Listen to the Lion

More thoughts on Va. Tech

What the Virginia Tech killer wasn't,  from the Examiner column.

Sunday afternoon Van

Nikki, just tell 'em "thug for life."

Many Americans had the misfortune of being introduced to Nikki Giovanni in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Some people had become aware of the poet in 2006, when she used some nasty language to describe Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, simply because he has the impertinence to be a conservative Republican.  (Go here and scroll down for specifics.)

Giovanni took an opportunistic turn at the podium during the Virginia Tech convocation in which she likened the murders to various other injustices she happens to be bothered by.

Like school on Saturday, a move like that has no class.

Then she explained her experience with he murderer, who took one of her classes. The murderer's creepy writings and even creepier leering led her to kick him out of the class, she said.

Presumably because his prescience carried with it the possibility of violence.

Strange then Giovanni's choice of body art. She has a tattoo reading "Thug Life" on her arm, and she shows it to her students.

Dead rapper Tupac Shakur had Thug Life tattooed across his stomach, and Giovanni wears here tat as a tribute to him and "because if people are killing thugs, I want to be with the thugs."

Get the full effect of her wisdom here in a 2004 interview with C-SPAN's Brian Lamb.

It's amusing that, especially in the post-Imus world, that Giovanni sees the strutting, pimping thugs  of booty-video hip-hop as both heroes and victims.

Her selective admiration for the projection of violence would also be amusing if not for the circumstances of her recent notoriety.

More guns, less crime

Some thoughts on the Virginia Tech murders from my Examiner column.

Imus or Pelosi?

An Examiner column about words, images and what should be important.

Powered by ScribeFire.

The CD is dead

But good music will find a market online. More details in my Examiner column here.