A special needs entry

Okay, I'm going to wade into the fray here, although I know this is a very controversial topic lately--and you all know how I try to avoid controversy! I'm sure some of you will disagree with me on this, and I'm okay with that. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything here, merely offering my own opinion.

I'm sure you've all read about the kerfuffle (AKA kerfluffle) over Rahm Emanuel's remark calling some in his own party "fucking retards." I find it more than a little amusing that the kerfuffle didn't come from him dropping yet another F-bomb, but from what some people are now calling the "R-word."

Of course, Sarah Palin saw an opportunity there, so she called him out on her Facebook page (Best line I've heard so far, from Andy Samberg as Rahm: "You call me out on Facebook?! What are you, fourteen?"), asking not just for an apology, but for Rahm to either resign or President Obama to fire him. Personally, I think that would be a bit of an overreaction, but in the strange world of Sarah Palin, that was a perfectly reasonable response.

Although...when Rush Limbaugh did it the following day, using the word not once, but several times, she not only didn't call for his big fat head on a platter, she didn't even mention him by name. She just said that it wasn't acceptable for anyone to use the word. In an interview with Chris Wallace, she maintained that Rush was merely using satire to get his point across, and wasn't calling any person or group retards. What do you think?

Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult's taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards. I think their big news is he's out there calling Obama's number one supporters f'ing retards. So now there's going to be a meeting. There's going to be a retard summit at the White House.

Kind of sounds to me like he explicitly called a group of people retards, even called a meeting of said group a "retard summit."

This tells me a few things.

1. Palin is an asskisser who is afraid to piss off Rush because he could hurt her political future
2. Palin is a hypocrite, playing the insulted mother and defender of her child only when the "attacker" is someone she doesn't like or doesn't align herself with politically
3. Palin is an idiot who doesn't understand the concept of satire and mistakenly thinks that was what Limbaugh was doing

Asskisser, hypocrite, and idiot? No breaking news there.

Now this is where I may part ways with some of you; I don't think using the word "retarded" is that big of a deal. In fact, I use it sometimes myself (and have friends who use it). Not often, and usually among like-minded friends, but yeah, I use it. Context is important, however. I can state unequivocally that I would never call someone who is mentally challenged that word. The phrase "mentally retarded" is no longer used when referring to such individuals. In fact, even mentally handicapped or mentally challenged is no longer used. The new term is intellectual and developmental disabilities. I maintain that the word "retarded" has entered colloquial usage, just as previous terms like "idiot," "cretin," and "simpleminded" have. All terms that used to be used when referring to such individuals, and now generic terms for anyone who behaves stupidly.

Someone raised the argument that it's still not cool, that it's like saying "That's so gay!" as an insult (which I do not do). I don't think it is, because a segment of the population identifies themselves as gay; the word "retarded" is no longer used as a term to identify certain disabled individuals.

I know that not everyone feels the same way, and there are still people who feel that it is an insult to disabled people. I believe that it's an insult only to able individuals who are acting like idiots, and there are plenty of those around. I'm not going to stop using it, but I will be careful around who I use it, keeping in mind that some would find it offensive. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that someone found something I said offensive!

As for the new terminology, "intellectually and developmentally disabled," I'd say that Sarah Palin is most definitely intellectually disabled, so I'll join Stephen Colbert and others in saying that Sarah Palin is fucking retarded. I enjoyed Lewis Black's take on it, though, just because his frenzied outrage makes me laugh.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - The R-Word
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Last one…promise!

"The Tea Party is the future of politics." ~~Sarah Palin

Well, I guess we're in a whole shitload of trouble then, aren't we?

I've been procrastinating on writing this, because I'm just really tired of seeing and hearing this lobotomized drone. But the sooner I get it done, maybe I can put it out of my mind...at least until the next idiotic comments we hear coming out of her mouth. It's only a matter of time, after all.

I watched her speech Saturday night. It was so profoundly disturbing and hurt my brain so terribly that I had to lay down and take a nap to recuperate. First off, she is such a horrible speaker. Her timing and cadence is poor, her voice is grating, and her words seem stilted and unnatural. (I'm sure many will disagree with me and find her a fascinating and compelling speaker. If so, you're hearing something I am not.)

She hit on current topics, leveling plenty of criticism against the Obama administration, but offering few solutions of her own. One of her main topics was national security, saying that the President spent little time in his State of the Union speech addressing that issue. His main focus in that speech was on job creation; I'm certain that if it had mainly been about national security, she would have bitched about how he doesn't care about Americans and job creation. She wished for a strong national defense, despite the fact that defense spending takes up the largest percentage of the President's submitted budget.

New terms used like “overseas contingency operation” instead of the word “war.” That reflects a worldview that is out of touch with the enemy that we face. We can’t spin our way out of this threat.

That's pure bullshit, and everyone knows it. Of course the President speaks of war--his predecessor got us into two of them, after all.

She accused the President of blaming Bush for everything. Well, that's pretty much the reality of things, isn't it? All the shit that is going down was in place and happening before Obama took office. Now he's left with the Herculean task of trying to clean up a shit-tastic Augean stable full of arrogance, jingoism, corporate greed, and international hatred for what Cheney and his minions perpetrated on the rest of the world. The collective amnesia I'm seeing in the teabaggers is perplexing and maddening. While I don't want to hear every other word out of the President's mouth be "Bush did it," apparently people do need a reminder of who got us into this FUBAR'd mess in the first place.

She spoke about how she rejected the stimulus dollars and then mentioned that she was over-ridden and Alaska accepted the money. Now who is passing on the blame, Palin? For someone who never takes responsibility or blame for any of her frequent failures, it's rather amusing that she enjoys accusing the President of doing that.

She ridiculed intelligence by once again talking about "elitists," and those who have a "fat, elite résumé in their back pocket." She said that we need a "Commander in Chief, not a professor of law standing at a lectern." I get the impression that she thinks that being Commander in Chief is all about tough talk and bombing the hell out of anyone who disagrees with you. Again, we know how well that worked.

She harped on Obama's use of a teleprompter--although that particular dig needs to be put to bed, after his stellar performance, sans teleprompter, at the Republican Caucus--all the while looking down for long seconds at a time at her own notes. (More about that in a moment.) She let her snark loose, asking Obama's supporters, "How's that hopey, changey thing workin' for ya?" Well, it's working great for me, you dork. I finally feel like I don't have to be embarrassed by my government when I say I'm an American. And I've been seeing that "hopey, changey" phrase on the Web for at least six months now. Get some new material, or at least stop getting your one-liners and witty bon mots from Zazzle.

After the speech, she took a few questions asked by a moderator. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the questions had been chosen beforehand and given to her; her responses were immediate, with no deliberation or thought...she just immediately started talking. I did read in a couple of places today that the questions were indeed submitted to her prior to being asked. In one of her rambling answers, she said that we need to get back to our roots as a God-fearing nation, and mentioned seeking "divine intervention." This is as scary as anything she has ever said...we are not a theocracy, and praying for "divine intervention" goes against everything I believe (or don't believe) in.

Finally, this brings us to the teleprompter line. By now, I'm sure most of you have seen the video of her glancing at her hand in order to answer one of the questions. (If not, you can see it here.) Now, I'm not one to begrudge anyone a teleprompter or notes for a speech. I know I have always needed notes whenever I've had to speak; I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. What bothers me about this, though, is that despite looking down frequently and lengthily at her own notes (one of the things that makes her a bad speaker, in my opinion), she still used that tired line about the President being a "charismatic guy with a teleprompter." The worst thing, however, is that the question asked was what should the top three priorities be for conservatives? She managed to get through one, but then had to look at her hand to remember what the other two were. Isn't that a pretty basic question, summing up a personal philosophy of conservatism? Shouldn't you kind of have that ingrained, at least if you're a political figure who talks about common sense conservatism? AND she had the questions beforehand! It wasn't like this came out of left field and surprised her!

Well, she was playing to her audience. They loved her, and I know I won't change any minds here, if anyone supports her. It obviously gave people like me even more reason to despise her (and I do, I do). I've also heard opinions from some independents who said that she did nothing to reach out to them, or give them any reason to support her. So she was essentially preaching to the choir, who lap up her witticisms [exaggerated finger quotes] like they are savoring the taste of the sweet, sweet tears of liberals.

I'll leave you with one final thought from the woman that some people inexplicably think is capable of leading our country:

And around the world, people who are seeking freedom from oppressive regimes, wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for their cause.

Alaska...beacon of hope to the world's downtrodden.

Congratulations, New Orleans!

I was very disappointed to see my Colts lose, but it was a great game, it was a clean game, and the Saints won fair and square. Although it hurts, it doesn’t hurt as bad since it was New Orleans. :)

Now I’ll look forward to snapping up some great deals on Colts AFC Championship shirts in the next couple of weeks. [grin] There is a silver lining to every cloud, and my cloud is lined with awesome, cute, and adorable little Colts shirts.

Here’s to ya, NOLA! Cheers!

 

A while to wait

It’s Super Bowl Sunday! I’ve been trying not to think about it too much, and the teabaggers have kept me occupied for the past few days (one more entry about it coming), so I’ve been keeping my nerves in check. But now it’s here, and the next few hours are going to go soooo sloooow!

The Colts are still the favorites, by 5 points, but I take nothing for granted. I do think they’re the better team, and will win by a larger margin. A Facebook friend is predicting an offensive blowout, with the Colts winning by something like 41-20. I don’t think it will be quite that lopsided. I’ll go with…Colts 35-17. Okay, that’s still pretty lopsided, but I think the Colts defense is going to stifle the Saints offense fairly well.

You know, I realize that most people are pulling for the underdog Saints. I don’t hate on the Saints at all, in fact, have been cheering for their success ever since Katrina. I know they mean a lot to New Orleans (a city which I love), and I know this is really a great story. (One of the side bets you can take is how many times Hurricane Katrina will be mentioned by the announcers. I think the over-under was 3.5. But it has to be the full phrase. Yes, people bet on stuff like this!)

If it were any other team playing them, I’d be Saints all the way. But it’s my Colts, so I’ve gotta go with them! They have their own heart-wrenching story (every team has to have at least one) in receiver Pierre Garcon whose family is from Haiti (all his relatives who remain there are okay), and who has been raising money for relief efforts. I hope he has a great game—he’s one of my favorites to watch.

Anyway, I’ll be working a little extra mojo today, and instead of wearing my usual—a Colts sweatshirt or T-shirt—I’ll be sporting my Peyton Manning jersey. Yeah, I’ve got one. Don’t you judge me! I look good in it, too, so there. I’m sure there will be frequent updates on Facebook, so maybe I’ll see you there. GO COLTS!

My friend Mark made this for me, an answer to the “Who Dat?” question. How cool is this? Thank you, Mark!