Unfiltered Opinion

The Worst Show On Television

Last night I watched an episode of "Under One Roof" featuring the old rapper Flavor Flav.  The only reason I watched the show was because Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens made an appearance on the show.  However, I knew there was a problem when Owens was the best actor on the program and the jokes were not funny.

This show goes to great lengths to reinforce racial stereotypes that minority groups have worked years to remove from the Hollywood culture.

"The new comedy's characters include a sex-crazed black man, a drunken Latino gardener and a grumpy Asian housekeeper who speaks in heavily accented broken English. "It is difficult to do much except watch, wide-eyed with disbelief," writes Times television critic Mary McNamara, who was able to see an episode despite the network's withholding of screeners, "as terrible jokes are made at the expense of just about every racial and socioeconomic group in America."

"Under One Roof" is a very bad version of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" with weak actors who are not funny.  These actors should not be allowed to act on anything but pizza commercials.  I wish I could have been in the meeting when the creators of the show were pitching it to network executives.  Where is the network executive who thought a show with Flavor Flav in the starring role would be funny?  Flavor Flav is a walking minstrel show who does not care how he is projected on television as long as he's getting paid for his dismal efforts.

Even though this show is still on the air, I take great comfort in the fact that it will soon be canceled because no one is watching it.  If you have not had the misfortune of viewing the show then you are in luck.  Click on the video below and judge for yourself.  Warning - you will not laugh.

Justice Scalia - Unplugged

The most controversial member of the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia gave a rare, insightful and entertaining  interview to 60 Minutes.  The interview is located below in two parts.

Part One

Part Two

In a surprisingly candid interview, Scalia commented on his judicial philosophy and his opinion on the still controversial Gore v. Bush decision that allowed George W. Bush to become president.  He also made some interesting comments regarding the issue of abortion that some people may find interesting.  I also found it interesting that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one the most liberal justices on the court is one of his best friends.  This revelation may disappoint people who like to think that the justices are throwing darts at each other in the hallways of the Supreme Court.

People either like Scalia or hate Scalia.  I do not agree with many of his court opinions, but I have always enjoyed reading them.  It could be argued that his written opinions have always been, by far, the best on the bench.  When he eventually leaves the Supreme Court, a lot of people will be dancing in the streets.  No matter what people think of Scalia, there is no doubt that he will have left an indelible mark on the Court.

Oprah Winfrey Is Starting To Really Annoy Me

When I saw the article title, "Pregnant Man Tells Oprah: It's A Miracle", I thought it was one of those supermarket tabloid stories.  Since I had made my transactions for my fantasy baseball team for the night, I clicked the link to see how Oprah's name got caught up in this story. To be honest, I do not watch Oprah because she annoys me. Don't get me wrong, I respect her and all that she has accomplished.  I'm just not an Oprah fan. 

Now I am really annoyed because she allowed this "miracle" to be legitimized on her television show.  This is not a pregnant man.  This is a woman who decided she wanted to be a man, but kept her reproductive system intact because he/she wanted to have a child some day.  Where's the miracle?  Someone is going to have to explain this one to me. Never mind - I'm sure my wife will try and make me understand the "miracle" after she reads this posting.

A woman was injected with semen and she got pregnant.  I don't find that miraculous at all. I call it a successful injection.  It's a miracle if he/she was living alone in a studio apartment and woke up one morning and discovered that he/she were pregnant without having a relationship of any kind with any person.  Now that's a miracle.

I am a firm believer in the miracle of child birth.  After watching my wife deal with three pregnancies, I have no choice but to be a true believer.  The whole nine month process and the growth of the fetus still blows me away.  Therefore, I understand the excitement of the father/mother to be, but there is no need to go on a national media tour calling it a miracle. 

"The couple said they decided to go public with the pregnancy because they wanted to control the way the news got out. "We're just going to have the baby now," Nancy said. "If we have to, we'll go hide."

Who goes on Oprah's show and decides to hide later?  Would this really have been a big deal to the rest of the country?  The couple lives in Bend, Oregon.  I would have respected them more if they just said they wanted some publicity on a popular talk show that would produce some positive buzz about their future business ventures.

"Beatie is working on a book about his childhood, his mother's suicide and his life growing in Hawaii where, as a girl, he was a teen beauty pageant contestant and earned a martial arts black belt."

See - this experience is not a miracle at all.  This is a planned pregnancy.  I guarantee that when this book is completed, it will be also be publicized on Oprah's show.  She probably is working on securing the movie rights to the story. Despite the circus nature of it all, I hope that the couple has a successful pregnancy that results in a healthy child.  I do know one thing - that kid is going to have some interesting stories to tell when he or she gets older.

Law Professors Can Be Crazy Too

When I first read about the latest accusation of racism leveled against the Clinton campaign, I started laughing. It's based on the controversial Clinton campaign commercial regarding the issue of who you would rather have answering the phone at the White House during a national emergency.  Some people seem to think that 11-12 seconds into the commercial, the lettering on the child's pajamas form some sort of subliminal racial slur. This is crazy, but you judge for yourself.

    

The accusation is so ridiculous that Black people are not even talking about it.  I will admit I was disappointed to see that this ignorant crap was posted on a blog maintained by law professor, Ann Althouse.  She is supposed to be an intelligent person, but it seems that this is not the first time she has accused the Clinton campaign of having subliminal racist messages in their commercials.  Check out what the Rightwing Nuthouse had to say about the other stupid accusation Althouse leveled against the Clinton campaign and their reaction to it.

The Media Examines Itself

This article in the New York Times, examines the issue of alleged favoritism by the media towards Barack Obama.   I found some of the quotes interesting, in particular that of NBC political correspondent,  Andrea Mitchell.  I believe the alleged "double standard" in media coverage of the campaign between Obama and Clinton will be examined in more detail when the election is over.  Naturally, this conservative blogger had a different and interesting view on the subject.

I have already detailed in an earlier posting that I feel that there has been a double standard by the media in their coverage of Clinton and Obama.

The Farrakhan Issue - This Is Just The Beginning

During the debate tonight, moderator Tim Russert, questioned Barack Obama about the issue of Louis Farrakhan supporting his candidacy.  Farrakhan is the leader of the controversial black separatist group, the Nation of Islam. To his credit, Obama deftly handled the line of questioning even though it was clear he was not comfortable doing so.

Obama said he rejected Farrakhan's anti-semitic views, but I wish he had gone further and said he rejected the rest of the views of the Nation of Islam leader.  Here is a clip of the exchange:

I also thought Obama did a good job talking about the role of Jewish people in the civil rights movement.  Obama scored points with me by bringing this issue up and talking about how strained the relationship has become.  The strained relationship has lot to do with the well documented remarks of Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and others.  Obama says he wants to repair the relationship between Black and Jewish people.  I sincerely hope he can accomplish this.

Where Is Thou Spouse?

I saw something yesterday that I had never seen before during a presidential campaign.  Throughout the night, the candidates gave speeches to their supporters.  As usual, the spouse and children of the candidate are usually on the stage behind the candidate listening to the same speech for the hundredth time.  The network cameras always show them nodding their heads and clapping at the applause lines.  However, Tuesday night was different.

I saw John McCain give his speech with his wife behind him.  I saw Mitt Romney give his speech with his wife and family behind him for support.  Mike Huckabee gave a entertaining speech to his supporters with his wife at his side.  That leaves Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - so what did they do?

Clinton chose to give her speech earlier than Obama.  She approached the podium with husband, Bill and daughter, Chelsea.  However, when it was time to give her speech, they assumed positions off to the side and out of the camera's site.  I assume this was done because of the media driven "negative perception" of former President Clinton because of his "attacks" on Obama.  It is a fact that some people's blood pressure rises at just the sight of any Clinton.  Therefore, it could be argued that it was a good strategic move to keep him out of sight. 

On the other hand, Obama does not have the same spousal problem like Clinton or does he?  I wonder why his wife, Michelle was not behind him like the other candidate's wives?  Did she not want to stand there?  Doubt it - she's stood on stage with him before.  It is my opinion that this was a decision made by Obama's campaign team.  They knew that after his successful string of wins on Tuesday, the eyes of many voters were going to be watching Obama to hear his speech.  Obama's campaign team is not stupid.  They know that there are still people in this country who cannot fathom the idea of having a President who is not White.  I will say what is not being said - Obama's wife makes him look blacker than what he is. 

Personally, I don't thing Obama's campaign team wanted the image of this Black woman being projected onto the television screens across this country.  I think they were worried that she might remind some people that Obama is considered by many people to be African-American.  Michelle Obama is an intelligent woman with a law degree who would probably make a good First Lady, but the television cameras cannot lighten her skin to look like that of her husband's.  There is nothing wrong with talking about race if it is the truth.  It is what it is.  There is no other reason she was not standing behind her husband on the biggest night of his political life thus far.

What concerns me more is that Obama would allow his wife to be treated like that.  Maybe she signed off on the idea.  Well, at least I know Obama is playing to win.