Horsesass Radio tonight: satire (and the satire gene), Michael Richards comic failures, Michelle Malkin & white powder, and the three budding civil wars on the road to peace in the Middle East

The David Goldstein show is on 710 KIRO from 7:00 -- 10:00 pm tonight.  Here is the preliminary schedule....

In the 7:00 hour, Goldy will discuss satire and comedy.  If you caught Goldy filling in for Dori Monson on Thanksgiving, his guest, General J.C. Christian, lit-up the phone lines with angry callers.  Apparently, some listeners didn't realize that discussions of Tasing trick-or-treaters ("...but only one child in each group"), or arming fetuses with hand guns was…umm…political satire.  The General will be Goldy's guest, but this time not in character.  They will discuss the use of satire in political activism and, perhaps, the lack of a satire gene in wingnuts.

Later in the hour, Goldy will discuss Michael Richards' famous unfunny routine at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood a week ago Friday.  Is Richards a flaming racist?  Or did he simply fail miserably pulling some edgy comedy out of a heckling crowd?

In the 8:00 hour, Goldy's guest will be journalist and blogger David Neiwert to talk about right-wing "humor."  Is it simply a joke when Ann Coulter says, "We need to put rat poison in Justice Stevens' creme brulee."   What about when someone sends a batch of poisoned cookies to the Supreme Court?   Or when Michelle Malkin broadcasts eliminationist rhetoric to millions of listeners only to have a deranged fan engage in domestic terrorism, like sending fake anthrax powder to Keith Olbermann and other liberal media figures?    Are the haters culpable when their words inspire terrorism?

In the 9:00 hour, Goldy will ask (again): what, exactly, does victory look like in Iraq?  Today King Abdullah of Jordan told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week that "Mideast leaders [are] juggling with the strong potential of three civil wars in the region, whether it's the Palestinians, that of Lebanon or of Iraq."   Is there any chance at all that George Bush's Mideast "peace through violence" initiative will ever live up to its promises?

Tune in to 710 on the amplitude modulated part of the analog broadcast spectrum, or stream digital audio from KIRO over the web.  If you think you have some answers, call into the show at 1-877-710-5476.

Comments

[Bleeding heart conservative]

"In the 8:00 hour, Goldy's guest will be journalist and blogger David Neiwert to talk about right-wing "humor." Is it simply a joke when Ann Coulter says, "We need to put rat poison in Justice Stevens' creme brulee." What about when someone sends a batch of poisoned cookies to the Supreme Court?"

1. According to the charges, the cookies were sent before Ann Coulter said such a thing, and they weren't an attempt to kill anyone (viz. the letters warning they were poisoned) but were an attempt to frame others-- by putting their return addresses on the packages. The criminal that sent them was attempting to get 3rd-parties in trouble with the law: that's in the court docs.

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2006/11/psychic_csi.html

She also sent them to Pentagon officials...

2. "Are the haters culpable when their words inspire terrorism?"

Do you remember when ten people in a Texas church were killed by a crazed gunman? This was shortly after BJ O'Shea talked on air about killing all Christians. it would be absurd to see cause and effect there. It would be even more absurd if someone laid blame at BJ's feet if he said those things AFTER the killings.

By the way, that gunman used real bullets, not fake anthrax.

[coiler]

It's ok that you have to protect your lover, Man Coulter.

[Tommy008]

I've tried to be polite, with euphemism's such as lazy , poor speech paterns, etc.. I'm tired of mincing words. Dori Monson's voice, coming from a man over 40, simply sounds like the voice of a punk- a belligerent, full of himself, little punk. Sorry Dori, if the girls and Star happen to read this. A wag once said that how a man's face looks over the age of 40 is his own fault or credit, since it shows their character, or lack of it. The same is true of a voice.

[joanie]

You know, I'm on the fence with this. A woman called and asked how Goldy knew that these people didn't understand or recognize satire. She wondered if, in fact, they did but were still angry.

At the end when she said something about someone satirizing his reactions (something like that) to the school district's decision at one point to close his kids school. He said he would fight.

Well, I keep thinking about that. Isn't that what they did? Fight, I mean. He fights by writing . . . they fight by calling the station.

And when he and Neiwert were discussing the right, they kept saying the left would never be that bad. Someone brought up animal rights' groups and they responded that these groups hadn't killed anybody.

Boy, I'm just not so sure we aren't all seeing some of these things through very biased lenses - the left as well as the right. And I'm no lover of the right!

But, I'm also thinking that while both sides are venomous towards each other, I don't like the self-righteousness that goes with it. On either side.

I don't mind the venom, god knows I spew it myself . . but I also don't like the degree to which the left makes a mockery of values and religious beliefs and then justifies it by calling it satire. What is the difference between satire and outright disrespect, scorn and mockery? I guess I don't know.

[lukobe]

Satire requires a degree of intelligence and creativity, I'd say.

I personally couldn't believe J.C. Christian fooled anybody. For a while I actually thought he was fooling Goldy, but then I could tell by his tone of voice that he was in on the joke.

Joanie, I liked your post.

[Mike Barer]

You can check out Burl Barer's take on the OJ controversey at www.adoraburl.typepad.com
A little different perspective.