I really like getting up early and doing solo breakfast and just thinking. My time. No one around. Excited to reboot REDEF after much time off. Missed it and you. Upcoming "rantnrave" topics here. Zoom in. Any suggestions?... When you scan the news on social media or overhear from someone else what someone said you can get the wrong idea. I'm touchy and emotional since much of the country has gone mean. I can't even watch my dystopian dramas like BLACK MIRROR, HANDMAID'S TALE, WESTWORLD as easily as I used to. Why? The world is catching up or surpassing dystopian qualities. In recent years, I turn to comedy. HOWARD STERN every day (since I was 15). JUDD APATOW. ADAM MCKAY. That genre. DAVID MANDEL's team on VEEP. Politics yes, but they kept it smart and fresh in a time when real-life political absurdity was beyond comprehension. Comedians too. Love SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO. His bit on "parent pricing" had me rolling. But still, I can react to what I didn't see or hear in the wrong way. The interwebs start blowing up about DAVE CHAPELLE's new NETFLIX special. "STICKS & STONES". You know the age-old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me." And yet, if I'm honest, with my empathy and heart, words were beginning to hurt me. My friend, ALFRED SPELLMAN says the special is reminiscent of the best RICHARD PRYOR. But I'm hearing he's taking some uncomfortable stances on MICHAEL JACKSON's accusers. Abortion. Gun control. My beloved ANTHONY BOURDAIN. LGBTQ. LOUIS C.K. and more. So, oh f**k. Not my fav comedian Chappelle! But Dave wasn't the problem. I was. You have to see and hear and most of all, think before you judge. I ran into one of my favorite actors on Saturday night, GRIFFIN DUNNE. If you've never seen MARTIN SCORSESE's "AFTER HOURS". Get it now. I loved it as a child. Had the poster on my wall. He said Chappelle was remarkable. And for all the reasons I was worried. He was right. And I was reminded that it's comedy. Comedy makes fun of people. Sometimes stereotypes. Comedy offends. Comedy antagonizes. Comedy provokes. There is no "too soon" in comedy. Nothing is off-limits in comedy. Comedy makes you laugh. Comedy lets things in you may reject at first. You can get away with more in comedy. Comedy makes you think. In the EDDIE MURPHY episode of JERRY SEINFELD's "COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE", Jerry says of comedians: “What people don’t understand about us is there’s nothing that’s not funny to us. Nothing. All this careful thing that… that’s just for the audience and the public. Amongst ourselves, we don’t care about anything.” If you watch it with that in mind. And frankly, even without, Dave's show is remarkable. Netflix's TED SARANDOS wrote to me, "Very proud of Dave. Comedy is about pushing the edges of language and ideas. When we can not laugh at ourselves we are doomed. Comedians tell jokes and Dave does that like no other." Yes! Chappelle is a national treasure. And like the greatest truthtellers, he's opened up the conversation to another level. Run and watch. Happy Birthday to DANA SETTLE, ABIGAIL KLEM, HOSAIN RAHMAN, JEREMIAH ZINN, and TOBY GUNDERSON.