2014 Northwest Ohio Rib-off Concert Crisis

(My Apr 23, 2014 comment at a ToledoTalk.com thread about Ted Nugent performing at the Northwest Ohio Rib-off, scheduled for August 2014.)

I did not realize that people were being forced to buy tickets to attend a concert in Maumee, Ohio.

I guess it's too much to expect that humans would decide on their own whether to attend an event.

In the future, will entertainers who are scheduled to perform in northwest Ohio need to be vetted by special interest groups?

Should we look into the backgrounds of past entertainers that local businesses have sponsored at Toledo area events, and if anything "bad" is found with the entertainer, then a nasty label gets slapped on those local businesses?

A lot of assholes play in the NFL, but I'll keep watching because selfishly, I don't give a damn about those people as individuals. I simply want to be entertained for a bit. Same for actors, musicians, authors, etc.

I separate the end products from the people. I don't like or dislike something more or less because of the personal opinions or actions of the person who made it.

I will not avoid art museums because some of the art may have been created by scumbags. Who gets to define "scumbag?"

Stating the obvious now, but it's not unusual for art and artists to be controversial. Who gets to define "controversial?"

I'm sure that the people in D.C. view us as hayseed rubes. The best way to reject those turdsticks is to allow the Maumee rib-off concert to remain as scheduled. And then people with a functioning brain can decide for themselves whether to attend the concert.

Back in 2008, the Toledo Blade editorial board opposed an effort to recall mayor Carty because the initiative was partly supported and funded by people who lived in Toledo's surrounding communities. The Blade editorial board called these political outsiders a "suburban cabal."

It's hilarious that now a group of outsiders or a D.C. cabal is trying to influence the Blade.

But to the Blade's credit, the Blade, thus far, has remained consistent with rejecting the influence of outside cabals.

Joseph H. Zerbey IV, the president and general manager of The Blade.

[Zerbey] noted,

“If The Blade allows fringe groups of any ilk to dictate what rights citizens have or don’t have and to use their scare tactics to intimidate Blade management, then all The Blade is doing is building a bridge to nowhere.”

Blade ombudsman Jack Lessenberry added:

Free speech has no meaning unless it applies to all speech, including speech and opinions we find horrible. Because if we are successful in censoring Ted Nugent today, someday someone may shut us up too.

It's possible that tolerance means reluctantly accepting the disagreeable.

It seems that the word "bullying" is a popular activist term these days. If the Motor City Madman is considered a bully, then people and groups who try to force their will onto others may also be bullies.

"I want to force others to accept my brand of tolerance."

Special interest groups are bullying the hicks in northwest Ohio to change the concert lineup for a rib-off. Music at a food festival. Wow. Such important matters. These are the problems of our times.

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(My Apr 19, 2014 comment in that same thread.)

Whatever, I still like the song "Fred Bear."

#music - #media - #politics - #activism - #moronism - #humor - #blog_jr