Hey there Slickster fans, both of you, enjoying the new year so far? Yeah, me too, Boko Harem are slaughtering entire towns in Nigeria, and a brand new Congress was sworn in, though most of them really should be committed.
I’ve been hanging out in the kitchen while Slappy has his new feature, on the burner, simmering away. While waiting for some of that shit soufflé to be dished out, I’ve been following the tragedy in France as it unfolded and reached resolution. I really didn’t think I’d be addressing these events because, I find it hard to bring my inner smart ass to what was visited upon the staff of Charlie Hebdo.
HOWEVER, Salman Rushdie has pointed out, nay, drug them out, Team Moral Equivalence, or in his terms, “The ‘but’ Brigade.” Led by team captain Papa Frank, current leader of the Iron Age cult of Rome, who seems to have missed the point entirely,
“If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,” Francis said, throwing a pretend punch his way. “It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
My sweet Irish ass Frank! There is a guy in Kentucky that thinks Jesus rode a goddamn Velociraptor, and he is currently building an Ark, yeah, The Ark! I reserve the right, actually the Bill of Rights grants it to me implicitly, to mock his shambling intellectually bereft beliefs, without being killed!
There are so many people who speak badly about religions or other religions, who make fun of them, who make a game out of the religions of others,” he said. “They are provocateurs. And what happens to them is what would happen to Dr. Gasparri if he says a curse word against my mother. There is a limit.”
No Frank, there is no limit, in a free society, to the scorn that can be heaped upon your belief system, or any belief system. By the way, did I read that right “…there is a limit”? Does that limit lead to, 12 dead, in the conference room, with two AK-47s, by religious fanatics? Because that’s a hardcore game of Clue you’ve got going there, have you spoken to your boss about this, did he sign off on this? Inquiring minds…get back to us.
Getting back to Rushdie, have I mentioned he knows a thing or ten thousand about death threats, he asks what politically correct satire would look like? My first thought was, “anything that comes out of Sarah Palin’s mouth”, I may be confusing that with irony, I’m new to this word stuff. Anyway, Rushdie’s question is rhetorical, satire could not exist in Papa Frank’s world, and the fact that Sarah Palin lives in ours is something Papa Frank’s boss should have to explain, were it possible.
But, but, but…Fuck you, it’s what we do.
