Andy Rooney Speaks Out

[Beldaran]

I agree with pretty much everything he said on 60 minutes:

Andy Rooney said on "60 Minutes" a few weeks back:

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of
anything except numbers. The only things I can think
of that are truly discriminatory are things like the
United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black
Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.
Try to have things like the United Caucasian College
Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment
Television, or Miss White America; and see what
happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your
door.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes
you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball
bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from
driving to the ball game.
I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a
reason, that is why there are no girls allowed.
Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING
MARTHA BURKE?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it
is not a phobia, it is an opinion.
I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others
because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black,
in cities where 70% of the population is black, that
is not racial profiling, it is the Law of
Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a
pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you
must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you
want to be an American citizen, you should have to
speak English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you
can leave the countries you were born in to come
over and disrespect ours. I think the police should
have every right to shoot your sorry behind if you
threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you
can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in
English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this
country, you are qualified for any special loan
programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax
breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop,
trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign
countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their
freedoms, so that decades later they could come over
here and tell us our constitution is a living
document; and open to their interpretations.


I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and
television. That doesn't stop you from watching them


I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every
penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks
you off, go and invent the next operating system
that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child
right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the
kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary,
and say "NO!"

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want
them, but please don't pretend they are a political
statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip
ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly
infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot
of black people, and not a single one of them was
born in Africa ; so how can they be
"African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent.
I don't go around saying I am a European-American
because my great, great, great, great, great, great
grandfather was from Europe . I am proud to be from
America and nowhere else

And if you don't like my point of view, tough...

DON'T PASS IT ON!!

[carrot red]

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing more to add to this. I couldn't have said it better myself. : p

[Rijuhn]

Wow, I've never watched 60 minutes, but maybe I'll start checking it out to hear what Andy Rooney has to say. He seems to be spot on with everything.

[Dark Nation]

Another idea along the same lines: Hate Crimes. Why do they carry a stiffer punishment than "normal" crimes (against people of your own race)? And why are they called hate crimes? How many people do you kill because you love them?

[Starkist]

According to snopes.com, some of that wasn't actually spoken by Andy Rooney. Doesn't matter though. I agree with most of it.

DN: Back in the 2000 election, the Democrats ran an attack ad against Governor Bush, accusing him of racism for not signing a Texas hate crime bill. They used the incident where the three white men dragged a black man to his death as a reason for the bill to be signed. They forget that this was Texas. Two of the men were already on death row...

[Axel]

All I'm going to say is the author contradicted himself. First he says that its wrong to be setting aside special considerations for one group, then defends seperation in another. Why is there a problem with BET but not Boy/Girl Scouts?

Tangential comment: When I was a scout my Scoutmaster's wife and daughter accompanied us on all our trips. They said Girl Scouts wasn't as much fun because the Scoutmaster equivalent (don't know correct name) had to clear every activity with the region council in advance. Whereas BSA put all the control in the Scoutmaster's hands.

Another tangential comment: I had a friend in High School who got a WASP scholarship. There goes one of his points.

[Rainman]

Meh, I disagree on a few points, but I won't interrupt this political masturbation. Please continue.

[Beldaran]

Meh, I disagree on a few points, but I won't interrupt this political masturbation. Please continue.

Apparently:
Things you agree with = well reasoned intellectual activity
Things I agree with = political masturbation

Real mature there.

[Saffith]

No, many of these points are not well-reasoned at all. A lot of them are simply attacking straw men, and several are debating positions held exclusively by morons.
For one, no one I know of, liberal, conservative, or otherwise, thinks that guns drive people to kill who would not otherwise be so inclined. The best arguments against guns are that their users are not unlikely to do far more harm to their targets than necessary (although usually not more than they would like, I don't think...), and that there are too many cases of people being injured or killed accidentally with guns.
I also doubt there are many who don't feel that political correctness has gotten out of hand. It's good, I think, that it's generally unacceptable to freely refer to people using racial slurs, but it's gotten to the point where new labels are being forced onto groups who weren't bothered by their old ones.

I'm not saying I disagree with the writer on every point. In fact, I don't think there's anything in there at all that I completely disagree with. It's just that these are mostly simpleminded responses to simpleminded assertions.

[Beldaran]

I think you are confusing "simpleminded" with "simple". Great reasoning is often simple.

[Axel]

You're missing the rest of his post. The person is attacking positions that he invented. To attack a position that is so extreme that it is rare or entirely absent shows either an incredibly simple mind, or a position so far to the opposing extreme that any opposing view seems extreme.

[MacWeirdo42]

I'm gonna have to jump on the "I disagree" bandwagon here. I feel that many of these points overlook important information. For instance, regarding people who don't speak English - sure, English is one of the most common languages spoken in the United States, but last time I checked, the United States does not have an official language. If it's a problem, then fine, go ahead and make English the official language, but you can't bitch about people not speaking the language when technically, there is no official language. I also gotta say that I just love this "My way or the highway" attitude. I'm sorry, but it always pisses me off when people act like they know more about the world than anyone else. Fine, believe what you want, but don't act like it's the only right or correct opinion, because for many situations, there is no right or correct opinion. I'm specifically referring here to child-raising, by the way. Nobody knows how to raise a child properly, so how the hell can anyone claim that they do? Finally, with regards to guns, I think the point was already made, but it's FAR easier to accidently (or purposely, for that matter) kill someone with a gun than with a baseball bat. You don't hear about kids getting into their parent's closets and bashing themselves to death with baseball bats; there aren't news reports about how students went on a baseball bat rampage at their school and killed 20 students. Give me a break.

Okay, done ranting.