If you zoom in you can see half a jar of peanut butter spackled in her mouth...

I learned today that citizens of New Orleans refer to their city as “Nola.” I assume this refers to the noises that come out of their mouth when they try to pronounce “New Orleans.”  This comes on the heels of all the “who dat” hype that flooded media outlets in the buildup to the Super Bowl.

Now lets talk about laziness: you’d consider me a lazy person if I didn’t take out the garbage, rake leaves, or do some other sort of physical activity. Well how about this: These people are too lazy to take a deep breath and manipulate their lips and vocal cords properly. You don’t even have to get off the couch!

I love the show “Steven Segal: Lawman”, which documents Segal’s primary 20+ year career as a New Orleans Sherrif’s officer. (this is where the phrase “don’t quit your day job” comes from.) My favorite part of the show is when Steven speaks to the camera he has nary a trace of accent, but when he speaks to the common-folk you’d think he put down a fifth of moonshine and jammed a sandwich in his cheeks. (This is actually a distinct possibility).

The citizens of New Orleans have no respect whatsoever for the English language! I really don’t think such a large percentage of their population has a speech impediment. Its like the whole town shot up with Novacaine.  How about spit the shit out of your mouth and ANNUNCIATE? You fucking washed up hobos.

Larry Johnson said someone looked like a fag in their twitter pic and is being chastised for it.

During a promo for NASCAR wedged into last weekend’s college football game, Bob Griese (trying to make the cross promotion fit a bit more smoothly) asked if Juan Pablo Montoya hadn’t finished well recently because he was off eating a taco. Now he’s suspended.

St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford only referenced Cornel West’s musings in Race Matters concerning a “HNIC”, or head negro in charge, and she’s wrapped up in a race scandal. (by the way, West doesn’t think having one black guy as a spokesperson for the race is a particularly good idea anyway!)

Even Barack Obama was frowned upon for calling Kanye West a “jackass” when West upstaged some country broad at the VMAs.

When a species evolves, it adapts to its environment. Usually these are adaptations to help it better survive, such as growing fur to outlast the winter, or developing opposable thumbs to handle objects. But at this point, survival is a given.  Evolution occurs on a social scale. In this case, the response isn’t necessarily to pad survival efforts, its simply a response to stimuli.

As media has evolved, it has affected cultural and social norms. First television was available, then cable, then 24 hour news networks with nothing but time to fill repeating stories over and over again, evaluating everything ad absurdum. Now we have video on demand and YouTube, where a person’s words can be repeated with the click of a button. We have social networks and forums where strangers and friends can opine on said videos. It is this saturation of availability, I argue, that this has resulted in a cultural devolution - into a bunch of spineless and thin skinned creeps.

There’s nothing wrong with calling a jackass a jackass. Kanye pulled a straight up asshole move, and just because this guy is the president doesn’t mean he should have to apologize for calling ‘em like he sees ‘em. There’s nothing wrong about busting on someone in a way that involves a stereotype. Do you think Bob Griese literally was suggesting that eating tacos was cause for poor race car finishes? There’s nothing wrong with calling a picture of an effeminate male “faggy”, so long as you don’t get pissed off when ball breaking comments are dished in your direction.

There is something very wrong with the people who pump up their own ego by condemning others for speaking freely. That only exacerbates the devolution into further hypersensitivity.

Just because you mention an other’s color or creed doesn’t make you ignorant. I don’t truly think blacks have a propensity to throw spears, or that AIDS is a gay disease, and I demand the right to joke about these topics without being called closed minded. Isn’t it possible for me to support gay rights without losing the right to call the Mets fags? Why aren’t we allowed to talk about sensitive topics openly and without persecution? Jews are good with money. Asians are good at math. These aren’t even negative stereotypes, but somehow even they are offensive.

What’s even more frustrating is people are being called out on the carpet for comments that are often completely acceptable in private conversation. Would you prefer that Obama call Kanye a jackass in private, but serve up a politically diplomatic, non commital response publicly. That’s the definition of being two-faced.

There are people that are actually stupid enough to believe stereotypes are ubiquitous rather than just a trend. But they cannot be allowed to taint free speech any longer.

The only way for us to thicken the skin of America is for the people that make these comments to stand behind them. Kathleen Ford first pretended she didn’t know what HNIC meant at first, then she tried to spin it, then she admitted she did know what it meant and apologized for it. What people need to do in this situation is stand up! Say “Yeah, I talked about Cornel West’s HNIC theory, and I agree what he has to say about it. You should read his book some time.” Defend your rights to speak openly and honestly! Expose those who speak differently in public than they do in private as hypocrites! No more apologies!

The Freedom Tower as photographed from street level in July 2009

As I was reading some 9/11 anniversary material I came across a sad discovery. Construction on the Freedom tower, which had it’s cornerstone laid in 2006, is being continually pushed back. The estimated completion date is 2013, but by some accounts may not be until 2018!

By comparison, the original twin towers were erected simultaneously in just 6 years, and this took place in the late 60’s through early 70’s. That’s two towers in 6-7 years. And 40 years later it’s going to take us twice as long just to build one? How depressing!

In the powder-keg of emotions following 9/11 I remember feeling like we needed to rebuild as soon as possible. I almost felt like we wouldn’t just be erecting a replacement building, but raising a giant middle finger to the religious zealots that perpetrated the attacks, and everyone that sympathized with them. Rebuilding strong and fast would be a testament to American superiority of engineering, technology, and fortuity. Instead, 8 years later, we have a pile of steel beams that stands all of 105 feet tall.

Dubai Tower

In the meantime, the United Arab Emirates have started and finished building the tallest man made structure on the planet, the Dubai Tower. It stands at 2,684 feet, over 900 feet taller than the Freedom Tower’s planned 1,776 height. Frickin’ Dubai! If they can do it why can’t we?

If anything, we’re proving to the rest of the world that America is the biggest bureaucracy on the planet. While the 9/11 attacks are clearly attributed to Al-Queda, the mess concerning rebuilding can only be blamed on ourselves.