2782 Not at all politically correct

Friday, February 19, 2010

I distrust those people who know so well
what God wants them to do,
because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
-- Susan B. Anthony --

--------------------------------------

I watched Tiger Woods' statement this morning. He did well, will come out of this ok. There was one thing that bugged me, though. He apologized to everyone in his family, his fans, his supporters, his team, a whole bunch of people. Fine.

But he left out one group he should apologize to - all the women he used and whose affections he toyed with, whose trust he destroyed. He lied to them. He told (some if not all) of them that he loved them and needed them. In most cases it was not a simple "we both know what this is, a one-night-stand". He schmoozed them into falling in love with him. He hurt those women, each of whom thought they were the only ones, and who thought they were helping a man who was staying in an unloving relationship only for the sake of the children.

A lot of people have no sympathy for those women, because "they knew he was married". But those people don't know how easy it is to fall in love with a charismatic man who goes after you and really turns it on. Regardless of how one feels about those women, he absolutely owes them a public apology, too. He lied to them and he used them.

------------------------------------

The Palin family is now all upset at "Family Guy" for the episode where Chris is on a date with a girl with Down Syndrome. The girl was very nice and extremely proper. Taught Chris some date manners. The girl, after reminding Chris that he should ask her some questions about herself, said that "My dad's an accountant, and my mom's the former governor of Alaska." Clearly a reference to the Palins.

What bugs me is that Sarah Palin has said that it's "an insult." How is it an insult? Something is an insult when it offends. Something offends when it's not true, or if true, it's something you are sensitive about, or ashamed of.

So, Sarah, are you ashamed of your son?

------------------------------------

Which leads to another not politically correct thought. The definition of retarded is "slowed down". Ex#2's brother had a rough birth, and although he doesn't have Down's, he was most definitely developmentally delayed. When he was 16, he thought and acted more like an 8-year-old. However, he continued to develop, just much more slowly than the rest of the world. For the first half of his life he was quite literally retarded in the dictionary sense of the word.

I understand objections to the use of "retarded" as an insult. In using it as an insult, you're sneering at the condition. That's not fair. But as a simple description of a true condition, simply a descriptive term, it's not inherently a bad word.

It bugs me that so many of the people who object so strenuously to the word "retarded" in any context will quite happily use "dumb" to mean stupid.

Hypocrisy. As bad as people who frown at fur coats while wearing goat leather shoes and belts.
.