How freakin' retarded is it when ASU makes Andy Thomas sound prescient with its actions?
After reading a blurb in the Sunday Arizona Republic about a temporary ban on local wing-nut talk radio station KTAR 92.3FM in ASU buses, I was reminded of something County Attorney Andrew "Candy" Thomas said at ASU recently at a College Republican event. While Thomas was rationalizing being present with a bodyguard, Candy referred to an appearance he'd made up at NAU, where he was heckled because of his stance on illegal immigration.
"There is an intolerance on the left that professors and administrators tolerate, condone and even promote," Thomas was quoted as saying by ASU's online Web Devil news service.
Now ASU has proved Thomas right by temporarily "banning" the playing of KTAR by bus drivers of ASU shuttle buses. Well, partially right. He still doesn't need a paid bodyguard/babysitter to accompany him onto a college campus. That's pathetic, Candy.
But on the KTAR-banning front, ASU did capture the essence of Thomas' kvetch about an "intolerance on the left." Seems one doofus was offended by hearing KTAR while riding on an ASU bus, complained to the University a couple of times, and this was enough to send administrators into a tizzy. Lord help us if some idiot sophomore is befuddled by another P.O.V. in any way, shape or form while going to college at ASU.
Don't get me wrong, KTAR is the radio station I love to hate. Its morning guy Darrell Ankarlo is a bigoted blowhard. Worse even is Glenn Beck, whose syndicated show KTAR picks up in the afternoon. Beck literally has to be the most annoying idiot on the FM dial. And that's saying something. However, KTAR's news room is top notch, and relatively unbiased, even if it does seem to have a rather cozy relationship with Sheriff Joe.
In any case, I listen to Ankarlo and Beck from time to time because it's important to know what the other side thinks, if only to take notes on the enemy and mark how to rebut them. I probably listen to KTAR more than the "liberal" station KPHX 1480AM. Listening to folks you agree with a lot of the time gets old really quick.
Still, I do often part ways with my fellow pinkos. I think 9/11 conspiracy theories are bunk. And I detest this persistent, whiney need of some lefties to enforce their point of view with speech codes and political correctness. I've always hated it. When I was in college a few moons back, feminist radicals would periodically try to get Playboy banned from the college bookstore. Not that I cared much for Playboy. Hustler and Penthouse were more my style, but who needs some hairy, left-wing extremist deciding for the rest of us what we will read or look at? My response to them as well as to right-wing bluenoses who want to rid the word of nekkid pictures for different reasons is the same: Fuck you. And I don't mean that literally unless you lose the hair on your upper lip.*
In the case of the KTAR ban, why did ASU have to empower the pansy who complained about KTAR? The very mindset that would take such a lame-ass complaint and then act on it is the same knee-jerk pc collectivism correctly pilloried by those on the right.
Don't like what you hear on KTAR? Call into the show, if you can get past the screener. (Lie to them and tell them you love Ankarlo, then get on and say what you want. I've done it before.) Write a letter to ASU's State Press newspaper, they might print it. Or start your own blog on how KTAR sucks ass. I might link to it.
The speech you don't like you oppose with more speech, not by trying to get it banned or boycotted. Plus, even if you are able to kick KTAR off the bus, it's not going away, nor are the people who lap up its drivel with a big ol' spoon. So you're only fooling yourself in the long run. Instead, get your ideological helmet on and get in the game. You'd be surprised. Occasionally our side wins.
You can read more about the KTAR ban in today's Web Devil.
*PS: Was not talking about anyone with cleft lip or palate, Mary. Just fantasy feminazis with possibly hirsute kissers. But thanks for the observation all the same.
