Yesterday, August 7th, there was a story on the wire from Baltimore that involved
three teen-agers who were charged with murder in the course of their hobby, "bum stomping".

http://www.salon.com/mwt/wire/2001/08/07/teens/index.html

I live in a Boston suburb.  Boston -- you know: "the Athens of America"?

We've got some classy radio guys up here.  I learned about this sad story from one of them,
a Mr. Howie Carr.  He's the local talk-radio host who inherits Rush's audience, and exploits
the shit out of their ignorance.  Which is not to say that Carr doesn't swim in his own pool of nescience.

Here's a paraphrase of how Howie reported the story.

"Got this over the wire.  It's an AP release.  Seems a couple of teens down in Baltimore have been out
stomping homeless people and killed a couple of them." (guffaws) "They called it (breathlessly into the mike)
'bum stomping.'

"Ha, ha!" (aside to a young air-headed female minion):
"Hey, Sandy, didja ever do any bum stomping at the summer camp?"

He'd just finished a segment on summer camp experiences.

He continues. "Says here, the three teen-agers went on a four-month
spree, a (breathlessly into the mike) bum stomping spree.  Ha, ha!"

Mr. Carr and his audience are no friends of the homeless.  Deriding them is a favorite sport on the show,
played with ghoulish glee by his highly dyseducated listeners.  "Howie Carr, the Boston Bad Boy!" brays
his announcer on the tail end of his bumpers.

... Quoting giddily from the article, Carr continues.
"These young men would come upon the victims when they were sleeping -- yeah, sleeping," he snorts.
"I think we can safely assume these homeless people, these (breathlessly into the mike) bums, were drunk."

This passes for high humor on the Howie Carr show, he and his sidekick crack up.

"And ," he continues, "Literally, they seemed to be doing it for the sport of it. Ha, ha!
I wonder if we could get this going here in Boston..."

Blah, blah!  Ha, ha!

This is Boston right-wing talk radio.  Mr. Carr amuses himself, and a bunch of mostly self-employed
small business owners, with this political incorrectness for four hours daily. That's when he's not grousing
about taxes or bashing Clinton. (He referred to Clinton the other day by posing a riddle: "I'll give you a hint,"
he said,  "he's the guy who raped Juanita Broderick.")

Funny, huh? What an asshole!

A couple of days ago, Howie and his baboon troop were laughing there asses off about another story he got
off the transom.  It concerned a group of convicts who were having a basketball game in the prison gym.
Gales of guffaws rocked the studio as he read this quote from the girlfriend of one of the convicts.

"...they felt something wet", she said, "they stopped playing and looked around to see what was going on.
When they looked up, there were a bunch of prison guards -- urinating on them.  My boyfriend said it was disgusting!"

Ha ha ha haw haw tee hee hahaha!

"I -- ha, ha --wonder how long it took -- ha, ha -- to think that one up, ha, ha!  That's priceless!"

And this neanderthal has not only a radio show, but also a column -- two or three times weekly -- in one of
Boston's two major newspapers, The Boston Herald. Oh yeah, and his radio show is syndicated.

All of which makes me long for Bartcop.  There are plenty of things on which BC and I don't agree.
But so what.  Bart is funny, for crying out loud.  And he'll at least let you say your piece.
(He may not listen too good, though.)

We need a guy like Bartcop in Boston.  At least when he's practicing low humor, the targets aren't helpless.
More important, they are deserving -- except, that is,  to ignoramuses like Howie Carr's baboon troop.

I had pretty much given up wishing for a fairer public dialogue, but BC has given me renewed hope.
I can now dream of the prospect of his Internet-cum-broadcast-radio success.

What greater future television spectacle could we anticipate than the promise held before us of ...

Someone, anyone, kicking Sean Hannity in the nuts!

Don't let me down, BC,
 

Pipe,
I just returned from Circuit City where I purchased a
Microsoft Sidewinder Game Voice.

Can you guess what I'm going to do with it?
(If you can, then tell me.)