Busybody Buttheads

Celebrity, Etiquette, Family, Feminism, Sport

Good for the forceful Janay Rice for voicing her fury over the “unwanted opinions” about her marriage to Ray Rice, whose “contract with his longtime team was terminated on Monday.” The player “was suspended indefinitely from the NFL after a video was released on TMZ.com of him assaulting his now-wife at an Atlantic City casino.”

“THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get,” Mrs. Rice blasted the busybodies from her Instagram account, this morning.

As is their wont, the professional opinionators—know-nothings—were out and about on media, airing their formulaic theories about Mrs. Rice’s life and personality.

Do the busybodies have to be told to butt out; that Janay is an adult woman who is quite capable of making her own decisions? Apparently.

As to Rice’s termination: If he violated his contract in any way, it is the prerogative of his employer to get rid of him. It is also the right of the same controlling interests to reinstate the player.

Racial Merry-Go-Round Update

Race, Racism

What a relief: A panel of CNN cretins comprising Marc Lamont Hill and two interchangeable females magically coalesced around the following idea: There was absolutely nothing racial whatsoever about the beating by blacks of a white store clerk. Only a week back, the same sort of empaneled fools—at least an interchangeable one—intoned in unison about the ostensible racism behind the Ferguson killing ad nauseum.

Well of course.

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson quickly shed his property—sold “his controlling interest” in the team—because, in the course of trying to “put customers in seats,” and “build a significant season ticket base,” as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar put it, he voiced some obvious concerns, as to:

“… whether … the emphasis on hip-hop and gospel music and the fact that the cheerleaders are black, the bars are filled with 90% blacks, kiss cams focus on black fans and time-out contestants are always black has an effect on keeping away white fans. … My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base. … ”

One would think that it’s a team owner’s responsibility to state reality as he sees it.

UKIP And The ‘Sexism’ Sniveling

Britain, Feminism, Sex

The female-offending comments made by a UK Independence Party (UKIP) member, and investigated by a Telegraph reporter, are somehow validated by the sample of news stories displayed on the very same page:

* Keira’s topless shoot: ‘powerful and feminist.’

* Meet the student fighting tampon tax.

The offending MEP Godfrey Bloom must be smiling (or resting his case).

Background: “Britain’s anti-EU UKIP will win its first directly elected parliamentary seat after the defection of a lawmaker from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party last week, an opinion poll on Sunday showed,” reports Reuters.

So naturally, this called for a probe into sexism in the ranks, conducted by a Channel 4 News female presenter Cathy Newman.

Language Patriotism & The ‘Shangri-La Of Socratic Disinterest’

America, English, Media

I’m forever surprised as to which of my columns will appeal to readers. Much to my surprise, “Killing English by Bill O’Reilly” went down well. I believe the coda clinched it. Or, maybe it was the change of pace and the break from the political cesspool that endeared this column.

The title, incidentally, alludes to Bill’s many “Killing This; Killing That,” “co-authored” books.

The “Shangri-La of Socratic disinterest” is how Canadian commentator Rex Murphy deliciously dubbed Mr. O’Reilly’s method of inquiry.

Wrote (another) Bill:

Dear Ms. Mercer,

I am a confirmed liberal, but need to keep track of the ‘opposition’, so often read your columns at WND.

I am enchanted, if you will, by your latest. One of the current usages now in vogue among sportscasters is “verse” rather than versus….makes me crazy…willful ignorance.

Thanks so much,
Bill W.

This from JOSEPH W.:

You wrote: “The brilliant Richard Burton exulted in his love of English. ‘I am as thrilled by the English language as I am by a lovely woman,’ exclaimed the great actor.”

Ilana: I love English so much that I REFUSE to learn any other language; object to the teaching of other languages in school.
English is the most commonly spoken language on earth; more people speak it as a first or second tongue than any other. English has a speacial status as the international language of commerce, of freedom, of democracy.
Come to the country my ancestors settled in 1642 and learn English…that’s what we speak here.
English is all I need, if someone wants to learn a foreign language, let them take it up like other people take up a hobbie or craft. At least O’Reilly presents so new words to listeners … even if better educated folks like yourself have to correct him!
Thanks for being a champion of our native tongue!

Joseph R. W. II

And from my kind editor at Quarterly Review, a superb writer himself:

Brilliant writing Ilana
Leslie