You know what drives me crazy about this Don Imus craziness? The way everyone who in any way defends him makes sure to call him “an equal opportunity offender” (one example here).

They mean he has insulted:
Gays
Women
Jews
Blacks
Asians
(as Timothy Noah has aptly demonstrated)

Who’s missing? The people in power.

How is “Don’t worry, he hates EVERYONE (except people his own size)” a defense? How is it better to be an *indiscriminate* demeaning thoughtless loudmouth?

While I don’t have much love for that ambulance chaser, Al Sharpton, and I don’t necessarily think Imus should be removed from the air, I’d like us all to stop and agree for a moment that spreading ones hate around does not making hating better.

Sigh.

Any day on which Kurt Vonnegut dies is guaranteed to be sad, but the cold driving rain outside and the other bad news that keeps piling up isn’t helping. Here, in Vonnegut’s honor, a poem of his that appeared in the New Yorker:

JOE HELLER

True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel ‘Catch-22’
has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!

– Kurt Vonnegut