DON'T SAY HE'S HYPOCRITICAL, SAY

DON’T SAY HE’S HYPOCRITICAL, SAY RATHER THAT HE’S APOLITICAL: If a Republican said that he wanted to see Bill Clinton and his advisors dead, he’d be called mean-spirited, or worse (probably worse–far worse). But check out this quote from Tom Lehrer, a big hit on college campuses in the early 1960s:

“I’m not tempted to write a song about George W.Bush. I couldn’t figure out what sort of song I would write. That’s the problem: I don’t want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them.”

The writer of the above quoted article on Lehrer from the Sydney Morning Herald says, “It would be wrong to assume, however, that Lehrer, 74, is bitter and twisted. He proves quick-witted, lively and extremely friendly.”

If that’s friendly, I’d hate to see him when he’s miffed.

Lehrer’s quote perfectly illustrates what Dale Amon of Samizdata wrote in November, that “Political Correctness is not a matter of what is said; it is a matter of who says it. The annointed are ‘allowed’ freedoms of speech unavailable to the hoi polloi. Had it been myself…making the same remark, I would be pilloried for it.”

Exactly.