Not the Diapers, Not the Garden Tools

On Thursday evening, Paul and I packed up the cool car, dropped Lizzi off with friends (Jessica from Daughter of Opinion, see sidebar), and headed west. We made it to Wyoming and Paul's parents' home by noon on Friday, spent a lovely weekend there, and drove back last night. 17 hours each way, about 1100 miles. It was a great weekend, and I hope to post pictures tomorrow. (I'm too lazy/tired to pull them off the camera tonight.)

Rather than no post at all, I just want to mention two brief rants about the whole Imus fiasco.

1) Racist, racist, racist. So damn true. Also, sexist, sexist, sexist. That seems to be slightly lost in the media hubbub.

2) This media gang pile on Imus annoys me. What, all the journalists and politicians who started refusing to have anything to do with Imus after his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, or started calling for his ouster, none of these people noticed that Imus has always been racist and sexist?

Jon Meacham from Newsweek said something about previously believing that the good of Imus's program outweighed the bad.

I'd be a little more inclined to believe the sincerity of that sentiment if there were a more public outcry against other "shock jocks" and cultural institutions that are blatantly sexist or racist.

Having just driven past probably a dozen shiny, new Hooters-type restaurants in the last 24 hours, I have a hard time believing that the Imus uproar is anything more than the self-righteous posturing of people more interested in following popular opinion than critically examining the ways in which racism and sexism are entrenched in our popular culture.