What inspires your ire tips your hand–politically speaking–and a sanctimonious editorial on Tracy Morgan in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times tells you all you need to know about the staff of SoCal’s leading paper.

For those of you who dropped out of society for the past week, the synopsis is that during a stand-up comedy routine in Nashville, Morgan, of “SNL” and “30 Rock” fame, joked that he would stab his son if he used a “gay voice.”  Word got out and all hell broke loose.  The twitterverse was outraged, celebrities clamored to condemn the comment, and Morgan eventually delivered the obligatory pandering over-apology replete with a commitment to partner with America’s most ironically named advocacy organization: GLAAD.

The story is a social justice cliché.

The courageous editors at the Los Angeles Times joined the fray yesterday, unloading a bold op-ed stating Morgan had crossed the line:

But that’s not what Tracy Morgan, the comedian and star of the popular NBC TV comedy “30 Rock,” did during a recent stand-up gig in Nashville, when he unleashed a rant against gays and said that if a son of his ever came home sounding effeminate, he would pull out a knife and stab him.

That wasn’t pushing any new boundaries; if anything, it was a reversion to old ones. In the process, Morgan revealed that he’s capable of frightening (and unfunny) invective, and left his audience wondering whether he is a garden-variety homophobe.

Fair enough.  This analysis is lacking in originality, but it’s at least an accurate assessment of a joke even the most homophobic comedian would probably want to take back.

But here’s where the L.A. Times leaves themselves open to criticism.  They identified **gasp** a trend in comedians taking a joke too far:

Morgan isn’t the first public figure trying to be funny who crossed a line that seems fuzzy — until the minute you step over it. In a failed attempt to be amusing and irreverent during a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Danish director Lars von Trier rambled on about how he is a Nazi because of his German background, adding that he sympathized with Hitler “a little bit.” When comic Michael Richards was unnerved by an African American heckler at a comedy club several years ago, he responded with a racial-slur-laced tirade. And Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as a group of “nappy-headed hos.”

Uhhh…excuse me…but these are the best examples of “crossing the line” the L.A. Times can muster?  An off-his-rocker director with whom practically none of us are familiar (who isn’t even American!), the Michael Richards tirade from nearly five years ago, and the comparatively mild Imus comments from 2007?  Wat?  The editors of the Times do realize there’s a woman named Sarah Palin and most of Hollywood really, really, REALLY doesn’t like her, right?

Just in case they need their collective memory jogged:

• Comedian Chris Titus joked about assassinating Sarah Palin.  June 2011.
• Comedian Louis C.K. on Sarah and Trig Palin: “When she was on stage at the fucking convention, that [Trig] just came out of her fucking disgusting cunt.  Her fucking retard-making cunt.  I hate her more than anybody…” Likely 2010. After these and other similar comments were made about Sarah Palin and her family by Louis C.K., the “Tonight Show” producers thought it would be a good idea to seat him right next to Bristol Palin on television. September 2010.)
• Comedian Whitney Cummings said, “[Quentin Tarantino has] produced more retarded things than Sarah Palin’s vagina.” December, 2010.
• Humorous political blog Wonkette published a “birthday card” to Trig Palin mocking him unmercifully.  This lead to a massive advertiser boycott. April 2011
• 9/11 Truther Ed Asner hates America, thinks the U.S. government was behind the World Trade Center attacks. November 2010
• Roseanne Barr, dressed as Hitler, baked burnt “Jew cookies.” July 2009.
• Aaron Sorkin, amid calling Sarah Palin a slew of names, wrote that he delights when hunters are shot: “I get happy every time one of you faux-macho shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.” March, 2011.
  
• 50-year-old comedian Kathy Griffin said she will be dedicating 2011 to attacking 16-year-old Willow Palin. January 2011.
  
• Rob Reiner likened the Tea Party to the Nazis on HBO’s comedy show “Real Time with Bill Maher.” 2010.

Tracy Morgan joked about killing a hypothetically gay son; Chris Titus joked about assassinating the real Sarah Palin just last week!  But to the L.A. Times, these examples all pale in comparison to Don Imus’s “nappy-headed hos” line from the Bush years.

But wait!  There’s more!  As a bonus, here’s some name-calling:

• Charlie Sheen called Sarah Palin a “whore” in front of a live audience. April 2011.
• Jennifer Lopez called Sarah Palin “bitch.” January 2010.
• Joy Behar on Sharron Angle: that bitch is going to hell. October 2010.
• Rosie O’Donnell called Big Hollywood reader a “bitch” (twice). April 2010.
• Rosie called Elisabeth Hasselbeck a “twat.” August 2009.

There’s even more Hollywood Palin hate in the upcoming doc “The Undefeated.”

And what about Dan Savage?  The openly-gay podcaster and columnist wrote at Salon.com in 2000 that he infiltrated the Gary Bauer for President campaign and licked doorknobs with the express purpose of infecting the Republican and his staff with the flu.  Seriously.  At the time of this writing, Savage has a pilot in the can at HBO.  (The always charming Savage gave his $.02 on the Morgan kerfluffle, noting “Tracy Morgan can suck my…“)

The mistake Tracy Morgan made (and Richards and Imus) is not unleashing h8red, but doing so at a protected class of people.  Had Morgan spewed venom at, say, a mother of five who doesn’t abort her fetuses and thinks “Drill Baby, Drill” isn’t just a line from Anthony Weiner’s facebook conversations, he’d almost certainly have skated the literary lashing form Hollywood’s biggest newspaper.

The Times wraps up the editorial by not-so-subtly suggesting Tina Fey and the “30 Rock” big-wigs might want to consider canning Morgan over the joke:

Morgan’s future on the show is a call for Fey and NBC to make. There are plenty of ways to handle this situation. But when artists slip from funny to hateful, it’s time to stop laughing and call them out on it. We all learn something from doing that.

Chris Titus has a special on Comedy Central next month, Whitney Cummings has TWO pilots debuting this season on network television, Louis C.K. is quickly becoming a household name, Sorkin just won an Oscar, etc. etc. etc.  The careers of these h8ers, with the exception of the staff at Wonkette (thanks to new media and readers of this blog), have been augmented since they made over-the-line jokes about conservatives.  Yet, the Los Angeles Times felt it appropriate to plant the seed that a “30 Rock” sans Tracy Morgan would be an appropriate result of this dust-up.

Obviously, I’m not here to defend the awful things Tracy Morgan said, but if you are outraged that comedians have carte blanche to savage conservatives but must abide a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to gay jokes, you’re probably right-of-center.  On the other hand, if you are aware of the invective that has been hurled toward Sarah Palin and her family in just the last couple of years (Months! Weeks! Days!) and you still can’t get beyond Don Imus and Michael Richards, you might be an editor of the Los Angeles Times.

For instance, consider the uproar from the left when Don Imus opened his silly yap about the black women on the Rutgers basketball team.  Now compare that to their response when David Letterman made his smarmy cracks about Sarah Palin and the governor’s 14-year-old daughter.  The liberals immediately sprang to his defense, pointing out that Letterman is nothing more than a TV personality and is therefore free to make offensive jokes without fear of censure.  So what do they think Don Imus is?  The secretary of state? 

Or consider how choleric those on the left become any time that Dick Cheney defends the former administration.  Well, if Obama and his cronies didn’t constantly attack Bush and Cheney and their policies, the chances are the ex-vice president wouldn’t feel compelled to set the record straight. Furthermore, Jimmy Carter never stopped bashing George Bush during the eight years he was the president, and yet nobody on the left ever suggested he shut up.  On the contrary, he was hailed at the 2004 Democratic convention, and even had the honor of being seated next to the patron saint of left-wingers, Michael Moore.  Speaking of Carter, how is it that he, who is always volunteering to monitor elections anywhere on earth, including the Westminster Dog Show, wasn’t in Iran, making sure that Ahmadinejad got 110% of the vote? 

Liberals never got tired of telling us how much George Bush was despised by those in other countries, although, for the record, I kept asking the loons to name those countries, but could never prompt a response.  I assume even they were too embarrassed to mention Iran, North Korea, China, Yemen and Russia.  Instead, they kept insisting that America should be more like Europe.  Inasmuch as conservative politicians are winning elections in England and all over the continent these days, the people finally waking up to the unmitigated disaster socialism is, I could now join in the chorus.  But, of course, so far as leftists are concerned, I’d now be singing a solo. 

I have to wonder, though, how much non-Muslim nations trust our current president.  It’s one thing, after all, to travel to other countries and talk a lot of diplomatic flapdoodle, but when Barack Obama takes every opportunity to tell the world how awful we are — or at least how awful we were until he got elected — it has to make people wonder if, like his missus, he had never been proud of America prior to his canonization by the media. 

It doesn’t make things a lot better when he makes obviously foolish remarks, such as insisting that the U.S. is one of the largest Muslim nations, and that Muslims played a major role in the creation of our republic. 

That one really had me reeling, so I went back to my trusty old history book and looked it up and, sure enough, he was correct.  Right there in black and white, I discovered that among the most influential of the Founding Fathers were Abdullah Washington, Mahmoud Adams and Osama bin Jefferson.

A friend of mine sent a link to a website that advocates CBS firing late-night host David Letterman for his over-the-top jokes about Sarah Palin and her children. The site tells readers what they can do to help make this firing happen.

But should Letterman be fired?

His so-called jokes were crass and tasteless. Not only did he refer to Palin herself as being “slutty,” but he used a crude sexual reference to Palin’s 14-year-old daughter Willow, whose only sins are the fact that she is a Palin and she attended a Yankees game with her mother in NYC.

Letterman’s first attempt at an apology was half-witted and half-hearted. His excuse that he mistook the 14-year-old Willow for 18-year-old Bristol was disingenuous at best. Does the fact that Bristol is now (barely) of age and an unwed mother make it OK to attack her thusly?

Now a new, lengthier apology is out, with Letterman saying that “if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke.” Hmmm…his audience that night guffawed right along with him. However, the Palin family has graciously accepted his apology.

Regardless of whether you agree that it’s OK to drag Sarah Palin’s children through the political mud (I have seen arguments for and against), again, I ask the question: should Letterman be fired?

I would say no. And here’s why:

No, I am not a David Letterman fan. I think he’s smarmy, smug, and seriously un-funny. But neither am I a Don Imus fan and I didn’t think he deserved to be fired for his “nappy haired ho’s” comment about the Rutgers ladies’ basketball team a couple of years back.

There are a few differences between the Letterman and Imus flaps. Letterman’s jokes were scripted and went through the stages of writing, rewriting, and final approval before the taping of the show. A lot of people saw them and thought they were just fine. Imus made an off the cuff comment during a live broadcast. Tasteless, yes, but not something he thought about previously. The apology process was a lot more different too. While Letterman first tried to justify his jokes about Willow by saying he was “confused” about which daughter really attended the game – and then asked Sarah Palin to “come on the show” – Imus not only apologized on air, but visited the Rutgers team to apologize in person and even sucked up to self-proclaimed spokesman for black people, Al Sharpton. Imus got fired anyway.

The reason, of course, is that an old white guy making any kind of slur against a protected minority group is verboten. But an old liberal white guy making crude sexual jokes about the young daughter of a conservative politician is fine, because who the hell cares what those knuckle-dragging conservatives think? Considering the relative paucity of criticism from like thinkers on the left, who would have been up in arms had a similar joke been made about Obama’s children (heaven forbid, I might add), is telling.

The double standard is astounding. However, both are examples of freedom of speech in America – not to mention examples of how low societal standards of humor have sunk. We all have the right to criticize what we don’t agree with – that’s also free speech – but to demand that Letterman be fired for exercising his rights, no matter how distasteful, smacks of totalitarianism.

If you’d like to see Letterman out on his rear, by all means vote with your remote and your wallet. Don’t watch the show and don’t patronize its sponsors. If Letterman’s ratings fall far enough, the suits at CBS will take appropriate action. And, with his most recent “mea culpa,” it’s possible that some pressure is being brought to bear – perhaps by network brass upset with the loss of some lucrative advertising sponsorship.

The same applies to Bill Maher, who took an even uglier shot at Palin and her family on his HBO weekly show Real Time with Bill Maher. Crass, vulgar, disgusting – all of those superlatives apply. But he broke no laws except those of common decency. Not that common decency often matters in the world of entertainment anymore.

PC is something everyone seems to hate, yet it pervades our culture and lives. The only people who seem to like it are the ones who use it to impose their will on everyone else. The abusers. But we don’t have to put up with it anymore. It’s time we stood our ground and said “no more.”

Of course, to be un-PC doesn’t mean going out and insulting everyone. Bad behavior isn’t going to win you friends. But a lot of the alleged outrage out there from the PC clowns is bogus and it should not be allowed to pass anymore.

How do we do that? Simple.

It won’t be an overnight process. But it can be done. All that’s required are a few steps, and a dedication to following them. And not wavering. Because the abusers of PC will not give up easily.

The good news is the public is against them and signs are there that they tide is already turning. If there’s one thing power fears it’s when the masses are against them. We’re already at that point, it’s just a matter of focusing our energies.

Here are the steps to take:

1. Honesty: The Miss California incident showed one way to fight back successsfully. Stand your ground and stick to your guns. It certainly helped that she had an ally in Donald Trump who saw how popular she became and how much press she was getting. One way to be PC is to stop playing the game. Look for supporters who agree with you and back each other up.

2. Organize: Like-minded people need to band together to fight injustice and PC is injustice. Form groups with others. We should create an acronym organization that is a pressure group against PC. Since PC got its way for many years thanks to pressure groups, we should form one to counter it. What do we call it? STFU comes to mind, but I’m sure we can think of something catchier.

3. Fight Back: If you get into trouble for not being PC, don’t roll over like Don Imus did or many others who knuckled under. Work with groups who support you and don’t let the media tell you how you’re supposed to act. If people call for you to be fired for saying something that wasn’t what they claim it to be, don’t let them push you around. Bullies need to get smacked back. Teach them a lesson.

4. Unity: We need to stick together to overcome those things that are a threat to our freedoms. PC is only part of a larger problem. But taking care of it is a great start. Stick by your fellow PC critics and back them up. Together we can do this.

5. Speak Out: Finally, when you see the media being PC or promoting some absurd PC agenda, email or write them. Do the same to politicians. Make sure they get the message that the people are not supporting this nonsense anymore. If they get enough mail like this they will get the message. Believe it.

The truth is though: acting isn’t rocket science. And most actors, myself very much included, are not, as the saying goes, rocket scientists.

Rocket scientists, on the other hand, are very, very smart. Ever talk to one? I have. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.  He was all “aeroelasticity” this and “avionics” that, and I just stood there for twenty minutes nodding my head as if I knew what he was talking about. Which I didn’t because, as I’ve stated above, I’m an actor.  Which means I’m no rocket scientist.

Now, take every single interview with every single actor you have ever heard on radio, saw on television, or read in the learned journals of People or Us or Tiger Beat. How many times in your life have you ever walked away saying (for example): “Wow, I knew Tony Danza was a delightful and engaging television personality, but I had no idea he was so smart! Clearly, much smarter than I could ever hope to be! Who’s the boss? You, super smart Tony Danza, that’s who!”

No offense to Tony Danza (who I’ve interviewed, and he is a very nice man, and no dummy either), but my guess would be that hasn’t happened too many times in your life.

Maybe that’s why when people in show business say outrageous, stupid things, other people in show business don’t get as outraged as people who aren’t in show business do. Because people in show business know, deep down in our hearts, we’re no rocket scientists. When the rest of the country is outraged because of something Bill Maher said last night on TV, we sharp show business types are just rolling our eyes thinking: didn’t he use that very same dumb crack last week at Carolines as a pick up line with the cocktail waitress?

Yes, words matter. When Ahmadinejad calls Israel a “racist nation,” that matters. It’s an outrage. Because Ahmadinejad is plotting to build a nuclear bomb which he will detonate over Israel. When some actress calls conservatives “racist” it’s not outrageous, it’s just dumb. Unless she has a nuclear bomb.

When Janet Napolitano says returning American veterans are a potential threat to the United States, that’s an outrage. Because Janet Napolitano is the Secretary for Homeland Defense.  When some comedian calls the Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces a “dictator” while our soldiers are bogged down in a sandstorm two weeks into Operation Iraqi Freedom, it’s not an outrage – it’s just lame. (The comedian shall remain nameless because since that crack he’s made several USO tours of the war zone to entertain our troops, thus proving himself to be a great guy, despite his politics.)

When Barack Obama runs our country down overseas, it’s dangerous. Because he’s the President of the United States. When Sean Penn does it, it’s irritating, but not dangerous. Because he’s Jeff Spicoli.

Actors and comedians say stupid, uninformed, outrageous things all the time. Michael Richards went nuts in a comedy club (because he was trying to stretch 5 minutes of material into a 45 minute spot). Don Imus did what Don Imus did (because he’s an old man who was trying to be hip – always a risky endeavor). Did any of that really matter, other than to Michael Richards and Don Imus’s careers?

I did talk radio for a couple of years, my lovely Bride, the author Susan Konig, and I did a husband and wife morning show on a Catholic radio channel (I’m a Jew, it’s a long story, my life is fascinating).  We did three hours a day, every day, live. We had all kinds of wonderful comedians and actors on who cracked wise, talked about their families, talked about their faith and prayer (if they wanted to), talked a little politics, and talked show business. We had great Jewish comedians like David Brenner, David Steinberg, Jackie Mason. We had great goyim comedians like Bobby Collins, Colin Quinn, Lisa Lampanelli and (ahem) Tom Shillue. We even had a Scientologist comedian (God help him!). This was a show where we (literally) had Cardinals scrutinizing our every on air move. In the almost two years we were on the air we never had a problem of any kind with any of our guests. They were all fascinating, funny, and respectful.

Every morning we would get a press release from a Catholic watchdog organization. The press release would usually be about the latest outrageous wisecrack made last night by (round up the usual suspects): Bill Maher, Madonna, some comic or other on some late night show, etc. The press release would always have several exclamation points. When you have three hours to kill every day on the radio, it’s the easiest thing in the world to kill it with this kind of “low hanging fruit.” Did you hear the latest outrageous thing said by Bill Maher? Are you offended? Or just outraged? Give us a call!

Then the radio host can sit back, put his feet up on the console, and let the phone screener do all the heavy lifting.

Guess what? Once everyone’s outrage is exhausted over Bill Maher’s latest, it’s time to crank up the outrage again over Madonna’s latest. Or Sean Penn’s. Or Janeanne Garofalo’s. You can kill a lot of airtime this way!

We never did. It would have been too easy. Besides, why further promote the actors who were annoying and insulting? Why not use the same energy to promote the actors and comedians who were funny and entertaining and respectful of others beliefs? That’s what we did on our radio show, and I’ll tell you – we had a great time, and so did our listeners.

Playing the perpetual outrage game with actors and comedians is a waste of everyone’s energies. No, there aren’t great numbers of Americans sitting on the fence anxiously waiting for actors to tell them how to think. No one in Iowa or Kansas or Michigan is really being persuaded by the loony tunes ramblings of their favorite actors on late night talk shows. Bill Maher’s documentary bombed. No one on Earth listens to Air America. MSNBC is a tremendous ratings failure.

There is one actor who, out of all the actors I ever heard talk politics, always impressed me. He had a firm grasp on the issues, a great sense of history, a strong intellectual grounding in his ideas, and a tremendous capacity to communicate. At the most crucial moment of his political career, in front of a vast audience, live, with everything at stake he was confronted with an arrogant, irritating liberal who insulted him and told lies about him. The actor would have been well within his rights to leap across the stage and throttle the irritant. Instead, the actor smiled, nodded, and just said “There you go again.”

And at that moment he was elected President of the United States.

Jamie Foxx is really, really sorry he said some horrible things about pop princess Miley Cyrus. He did so on “The Tonight Show” last night while host Jay Leno meekly set up his apology.

And that will most likely be that.

The same thing happened when President Barack Obama made an ugly crack about Special Olympics athletes on the very same “Tonight Show” venue. One apology later, all is forgiven.

I bet Don Imus wishes he got treated the same way.

Or former Virginia Sen. George Allen, whose off-hand “Macaca” reference likely cost him re-election three years ago. The Washington Post kept finding new ways to spin the Macaca story line during the final weeks before the election.

When a figure on the left says something hurtful, or hateful, all that’s needed is a quick apology. Heck the press will just call it a gaffe and move on.

But should Sen. Trent Lott mispeak during a celebration for an aged senator, well, no apology tour is enough to save himself.