Rod, we’ll get on the Kobe call tomorrow.
Here’s today’s question–can we institute a law requiring all hosts of morning radio shows take some sort of test on current events or something, please?

So, I was on the way to Dook this morning and one of the stations was talking about the Ebonics issue. First, I didn’t realize this was still something people brought up, but it doesn’t bother me to hear about it. What does bother me is hearing that entire issue misrepresented. The uninformed of the world tend to take the idea of using Ebonics in school as meaning that students will be taught the perfect grammatical structure of African-American Vernacular English, and that’s just not true. After all, nobody needs a class in Ebonics (well, save for white people). The move was an ingenious hustle, one designed to tap into ESL-type funds. If Ebonics is treated as a different language, then schools could get additional funds to teach English. ‘Twas a great way to use a piece of racism as a bargaining chip. We don’t speak English? You’re right. So, help us teach English.
It made perfect sense to me, even though the success of the hustle was a long shot.
Anyway, I hear some fools on the radio talking about how students won’t be able to get good jobs no matter how “fluent” they are in Ebonics. Dumbest shit I’ve heard since, well, the last time people blew this issue.
But here’s the problem…there’s a large number of people that listen to morning radio shows like that shit is really the news. They listen to dude that use aliases that involve the word “lover” and take their word as an alternative to reading a newspaper. On one hand, that’s not such a terrible notion. One should expect that which is broadcast to have some measure of accuracy. But when one considers that listeners frequently see deejays as such, wouldn’t it seem like it’s time to start getting people on there that know what they’re talking about? At this point, the fools that do sports can’t even get the standings right!
Really, how hard is it to find someone that’s simultaneously entertaining and literate? It can’t be that difficult. I know a bunch of cats capable of doing that.
My one wish in this world is that radio stations start hiring intelligent people to talk. It ain’t like they even pick records anymore. Those decisions are made by somewhat illicit contractual negotiations. All these cats have to do is talk.
So give ’em a test, a #2 pencil, and 30 minutes. If you don’t know who plays point guard for the Pistons, you can’t talk about sports. If you don’t know who’s in charge of the NAACP, you can’t talk about black issues. Et cetera.
And if you don’t know something about my issue, just leave it alone and prank call somebody or something.
Radio should have the same rule as the rest of the world–if you know not about that which you speak, shut the fuck up.