Ok, I just watched the "very special" episode of "The West Wing". I can't remember a worse hour of my life in this country.
The entire show consisted of simplistic, apparent, evident, ripped-off-from-the-media messages spoken to teen-age characters but intended for "the rest of us". Tolerance, Understanding, Insight, Humanity, who hasn't already considered these messages? Only the most in-bred, uneducated, shack-dwelling, barefoot, road-kill scavengers would be led to the light through this exercise of Aaron Sorkin's searing, all-clarifying intellect.
In this time of tragedy and mourning, the last thing we need is a treacly lesson in civics from a drug addict whose insulation from prosecution is directly related to his ability to generate money for his masters at NBC. Where was Sorkin's respect for the law when he wrapped his magic mushrooms in a used cocaine baggie and headed for the airport? (Ok, the cocaine baggie bit was an embellishment, a "reimagining" if you will.) For this diarrheic waste of money the premier of the show was delayed? If I had wanted a lesson from a trite, overpaid, well-drugged writer with possible Communist sympathies, I'd read Martin Amis. (Ok, another "reimagining", and Mr. Amis is a fine Communist.) Instead of profiling our Arab-Americans, we should increase surveillance on Aaron Sorkin to make sure none of this crap leaves his hard drive. Against this shoddy hemorrhage of superficial, MTV-distilled tripe all Muslims should declare a jihad, all Christians a crusade, all Buddhists a...well, Buddhists stay where you are.
25+ years in this country and I have never come across a more egregious violation of my civil rights, specifically my right to entertaining television. God, I want to get out of this business. To paraphrase a classic film line, " I have given a name to my pain, and it is Aaron Sorkin." Thank you.
It will take years of therapeutic fetish pornography to erase this horror from my mind. For those of you who didn't watch the show, consider yourselves fortunate to escape a disaster. Hug your children and tell them how much you love them. For those who have, please consider the following link a consolation.
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