Don Imus is gone and I will miss him.

Well, not that much. I got through college listening to Don Imus on the local radio station. Between Mike Breen, Bernard McGuirk, Patrick McEnroe, Charles McCord, Warner Wolf, the occasional Laura Ingraham, and yes, even the old man himself, I could arrive at school in a proper frame of mind to face the stoners and the starry-eyed fools that populated a lot of my classes.

"The daily dose of mean", I think I called it.

Imus in the Morning was a refreshing counterpoint to whoever was running NPR's competitive morning broadcast---Bob Edwards, maybe---and it certainly beat the local morning yuksters. You could get a global news perspective that didn't involve five-minute dronefests---Ira Glass, lookin' at you---about how awful U.S. policy in Upper Son Volta was and how that affected the lives of transgendered activists for animal peace there. Also, there was no Andrei Codrescu. At least, not without the possibility of Imus or McGuirk saying something nasty back to them.

Imus also wasn't John Boy and Billy; the exquisite value of that simple fact cannot be overstated. If you've ever listened to those Charlotte-based boobs, even the worst of Sid---good riddance---Rosenberg can be tolerated. I was given a free choice between NPR, Imus, John Boy & Billy, and the local clowns; the choice was Imus without hesitation.

To be blunt, I don't care what he said to the Rutgers players. One of them reportedly whined that she was scarred, perhaps for life, as a result of his comments. Oh, please. If I was 'scarred' every time someone made a disparaging remark about my ethnicity or regional origin, I'd look like I got in a hand-to-hand fight with Edward Scissorhands, Freddy Krueger, and Marvel Comics' Wolverine. I don't, despite a pretty constant string of insults against rural white Southerners being issued from the vile City of New York and other such places. I even had to smile graciously when insulted in law school by similar slurs. Yet, here I sit without 'scars' or the need to have Al Sharpton raising a ruckus supposedly on my behalf. How's that, you say? Simple: Use a line I learned from Imus, and growl "Idiots..." under my breath

My message for the Rutgers players? Grow up. The world isn't about you or your pathetic ethnic insecurities.

The president of NBC News has given us a profile in cowardice. I saw him the other night---Wednesday, perhaps---whining something about being the steward of the good name of NBC News. I openly laughed at the guy; the network that airs Today and has some level of responsibility for Keith Olbermann's waste of the EM spectrum really doesn't have a "good name" left.

I am bemused by people who whine that his remarks were demeaning to blacks, women, whatever. I, like Cal Thomas, see something odd where Imus' remarks are offensive, yet the latest rap single on BET is a celebration of black culture, all while using pretty much the same verbiage to describe black women.

I tuned out of IITM once I got to law school, where my travel patterns no longer coincided with his place on the AM dial. Oddly enough, I tuned in yesterday for the heck of it. Pretty much the same as always, shilling for money and some functionary slobbering over how great Imus was for raising money for some cause. Little did I know at the time that it would be the last. Well, fine.

That will be all, Charles. I hope he moves to XM.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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