully unfunny sensitivity-baiting as you might put it. Do you REALLY think the leftwing, scumbag media is going to learn a lesson if WE start acting like scumbags? No, sorry. And my beef isn't even really with 'knickers' so much as 'I can say knickers'. That is skull-cracking stupidity, in my opinion.  If you really must race-bait, try subtlety. If you really must dog whistle, don't show people your fucking dog whistle.