Found on FoxNews.com

It seems as though there was more to the comments that Jesse Jackson made on that hot mic last week when he accused Obama of speaking down to black folk.

Appearing on “Studio B With Shepard Smith,” Smith asked O’Reilly if Jackson’s remarks included the N-word, as some news reports had indicated. “Yeah. And it’s trash talking,” O’Reilly said...Jackson’s comment came when he was discussing Barack Obama, saying the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is “talking down to black people,” and “telling niggers how to behave.”

Jackson's use of the "N" word in that manner doesn't offend me although his hypocrisy on the use of the word has been well noted. How could I be offended by that usage? My grandfather referred to black people as "niggers" ALL the time. He meant no offense, he just came from a time when southern white men used that word whether they wanted to be offensive or not.

Luckily, my parents were smart enough to teach us that the word "nigger" is the worst thing that you can say about a person and they could be white or black. It was a word that we didn't hear around the house or dare to use, we would have been afraid of our heads popping through the nearest wall.

Although some younger people may have a hard time believing that a person can use the word in such a manner without meaning any disrespect, I'm sure that even black people who are my age and older would remember a time when it could be done. If you doubt that it can be done, just look at Jackson's use of the word...I'm quite sure that HE meant no disrespect.

But, as eyebrow raising as that may be, what I really found stupid was Clinton's defense of Jackson. Not that it was stupid to defend the man, but Clinton's specific logic eludes me:

"My reaction is that … [his] apology was a good thing to do and he was big enough to quickly apologize and if all of us lived on live mics then 100 percent of us in this room would be embarrassed from time to time,” Clinton said.

Of course, on one hand he's right. If you put a mic on me and left it open, I would absolutely embarrass myself...and often. But...you won't ever catch me using the "N" word unless it's in an obviously innocuous manner.

But, with 100% certainty, I can tell you that I would never, under any circumstances, sit in a television studio, in front of cameras and wired for sound and say something as totally stupid as what Jackson said. I've been in that position more than a few times and no one has caught me using the "N" word yet. I bet that even a person who has never been in front of TV cameras would be able to get through the experience without using it as well. How a man as communication savvy as Jackson let that happen, I certainly don't know.

My guess is that he has a bit of Clinton's arrogance and logic. And he thinks that we are all stupid enough to fall for his reasoning.

At face value, of course the man is right...but if you look further into what he said, you'll see that it really is a ridiculous comment. Unfortunately, few of us bother looking past the sound bites of life. We just take things for what they sound like and leave it at that.

That is harming our intellectual health as much as transfats harm our physical health. No one ever tells you to sharpen your listening skills, they just tell you not to eat cows or lead a sedentary lifestyle. So, people are busy building great bodies and the entire time they're doing that, their minds are turning to mush. I guess that's why big, bulging men are usually thought of in the same light as are blond women.

Intellectual laziness makes it very easy to listen to the things that politicians say and agree like bobble-headed boobs without using the slightest bit of critical thinking. If we ALL refuse to at least try to find the weakness in any statement that we hear, we deserve to be lied to and manipulated by people who plan their strategy counting on our stupidity and refusal to even consider that the candidate we like may be saying something that makes absolutely no sense at all.