Thursday, August 19, 2010

Laura, this is Jim. Jim, meet Laura.

Who knew that you can get a PhD without ever once having the First Amendment explained to you?

In America, your right to say idiotic things is affirmed by the First Amendment.

Your audience's right to call your sponsors and tell them that they think you're an idiot is also affirmed by the First Amendment.

And, finally, your sponsor's right to say "You're fired, you idiot!" is affirmed by the First Amendment.

Got it, Laura?

14 comments:

John said...

Laura can be a little thick sometimes.

One cold, slow winter years ago the radio was on a lot in the shop. At the time she was taking hand to hand self defense courses and began to tout how invincible and scary to bad guys this made her, citing having backed off some wanna be suburban maybe-muggers with a confident horse stance.

Not only is she relatively tiny, physically, but having looked into the bbl of a hostile gun or two myself, the 'horse stance' defense seemed a little weak to be endorsed for public consumption on a National Radio Talk Show.

After that, I plied her and her gate-keeper with extensive pro-firearms lit and books. Eventually, I offered to pay for a course at a well known Seattle trainer, if she would go and try out firearms self-defense. The trainer was already 'in' with the idea, after we had a discussion about the 'Dr.' and her, then, Auntie views.

Well, the Mock Doc didn't pick up on the deal, simply ignoring any further commo. Other things had begun to occupy my 'ear' time, anyway. But I heard that eventually something seeped into her grey matter, and that she had changed her 'horse stance' on gun control & self defense, at least to some degree.

One good thing personally that came of it, is that I am forever inoculated against wasting any time at all on radio talk shows, hosts, or their points of view. Some days I make a fair amount of sawdust, and there is more reality for me in that modest heap, than the entire daily output of the Talk Show industry.

Yes, they serve a purpose; and any gentle reader is more than welcome to it.

Anonymous said...

That honky shawtie beeatch need to STFU!

Not really. Actually, she provided quite the object lesson, albeit inadvertently, as to what 1A can and should protect, with a (very expensive) side-order of cause-and-effect as a demonstrated bonus.

AT

Boat Guy said...

Sure is a lot of 1A stuff being bandied about these days. Mostly by folks who haven't read much less understood and internalized the contents of the Constitution.
I particularly liked the comment at the other site noting that while one has a right to express oneself, the Constitution was written in a day when slanderous comments night earn one a pistol ball at sunrise. Still a pretty good system, I think...

Joanna said...

Few things look dumber than someone who does something that could get them in trouble, then gets all butt-hurt when trouble comes along -- especially if they were trying to make a stand of some sort. Making a stand means you stand your ground; i.e., you don't back down from your position no matter what comes at you.

I think it's partly an approval-craving thing, too; "I did something brave, so why is everyone being mean?"

CalvinsMom said...

Hell, if you're Barack Hussein Obama, you can teach Constitutional Law without having read, understood or agreed with a single word!

og said...

Wait, isn't this the same Dr Laura of the famous nude photographs?

hard to take a moral-spouting yenta seriously when she's had her yin-yang plastered all over the internet where potbellied alter-kockers can print it out and hold it up with one hand.

Bubblehead Les. said...

People need to realize that just because you have the right to exercise your 1A rights, I also have the right to turn off my hearing aids and not listen to your drivel. Of course, this also means that if I chose to express my opinions in the public forum, I don't need to be threatened by Commissar Pelosi with a Congressional Gestapo Hearing on why I might or might not oppose the building of a Mosque in Lower Manhattan. Comrade Pelosi needs to be aware that 1A is backstopped by 2A, and her "Speechafyin'" is a lot more dangerous to the Republic than anything that Lamebrain Laura says.

Stretch said...

Apparently the 1st Amendment also allows you to lie about earning the Medal of Honor.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/9th_circuit_strikes_down_ban_on_military-medal_lies_cites_crush_video_opini

LabRat said...

Not only that, but the same Dr. Laura who has had two long-term affairs with married men (children were involved), one divorce, and is estranged from most of her own family.

Ed Rasimus said...

Laura can be a pompous ass sometime, but I'm not that eager to condemn her. Frankly I'm sick of people taking great umbrage over a word--a single word. A single word that they themselves use freely as a privilege which they alone can exercise. It extends well beyond comedians and I'm in at least partial agreement with Laura for pointing it out.

Who are we kidding when we hide behind the six-grade, double-speak of "the N-word". If I use "the N-word" do you know what I've said and what it means? Then why circumlocute? If I want to be deeply offensive and call Laura "a C-word" have I stayed polite?

Should I get really made and call someone a "F-bomb..ing F-bomb...er"

Communication is our freedom and words are the means. Offense at a word is puerile (make that "P-word-ish")

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but being called a dumb F-word--ing Polak" is still only words.

Anonymous said...

Ed, there is nothing in Tam's post that disagrees with what you've said. Quite the contrary; her second, third, and fourth lines support the (snort) Dr.'s 1A right to say whatever she pleases but to woman-up to the consequences when her employers react to their customers and their shareholders.

Tamara -like the Constitution itself- makes no judgement as to what is prudent or PC...capitalism will (and did) do that.

AT

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with some of what The "Dr." says haven't lisened to the show for years. In this instance she was polliticly incorect, but was she factualy incorrect? I think she was right in stating some people are "hypersensitive". I have had conversations with individuals who turn every observation into a personal attack. Was the "Dr" insensitive or trying to make a point? Over reaction all around. In my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Yep, good to learn that n
Negros/blacks/black- Americans/ Afro-Americans(or whatever they are calling themselves these days are STILL the Only Ones allowed to use "that" word. What a load of horse-hocky.

Rourke said...

I used my right not to listen to crap a long time ago - and haveen't listedned to her since.

Take care all -

Rourke
ModernSurvivalOnline.com