designated knitter, I would be sorry to lose your support. I'm not sure where on this blog I've said or suggested that anyone who disagrees with me is a right winger. I don't believe that. I believe it's wrong to act as if Imus was only fired for using a slur popularized by rappers; it ignores a long history of racism and sexism by a white man, that rappers had nothing to do with. And to jdubya and others asking about "jigaboos" -- I wrote about it in my first post on the topic. It was more or less a quote from Spike Lee's "School Daze," which satirized color and class divisions at an historically black college. It's an interesting subplot, because again, a racial slur used (in this case for satiric and social commentary purposes) by a black man found its way into the mainstream, and was used as a real slur by whites.

We can argue all day about which group can say what, but it is simplistic to now say that if one group can't say a particular word, then no group can say a word. There are differences in what's appropriate in every context: My family can say things to me my friends can't; my friends can talk in ways strangers can't; what's fine at a bar is not fine at work; what a woman says to me may sound very different (and more offensive) coming from a man (and vice versa). It seems inoffensive for Spike Lee to use "jigaboos" to satirize racism; far more offensive for rappers to call women "bitches" and "hos" -- but as a couple of people said in this thread, Jay-Z used "bitches" ironically (I think!) in "99 problems" -- when people don't get the irony, you can question whether it succeeded. But my point is: Policing these frontiers is tough. Deciding Imus should be fired was tough for me, but it wasn't about "nappy-headed hos," it was about his long history of that kind of talk (and also his clueless "apology tour" last Monday.)

But I'm not saying it isn't complicated. A lot of people outraged about Imus's firing are raising Dave Chappelle as someone whose humor can be rough and even, some might argue, racist. Interestingly, after Chappelle left his Comedy Central show for a head-clearing trip to South Africa, he told Oprah that part of his self-doubt about the show came from the fact that he worried, and I paraphrase here, that some white people might be laughing for the wrong reasons, and that instead of satirizing racism he was contributing to it. I'd love it if leading rappers did the same kind of soul searching about misogynistic lyrics. I hope John Ridley's crusade pays off. But if rappers stopped using bitch and ho, we'd still have plenty of racism and sexism in the world. That's my point.

My JetBlue flight from Oakland to NY was delayed 8 hours on Sunday, and the only balm was watching most of the Dodgers-Padres game on ESPN. King's right: that's the way to do history, wrapped up in something a lot of other people who don't know they care about history will be watching for other reasons. It was seamless, they worked the play by play into the interviews, and you also got a glimpse of these everyday heroes enjoying remembering Jackie Robinson but also enjoying being part of the game. I loved the Oakland banter between those Oakland natives, the "intellectual" Joe Morgan and "athletic" Frank Robinson. I hope they figure out other things to do it around.

You know, michael sullivan, thank you, because you reminded me I don't have this blogging thing -- or blogging tone, more to the point -- down very well. I spent my day working as Salon editor, on our Virginia Tech coverage as well as early Gonzales coverage and several other things we have going on. That's what I was trying to say in the introduction to this post. In my haste, I may have been tone-deaf with that first sentence, even as I called it a tragedy. I apologize it I offended anyone beyond mr. sullivan.

Christopher1988, I completely disagree. There's a huge gulf between saying tougher gun control would have saved lives at Virginia Tech, and saying conservatives or conservatism are to blame. Just to start: One is about a policy; the other is about a set of people, and it's meant to demonize not foster debate.

What a dumb mistake. Thanks, I'll fix it.

Thanks, comet24! I have had the same feeling (that I slept through 2007) but I'm choosing to enjoy it, for now. But you've got a great field in Seattle, too. I went to the Kingdome a few times -- what great memories, what an awful place for baseball!

Re: writers participating in letters. It makes total sense in personal blogs, and most of us do. It's something I encourage, but don't require at Salon. Some of us are more shy than others. I'm not kidding.

And yes: Beat LA!

Oh, come on RealName, tell us what you really think!

No, I know all that, and still find him oddly compelling. But I will try to get over it.

Me too, jnfr. Although that terror attack question was a little shrill, like the Kitty Dukakis rape question in '88...and imho, the Democrats unfortunately handled it similarly.

Talk about hearing what you want to hear; I heard him talking about what he'd want for his daughters and then I must have filled in the rest of his statement the way I wanted it to sound. I have to say, live-blogging is harder than it looks. I regret the error and will change it now.