Words

 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.  - James 3:3-6

I really don't want to but I guess I'm going to have to comment about Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee.

I'm hesitant because frankly, both stories are distasteful to the nth degree.

As you know by now, Barr composed an ugly tweet about Valerie Jarrett, one of former President's Obama's closest advisors. It was racist.

There was immediate blowback and Barr's rebooted "Roseanne" was canceled without any form of appeal.

Some people on my side of the river argued that Disney (owners of ABC) violated Barr's freedom of speech rights.  Well, no.

Barr has the right to say what she wants and Disney has the right to decide if they want to be associated with it or not. They decided Barr's tweet would damage their brand. Her musings on Valerie Jarrett just wasn't worth it.

Conservatives were so happy with this version of "Roseanne". It showed Trump voters as actual carbon-based life forms and not merely deplorables laying around in a basket.

But, as Admiral Ackbar famously said in "Star Wars": "It's a trap". The Right was relying on a celebrity famous for her out and out weirdness to carry the banner that conservatives are people, too, doggone it, and you'll like us once you get to know us.

We were so desperate in need of validation from the entertainment elite, we forgot about Barr being a 9/11 truther, running for president in 2012 with Cindy Sheehan, and her tweets like this one about people who eat Chick-Fil-A:   “Anyone who eats Shit Fil-A deserves to get the cancer that is sure to come from eating antibiotic filled tortured chickens 4Christ”.   Yup, that's a person I want presenting my case to the general public.

Of course, you had those who said Barr accurately portrays Trump voters. These are the same people who argue you can't judge a group by its fringe members.  But when you have a Republican President, hey, all of that is thrown out the window.

After that, Samantha Bee, a talentless and humorless comedian who has a show on TBS titled Full Frontal called Ivanka Trump, a really bad name.  She was allowed to keep her job after she apologized. (Barr apologized too and then blamed Ambien).

The Right is furious because they see this as a double standard.  Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said TBS should fire Bee.

Jen Chaney of Vulture said,  "The White House’s demand that TBS cancel Full Frontal is an effort to create false equivalencies that foster mistrust of a media they characterize as left-leaning lie mongers. It’s divisive, it’s dangerous, and it’s absolutely par for the Trump-administration course."

Yes, the Trump Administration is creating false equivalencies to foster mistrust of the media's late night comedians.

Chaney points out, "Her use of the C-word to describe Ivanka Trump stemmed from her criticism of the First Daughter–slash–senior presidential advisor tweeting a photograph of herself and one of her children in the midst of a news cycle focused on immigrant children being separated from their parents."  Sigh.

Somebody tweeted a picture of little illegal kids inside of cells that looked like dog kennels. Oh, the horrors of Trump's Dystopian America.  People must be cussed at! Now!  When it was learned the picture which taken in 2014, during the administration of Saint Barack The First, Twitter went all Emily Litella:  never mind.

My favorite defense of  Bee by Chaney was "Last year, she used the same word to describe Woodrow Wilson during her 'Not The White House Correspondents' Dinner' and nobody cared."   Next time I get in trouble for calling somebody a name, I am going to say: "Hey, I used the same word to describe Woodrow Wilson and nobody cared".

Bee is way too strident in her comedy for me even to halfway pay attention to her. James Lileks discusses this type of comedy:

"It goes back to George Carlin. You can find antecedents galore, of course, but Carlin had that famous routine that summed up the new thinking: the seven words you couldn’t say. But they’re just words! Isn’t that ridiculous? (See also Bruce, Lenny.) Just aspirations shaped by a muscle in your mouth, and they have such power they can’t be used? 

 Isn’t that ridiculous? Carlin wasn’t the first to try to say the naughty words, but he gave humor to his generation’s belief that authenticity counts in speech, and can be defined by its lack of shackles and adherence to old courtesies. What mattered was truth, man, and the truth didn’t set you free, it made you angry, and the angrier you were the more people were obliged to listen and nod along. Anger gave you authenticity, and swearing was a signifier of anger."

Lileks goes on to say, "1. Everyone slips up at some time. 2. The slip-ups are often revelatory of the person’s true character".   Barr's slip up revealed her true character: she's a total loon.

Bee didn't have a slip-up. This was from a scripted show that finds its authenticity in anger that Donald Trump is President and therefore, swearing is all right, even noble because you are swearing at the right people.

I would have fired her. Then again, I wouldn't have hired her. The same goes for Roseanne.