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Article comments
76 - zingzing
"I don't like it, it's not art in my estimation, which is just as good as yours or common's when it comes to what is art and what isn't."
i suppose so.
"ALL rappers (and their noise)"
but if that's all you came away with from your listening, i'd suggest you go back and have another stab at it. it's a pretty diverse genre, just like anything else.
and if you don't like bluegrass, i don't like your ears! your ears! they offend me.
77 - Glenn Contrarian
For all those who've swallowed whole the conservative "Shirley-Sherroding" of Common, here's the other side of the story.
78 - RJ
Not ignoring you, RJ.
Why not? Didn't you vow to do so just a few weeks ago?
Your only interest in this issue, or in poets period, is the opportunity it gives you to name-call against the president and his supporters.
handyman, I did not know you could read minds. That's a pretty amazing skill you have there! Of course, as usual, you're wrong. Poetry isn't exactly one of my main interests, but I've read Leaves of Grass, and I also know quite a few dirty limericks.
This is not dissimilar to pretending that some carefully chosen "shocking" clips of Rev. Wright represent his entire work and ministry, as if shock were all he is about.
handy, those clips were indeed "carefully chosen" by none other than ... Jeremiah Wright. His church was selling essentially a "best-of" DVD that included those clips. That's how the media got a hold of that video. They went to the church and, um, bought it.
Given that this was the stuff that Jeremiah Wright wanted people to see, I shudder to think what sort of hateful racial venom he spewed that didn't make the final cut.
But your larger point seems to be "Well Jeremiah Wright wasn't accusing white people of creating AIDS for genocide all the time, and Common isn't supporting cop-killers in all of his poems, so they must be pretty cool guys." Yet you leftists have no problem whatsoever with demonizing conservatives who occasionally say something politically-incorrect that sounds bad when taken completely out of context. Odd.
It also recalls the laughable ruckus over "Piss Christ" and Robert Mapplethorpe photos. Again, the shouters and screamers picked only "shocking" examples
handy, you really are sort of obtuse, aren't you? When leftists criticize a conservative over something, they tend not to mention all the nice things s/he has done, all of his/her charitable work, all the non-controversial things s/he has said, etc. No, they just highlight the stuff they don't like about him/her. You've noticed that, right?
But for some reason, you expect conservatives to go out of their way to point out positive things about cop-killer-supporting rappers, or black nationalist Reverends, or Christian-hating "artists." You can't be serious.
You are indifferent to and ignorant of poetry.
Your mind-reading skills fail you again. I've read Walt Whitman, Dylan Thomas, Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, and Dr. Seuss. I believe I also made it to about page fifteen in Jewel's A Night Without Armor before my eyes began to bleed.
79 - handyguy
Your adolescent rantings aside, your harping on this issue is about politics, not about art. And your main repetitive point seems to be, liberals aren't fair to my side, so I enjoy being unfair to them. This may strike you as a point worth making. If so, I'm not the obtuse one.
80 - handyguy
Jon Stewart found the right words to describe this 'scandal' tonight: "For those who huff only the heady mix of partisan hackery, character assassination and manufactured outrage known as Foxygen..."
81 - El Bicho
"please cite where and when Johnny Cash praised actual racist cop-killers..."
Johnny Cash spoke in support of jailed AIM leader Leonard Peltier who was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder, the execution style shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Looks like you are the one who should be adding the "i don't know shit" disclaimer.
82 - RJ
"your harping on this issue is about politics, not about art"
No shit. You figured that out on your own, did you?
Found it extremely ironic that you accuse me of "adolescent rantings" and then approvingly quote Jon Stewart.
83 - RJ
Touché, Gordon. Although this means Cash was only half as bad as Common when it comes to supporting extremists who murder law enforcement agents. But I was frankly not aware that Cash was such a lunatic. Did Bush know? Was this discussed at all back in 2002? Not being aware of it would be a valid excuse, and that's certainly not a defense that the Obama administration could make with Common.
Incidentally, that's an excellent example of tu quoque, in case Boeke is still interested.
84 - Clavos
At least Cash could sing; common rants.
Meh.
85 - Dr Dreadful
RJ, since Johnny Cash is quite possibly the coolest person ever to walk the earth, perhaps now might be a good time to point out that he was a storyteller. Just as Common is, or Eminem, or Ludacris, or any other outrageous rap artist who might come to mind.
The lyrics of "San Quentin" do not mean that Cash was a prisoner at San Quentin. The fact that American Psycho is written in the first person does not make Bret Easton Ellis a serial killer. Common talking about tracking down every single member of every cadet branch of the Bush family, herding them into a barn and turning flamethrowers on it, or whatever the fuck it was he's supposed to have written, doesn't mean he actually wants to do it.
And since your admitted purpose is to whine about how liberals, oh, I don't know, accused Bush of hating all Katrina victims if he so much as twitched a nostril in their presence, I venture the opinion that Handy and zing, your principal opponents here, are pretty even-handed in that respect. Unless, of course, you can point me to some instances of mindless hatin' exhibited by them during the previous administration.
86 - Jordan Richardson
This is the "inflammatory" passage from Common's "A Letter to the Law," which is actually a pretty good track:
"No time for that, cause there’s things to be done
Stay true to what I do so the youth dream come
From project building, seen a fiend being hung
With that happening, why they messing with Saddam?
Burn a Bush, cause for peace he no push no button
Killing over oil and grease, no weapons of destruction
How can we follow leader when this a corrupt one?"
Oooh, scary.
87 - zingzing
it's not about art, it's not about freedom of speech, it's about politics, and it's about trying to make obama look like a white-hating prick. that's all it is.
88 - Jordan Richardson
It's also about a lot of people having absolutely nothing better to do with their lives.
89 - zingzing
let's not get into that territory, jordan...
90 - Clavos
and it's about trying to make obama look like a white-hating prick. that's all it is.
Point taken.
He's just an ordinary, common prick...
91 - Boeke
OK, let's talk about how foreign investors are ripping off the US taxpayer through the oil companies.
1-the US taxpayer sports the oil companies to $4billion (at least) per year of tax subsidies.
2-oil companies are internationally traded private companies and are 60% owned by foreign investors.
Therefore, We The People are subsidizing foreign oil company investors to the tune of $2.4billion per year!
Who decided that?! Are we NUTS?
Well, all the world knows we allow open bribery in our congress because of the SCOTUS Consumers United decision.
We know who the most bribed are:
[quote]
This failure to save wasted taxpayer money is but a small portion of the sickening annual handouts to the oil industry through subsidies. Oil Change International explains, "Estimates of the value of US federal subsidies to the domestic oil and gas industry alone (not coal) range from 'only' $4 billion a year, to an amazing $52 billion annually. Coal subsidies are roughly another 10 billion annually."
Through its DirtyEnergyMoney tabulation website, Oil Change International reports that the 111th House of Representatives has some powerful allies to the oil industry across party lines. From 2009-2010, thirteen House members were each awarded over $100,000 by oil companies alone:
* Roy Blunt (R-MO) -- $269,400
* Dan Boren (D-OK) -- $205,750
* Chet Edwards (D-TX) -- $176,130
* Joe Barton (R-TX) -- $150,870
* Mike Ross (D-AR) -- $135,350
* K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) -- $132,600
* John Sullivan (R-OK) -- $125,800
* John Fleming (R-LA) -- $123,550
* John Boehner (R-OH) -- $119,400
* Jerry Moran (R-KS) -- $113,600
* Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- $110,600
* Charles Boustany (R-LA) -- $109,000
* Harry Teague (D-NM) --$100,300
Top givers to the 111th Congressional Representatives of Oil were Koch Industries ($616,513), ExxonMobil ($553,950), Chevron ($373,100) and Valero Energy ($311,250).
[/quote]
Amazing how cheap it is to get a US politician to sellout.
92 - Clavos
Hey, Boeke, I know your focus was (rightfully) on the oil company bribes/subsidies, but what about all the political scum being bribed by the unions?
93 - Boeke
If you've got something Clavos, then post it.
It's not up to me or anyone else to do your research. Don't be so lazy.
94 - Clavos
No thanks, Boeke, I had my say, and it's not going to change anything.
Nothing written here ever does.