Thursday, January 22, 2015

Cat scratch fever

Maybe you saw the little televised tiff the other day.
Jon Stewart ripped into Mike Huckabee on the "Daily Show" Monday, saying the former Arkansas governor was being hypocritical in his recent criticism of Beyoncé. In his book that was released Tuesday, "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy," Huckabee rails against what he describes as the artist's "explicit" style and questions whether her husband, Jay-Z, is "exploiting his wife as a sex object." 
The potential presidential contender, who recently ended his Fox News show, also argued that the Obamas shouldn't let their daughters listen to the multiplatinum singer because "what you put in your brain is also important, as well as what you put into your body."
On the show Monday, Huckabee argued that Beyoncé is a "megatalent" and doesn't need to resort to being "vulgar in order to set a trend," especially given her role model status for young girls. 
"Do you know any parent who has a daughter and says 'Honey, if you make really good grades, someday when you're 12 or 13, we'll get you your own stripper pole'. I mean c'mon Jon, we don't do that in our culture," he said. 
That's when Stewart jumped in, interrupting Huckabee to say he's "diminishing Beyoncé in a way that's truly outrageous." 
He then played a clip of Huckabee jamming with controversial rocker Ted Nugent to the song "Cat Scratch Fever" on Huckabee's former Fox show. I could quote lyrics from the song, but that would bother me, too.
Stewart questioned Huckabee on why Nugent gets a pass. 
"You excuse that type of crudeness because you agree with his stance on firearms," Stewart said. "You don't approve of Beyoncé because she seems alien to you."
Huckabee responded arguing the Nugent song "is an adult song, geared for adults," but modern culture has lower standards when it comes to "things that are considered perfectly OK for kids."
My take on this is a bit different than some, I would expect. My take is that both are right, and both are wrong. Doing and saying the right thing is not limited or owned by either the left politically or the right. And in a country that defends free speech, if one really believes in free speech, one must live with these types of things. But simply because it is protected by free speech in terms of our country's laws does not make it right.
Does Beyonce's dress and language sometimes go over the edge? Certainly, by some standards. Is Nugent a nutcase sometimes because of what he does and says in terms of gun laws? Absolutely. Do both of them, by our standards of law, have the right to say what they want? Absolutely. Would I prefer that Beyonce put on some clothes and Nugent get rid of some guns? Absolutely. But I am neither king nor God. Therefore, I must put aside my crown and follow the laws of the land or follow the laws of God, delivered by the grace He also clearly provides.
In the end, freedom of speech guarantees us disagreement and sometimes even butchers like the ones in Paris who disagreed so much they killed because an image of Muhammad was placed on a page of a newspaper. That's what freedom brings.
I get that.  I wonder if others do sometimes. But that would be judging, and I've already mentioned the problem with that.

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