The age of the stupid tube

It's becoming harder and harder to watch television. It's no wonder they called it the "boob tube" in the days of yore. When I was a kid, there was a lot of dumb stuff on television, but it paled in comparison to what passes as acceptable television programming today.

If it was the boob tube in the '50s and '60s, it's the stupid tube today. But let's set aside pro wrestling, reality TV, Mel Gibson, LeBron James and the Barefoot Bandit for now and focus on what are supposed to be serious news and commentary shows.

In this area, it pretty much gets down to Fox News as a rational person's only meaningful choice. But even on Fox, one has to put up with a cast of lame characters such as Ellis Henican, Juan Williams, Kirsten Powers, Bob Beckel and Alan Colmes … to name but a few. It's a group that would make Howdy Doody proud.

I don't believe any of these talking heads are evil. Nor are most of them ignorant. I think it's more a matter of their realizing they have a role to play (as in, defend progressive policies at all costs), so they become adept at keeping themselves in self-delusive trances.

The ultimate expose on the radical nature of our 44th president: "The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists." The best-seller as an audio book is also available.

And now that we have the Kenyan Kid in the White House – a Marxist who has set back race relations in the U.S. 40 years – today's stupid-tubish topic of choice is racism. Listening to all the make-believe racism silliness is like being in a time machine and going back to the 1960s. It's enough to make one yawn with excitement.

When BHO Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack fired Shirley Sherrod for supposedly admitting to prejudice against a white farmer, then offered her another job a day later when he realized he didn't have his facts straight, it put the spotlight on just how ridiculous the whole racism industry has become.

And, of course, most of the media missed the real story – that Ms. Sherrod's great epiphany was not just that blacks versus whites is a no-no to talk about, but the real "struggle" is the haves versus the have-nots. How reassuring. Instead of deifying her, congressional Republicans should be demanding that she be permanently banned from working for the government.

Then there's Bill O'Reilly's stimulating discussions with intellectual dwarf Marc LaMont Hill – you know, the kid with the Ph.D. who tries to hide his lack of knowledge by talking at the speed of light. Listening to their exchange a couple of weeks ago about the pros and cons of the New Black Panthers was like watching "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It made Lindsay Lohan's court breakdown seem like an intellectual step forward.

And, trust me, the "New" Black Panthers are not going to go away. The chairman of the party, all-American boy Malik Shabazz, loves the spotlight too much. Who would have believed that major airtime would be given to a handful of thugs who woke up one morning and said, "Hey, man, why don't we call ourselves the new Black Panther Party and scare the hell of some crackers? It'd be a lot more fun than workin' for whitey."

No big deal, really. After all, there are a lot of bored, unemployed people in this country who engage in meaningless activities every day. But, for crying out loud, we shouldn't take every unemployed rabble-rouser seriously. And the media certainly shouldn't be giving them airtime.

Of course, if they get carried away and start brandishing clubs and trying to intimidate people at voting stations, you simply arrest them, bring them to trial and put them behind bars for a few years. Not to rehabilitate them; that's a progressive fantasy. The reason you put them away is to keep them off the streets so they can't harass civilized people.

But with a dyed-in-the-wool racist in the White House, that isn't what happens. Instead, you let them skate by having the Department of Justice drop all charges against them. But weren't they already convicted? Sure, but in a country no longer burdened by a Constitution and with an imperial presidency firmly in place, that's a minor detail. In case you hadn't noticed, our current crop of U.S. rulers do whatever they damn well please – no permission needed from Congress, thank you.

The message is straightforward: If you're a black racist, you can pretty much do anything you so desire. Even the once highly respected NAACP has joined in our new national pastime – Pin the Tail on the Racist. With his jaw-dropping rants, NAACP president Ben Envy (er, Jealous) has become the latest racist to achieve media status.

Everywhere you turn, you see and hear it: Racism is alive and well in America. Alert the media: It's alive and well in every country on the planet – and always will be. That said, until the Duplicitous Despot ascended the throne in D.C., the U.S. had pretty much reduced its racial problems to the realm of insignificance.

If you're as bored as I am listening to all this manufactured racial nonsense, I feel obliged to warn you that the worst is yet to come. As November draws ever closer, the angry Progressive Beast is starting to thrash about like a dinosaur trapped in a tar pit. And as the pain increases and reality begins to set in, you can count on it wailing in panic and ratcheting up its desperate attempts to paint everyone to the right of Fidel Castro and Barry the Bull Slinger as angry white racists.

One thing's for sure: It should provide an avalanche of stupid-tube programming.