I would rather take a beating than sit through a whole night of David Letterman, or any late night comedian, and I suspect most regular people feel the same. This of course leaves out college students, some homemakers whose households fall within a certain income bracket, and a relatively few upper income types who work nine-to-five, along with some segments of the chronically unemployed who all sit collectively and anxiously trying to find some humor, and an outlet for their angst, as Letterman delivers his top ten list. Like all late-night comedians, Letterman has his bad periods, times when he could use a ratings boost, and the recent trip of Sarah Palin to New York provided him just that opportunity.
It also provided Sarah Palin with an unexpected windfall-a cause, and an opportunity to deflect from the recent humiliating snub she was unfairly forced to endure from the controlling, moderate wing of the Republican Party when she attended a recent meeting. She has played this for all its worth. Which, I don't blame her in the least, but at the same time, I can't say I feel sorry for her, or for her husband, over Letterman's recent antics, such as his aforementioned top-ten list, which featured, among other things, the suggestion that Sarah Palin dressed like a slutty flight attendant. As crass and obscene as such a remark can rightly be considered, Palin is an adult, and she and her husband have been politically active long enough to know that this kind of thing just goes with the territory.
Her daughters, however, especially fourteen-year-old Willow, are a different story. On the first night in question, Letterman remarked that while Palin was watching the ball game at which she and her daughter were in attendance, her daughter (presumably Willow, who was the only daughter of Palin's who was in attendance with her at the game) was being knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.
On the next night, he stated that the hardest thing about Palin's trip was keeping her daughter away from disgraced former Governor Elliot Spencer, recently a known frequenter of prostitutes.
Palin has responded on a number of venues, like an angry female mother bear protecting her cubs-and rightly so. In the meantime, many have suggested that Letterman be fired, or forced to apologize, or fined by the FCC. One man, a jewelry salesman in Austin Texas, has taken it to the extent of personally writing a letter of
protest to the FCC. Some in liberal Austin have threatened to boycott his business.
Still others are of the mind that Letterman should not only apologize to the Palins, but to
his audience, which is really missing the whole point of this controversy. It is not Letterman who should apologize to this audience, it is his audience who should apologize on his behalf to not only the Palins, but to all the rest of us in America. After all, Letterman was merely doing what all comedians and entertainers do-playing up to the preconceived notions and prejudices of his audience, who for the most part despise Palin, and conservatives in general, and who delight in the type of misogynistic banality spewed by their icons towards those like Palin who dare to oppose their cherished beliefs, towards feminism, abortion, religion, gay rights, gun control, immigration reform, or any other issue you care to mention.
It is Letterman's audience which is precisely the reason people like Jonah Goldberg can claim, with a great deal of merit, that liberal, leftist politics is fascist at its core, as there is no room for debate, or for tolerance towards opposing viewpoints. Conservatives like Palin, and their families, are sluts, whores, neanderthals to be pitied at best, and hopefully driven from the public limelight with however much venom it takes to run them off.
For Letterman to apologize to this, his audience, would be like Hitler apologizing to the Wehrmacht-or to the Waffen SS. You see, it makes no sense unless you see it for what it is-a chance to deflect the blame away from where it really belongs, away from the people who empower and promote Letterman to begin with.
Jenn Q. Public, a recent addition to the blogroll here, makes this case very well by providing a link to the Huffington Post, where in response to a poster who criticized Letterman and defended the Palins, a large number of commenters defended Letterman and, as you might have guessed, criticized Palin. Some had the gall to suggest that she asked for it, in a manner of speaking, by dressing like a slut, for being such a staunch social conservative, and for having a child who actually had the misfortune to make the same mistake so many other unwed teenage girls do-have unprotected sex and get pregnant as a result. It is the kind of thing that shows liberal hypocrisy for all the world to see, loudly and oh too clearly. It also aptly demonstrates their true, unabashed views towards working class as well as those of the "lower class"-a term I am starting to believe they themselves coined-and for a reason.
Of course, you will never hear any apologies from the likes of this trash, and others, such as this
Alaskan based blogger who somehow in his delusions of grandeur actually thinks Palin reads his blog. Its foolish on my part to even suggest the possibility of contrition from this type of scum, as even when people like Letterman offer their own brand of tepid, non-apologetic excuses, they always manage to temper it somehow. They sound more like kids who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar than an actual sincerely contrite individual who regrets the possibility of having offended or hurt an innocent party.
Well, she asked for it, after all. They all asked for it. Palin's youngest daughter, who is only about eight or nine years old, was lucky she did not accompany her mother to New York. She would probably be the butt of a joke revolving around chasing down strange men in cars offering favors in exchange for candy.
No, a good many people are due apologies. Fourteen year-old Willow Palin, and yes, the Palin family in general, for the intolerable "joke" aimed at their daughter.
Also, by the way, he owes an apology to Alex Rodriguez. Where is he in all this anyway? He should step up to the plate, so to speak. He could hit one out of the park here for sure. No need for steroids in this case. Letterman made a joke about him committing statutory rape on a fourteen year-old girl. If I were Letterman, I would not want to be within arms reach of this guy, particularly if he had his bat with him.
Letterman arguably owes an apology even to Elliot Spitzer. Now that's fucking sad.
Can anybody imagine how this gap-toothed piece of excrement would howl in outraged anger if someone made a personally insulting and inappropriate joke out of his past problems with a stalker, or called his new wife a money grubbing bitch?
Let's just go with that image.
