by Matt Barr

Ease up on Chef

I won't link to the people slagging Isaac Hayes for quitting South Park because it rags on Scientolgists. Some are reproduced here. It's as though people are supposed to be just as concerned about everyone else's opinions, principles and feelings as their own. I thought regarding every opinion and worldview as just as valid and worthy of respect (or lack thereof) as your own was distinctly not a right wing approach. Matt Stone:

"This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem -- and he's cashed plenty of checks -- with our show making fun of Christians."...

Stone told The AP he and co-creator Trey Parker "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."

No, it's where self-interested individuals begin and end. If I get honked off when someone makes fun of someone with Asperger Syndrome, am I a hypocrite because I don't expend the same energy to beat back an attack on obesity or, I don't know, stuttering? Don't be ridiculous. We defend and protect what's important to us because it's important to us, even if it's wicked rippin' weird. And we should, and shouldn't expect anyone else to chip in if they don't care. So what's with beating up Hayes?

I wonder how many tut-tutters of Hayes' have ever mocked another country, say, France, but had their hackles up when someone said something bad about the U.S. They want a different standard! Come back here with that money!

And "he's cashed plenty of checks" -- that was a bargained-for exchange, right? It's not as though he's made off with all this money and is now leaving Matt Stone a few bucks lighter with nothing to show for it.

Talk to me when Hayes starts slaughtering Nigerian Christians and threatening the South Park animators with beheading.

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