Via Sadly, No! we find that Michael Medved is trying to argue that slavery wasn’t so bad. No, seriously. Go Read the whole post at Sadly, No because, frankly, they are funnier than I am, and asshattery of this level deserves all the mocking that can be heaped upon it. I just want to point out three things:

First, Medved’s history is atrocious:

. WHILE AMERICA DESERVES NO UNIQUE BLAME FOR THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY, THE UNITED STATES MERITS SPECIAL CREDIT FOR ITS RAPID ABOLITION.

Year the British ended slavery throughout the Empire: 1833. Number of wars it took to do so: 0. Year the Spanish Empire ended slavery (except in Cuba, where the ban was not enforced by local governors until 1886): 1811. Number of wars to do so: 0. Year the U.S. ended slavery throughout the country and its territories: 1865. Number of wars it took to do it: 1, the bloodiest one in American history. In fact, all European powers abolished slavery before the United States did. So, no, dear Mr. Medved, we as a nation don’t deserve special credit for a bloody damn thing. We were below average, even by the standards of the day.

Second, and most soul-crushing, this is what Medved thinks is the most horrible aspect of slavery:

Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of these voyages involves the fact that no slave traders wanted to see this level of deadly suffering: they benefited only from delivering (and selling) live slaves, not from tossing corpses into the ocean.

Savor that quote, let it roll around your consciousness, admire it’s almost perfect inhumanity and complete and utter prostitution to the service of the notion that the measure of a man is the profit he produces. Michael Medved thinks that the “most horrifying” aspect of the Middle passage is that the ship captains were bad capitalists. You know those annoying people who are sunny and cheerful and optimistic all the time, the kind that think group hugs can solve anything and mugs with kittens hanging onto tree branches are an instant day brightener? Those people? Whenever one of them gets on your nerves, just read them this quote and point out that the author is not, in fact, in a mental institution or shunned by society. They wont be able to come out of their house for a week.

And here is the kicker: this is who Micaheal Medved is:

While focusing on the theme of Hollywood vs. America, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh interviewed Medved and then asked Medved to guest-host his talk show. Medved went on to serve as a regular guest-host for Limbaugh on close to thirty occasions. In 1996, Medved was offered his own local show on a major Seattle station. In his 2005 autobiographical book Right Turns: From Liberal Activist to Conservative Champion in 35 Unconventional Lessons, Medved says he welcomed the chance to escape “the movie ghetto” and to speak to a wider audience about politics and morality, which were a focus of his written commentary and books. Medved’s show was aired in Seattle and syndicated through Salem Radio Network.

His three hour daily show is now broadcast on 200 stations coast to coast and reaches more than 2.5 million listeners[citation needed]. For ten consecutive years, Medved has been listed by Talkers magazine as one of its “Heavy Hundred” most important American talk show hosts, and recently tied for eighth place in its ranking of talk hosts by audience size.[4]

Medved writes a regular column for USA Today and is a member of that newspaper’s Board of Contributors. He also writes occasional op-ed pieces for The Wall Street Journal and blogs daily at conservative website Townhall.com.

He is no outlier, no crazy racist uncle locked away in the attic. He is as mainstream a media figure as you can be. He is acceptable and accepted by our media elite.

We are not a post-racism society.