Life on Another Planet

I spent most of this morning pissed because I heard of the suspension of two NY DJ's. Not that I had any love for them, but these two idiots re-broadcast a segment that featured a computerized voice prank calling a Chinese restaurant, and then proceed to pepper the conversation with racist and sexist crap. That itself is really annoying, but there actually is support for the two DJs from the fans, and some from the media as well. I get a little tired of the double standards that exist between people of color sometimes. It seems like some racism get noticed and remedied, and some don't. Anyway, the support for the DJs is scary to me. They cite freedom of speech and expression, they cite that people need to get a life and learn to take a joke, and they blame CBS for the suspensions because they are censoring the shock jocks.

Now I don't necessarily want the jobs to be terminated, but I do want apologies to be public. Stupid, crass humor by shock jocks will always exist, but our society needs to be more unified as to what constitutes responsible entertainment and what doesn't. First of all, if you've listened to the broadcast, you'd know - it isn't funny. The joke isn't at all funny because unlike a good prank call, the caller isn't making fun of himself or the situation, it is simply insulting the victim. I'm sorry, but the primary premise of the joke - a computerized voice prank calling an Asian restaurant while throwing racist comments isn't funny. It's just mean.

Anyway, I've been just pissed about the whole thing - and I'd probably post something about it in a public forum or something. I don't know. It's eating at me. Spreading prejudices is just plain hateful for me.

---

On the brighter side, the news that Gliese 581 c being possibly habitable is just geeking me out. I'm not real big on astronomy, and not that into sci-fi, but hearing that there could be another planet that's habitable that's 20 light years away, and that if any of us wanted to visit - we couldn't. It would have to be what I read would be a "generation ship", a spaceship that's big enough to have a small population (so as to ensure genetic diversity) that carries on toward a mission that will last 500 years and many descendants, before they even get to the planet to begin any kind of steps toward populating the planet. That stuff is just mind-boggling. It's exciting and humbling at the same time. Just amazing. Read more about that here.