No. It wasn't a joke. He may have called it a joke after the fact, but it was an insult pure and simple. And Palin wasn't the target of the insult, it was her teenage daughter. It went far beyond the limits for a joke and Letterman deserves far more consequences for the insult than he received.
I agree with Deb, had it been my daughter Letterman insulted on national TV, blood would have flowed.
Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA
Well, in that case you should know that I'm a butt man...
Don't count her out politically just yet.
Remember Tricky Dicky?
Look for her to hit the lecture circuit or land a cable TV show.
Either way, she fattens her wallet and stays in the limelight.
Lew
Does that mean you would have flowing blood to all who would insult you and/or your family? Ask yourself....is it true?
It's overly sensitive to worry about mere words. Remember..."sticks and stones.....", seriously, why would any person allow words to upset them unless they are already uptight or extremely sensitive and unless they are true and even then, who cares.
There are far too many uptight people in this society who want actions taken against every little word spoken in a negative connotation. They all act as if it's the end of their lives and they can no longer step out of the house. Let's get real. People are raising a bunch of sissies when they whine about some pathetic insult and even moreso when they try to take legal action against it. The most important part sensitive people forget is to "consider the source".
Seriously, many people need to grow a spine.
Amen to that. Big breasts turn me off. A nice diarierre is the key.
I don't agree with that, it's whether there was malice behind the source. Anybody can be an idiot at a certain time and place (god knows I'm guilty of that), so maybe the source was just being his regular idiot self. But, if there was ill intent behind something then 'blood' might be appropriate. Most people of reasonable intelligence can determine whether malice was intended and guide their actions accordingly.
I didn't see the Palin/Leterman tetatet, so I don't know if Letterman was just trying to crack a joke or not. Maybe he was just being his expected regular idiot self, maybe not.
Open to conjecture.
Well, Tricky Dicky had some actual experience to back up his slickness. He got my vote in '60, for which I am suitably ashamed, but didn't come back far enough to get my vote a dozen years later.
Palin has now bagged her only chance to garner more governing experience, albeit of a small state with special advantages.
My guess is she's been getting offers from speakers' bureaus all over the U.S., and has seen a way to fund her family's fun for the rest of her natural life. She's looking out for her grandkid...think about maybe 70 to 80 speeches per year, at $25,000 a pop (or more), all expenses paid, that sort of thing. Even after taxes, five or six years of that, especially with a failed Prez nomination in the mix, she can smirk at the world without a care to weight her down.
She's already started her line of excuses by saying the press is against her. To me, the national press seems to be doing pretty much what the national Repbulican Party is doing: scratching its head, wondering what she's doing. I'd almost bet she and the first stud worked this one up over drinks and dinner, with more emphasis on the drinks.
After taking the month of August off, she'll make 20-30 speeches this year, explaining how she's helping family values and the Republican Party.
That wouldn't help your teenage daughter, Tom. I find Letterman damned near as creepy as I found MJ, but pounding on either one, while satisfactory, would result in a jail term for what amounts to taking out the garbage. Not worth it.
Is a diarierre a derri=E8re with diarrhea?
Either that or a small book, where you record all your bowel movements. ;-)
Of course. Wouldn't you?
I agree there are too many aggrieved individuals who are eager to find slights in the most innocent of phrasing as in: "Sometimes a BLACK man is the BEST man for the cotton'-pickin' job!"*
The test should be in the intent of the speaker, not the sensitivity of the listener.
Agreed there are too many who want "action taken" and not enough like the OP who, himself, "will take action."
Agreed. The way insults will stop is not by legal action; insults will stop when the person making the insult gets the every-lovin' shit beat out of them. If the insulter is a high-profile person - like Letterman or Perez Hilton - the insults may stop sooner.
Agreed. Plus be ready to rise up in immediate righteous indignation and take steps. Remember the adage: "All it takes for evil to triumph is to let the evil-doer live."
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Already has. Well, you'd think so.
If the link doesn't work go to the website shown and do a search on Fran Gerard.
slickness. He got my vote in '60, for which I am suitably ashamed, but didn't come back far enough to get my vote a dozen years later.
Same with me; however, I'm not ashamed, just pissed off that I voted for the god damn crook in 60.
Lew
As was pointed out by the media, Jay Leno made a similar joke months earlier. Are you gonna go out and beat up Jay Leno now too? Palin getting up there and acting like she is the ultimate american family with out fashioned values is a target that almost anybody will respond too. You expect comedians to not take a shot?
And like it or not, they both get up and tell jokes every week night. Attaching enormous significance to one joke is unhealthy. Comedy ain't pretty. There are comics I can't stand. You know what I do when I find a comic insulting/boring/whatever?
I pick up the remote and either change the channel or turn the TV off. And if I do this successfuly, there is no blood involved.
Someone being their normal "idiot self" would simply increase the reason for ignoring, wouldn't you think? Obviously, someone who's constantly an idiot would have no stature due to that reputation. Therefore, even moreso to consider the source.
What ill intent can become of mere words? Slander? That's against the law and if not true, can then be proven, which then, would possibly be justification of a lawsuit, which would hurt a person more than a beating.
Letterman's career is based on comediac performances. Of course his attempts in front of an audience are mostly jokes, that's what he does to MANY MANY people.
Nope. No need. You want to piss off a person who insults, laugh at them. By allowing them to get under your skin with mere words, you are allowing them the satisfaction of accomplishing their insulting goal. By disallowing them to get under your skin, you are disabling them of accomplishing their goal.
LMAO...that's good.
But even so, with intent, one should still consider the source and consider truth.
I disagree. Beating may sometimes stop the insulter from insulting you or family, but it doesn't stop them from insulting someone or group of weaker trait.
To each his own, but I will view the beater as the weaker link and incapable of intellectual defense. The insulter may be bloody, but he/she still won the battle.
Is a diarierre a derrière with diarrhea?
That "depends".
Damn that spell checker. Now I have to keep checking the checker.
Ain't funny Magee.
Lew
"SBH" wrote
Yep, Letterman ain't nice. Maybe Palin didn't know this. I thought it was hilarious how he took the whole Fire Letterman thing and turned it into one big running joke. Which goes to show that he will mine anything for jokes. He may not be nice. But he is a comic.
That's OK, we three have immeasurably raised the level of intelligence in this thread. BTW, agree on the breasts. :-)
Luigi
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