The two Jerrys are in the news again.
One is a pompous ringmaster who appeals to the lowest common denominator, exploiting ignorance, and preying on people's irrational fears.
The other one is Jerry Springer.
Together, Jerrys Wright and Springer represent the most startling examples of a disturbing socio-political phenomenon where we are instructed to treat remorseless carnival barkers as serious contributors to civilized society.
Barack Obama's ole, kooky uncle Jeremiah, a living, breathing Horn of Plenty for John McCain, spent yesterday giving David Axelrod heart palpitations by roosting his chickens before the National Press Club.
Reverend Ocho Cinco tended to his theatrical excesses high-fiving one audience member, pointing and winking to another like he just scored a touchdown while he boasted about his military service as evidence that he was more patriotic than Dick Cheney.
By Wright's, ahem, logic, Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh, and John Allen Muhammed, all of whom served in the U.S. military, are also more patriotic than the vice president. The point is that military service, including Wright's, is deserving of respect and thanks but it does not provide lifelong absolution for everything a person does or says.
Meanwhile, Jerry Springer was busily figuring out how to fit a pithy anecdote about a Nazi werewolf boy who married his pet parakeet into the commencement speech he was invited to deliver at Northwestern University Law School in two weeks.
One can only hope U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a NU Law alumnus, is on hand for this dignified affair to join in the chanting: "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!".
In response to the howls of protest over selecting Springer, Northwestern Law School Dean David Van Zandt offered the non-responsive response that Springer held public office and was successful in the entertainment industry implying that he was therefore a legitimate choice.
Dean Van Zandt glossed over the fact that while in public office Springer distinguished himself by getting caught paying for a prostitute with a check and that Springer's "success" in entertainment was predicated on himself being a prostitute, servicing the general public with every possible incarnation of inbreeding.
So here's my "Final Thought": What a society exalts, it begets.
I am not concerned that the two Jerrys are held in high esteem by common sense Americans--that is certainly not the case.
Rather, I get concerned when I consider exactly what we as a nation are begetting when a venerated law school and the likely Presidential nominee of the Democrat Party take their respective Jerrys seriously.
One is a pompous ringmaster who appeals to the lowest common denominator, exploiting ignorance, and preying on people's irrational fears.
The other one is Jerry Springer.
Together, Jerrys Wright and Springer represent the most startling examples of a disturbing socio-political phenomenon where we are instructed to treat remorseless carnival barkers as serious contributors to civilized society.
Barack Obama's ole, kooky uncle Jeremiah, a living, breathing Horn of Plenty for John McCain, spent yesterday giving David Axelrod heart palpitations by roosting his chickens before the National Press Club.
Reverend Ocho Cinco tended to his theatrical excesses high-fiving one audience member, pointing and winking to another like he just scored a touchdown while he boasted about his military service as evidence that he was more patriotic than Dick Cheney.
By Wright's, ahem, logic, Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh, and John Allen Muhammed, all of whom served in the U.S. military, are also more patriotic than the vice president. The point is that military service, including Wright's, is deserving of respect and thanks but it does not provide lifelong absolution for everything a person does or says.
Meanwhile, Jerry Springer was busily figuring out how to fit a pithy anecdote about a Nazi werewolf boy who married his pet parakeet into the commencement speech he was invited to deliver at Northwestern University Law School in two weeks.
One can only hope U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a NU Law alumnus, is on hand for this dignified affair to join in the chanting: "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!".
In response to the howls of protest over selecting Springer, Northwestern Law School Dean David Van Zandt offered the non-responsive response that Springer held public office and was successful in the entertainment industry implying that he was therefore a legitimate choice.
Dean Van Zandt glossed over the fact that while in public office Springer distinguished himself by getting caught paying for a prostitute with a check and that Springer's "success" in entertainment was predicated on himself being a prostitute, servicing the general public with every possible incarnation of inbreeding.
So here's my "Final Thought": What a society exalts, it begets.
I am not concerned that the two Jerrys are held in high esteem by common sense Americans--that is certainly not the case.
Rather, I get concerned when I consider exactly what we as a nation are begetting when a venerated law school and the likely Presidential nominee of the Democrat Party take their respective Jerrys seriously.
Labels: Dan Proft, Jeremiah Wright, Jerry Springer, Northwestern University
