ABC 1, Jim Nugent 0

Jim Nugent is a coach in Childress, Texas. Jim Nugent recently watched some ABC Network programming. Jim Nugent then fired off a letter to ABC, letting them know what he thought of their programming:

ABC is obsessed with the subject of homosexuality. I will no longer watch any of your attempts to convince the world that homosexuality is OK.

'THE PRACTICE' can be a fairly good show, but last night's program was so typical of your agenda. You picked the 'dufus' of the office to be the one who was against the idea of his mother being gay, and made him look like a whiner because he had convictions. This type of mentality calls people like me a "gay basher." Read the first chapter of Romans (that's in the Bible) and see what the apostle Paul had to say about it.... He, God and Jesus were all 'gay bashers'. What if she'd fallen in love with her cocker spaniel? Is that an alternative life style? (By the way, the Bible speaks against that, too.)
--Jim Nugent

Jim cannot conceive of the possibility that it is the actual religious ideology of the 'dufus' of the office that makes him look like a whiner. Jim cannot conceive of the possibility that these anti-human and anti-freedom values found in that worthless Bible are what the problem is.

That is because Jim cannot see the forest for the trees. He prefers to think within the box rather than outside it. Whether that's due to oblivion, or thought-numbing happiness, or both, I can't tell. But obviously, Jim is incapable of actually evaluating the pseudo-values expressed in his doubleplusgood brainwashing Bible.

But wait, it gets better! Amazingly enough, the Webmaster for ABC replied to Jim! ABC had this to say:

How about getting your nose out of the Bible (which is ONLY a book of stories compiled by MANY different writers hundreds of years ago) and read the declaration of independence (what our nation is built on), where it says "All Men are Created equal," and try treating them that way for a change! Or better yet, try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as your lame crutch for your existence. You are in the minority in this country, and your boycott will not affect us or our freedom of statement.

ABC! ABC! ABC! Wow, I think that ABC just became my new favorite station after The Science Channel. Actually, I never ever watch ABC (or much of any T.V. for that matter), but I just might have to take a look at The Practice sometime. This was just too fucking cool.

But Jim Nugent obviously cannot engage in any self-reflection, nor can he re-evaluate any of his premises. That would take too much independent thought, and require some of that dreaded "outside the box" thinking. Oh the horror! Instead, Jim decides to forward this email exchange between him and ABC to everyone he knows (that is how I eventually got a hold of it), as if he's making someone else look bad! And just to protect himself from the possibility of discovering the proverbial man behind the curtain, Jim decides to do a little bit of projecting, and fires a reply back to ABC:

Thanks for your reply. From your harsh reply, evidently I hit a nerve. I will share it with all with whom I come in contact. Hopefully, the Arkansas Democrat Newspaper will include it in one of their columns and I will be praying for you. --Jim Nugent

Jim Nugent is now officially the village idiot of Childress, Texas. He fails to see that it was he who had a nerve hit by a fictional show that challenged his fairy-tale-based bigotry. It was Jim Nugent who had the harsh words to write, not ABC. For Jim is the one advocating bigotry, not ABC. And it is Jim who fails to see that those bigoted beliefs are what make both him and the fictional T.V. show characters look bad, not the writers of ABC.

A stupid bigot is still a stupid bigot, and that bigot will still look bad whether he coaches some dumb sport in some backwater hicktown, or has the most powerful job in the world. It is the message itself that determines the 'dufus' factor, not the messenger.

And perhaps the most deliciously ironic part about this whole thing is that Jim Nugent thinks that he is putting egg on ABC's face by spreading this email around! He sees not the beam in his own eye.

The meaning of this entire situation obviously went right over poor Jim's head. He is the one with egg on his face, and he is totally oblivious to it. Clearly, Jim could use a bit of that old out-of-the-box (aka out-of-the-Bible) thinking, and maybe he would finally realize what an oblivious, brainwashed, and bigoted moron he is.