Is this a great country, or what? A churlish shock jock makes some callous, insensitive remarks on his radio/TV show and he's reduced to a pathetic, smoldering pile of human rubble. He's branded a racist, a bigot, a misogynist and every other derogatory title. He is fired and his career of more than 30 years is destroyed in a matter of days.

On the other hand, a female stripper makes some of the most outrageous accusations imaginable about 3 men, costing their families a small fortune in legal bills over a period of a year before it's revealed that the woman lied. These 3 innocent young men have been dragged through the mud and are facing the label of "rapist" for the rest of their lives. However, the woman will not be facing any charges.

Now, what is the common denominator in these 2 stories? Unless you've been living in a space capsule for the past few weeks you'll know that the answer is race. You'll also know that there are some common characters that appear in both tragedies; their names are Sharpton and Jackson.

They jumped to the defense of the black woman who said she was raped by the 3 Duke University Lacrosse players; not because they care about the woman, but because the case represented another opportunity for the 2 Harlem hustlers to get publicity. They staged protests against the boys and played the race card as skillfully as Satchmo played the trumpet.

Of course, none of this is new to Sharpton. Twenty years ago, a 15-year-old black girl named Tawana Brawley was found in a garbage bag near her New York home. She claimed she'd been abducted, raped and sodomized by six white men, some of them police officers, over a period of 4 days. The details of the case were sensational enough to guarantee national headlines. Her body was smeared with feces, racist slurs had been written on her torso and her clothing was torn and burned.

The entire country was appalled that such a despicable crime could occur at a time when race relations had seemingly improved dramatically since the days of Jim Crow. Sharpton, then merely an ambitious local rabble-rouser, jumped on the case, even accusing prosecutor Steven Pagones of being one of the rapists. Brawley's horrible accusations turned out to be completely and viciously false. It was discovered that she was partying with friends at the same time she alleged she was raped and brutalized. In addition, a witness reported seeing her climb into the garbage bag herself.

After the phony scandal was exposed, Brawley, who changed her name to Maryam Muhammad (naturally), left town with about $300,000 of defense fund money that had been raised for her. Sharpton never apologized to all the people he hurt in that case and now says he won't apologize to the Duke boys he smeared. Notwithstanding the fact that the Attorney General of North Carolina has declared the boys innocent of all charges and that the DA, Michael Nifong, is a "rogue prosecutor," neither Sharpton nor Jackson has enough integrity to say they're sorry. Keep in mind, both of these lowlife race baiters refer to themselves as "Reverend." Jackson, who has a record of using anti-Semitic comments and has admitted to spitting in the food of white people when he worked in a restaurant, has about as much moral fiber as a stray dog in heat, rubbing against someone's leg.

Don Imus, for all his impropriety, has illustrated that he has more courage and character than his duo of antagonists; he apologized sincerely and profusely to those he offended. Moreover, Imus has raised millions of dollars for cancer victims, abused and neglected children and countless other charitable causes. Not that it matters to those who sit on their lazy, worthless rear ends, waiting for the productive members of society to make a mistake so they can pounce on them and swindle a free lunch.

A few days ago, conservative columnist, Michelle Malkin was subbing for Bill O'Reilly on his show. A guest who called himself a member of the "New Black Panther Party" referred to Ms. Malkin as a "prostitute for her white master, Bill O'Reilly." (Isn't prostitute another word for "ho"?) This guy sat there with that hackneyed, dinosaur era, "angry black man" look on his face, about 30 years too late with his ludicrous pretense of outrage. Cretins like him, Jackson and Sharpton are vultures, feeding on the leftovers from people who actually work for a living. I'd say they should be fired, but first they'd have to have jobs.

Bob Weir is a former detective sergeant in the New York City Police Department. He is the excutive editor of The News Connection in Highland Village, Texas. Email Bob.