Brutally Honest Rant - 09/13/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant:
The Missing Link (and other ramblings)
Audio Transcripts
09/13/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Well I’ve got a lot on my mind again, so let’s get right to it…

Obviously I have to get my $2 in on "THE BIG SPEECH" made by the White House to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11^th terrorist attacks. Somewhere between fifty and seventy-five percent of that speech consisted of words that needed to be spoken.

But once President Bush strayed from the issue of the day into his continual justification for the War in Iraq, he pretty much lost his momentum. He did a much better job on the memorials of the previous day, when he went over to Ground Zero, planted the two wreaths representing the Twin Towers, and then left. No big speeches, no political plugs, he just did what he had do to and then that was it.

In that regard George W. Bush is like a child… he is better seen and not heard.

But once again the Bush Imperium FAILED to use the one thing that would have cemented their stance that Iraq was central in their "War on Terror". One thing… that’s all that it would have taken, and it would have shut the critics up!

You see, Bush Junior LOVES to drop names when he can. It’s an old political tactic… he wasn’t the first to do it and he won’t be the last. But in connecting the dots between Afghanistan and Iraq, Junior forgot to give out three very important names that would have made that connection EASY. So easy that everyone in the White House should be thoroughly and completely EMBARASSED for not figuring it out!

Those three names are Leon Klinghoffer, Abu Abbas, and Abu Nidal.

Klinghoffer was an American tourist… a wheelchair-bound senior citizen. Abu Abbas and Abu Nidal were actual confirmed TERRORISTS. Abu Abbas was responsible for orchestrating the TERRORIST hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro that KILLED Klinghoffer in premeditated cold blood. Abu Nidal was responsible for SEVERAL TERRORIST activities, including the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in 1986 and allegedly in the DESTRUCTION of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988.

Guess where Abbas and Nidal were found? Afghanistan? Nope. Pakistan? Nope? Iran? Nope. Syria? Nope. They were both in IRAQ! They were both there at the behest and warm welcome of Saddam Hussein.

THERE’S YOUR TERROR LINK!

And all Junior had to do from DAY ONE was to mention Abu Abbas and Abu Nidal and bring up the death of Leon Klinghoffer, and the dots would have been connected! It would have been a LOOSE connection, it certainly wouldn’t be the kind of smoking gun that the Imperium ass-kissers continue to say exists, but it would have bridged the gap between Afghanistan and Iraq. It would have established Iraq as a longtime sponsor of international terrorism, and it would have justified taking action against Saddam Hussein.

Hey, speaking of which, no I DID NOT watch any of the so-called "9/11 specials" this past Monday. In fact I made it a point to NOT watch any of those things. You know why? Because the History Channel and the Discovery Channel and Arts and Entertainment already did a much better job of retracing the events leading up to 9/11 and they were airing those specials all weekend long. And the whole thing with ABC’s "docu-drama" was just too much wasted and needless DRAMA anyway… and I’m not talking about the "special" itself.

Okay, enough seriousness… let’s lighten things up a moment.

A recent report suggests that images of sexy women with big cleavage doesn’t really sell for other women. This study supposedly based this on the use of such women on magazines designed for women and say that women don’t buy the magazines based on the suggestive models with their gazoombas peeking through their deliberately LOW v-neck tops.

Well, hey, I’ve got news for you… that’s no big surprise! The REAL story is what the women REALLY buy the magazines for… it’s for the headlines about how to keep their men horny and happy. Fifty ways to spice up your love life without spending a dime. How to get the man that you want and the man that you deserve, even if they’re not the same man. Hollywood beauty secrets for under five bucks. All this and a whole bunch of horror stories about relationships gone bad so that women can look at this failed relationships and say "you know what? My man’s a piece of crap but at least he’s not like THESE losers!"

The media is hyping this MYTH that sex doesn’t sell for women, and that’s just not true. Sex DOES sell for women, but just not in the same way as it would for guys! Remember folks, guys are stimulated more by the senses than women. Women are more introspective. They don’t buy the magazine for the cleavage model; they buy it because of the REST of the stuff on the cover! WE GUYS would buy the magazine for the cleavage model and not even notice what else is there! That’s just the way it is, folks. Guys are sensory-based, women are thought-based.

That of course brings me to my last little rambling for the week… and this one is right off the cuff…

Been reading the Atlanta Journal-Constitution… because, hey, I live in the Atlanta area and it’s pretty much an unwritten law that you have to. Or at least that’s the attitude of several people who spend their time hogging the newspaper on the rack trying to read the articles without actually buying the paper.

Anyway, in Tuesday’s issue, a local writer and physician named Melody McCloud got a bug up her butt about how black women supposedly aren’t getting the "respect" that they deserve. She points to the "lack" of positive role models on TV and how fraternity pledges flashed pictures of naked black women… because, supposedly, THEY CAN. She says this isn’t RIGHT and she is asking for… of all things… a CONGRESSIONAL investigation on this!

Give me a FREAKING BREAK! You want lack of respect? How about fathers of all races on TV sitcoms? The mothers are all beautiful and smart and professional… and the fathers are bumbling buffoons, doing double takes whenever they hear a double-entendre from their teenaged kids. They can’t change a light bulb, they can’t fix a leaky faucet, they can’t even pop a tape into the VCR without blowing up the TV! And if they’re not blowing the house up, then they’re seen as drunken or drug-addicted unfaithful LOSERS who walk out on their families on a moment’s notice.

Lack of respect? How about the fact that forty years ago a certain TV series aired that included amongst the case the first black female officer and had the first-ever interracial kiss on TV? And if you consider yourself a fan of that TV series called "Star Trek", then you’re INSTANTLY stereotyped as being some pathetic LOSER who lives in their parents’ basement and masturbates to whatever sexy babe is wearing a skintight leotard. Never mind, of course, that "Star Trek" has inspired people to become scientists, soldiers, teachers, and even astronauts. No, we’re not given respect either… so where the hell is OUR congressional investigation?

But I think that the key problem can be pointed out in the headline for this little guest editorial… made in a paper, by the way, whose editorial board is run by a black woman. The headline reads: "Black Women DEMAND Respect".

Let’s get brutally honest here… you don’t DEMAND respect in society, you EARN it! You do the things that EARN respect and you do the things that CREATE positive role models instead of going on your soapbox and complain about the LACK those role models.

You want to point out Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as a role model? A woman who assaults a police officer and then gets away with it? A woman who surrounds herself with aggressive thugs who aren’t afraid to push around and punch out members of the media when the congresswoman doesn’t get her way? You want to complain that Omarosa from "The Apprentice" was seen as a flake? She was a DRAMA QUEEN who quickly pulled out the race card when she was losing an argument… AN ARGUMENT! Those ARE NOT positive role models no matter WHAT race or gender you are!

You want to complain about the lack of positive role models for black women on the TV series "Desperate Housewives"? A show about a group of dysfunctional women and the men that help make their lives dysfunctional? I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to be wasting time trying to come up with role models for that kind of series. You don’t watch that kind of show as a pattern for normal family life. That series is nothing but a multiple ongoing train wreck!

And guess what? There IS a voice out there that is saying the same things that Dr. McCloud is talking about. He’s also asking for change. But he’s NOT asking for a congressional hearing or otherwise trying to wield the power of GOVERNMENT to get his way. He’s challenging the community to do the task by themselves. You may have heard about this guy… his name is Bill Cosby. But then again he’s immediately written off as being a clueless old coot by the very community that he’s trying to challenge and trying to help improve.

Look, RESPECT is not something that you DEMAND. In fact, the more that you DEMAND it, the less DESERVING you are of it! You EARN respect by doing the things that warrant respect.

Let’s use Dr. McCloud’s profession as a physician as an example of this. It’s not easy to become a doctor. You have to go through extensive pre-med and medical schooling and you have to do internships and you have to pass a regulatory board. That’s a lot of stuff to do… and it’s not cheap! We’re talking money in six-figures being spent on this kind of venture!

But let’s suppose that I didn’t want to wait that long. I did pre-med, I know SOMETHING about the subject of medicine… I read up on the medical journals and stuff. Now using Dr. McCloud’s stance, I should be able to just go through to the regulatory board, take my test, and DEMAND to be given the title of "Doctor", with all of the privileges and benefits thereof. Never mind the fact that I didn’t even go through the whole medical college and get a Ph.D. or do any of the interning. I want it, I DEMAND it, so therefore I should be ENTITLED to it! And I’ll DEMAND a congressional hearing if I don’t GET it!

Doesn’t work, does it? Well neither does it work in Dr. McCloud’s case.

You want respect? You earn it. You teach it. You do the things that warrant it.

And if by some chance you pay your dues and you STILL don’t get the kind of respect that you’re looking for, then you probably never WILL get that kind of respect. Either your goals are just too damn unrealistic or the people you’re looking to get respect FROM just don’t have it in them! You know sometimes people just don’t have any respect to give. And there’s nothing that you can do about that… and there is no law, no regulatory board, and no government inquisition that will ever change that.

That’s reality, folks, and it is high time that people like Dr. McCloud come off their lofty McClouds and embrace that reality.

(Computer – a nice mix that you have to LISTEN to appreciate)

(Fade Music In – "Who Am I" by Peace Orchestra)

You know, if you think about it, this unrealistic view of where RESPECT is showing up in a lot of our social problems. What’s at the heart of road rage? What’s the motivator there? Some dickhead’s demented demand for RESPECT. School shootings? Lack of respect. Gang activity? Lack of respect. Violence in the workplace? Lack of respect.

People just don’t know where RESPECT comes from! They think that they can FORCE it from people, and of course they follow their leads from the arrogant prima donnas in the government and in the media. Look, this is NOT something that you can GET… it’s something that you GIVE, and it’s something that you EARN. And the longer we remain clueless about that little tidbit, the more problems we will have to deal with, and with no idea whatsoever on how to resolve them!

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

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