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January 09, 2013

Annals of American Insanity

One of the modern world’s major conundrums is the peculiar American fascination with guns and our related propensity for using them to express resentment through the mass murder of strangers. Piers Morgan, the urbane British TV import who replaced Larry King as host of the CNN prime time call-in spot, seems to has come into his own with his dogged pursuit of the gun/mass murder issue in the wake of the tragic killings of 20 first graders and six school staff at an upscale Connecticut primary school in December

On Monday of this week, Morgan had as his guest, Alex Jones, a right wing talk radio host from Austin Texas. I happened to catch it in real time on the West Coast where the Morgan show airs between 6-7 PM. The show was already underway, and not knowing a thing about Jones or his background, I was horrified at his over-the-top bombastic style. He literally took over the Morgan’s studio. Having heard similar gun-nuts rant privately, I was familiar with the genre. I have also been exposed to the same kind of hatred from total strangers after trying (vainly) to explain marijuana use to them, so I am not unfamiliar with the underlying personality. It’s one of the reasons I can only tolerate Rush Limbaugh in tiny doses before I'm forced to change the channel/station. That both he and Jones can command such large, approving radio audiences is one of the reasons I think the United States is in an advanced state of intellectual and political decline.

It goes without saying that almost all right wing talk radio hosts are ardent supporters of Nixon's drug war hoax.

Doctor Tom

Posted by tjeffo at January 9, 2013 06:05 PM

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