Talking Themselves to Death, Bloggy Edition

Just because you can produce a talk radio show doesn't mean you should

For the last several days, the internet has been abuzz with the vicious ass-whipping delivered to Kevin James, a talk radio host.



James' irredeemable stupidity aside, as well as Chris Matthews' blatant oversimplification of the issue at hand (talking to terrorists is one thing, but the notion of negotiating is another entirely and in the absence of negotiation, is there really much point? This is a valid question), the matter quickly becomes a cautionary tale.

Just because you can go on broadcast media and shout yourself hoarse doesn't mean you should. At the very least, someone should stop and think for a couple of seconds before they do that.

Take, for example, Brass Balls Radio, a new online talk radio show being offered by Girl on the Right's Wendy Sullivan. The internet has continually offered those so inclined more and more tools to express themselves in various media formats.

But just because someone can express themselves in these formats doesn't mean they shouldn't stop for thirty seconds and think about it before they do.

The inaugural program, recorded on May 17, and co-hosted with Mike Williams, is an agonizing, amateurish mish-mash of thoughtless throw-away comments.

"I hear Nancy Pelosi is in Iraq, I think she's fighting with the Taliban although I'm not sure," Sullivan says at one point. "It's kind of funny considering she was in Israel the other day. I think it's quite possible that she just stole secrets and sold them to little brown people."

"Are you saying, then, that her lips are not filled with collagen? That they're filled with C-4 and she's smuggling it across the border?" she asks her co-host.

"She could be injecting C-4 in her ass, too," Williams replies. "That's unconfirmed."

"You know I've never really looked at her from behind and I'm OK with that," Sullivan adds. "She's got an OK face, considering it's made of some of Cher's ex-body parts."

On one hand, someone could certainly write such comments off as the "unavoidable humour" Sullivan promises at the start of the broadcast. On the other hand, the comments really do speak for themselves.

"When your parents are babyboomers, the most spoiled generation in history -- the first generation to have colour TV, and two cars in the driveway, the first generation to go to University -- they just don't know how to live in the real world," Sullivan insists. "They've never been hungry. They've never had to work for a living. They had everything handed to them."

"We've had the hedonistic generation and in my lifetime, mercifully, they're going to die," Sullivan adds.

If there was any substance following such comments, one would consider some response other than "holy shit".

When Sullivan and Williams finally get down to discussing some things that they probably imagine has some substance, they don't do much better for themselves.

"I don't think we should have sent more troops into Iraq, I think we should have sent hookers," Sullivan latter opines. "I think we should have sent planes full of prostitutes to just calm them the fuck down."

This is shortly after dismissing Islam as a religion of "sex and death", and before recategorizing Islam as a "dangerous, dangerous religion of sex and death."

"Seriously, they need to get laid," Sullivan adds. "Islam needs to get laid. Not by force like they usually do -- because really, don't have a Muslim at a party where girls are drinking, trust me."

"Whenever you see religions of sex and death the FBI is usually busting them up. How come marrying off children and polygamy is only illegal when white people are doing it?" Sullivan asks.

"It's only illegal when the white guy does it," Sullivan complains. "But when a brown guy marries off his 12-year-old daughter to some Pakistani she's never met or has sex with her -- but only anally to keep her virginity -- or has four wives (which, here in Ontario, they're all collecting welfare for their wives -- isn't that nice? Welfare for four wives! All of them! Get a job or get out), it's not illegal, it's their culture!"

"Only illegal when the white guy does it," Sullivan concludes.

And this is only if one can get through the agonizing extended discussion of what computers they have. Good grief.

One would think that they would have stopped to think for about thirty seconds before opening their mouths. After all, it isn't as if there are people out to get them.

Talk radio has been almost overwhelmingly dominated by conservative commentators over the past several years. But unfortunately, all too many of these commentators -- Kevin James, Wendy Sullivan and Mike Williams alike -- are simply talking themselves, and any credibility they would wish to lay claim to, to death.