Ozzy's True Stripes

Reason.com ^ | May 7 2002 | Sara Rimensnyder

[Senator Pardek]

After this weekend, we all have new reason to worship Ozzy Osbourne. While hamming it up as one of the stars of the annual glitzfest known as the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the heavy metal papa was asked what message he wanted to pass on to the president.

Some of Hollywood's beautiful people, puffed up with self-importance (among other things), would have felt the need to twitter portentously about their current cause celèbre.

Not Ozzy. He's his own cause celèbre, and all he wants is dual-citizenship. " I want to be American," he called out. "America is the coolest place on the face of the Earth. You've got freedom of speech. You've got McDonald's."

Clearly, Osbourne's already an American at heart: Only a true Yankee spirit could be at once so patriotic and so gloriously self-interested. Of course, this being the outspoken, opinionated U.S.A., not everyone agrees. Lynne Cheney reportedly joined the short list of naysayers after the dinner. "He's hardly someone we should be applauding... not a role model, I am rather embarrassed."

Ozzy's not. Nor should he be.

[Delbert]

you are dating yourself with the shows you listed ; ) several of which were my favorites as well : (... Old Man in Dallas.

[DoughtyOne]

MTV stands for anything goes. All bets are off. Comparing some content there to other doesn't provide much value to me.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Ben was a hellraiser too and liked playing with dangerous stuff--he was all about free speech and 'McDonalds'.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments Delbert.

[Delbert]

good point. Perhaps they could do a remake of the musical 1776 with the part of Ben Franklin played by Ozzy.

[TracyPA]

If you watch the show, Ozzy tells his kids- look at me, this is what happens when you take drugs. As for people calling his music evil-didn't they say the same thing about Elvis in the 1950's?

[Delbert]

and thank you for yours. I guess i still gat rather defensive about my music heros...goes back to my teenage days I spose...My dad didnt care too much for those"long haired hippy faggots with all the makeup on" <--Kiss reference. Peace D-One : )

[DallasDeb]

Links? Why do you have a problem with something you can ignore? Or are you compulsive about HAVING to check every one of them out and need to blame someone for your compulsivity? I usually cannot follow them, but I can save them for future reference. I like them.

[DoughtyOne]

I suppose the joke explanation is fairly accurate, however there are certain lines I won't cross even jokingly. This happens to be one. When I had kids I found that like myself when I was young, they had one set of deportment rules at home and another for school. Perhaps your method works for you.

[Nitro]

I have seen it and it is damn funny...

plus I have always had a horny spot for Sarah Silverman!!

Check it out!!

[Nitro]

I left out one thing...

Blah!!

[Xenalyte]

The Oz man described himself as the Prince of Darkness the other night.

Let's put this in context. Sharon wanted Ozzy to use a bubble machine onstage. Ozzy's remark (redacted for the censors) was, "Bubbles!? Ah c'mon, Sharon, I'm f*cking Ozzy Osbourne, the prince of f*cking darkness! Evil evil evil." In case you don't get it (which is painfully obvious), Ozzy is SPOOFING SATANIC ROCK. He has been for years.

Is this what you expose your ten year old to?

I don't have children. If I had a ten-year-old, he wouldn't watch it. But then, I'd be the parent, so deciding the appropriateness of a show would be my responsibility.

Yes I have watched portions of the Ozbourn show and I wouldn't expose my kids to that filth.

Which proves my point. You're perfectly capable of switching channels, and obviously you did so with great success. Ergo, you are determining what is appropriate for your children to watch.

What Ozzie does on his own time I could care less. What he represents to children I do care about.

What, pray, does he represent to children? How is "let's make fun of death-metal" worse than Britney's hot pants?

Do I hate the man? What is it with the people on this forum? If you disagree with what someone does you are automatically judged to hate them. I can't think of a single person on the planet that I hate. I can think of many of them that I do not wish to have my children emulate.

Well, there you are, then. Provide a positive role model for your children, and they'll not look to sports figures or musicians for guidance.

[Katya]

""Ozzy is just a man. And he's gone through a lot of trials in his life, like any other person. He's not evil."

Thanks Sally....one thing we have to remember is that Ozzy is an entertainer first....which is why I always laughed at the moral police during the 80's. Shock rock is probably not everyone's cup of tea...and although I used to enjoy his music....I thought his stage antics stupid. The left is constantly out to limit everyone's personal expression particularly if it's religious or to the right...let's not join in the fun.

[Anoy11_]

cigar smoking chimpanzees? Now that IS t.v. worth watching!

[HairOfTheDog]

We are finished as a nation, my friends. Kiss it goodbye

Funny, I don't feel finished. I feel just fine. Get up and go outside once in a while. Life is pretty dang good!

[Leto]

Listen Delbert, do you think Osbourn is a good source of entertainment for MTV, and the ten to fourteen year old kids that watch?

Actually my kids view Ozzy as "cracked out", they can see he is burned out. When it is pointed out that his rockstar lifestyle led him to be this burned out at about my age, it does give them pause. THe show is a funny PSA about the long term effects of drug abuse.

[Nitro]

Okay, I'll meet you halfway, the story did have more links than necessary but I will stand by my assertion that you are not required to access the links!!

I guess the link happy would be the Anal Retentive office mate we all go home and get on the web to get away from, ya think?

[Leisler]

I liked the bartender in the Jackie Gleason show.

[Risky Schemer]

Links? Why do you have a problem with something you can ignore? Or are you compulsive about HAVING to check every one of them out and need to blame someone for your compulsivity?

Nah. Just being funny. But I do tend to agree with the comments in the Yale Manual of Style. Too much markup just interferes with readability and consistency in formatting.

The SAME thing APPLIES with random use and OVERUSE of OTHER HTML TAGS and UPPER AND LOWER CASE and such.

[homeschool mama]

***Figured I'd see you here. You never miss an opportunity to defend Bush for doing the defenseless do you. ***

And you never miss an opportunity to bash Bush for doing anything and everything.