Dear John, by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #169
May 28, 2010 Michael Davis 7 Comments
Those who have followed ‘Straight No Chaser’ first at Comicmix now at MDW know I’m bit a loud and opinionated, I know that. I know I can be funny, I know I can be smart and I know I can be a Dick. I think knowing that is a big deal. Really. I say this with all seriousness; the ability to know when you are being a Dick is a hell of a trait.
I know I’ve been a Dick many times. I’m a black man and I’m 6’2 so I guess you can say I’ve been a big black Dick. I know people love me or hate me. That’s fair. I get that-I’m like liver you love it or hate it.
I’m of the opinion that you have to know a thing before you can talk about a thing. I think that you have to learn the rules before you break them. So, yes I’ve been a Dick. I say all this not to impress you with my brutal honesty but to impress upon you-when it comes to being a Dick, I know what I’m talking about.
John Stossel is a Dick.
I once LOVED John Stossel. Before he went to Fox ‘News’ I loved his investigative journalism.
Last Tuesday night on The O’Reilly Factor, Stossel continued to call for the repeal of a portion of the Civil Rights Act — the section that protects people from racial discrimination in public accommodations and businesses. Below is my open letter to John Stossel.
Dear John,
You sir, are a Dick.
People have fought and died over civil rights. Discrimination is discrimination is discrimination.
Hey John, did you know that the Nazi’s practiced racial discrimination in public accommodations and businesses? Rounding up Jews and killing them soon followed up this practice.
Do you really think that allowing people to practice any form of discrimination will not lead to MORE discrimination? You sir are a Dick and I’m ashamed of ever being a Dick because of you. You give Dick a bad name. Now that I think of it you are more than a Dick, you are also a Pussy. Wait a sec; you are a Dick, Pussy and Asshole.
Now, go fuck yourself.
Martha Thomases
May 28, 2010 - 5:50 am
Back in the day, my husband edited a newspaper to which John Stossel submitted a story. It was incoherent. The man knew nothing about grammar, punctuation, etc. It was only because my husband edited the piece with a scalpel that it was understandable.
Clearly, no one is doing that for Stossel anymore.
Vinnie Bartilucci
May 28, 2010 - 8:46 am
I found the piece.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/john-stossel-comes-to-rand-pauls-rescue-compares-lunch-counters-to-womens-gyms/
This is one of those cases where Stossel and Rand Paul are arguing way out on the fringe over obscure facets of the issue that they claim could someday affect everyone. And in the vast majority of cases they’re wrong, and in the weird one or two cases where what they say DOES affect regular people, the vast majority grasp that it’s a weird eexcption that maybe should be looked at in that one case, but it doesn’t render the law invalid.
Stossel (and Paul) make the case that technically, according to the interpretation of the law, you can’t legally open a “women only” health club or a black only dance club. That may well be, and yet there are almost as many Curves in my area as there are ice cream stores (sometimes in close proximity, because marketing people are evil and intelligent). I’m sure there are lots of clubs in the area that aren’t technically black-only, but just try and go there if you’re white.
Here’s the thing. People pretty much don’t care about women or black-only clubs, because in most cases, men and white people don’t want to go there anyway, so it’s like banning the sale of filet mingon to vegans. Usually, the only time anyone brings suit against these types of clubs is because they’re REALLY saying “Hey, if THEY can start a women-only club, why can’t I start my MEN-only club?”
I’m pretty sure Stoseel isn’t trying to make that case. I can’t say that about Paul.
The crazy flipsy-flip world that we live in means that Bill O’Reilly was on the side of the civil rights bill, arguing against Stossel on this point. O’Reilly’s argument was simple – if a business is open to the public, then everyone has to be able to go there. Stossel pulled out the “black only” and “women only” clubs, and Bill pointed out the importance of the word “club”. He maintains that a private organization does have the right to restrict memberships, as the Boy Scouts have been able to do. Now there are certainly still people trying to claim that since the scouts get some public funding they should be forced to allow in everyone (and I ain’t talking about Marcia Brady) but the point is there are indeed cases where such limitation is allowed. Stossel, staunch Libertarian that he is (and one of the reasons I don’t call myself a Libertarian though technically I am) makes the case that it is the right of people to have these “us only” clubs. He then takes the case a step further and says that since the civil rights law restricts that right, it has to go down. He is going with that “binary view” mindset that I’m ever going on against – something is either all this way or all the other. The human mind, like the Duotronic computer, is not just “yes” and “no”, but can grasp the infinite variations of “maybe” in between. So it is entirely possible to for a women’s only health club, or a black-only dance club or even a men-only club to exist AND STILL NOT BE EVIL AND RACIST. Sometimes men just like to go to a place where they can fart anc pick their nose and leave the seat up and not have to hear about it. Can you have a white-only club and not have it be racist? Yes, but you ain’t gonna see me try to prove it.
I mean, if you want to take the argument to the unreasonable extreme (as people loooove to do) separate men and women’s bathrooms are in violation of the ban on “separate but equal” standards. Now no rational person is going to make that argument, unless they’re taking the “Well if THAT is allowed, how come THIS isn’t allowed?” tactic. Contrariwise, you can go the other way, and claim “If we allow THAT, soon EVERYTHING will be legal”. That’s the main argument people use against legalizing Pot and gay marriage – “Soon they’ll want to legalize heroin for first-graders and alloww people to marry dogs and furniture” Well, no, they won’t, because those are patently insane things that no one wants, and if that ever DOES get asked for, you can say “no” because passing one law does not automatically render all others invalid.
There’s an article on Amy Alkon’s site today that touches on this topic.
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/05/28/should_business.html
A couple of Neo-Nazis walked into a german restaurant in California amd were refused service. They got the ACLU to sue the place, claiming discrimination. They won – the restaurant’s insurers settled because they thought there was a solid chance the Nazis would win the court case. It ties into this discussion perfectly, because it’s the same concept at the base – how much freedom does a busniess have in restricting trade within its walls. The point is that all cases are not equally valid and important. Saying “No nazi regailia” is not the same thing as “No coloreds” which is not the same thing as “no smoking” or “no salt shakers”. They’re all individual arguments, and trying to equivocate them only serves to diminish the importance of some by trying to puff up the others. Trying to compare asking the guy with the pet ferret with rounding up Jews for the camps is only going to get you laughed and pointed at.
Or at least it used to. There are more and more people today who will hear that and say “Well, you know, he has a point”, as if that means anything. Well, it’s a SHITTY point, and deserves no credence. You dicsuss the point, you prove how shitty it is, and you don’t pay it any more mind. It’s the Syndrome hypothesis – “When everyone’s special, then no one is”. To argue that all points and opinions are valid is foolish. Some people are just wrong.
And I don’t want them eating in my restaurant.
McCarthy
May 28, 2010 - 9:51 am
Even back in his ABC days, that John Stossel rubbed me the wrong way, and I would shout “douche” very loudly before changing the channel away from 20/20. I mean really SHOUT it, at a volume and enunciation usually reserved for Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush.
Mike Gold
May 28, 2010 - 9:51 am
The first amendment strongly implies the right of free association. If Terry Crews wants to join the Ku Klux Klan and he can talk his way in, that’s solid by me. I think he might be a bit uncomfortable, but I’m sure he’d take care of that after a little while.
Public places are another matter. But defining the difference between private and public would keep lawyers busy for a millennium. Is it private if you admit ALL men and NO women? I don’t think so. Is it private if your VFW only admits veterans of foreign wars? Probably. Do veterans have to right to only associate with other such veterans from time to time? Absolutely.
There’s the argument that such prohibitions limit one’s business opportunities: if women are banned from golf courses where business is often conducted, that’s wrong. But we ban women from men’s steam rooms and lockers, and we ban men from women’s steam rooms and lockers. We do allow banning certain defined groups of people if that specific place is commonly accepted as private: no uni-sex steam and locker rooms just because it’s a place where business is conducted. And it’s conducted in the steam rooms and locker rooms as well as the golf course.
Personally, since my eyes do not quite converge properly I’m useless — and even dangerous — at many places where business is conducted: golf courses, to be sure, and given the mopes I hang out with, bowling alleys. Who do I get to sue?
Shane Kelly
May 28, 2010 - 10:06 am
If this makes any of you feel better…Here is the video clip of Stossel getting bitch slapped (literally) by Dr. Death, Dave Schultz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrX9Ca7LSyQ
Marc "Hugh Downs" Fishman
May 28, 2010 - 12:36 pm
Stossel should fight Tom Selleck in a cage. Selleck should have the rights to that moustache alone. What a dick.
MOTU
May 28, 2010 - 1:38 pm
Vinnie,
I’m all for men and women sharing bathrooms. Yeah-that’s the ticket.