Race Pimps

I have routinely listened to Don Imus' radio program. He does many good things. He is a fair-minded, intelligent host with intelligent guests and listeners. For many years, he has headed multiple charities for children. Just about everyone who is anyone in Washington, D.C., has been a guest of his. Words that have exited their mouths while speaking through Imus' live microphone would surprise many.

These and other facts about Don Imus and his broadcasts make the mass exodus of advertisers and longtime, repeat guests of distinction all the more ridiculous. The reaction is way out of proportion to the offense. But what makes this a true outrage is the people leading the charge: Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two men who are nothing more than shameless shakedown artists, racial pimps whose hypocrisy is self evident to any citizen of this country engaged enough to perform a simple Web search on these scoundrels.

If I were a black man, I would lead the charge to renounce these losers' putative leadership, nothing more than a cover for their cheap public relations machinations. Let's get some genuine black leaders and kick these shysters to curb.

UPDATE: As of 5:30 p.m. EST, Don Imus has lost not only the television simulcast from MSNBC studios of his radio program, but the radio show, too. I wish Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton godspeed on their next vigils at the doorsteps of Def Jam Recordings and other rap producers' headquarters, where powerful people sanction the labeling of black women as "hos" every day of the week.

A fine mist you've got there

The problem with a trickle-down theory of economics isn't that it's faulty or fails to deliver what it promises. The theory's name itself gives rise to discontent: A mere trickle is hardly comforting.