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Over at fraterslibertas.com, the Elder posted a note about Michael Savage, stating what I’d felt the first time I heard his show: Good LORD, man, shut up. Never mind the voice, which switches between a needling sneer and hoarse loutish shouting; never mind the six-foot-wide brush he uses to smear anyone who disagrees with him. (You’re a commie doper hippie gay-loving scumbag. Yes, you.) If you shoved six ounces of meth up each of Archie Bunker’s nostrils and jammed a roman candle up his hindquarters, you’d get this braying ass, and I’d rather go over Niagara Falls in a barrel with a greased Molly Ivins than listen to his show.



But I can’t escape the promos. They’re funny, really, because each one has some stupid inaccuracy - one celebrated baseball as an example of the free market, the other described Ed Asner as “Ed Asinine” (haw, haw) and called him the founder of People for the American Way. And so on. You get the impression of someone who decided long ago that his Brilliant Mind and Piercing Epiphanies obviated the need for research and preparation - after all, research would only confirm what he already knows, which is that he’s always correct.

Who wants to be yelled at for three hours because you don’t realize how bad things are?



Well, I gotta admit he's right. Michael Savage is an acquired taste, probably along exactly the same lines as professional wrestling, and for largely the same reasons. Certainly not a place you'd go to actually learn something, but you don't learn much from the Saturday Night Slamdown either. When I turn him on in the car, my wife begins to beat me with the nearest blunt instrument. And Lileks is also right about his accuracy...he tends to get things terribly wrong.

At one time I made a point of trying to call in to such shows a few times to correct such things, but one waits on the line for up to an hour sometimes, and frankly, I'm not that enthusiastic, so I stopped. It does make one wonder about the mindset of those who will sit on hold for an hour or two. (One of the things I like about this board is the instant feedback. I can tell someone they're as full of shit as a Christmas goose in a matter of seconds.)

On the rare occasions now when I feel motivated to comment on a talk show, I use e-mail or faxes, like when I write to newspapers. I never hear back, but at least I get it out of my system. Recently there was a caller and a talk show host (not Savage) who were concerned about immigration security, and the caller fretted at length about all the turbans she saw on taxi drivers.

"You ignorant sluts!" I shouted, and actually did try to get on the phone one last time to point out a few things about Muslims, Sikhs, and turbans, but came to my senses after about fifteen minutes holding on a goddam CELL PHONE. I shot off another angry e-mail instead.

If these people had me on their research staff, the accuracy and quality of their shows would go up fifty percent right there.

(Wow! Those mail-order Limbaugh Humility Lessons are really paying off!)