Do you remember when the Oklahoma legislature actually looked at a bill that would allow fighting chickens to fight if they wore little boxing gloves? Do you remember that? I was the afternoon drive guy on the station formerly known as Supertalk 930 WKY when it happened and at first, I thought it was a joke. Surely, the people of Oklahoma would never elect some idiot who is so desperate to keep cockfighting in the state that they would propose such lunacy?
They did, and he did propose that silliness.
Time has gone by and a lot has happened over the years. We have lost voices such as Mark Shannon and most recently, the legendary Mike McCarville; both of whom would have been all over the fact that our state budget is messed up and the only solution really presented thus far has been to increase taxes and fees statewide. While there is still a much more faint voice or two on the talk radio airwaves in Oklahoma, they are hardly strong enough to create real change and stop the flood of silliness. Hell, some of the voices helped get the idiots we're dealing with in the legislature get elected in the first place.
For many who are elected to work under the apparently brain-damaging methane gas-filled dome, something terrible takes over and what the taxpayers are left with are a bunch of dopplegangers who are up for auction to the highest bidder. Common sense and the "rule of law" is thrown out the window and sacrificed at the altar of self-righteous indulgence and egomaniacal emotional disorders. It's like there are a bunch of zealots who are trying to prove who is the most "righteous" and who is the most "caring." Forget about authoring legislation that will generate legitimate revenue, but rather the focus is on social ills and "feel good" policies that are little more than political masturbation.
Silliness is the attitude of the day and until something changes in the media, we in Oklahoma are stuck with it. Sure, there have been a few moments wherein folks like Kirby and Ralph Shortey are in the spotlight for their antics, but they are a rarity in the comedy of errors that has become our media delivery mechanisms.
Of course, it's just my opinion and I could be wrong...but I seriously doubt it.
Ron "Gorilla" Black
