Last week, Kathy Griffin made the news and quite possibly ended her career by posing with a replica of Donald Trump's decapitated head.
I found the photo disgusting, grotesque and morbid.
Immediately, visions of Daniel Pearl came to mind. Pearl was the 38-year-old journalist for the Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped and beheaded by Pakistan terrorists in 2002. Islamic State terrorists have no problem showing these kinds of repulsive photos.
Griffin is the first comedian, to my knowledge, who has found a decapitated head amusing.
Griffin is supposed to be a comedian. I personally have always regarded her a C list comic at best.
She has been known for searing, jeering, skewering and mostly insulting satire, often political.
This time I cannot figure how someone could possibly pull such a stunt.
This is not about Trump. I do not care whose head was depicted. I did not find it funny in any way.
Trump is, of course, milking this as much as he can. He seems to be concerned mainly about how this has affected his young son, Barron.
Why would his son even be seeing this photo unless of course dear old dad showed it to him?
Compared to previous U.S. presidents, Trump's world is in such disorder that any sympathy helps.
We see Griffin holding press conferences with her lawyer with tears rolling down her face moaning about how Trump has ruined her life. No, dear misguided woman, you have done that to yourself.
Trump has obviously affected, angered and humiliated many people who are innocent bystanders. Griffin, however, is the one who instigated her own potential demise, not DJT.
While speaking to others about this, some wondered if there is a double standard here.
Many still remember the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January 2015.
Charlie Hebdo is a weekly French satirical newspaper in Paris. It took tremendous heat defending a journalist's rights to freedom of speech.
The publishing of a cartoon cover depicting the Prophet Muhammad, saying "100 lashes, if you do not die laughing," incited Islamist terrorists to force their way into the newspaper's offices to kill 12 people and injure 11.
Four days later, about two million people, including more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris to rally for national unity.
More than three million joined in demonstrations in the remainder of France.
In my opinion, there is a big difference between the emancipation of France from the Catholic Church around the 17th century when blasphemy law ceased to exist and the depiction of the slaying of an American president, no matter who that may be. I did not support the hanging and burning in effigy of former president Barrack Obama in 2008. Many did not condone that.
People should not condone the current version of the same disrespect of a president elected by the people through the Electoral College.
I am all about free speech and have a pretty cool editor who backs me in that belief.
Griffin compared her actions to those of Ted Nugent and his attacks of Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Nugent is not a comic. He is a loudmouth moron.
Trump himself has said horrible things about Hillary and others. Yet he became president. Go figure.
They do not profess to be in the world of comics.
Griffin has lost her CNN gig with her old buddy Anderson Cooper. She lost an endorsement for Squatty Potty. Now that, to me, is funny!
So was this a stunt to garner attention to resurrect a fading career? Is bad press better than no press?
Like others before her, she needs to fade into the sunset like Michael Richards and Mel Gibson. Take a break, rethink the world, get new writers and try again a few years down the road.
Free speech comes with some responsibility.
Griffin went too far, even in a world turned upside down by the non-conformist POTUS who could also learn something about the responsibility of pausing before tweeting.
