Adam Carolla is very successful. He is a prolific podcaster, comedian and film maker. He is very sure of his ideas and generally makes a lot of sense in his podcasts. He understands what it takes to be successful in business, relationships and life in general. Integrity is certainly part of his ethos and one of the reasons he has legions of followers of his podcasts and live shows. Yet he has become an ass wipe. Ass wipe is a term Carolla uses to disparage others who, because they don't understand how to live life and lack integrity, are destructive in relationships and to society in general. I was a fan of his podcast The Adam Carolla show until recently. Towards the end of The Adam Carolla podcast released on April 3, 2014 Carolla talks about the serial murderer Charles Ng. Ng's rape and murder career in the U.S. is horrific. Google it if you need to. Once the police were on to him he escaped to Canada where the Calgary police picked him up. Extradition took years because of the slow Canadian legal system and laws in Canada that prohibit extradition if the criminal may be executed in their home country.
I am Canadian and like most Canadians would be happy to see people like Ng sped on their way to their maker. However that is the law we have and that is how it is applied. Carolla didn't see it that way. He went on a rant that was not comedy, but was bile. He described Canada's military as second rate, using handed down hardware from the states - the hardware part is true enough. He suggested the U.S. should have sent A10 attack planes to strafe Calgary's military base to teach Canada to do what it is told.
That's unfortunate. Carolla's asserts the U.S. can do what it wants because of its military might, but that is just a symptom of an imperial mind set and that is hard to cure. The problem for Carolla is that he - in an angry non-joking manner - suggested attacking a friend. The soldiers at that base near Calgary are the Princess Patricia Light Infantry. They rotated in and out of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 to fight along side U.S. forces in the Khandahar region of Afghanistan. They like other Canadian units (40,000 rotated through from 2001 to 2014) paid a price in dead and wounded fighting with and for their American ally. To have Carolla blithely say they should be strafed is obscene. They are not responsible for keeping Charles Ng in Canada for six years. They did fight with the Americans in Afghanistan and did it well considering they used American hand me down gear.
So that is why Carolla fits the Carolla definition of an ass wipe. He suggested those men should be killed. I know he didn't mean it. He just said it in a fit of anger. But it wasn't something one who values loyalty and friendship would say on their flag ship podcast. It was something an ass wipe would say.
A once wise man - Carolla - said in a podcast that 'You are the sum of your actions.' I believe that to be true. I hope Carolla has enough integrity to reflect on his own words.
Brad Wilson
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