A most politically incorrect statement

Machine Design Magazine ^ | 4-1-05 | Ronald Khol

[vannrox]

One day my wife and I were leaving the Mountaineer Casino and Resort in Chester, W. Va. The casino has two installations connected by a shuttle bus. One is a hotel and casino, and the other is a racetrack and casino. As we departed the racetrack, a shuttle bus from the other installation pulled up to the door.

A crowd filed off the bus, and almost everyone was holding an alcoholic drink. (You normally don't carry free soft drinks from one building to the other.) Also, many of the passengers were smoking cigarettes. In this day of political correctness run amuck, it did my heart good to see there are at least some people who ostensibly spend a day drinking, smoking, and gambling, and then continued these activities into the evening while also playing the horses.

Aside from the other activities, why did I enjoy seeing people smoking? I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I am nevertheless appalled at the witch-hunt suffered by smokers and the tobacco community. Also, I think alcohol is going to be next. The 0.8% blood-content limit for drunken driving is probably only the first step on the road to prohibition. And insofar as casino gambling is concerned, my wife and I are still forced into a 4-hour round trip to have the type of recreation that should be more convenient.

That brings us to Howard Stern, the shock-jock who is jumping to satellite radio to escape censorship by the FCC. I don't listen to Mr. Stern, but I have heard him from time to time in the past. And despite the criticism I hear about his show, there is more potty-mouth content on broadcast and cable TV. I was happy to leave lockerroom obscenities behind when I graduated from high school, and I know bad language when I hear it, but I didn't hear much from Howard. Moreover, much of his material is insightful social criticism. For example, he once interviewed a group of girls who were contestants in a beauty pageant, and the operative question he asked was: What is the square root of nine? Their responses were illuminating insofar as telling us in which direction we are moving on a Darwinian scale.

In another politically incorrect vein, I happen to own a sweatshirt with a Smith & Wesson logo emblazoned on the front. One day I intended to wear it to my grandson's Boy Scout awards ceremony in Vienna, Va. I thought the soccer-mom, SUVdriving, cell-phone talking, gun-fearing, suburban community would take the sweatshirt for the joke it was meant to be. My son, however, discreetly informed me that such apparel could cause palpitations, fainting, or calls to Homeland Security. You can't even joke about Smith & Wesson in suburban Washington, D.C.

Even in your own company, consider two white males washing their hands in the men's room. One wants to tell a joke to the other, but the joke contains a mild racist term or maybe something making fun of women or homosexuals. The first thing the joke teller has to do is make a visual sweep of the stalls to ensure no one else is within earshot. Yes, political correctness has come to that holy of holies, the men's lavatory.

Just recently, our local Board of Elections held a training session where staff members were taught how to assist voters with language problems. One employee happened to remark that his parents emigrated from Poland to the United States, and he casually mentioned that they had to learn English before they could vote. Some Hispanic members at the session were outraged at the remark, and the worker was fired. Talk about draconian political correctness!

Have I offended anyone yet? Well how about this? My next vehicle will be purchased without my considering front-impact protection nor rollover potential. (I don't intend to wreck or roll it.). Nor do I want side airbags, and I would dispense with front air bags if I could. Finally, when I heard that I may not be able to get a flu shot this winter, I was not the least bit disturbed. If any of what I have written has caused you to have a panic reaction, call 911.

-- Ronald Khol, Editor

[bk1000]

"There is also a subset of FReepers who have appointed themselves the racism police and will hit abuse if a post strikes them as having a slight hint of racism."

I continue to wonder why the abstract fear of 'the R word'.
Everybody is racist to some degree, some more than others, but anybody who claims to 'not have a racist bone in their body' is lying.

[orionblamblam]

>"The 0.8% blood-content limit for drunken driving"
>0.8 would make one comatose.

Or Ted Kennedy.

[RATkiller]

0.8% = 0.008

[smartin]

I'm not racist, I hate everybody.

</sarcasm>

[wideawake]

Perhaps it's ebcause the definition of racism has metastasized to a ridiculous degree.

A racist used to be a person who had a conscious animosity toward entire ethnic groups and races and considered them inferior and deserving of unfair treatment and social opprobrium.

Nowadays it apparently means anyone who experiences the slightest discomfort around people of a different ethnicity.

If an introverted 50 year old white guy gets onto a subway car occupied by four 20 year old black guys who are having a spirited, jovial conversation around him, he's going to naturally feel uncomfortable in a way that he wouldn't if he got into a subway car filled with introverted 50 year old white guys.

That's reality, not racism. Telling that guy that he's evil because he feels awkward and out of his comfort zone is ridiculous and counterproductive.

[botsnack]

My grandfather was an attorney (before that was a bad word) who fought the tobacco companies. I consider this a good thing, because it was in the era when they were still trying to tell people that smoking is good for you, when they plainly knew otherwise.

I don't think he would be pleased with the direction anti-tobacco law has moved since his death in 1987, however, with multi-billion dollar class-action lawsuits in California being a regular occurrence. Seriously, who doesn't know smoking's going to kill you now? If you want to do it, that's great, but please.. take responsibility for your own actions.

Of course, I believe this should also apply to soft drugs like marijuana and LSD, and perhaps even hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. I don't think it's the government's job to regulate my state of mind or what I put in my body.

[ichabod1]

Ah, but if there are two, hands get washed. Should there be one, alone, no washing takes place.

This is like the old joke about baptists (hope this doesn't get Us in trouble with the Political Commissariat (PC):

If One wants to go fishing and drink half the beer, take along a Baptist. If One wants to go fishing and drink ALL the beer, take along TWO Baptists.

[GSlob]

"Or Ted Kennedy."
Nah. Ted's level is 86 proof. He's an extremely spiritual person, flammable even.

[rwa265]

The first thing the joke teller has to do is make a visual sweep of the stalls to ensure no one else is within earshot.

One day I was cleaning our coffee pots at the sink in the men's room when a co-worker said, "Got the duty today, huh?" I answered, "Yeah, a man's gotta do what a woman oughta do." I was kidding, of course, but you bet your sweet bippy I did a visual sweep of the stalls. Too many pc'ers in our office to take a chance. <;)

[ichabod1]

Maybe we should take a page out of the bolshevik (left's) playbook and if accused of racism say "No We're not, We're culturally oriented." That should satisfy them since we're invoking the almighty Culture, but we would know we were invoking our OWN culture, whatever culture that happened to be for any individual, conservative, We would hope.

"It is the Way of Our People."

[GSlob]

"Everybody is racist to some degree, some more than others, but anybody who claims to 'not have a racist bone in their body' is lying."
I'm afraid your argument is rather fuzzy, to the point of being wrong. Like any other worldview, racism has a complex structure. By definition, there must be a minimal set of its components necessary to constitute the worldview. From here it necessarily follows that the possession of an incomplete minimal set does not make one a racist -thus there can be no such thing as "racist bone". For illustration, to be a racist one needs to be a sentient being, among other things. But just being sentient is not enough.

[ichabod1]

Are you very old? Attorney has always been a dirty word. And nobody needed the government to tell them that smoking wasn't good for them, but there used to be an understanding that everybody dies from something.

The only difference between attorneys then and now is they've got the jackboot planted even more firmly on our necks.

[JZelle]

"Use a derogatory term to describe a white person and your post will have a long and happy life."


What a silly honkey, cracker. /end test

[sasportas]

Only thing wrong w/ the piece is his giving Stern a pass.
Stern's show was a huge source of spewed filth on the airwaves.

I agree with you. This Ron Kohl writes like a Libertarian. They give a pass when it comes to moral issues.

[absolootezer0]

Nah. Ted's level is 86 proof. He's an extremely spiritual person, flammable even

hey! maybe that's what happened in chippaquiddik! mary jo lit a cigarette and ted burst into flames. he then drove off the bridge to douse the flames, and to fight back against this arsonist in self defense!

[AbeKrieger]

Everybody is racist to some degree

Everyone is subject to being labeled a racist by someone who has identified themselves as a "victim" of racism .

[Zon]

Political correctness -- proclaimed right thinking -- has been used for thousands of years by governments and religion.. The power to manipulate people by controlling their thoughts. Control their actions by controlling their thoughts.

[FreedomCalls]

Ah, but if there are two, hands get washed. Should there be one, alone, no washing takes place.

And if it's in San Francisco, they wash each others hands.

[jackieaxe]

I think it was a good thing that the tobacco companies were "outed" when they were trying to say smoking was healthy. But now that the Tobacco War is over we still have a plethora of do gooders looking for the next train to jump on, or as I see it, the next charge code to hit. You can see how these people are trying so hard to get their claws into the "obesity battle". They want to tax Burger King and Ice Cream makers. They bring up statistics of how many people die from obesity every year. (Never mind that we all die of something. Where this leads is more government regulation, therefore less freedom, and a whole other tribe of do nothing do gooders running around calling people names.

The Drug War is doing good on steroids. Think of all the people who have an economic interest to keep illegal drugs illegal. This country is no longer about freedom, but about telling other people how to live their lives which is anti-freedom.

Speaking of steroids, the Balco guy got sentenced yesterday. Just goes to show you the pharmaceutical companies are getting some payback in their million dollar K Street lobbying firms. From what I have read, Babe Ruth liked to drink alot and was so fat the Yankees implemented the pin-strip uniform to make him look thin. Maybe we should require all Major League players to be drunk and overweight just like to Babe so the records can be compared from one era to another. After all, aren't we penalizing Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Raphael Palmerio for trying to be in the best shape that they can?

[Mulch]

LOL. I was wondering when someone would do that.