ho ho ho and a bottle of rum

Now I know what the pirates were talking about.

What? This guy had like 358,000 viewers, and all of the sudden we're upset? Nope, all of a sudden we're cowards. Imus didn't change, we did.

What? Both CBS and NBC had talks with their employees and heard a resounding teary eyed "fire him"? Nope, the sponsors were pulling out, and in case you hadn't heard, business is about money.

But hey, what's Catholic about Imus? Nothing. He's just an old guy doing comedy which we liked to listen to. Comedy, not something serious. Funny stuff.

Thomas Paine thought that “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”.

I bring this up because it dawns on me that a Catholic liberal still has one foot back in the 60's. Still fighting for feminism. Still rebelling against authority with their privately derived new ideas that are oh so old.

But the public liberal of the 60's has disappeared. That liberal used to mean free speech if they meant anything. Have you heard any free speech liberals coming to Imus' aid? Nope. They're all near retirement and too achy to move on this.

Liberal has come to mean socialism pure and simple. Clinton's village. Speech laws. Hurt feelings.

And judging from the near complete lack of defenders of Imus' free speech rights (including Imus himself) it's social pressure we're seeing. It would be in the courts if it could be, and maybe one day will be. This is real enforced niceness. The kind of niceness never mentioned in the bible.

Poor Imus would be in much better position if he had simply said "opps, that didn't sound too good". And in addition "f*** (see how well I'm trained?) you if you can't take a joke".

But he got into the feelings excuse, which was probably a play he thought long and hard about to no avail. A weepy I'm SORRY~~~~.

So really, we have a new type of liberal social experiment. And the worst part is that there is no counter-pressure from conservatives or 60's liberals.

It's called piling-on like on the playground. It's a juvenile attack by just about everyone.

Just watch. We will find some tie-in to Imus and Global Warming, the Duke case, and that Imus has an undue influence on rap music.

It is not pretty... about as ugly as Imus' joke. But it's real, and the joke was.. well, it was a joke.