because you are an insensitive prick.

I kind of decided that I shouldn't read his blog and would just leave well enough alone but I stumbled back over to the malcontent as I was bouncing around trying to get a feel for how people of different political stripes than I are looking at this tragedy. He links to and comments on a ET segment on Richard Simmons reunion with his brother in Louisiana. Did he find this touching? Did it tug any heart strings?

apparently not:


"I'm sure some will call me an insensitive prick, but watch the video for yourself and tell me that Richard isn't just asking for it.

"Tell me that he isn't either seriously disturbed, that he doesn't have the emotional level of a 7-year-old, or that perhaps he isn't mildly retarded. (If it is the latter, I apologize, but the man has been putting his flaming, lampoon-able self out there for years.) Above all else, tell me he isn't trying just a little too hard to milk this human tragedy for publicity.

"You just know the ET crew was stifling their laughter until they could get back to the truck and play it back, then they just laughed and laughed until they cried.

"Did you catch the details of the story? Richard didn't lose anyone in the disaster, nor does he really seem to know anyone who did. He just seems really, really upset that he knows people who were down there ... and lived. (Time to up the meds, Richard, because that describes about three-quarters of the U.S. population!)

"I need to stop typing and roll it. It's too much ..."



First of all, the "Richard didn't lose anyone in the disaster, nor does he really seem to know anyone who did" claim is a load of horse shit. He grew up in New Orleans and has always maintained close ties to the city and in the clip the malcon is commenting on they mention that Richard Simmons has more than 100 friends still missing!

Richard Simmons may seem a little over the top and crazy most of the time, but I for one am happy to see someone really just letting their emotions go about this. His response is perfectly appropriate right now. A major city is flooded and destroyed and one of its famous sons shouldn't be emotional when reunited with his brother and discussing the fate of the people displaced by the disaster? What a fucking asshole!

You know what? We aren't in middle school. Picking on the weird guy who won't fight back isn't cool and doesn't make people like you. Or maybe it does, and you deserve the people you have around you.

Oh, I guess I don't have a sense of humor about this. They are expecting 40,000 dead just in Louisiana, towns in MS that I went to as a kid are completely destroyed and the body count will no doubt be high there as well, and hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. What kind of frigging' monster do you have to be to see the tearful reunion of someone who grew up in the affected region and publically ridicule them and laugh at their pain and suggest that they are retarded?

Maybe I am biased because I like Richard Simmons. I always thought he was kind of strange, but it is a completely sincere and likeable strange. I always liked it when he would invade the Letterman show and harass David Letterman and after being unable along with my brother and sister to tear ourselves from the tv while on vacation at the beach a year ago because the E! True Hollywood Story about Richard Simmons was on, I truly think he is one of the most likable people on the planet. Really, if you ever get the chance to watch it, it is amazing. You really got that feeling out of everyone that talked to him and every anecdote about him, that he was really a genuinely sweet soul.

I'll keep you in my prayers, Mr. Simmons.

mr. malcontent, people will call you an insensitive prick because you are one.