{Originally posted to the author’s blogsite, The Lid}
Growing up I was never a big fan of the group KISS. Bunch of guys wearing white demonic makeup one with a serpentine tongue it –seemed more show biz than music. That was until I got “into” the A&E reality series, when I realized that Gene Simmons is the consummate impresario. He is not (nor has ever been) one of those drugged up Rock and Roll stars trying too survive for one more concert. Along with being a rock star, Simmons was marketing star. The way he has branded KISS and built it into a marketing/licensing empire was nothing short of amazing.
When it comes to politics, Gene Simmons has never been shy about expressing himself even though his opinion normally conflicts with the standard Hollywood progressive orthodoxy. A 2007 post on this site praised Simmons for his stance on profiling:
Right now there’s a bigger problem, and it’s a guy who doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat; he wants to blow himself up and take you out. That’s the problem. I think racially profiling anybody from the Middle East … the Swiss have been good this year, and as an Israeli, I want you to look at me first. I want you to search my anal cavity and look at my tax records. I want you to look at me first, and then at every guy named Muhammad.
(…) I’m volunteering to have less rights. This whole notion that you can have all the rights in the world while there’s an emergency is nonsense. That’s why there are emergency hours that are given to law enforcement during times of war. And if the cop tells you to move and you don’t move, he’ll bat you over the head. That’s the way it should be.
Almost ten years later, Simmons is again talking profiling about and terrorism again and it’s just as honest and just as entertaining. My colleague Onan Coca covered it at Constitution.com:
Hall of Fame rock legend Gene Simmons made a name for himself playing the bass guitar and singing for the pop-rock band KISS. In more recent years he’s been a reality TV star, a cultural icon, and an outspoken defender of the free market system and personal liberty. The combination of these things has made Simmons marketing gold among more conservative NASCAR loving, flag waving Americans. The folks at TMZ recently ran into Simmons in the airport security line and asked him for his thoughts on the recent bombings.
Simmons told TMZ that he thought the Muslim terrorist [NY/NJ] bomber, [Ahmad Khan] Rahami, “should go to jail and be somebody’s girlfriend.” Ouch. TMZ then asked Simmons how he would solve the problem of Islamic terrorism in America, to which Simmons replied, rather politically incorrectly, that we needed to do more profiling.
“Nobody says the word “profile.” Everyone needs to get smart. I’m ok with profiling. I want you to stop me first. I want you to stop me because I look a certain way. And if I’m clear, then profile someone else. It’s emergency powers during war. There’s a war going on.”
But what about the people who were being “unfairly” profiled, TMZ wondered. Simmons held nothing back in his perfect response. “It is unfair. That’s why the words “too bad” exists.”
BOOM.