This made me laugh out loud:
The Special Olympics is disputing the White House claim that its chairman, Tim Shriver, accepted Rahm Emanuel’s apology for calling liberals “retarded.”
Seeking to damp down the controversy over Rahm Emanuel’s reported, months-old use of the word, a White House official yesterday told me and other reporters that Emanuel had called Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver to apologize.
“The apology was accepted,” the official said yesterday.
The vice president for communications at the Special Olympics, Kirsten Seckler, told me that this account of the conversation is “inaccurate.”
“Tim didn’t accept his apology,” she said. “Tim can’t do that. He can’t accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities.”
What about people who are so disabled they will not understand the insult or the apology? Does this mean Rahm’s apology can not ever be officially accepted? Or in those cases, will their caretakers be required to accept the apology? Ben’s post is then updated multiple times until it is decided that six apparatchiks from the Special Olympics do, in fact accept the apology.
We are really to the point that a Chinese takeover of this nation is in our best interests.
*** Update ***
I support this:
I think we ought to get it over with once and for all and ask all the people who are interested in banning words to get together and form their inevitable committee on word propriety. I think it would be a great thing if we could just get the list together ahead of time, along with what the committee feels the appropriate sanction is for each word. “Ho” we know is a fireable word, as is “niggardly,” but what about “snapper”? How about “curry muncher”? What is the appropriate punishment for a “What’s wrong, do you have sand in your vagina?” joke? I mean there are so many unknowns right now, nobody knows where he or she stands.
DougJ
God help us.
Bret
That’s just retarded.
BTD
Indeed. What stupidity.
As someone who thinks Rahm is rather challenged intellectually, I have to sympathize with him over this crap.
Sly
I for one welcome our new corrupt administrator-executing overlords.
General Winfield Stuck
Different day, different Catch 22.
Comrade Javamanphil
If Glenn Beck accepts it I think that’s okay as he is surely the king of the retarded. Also.
DougJ
I almost think “Tim can’t accept this apology” should be a new tag.
Comrade Javamanphil
On second thought, I apologize to all the retarded people for comparing you to Glenn Beck. That was despicable and you did not deserve it.
Midnight Marauder
This has to be an instant frontrunner for Comment of The Year.
Bravo, madam.
+3
madmommy
This so-called insult to Saint Trig happened in August. It’s now February. Why is Caribou Barbie making a stink now? Is she not getting enough publicity for the Teabagger hootnanny?
parksideq
gn bjm zyminAD
That was a rough linguistic translation of me banging my forehead into the keyboard. Which in turn has probably retarded my cognitive abilities (too soon?).
beltane
This is all starting to sound like a bad Seinfeld episode. Will Rahm be ambushed by an angry mob for refusing to wear the right colored ribbon?
General Winfield Stuck
Deep thought
What’s the point in apologizing, when everything is your fault ?
Max
Truly, if I was Obama, I would quit. I would just tap out.
I would pack up the kids, Bo, Michelle and Granny Robinson and head back to Chicago.
This country is too fucking stupid to lead.
Hawes
China??!!!! China sucks.
I want to be taken over by Canada.
handy
on behalf of all dumbasses everywhere, I humbly accept Rahm’s apology.
BGK
My first experience with the internets was 20+ years ago, in my college days, which was before climate change melted all the glaciers. If you had discussions on Usenet, et cetera, chances are you were talking to people at other universities, in the same general demographic. Which is to say, enlightened to some degree, and in the reality-based community. That idea was deeply ingrained in yrs. trly., to the point that I still assume that, if one goes to the trouble of getting online, one has to be reasonably savvy.
Twenty years of contrary evidence, and I can’t seem to shake this callow belief.
On a non-political board I frequent, there is a thread which started about outrage over the Lancet retracting the anti-vaccine paper, segued into an argument over reheating food in plastic containers, and has now crashed headlong into a series of screeds on how microwave ovens shouldn’t even be in the same house as children.
Why do I keep getting out of the boat?
The Republic of Stupidity
@Sly:
Okay… so maybe the death penalty does have a place in 21st century America after all…
Dave C
If somebody would just kindly tell Rahmbo who is able to accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities, I’m sure he would be happy to get that person on the phone and politely tell them to go fuck themselves.
beltane
@DougJ: It would be the perfect complement to the “Show us where Rahm touched you” tag.
And were those disabled people with only a physical disability offended by the remark? When I hear the term “all people with disabilities” I have to assume it applies to non-intellectually impaired people like Stephen Hawking and FDR. And what about dyslexics, do they warrant their own special apology?
Sorry, but this country is retarded.
Martin
@BTD: Don’t mistake moral deficits with intellectual ones. Rahm’s a pretty smart guy, but let’s face it, he’d give lead candy to retarded kids if it got him votes.
eastriver
If the target of the insult is retarded, they won’t get the insult. Or the apology.
Sheesh. Give Move On some pudding and a shiny metal and let’s MOVE ON.
General Winfield Stuck
You know the word “idiot” is a term used for levels of er “mental disability” at least on the IQ scale. So is imbecile and moron, I think. Though moran might pass muster. Of course there are more colloquial substitutes like dumbass, knucklehead, or pea brains. Just would be the same without the “i” word though. My evening is ruent.
Midnight Marauder
@DougJ:
If this doesn’t happen, I’m going to make sure anon and Makewi pollute every single post you ever write for the rest of your natural life.
Admiral_Komack
Remember, class:
Republicans can go PC…if it is in their interest to do so.
It is always in their interest to bash Democrats and liberals.
“The vice president for communications at the Special Olympics, Kirsten Seckler, told me that this account of the conversation is “inaccurate.””
“Tim didn’t accept his apology,” she said. “Tim can’t do that. He can’t accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities.”
-Well, madam, I think a hearty “Fuck you!’ is warranted.
The Republic of Stupidity
Of course, this leads us to an interesting fork in the road…
Will St Sarah now also demand that Rush Limbaugh apologize? Or will she cut El Rushbo some slack, on account he’s
just a drug-addled gasbagher mentor?mr. whipple
That’s retarded.
CalD
For the record, Rahm did not “call liberals retarded.” He called the idea of liberal groups running attack ads on Blue Dogs fucking retarded, which of course it was. What’s even more fucking retarded is that some of them actually did it.
BTD
@Martin:
Not as smart as he thinks (true for a lot of us, but we’re not CoS).
Darkrose
Well, according to Caribou Barbie, using “retard” is just as bad as “nigger”. No word yet on where it is in relation to “fag”.
Keith G
Emanuel was the 12th level dumb ass for using that turn of phrase. What a fool.
But this:
What. The. Fuck? Who thought up this gem? The same team that planned Obama’s HCR legislative statedgy?
I mean calling the chair of the Special Olympics. So had he insulted people with muscular dystrophy, he would have called Jerry Lewis? Who are these fuckwits?
We are doomed.
Midnight Marauder
Well now I have no idea what to believe!
MikeJ
@CalD:
Politico mis-characterized something a Democrat said? You’re kidding!
slag
I have a tendency to harangue people who use the R word in a demeaning way. I know, technically, the word doesn’t necessarily refer to the differently-abled, but still…people are sensitive. But if this is how they want to play, I’m going to say let it fly.
And as a liberal, I say that Rahm can go f*ck himself.
The Moar You Know
This country isn’t worth the effort it takes to run it anymore. I’m thinking of moving somewhere with a more enlightened populace, like Albania, or perhaps Burma. I hear Ghana has nice beaches. So does Somalia, for that matter.
Goddamn. Fuck the Special Olympics, and fuck their stupid “communications director”.
rob!
So, Rahm has to go around and apologize to every single mentally-challenged person in the country?
Ms. Seckler sounds like A LOT of fun to be around–the Dwight Schrute of the Special Olympics.
mr. whipple
@The Moar You Know:
“So does Somalia, for that matter.”
I’d guess beachfront property is a steal. No taxes. No heavy hand of Gvt. An entrepreneur’s paradise.
rob!
Oh, and I can only hope this slows down HCR. Priorities!
Arclite
This is so frustrating! Don’t we have more important things to talk about??? This nation has serious issues and we’re worried that some guy said the word “retarded?” Rahm is well known for his sharp tongue and saying a lot worse things than that. I can’t believe the newspaper even covers such crap.
Yeah, and as a liberal, Rahm can F off. Oh, now do I have to apologize to F’ers?
SteveinSC
Wait a second. As many of us feel that Rahm is retarded, he can only be thought of as a self-hating retard. Why then should he apologize to himself?
Ana Gama
According to KO, Limbaugh used the word “retarded” four times on his show TODAY! Oh the irony…
WaterGirl
The BJ site seems to be extremely slow loading or downright unavailable more and more often these days. Am I the only one, or are others experiencing the same thing?
If so, and if we are going to have the opportunity to contribute to a fund to expand your server power, John, could you please let us know before I run out of money toward the end of the month?
mr. whipple
Clearly, Rahm must resign.
madmommy
@Ana Gama:
And Sarah will be calling for his apology to the disabled in 3…2…1
Or, she’ll just go on his show and giggle like a high school cheerleader flirting with the quarterback. Ugh.
General Winfield Stuck
Rahm is should just call them progressives. We will know what he means.
**just a little bitty hippie punch, I’m jonesin’ here.
Michael
Damn tards. I think I’ll go push one down, just out of principle.
ulee
Sarah “this job is retarded, I quit” Palin is manifesting physically–a grotesque slipping fleshmask. 2010 is her Mr. Hyde year.
TooManyJens
@Keith G:
Exactly. I’m a bit bewildered by the response here: do most of you think that Tim Shriver can accept an apology on behalf of people with mental disabilities? What would give him that authority, exactly? It seems very paternalistic to me.
If he wanted to apologize, he should have just issued a statement saying he’s sorry he used an insulting slur. If he wanted absolution, it’s just icky to seek it from someone who isn’t even a member of the population the slur is about.
Cain
@Arclite:
Well, it just goes to show that when in doubt you should use the word “fuck” cuz you know you don’t have to apologize to any one community. Since clearly you can’t use the word stupid, dumb*, and so forth.
cain
Just Some Fuckhead
Stuck is the only one who can absolve Emanuel.
BDeevDad
Jesus Christ on a stick. Why does the White House even play this game. For once, I’d like them to ask a questioner if in the grand scheme of things (jobs, two wars, health care reform, etc) if they really want to use this opportunity to ask about Rahm Emanuel’s usage of a word at a meeting and not what, I don’t know, was actually done at the meeting. It would probably be more valuable to know what the ideas were that Rahm thought were retarded, so we could judge for ourselves, rather than getting folks reactions to the usage of the word.
williamc
this whole thing is totally retarded. taibbi actually wrote something on this yesterday (I know some of you hate him/love him, but get over it) his suggestion is really the only logical way of dealing with this situation.
i don’t know one person under the age of 30 who doesn’t use the word ‘retarded’ every day. its moved into the vernacular like “that’s gay”, and even though I sort of freeze up whenever one of my interns use that phrase, thinking that they’re calling me out or something, I’ve just gotten used to it.
btw, I meant the gay thing, I’m not a ‘tard, though in this situation, I guess some people are, it is the Special Olympics we are dealing with. Guess we’ve lost the retard vote (damn you Rahm!)…
mr. whipple
@TooManyJens:
I think the special olympics registered protest, which is why he apologized, but I may be wrong about that.
freelancer
@rob!:
This should also be a tag.
The Raven
yes, exactly. It is like the rabbinical parable of the scattered feathers–the harm is done and they can never be gathered again.
Michael
PS – Not to be a dick or anything, but I’m finding a lot of irony in a communications director “in service to” the demographic that siphons an obscene amount of public resources for not much of a good result to be sounding like a teabagger.
Just sayin’, and I’ll be going on tomorrow to directly hurt the feelings of those who are running the special olympics. Hopefully, there will be some tears.
I don’t take stupid, excessive demands or feelings of undeserved entitlement lightly.
2th&nayle
This is the definition of ‘retarded’ as per 3D Auto…
Retarded or late ignition timing causes the ignition spark to occur later in an engine’s cycle. Retarded ignition will tend to cause the engine to under perform and lack power. Drivers often describe performance as being sluggish during acceleration. In extreme cases, a small amount of fire may be visible from the tail pipe as previously un ignited fuel vapors ignite within the exhaust.
Under this definition, Rahm’s usage of “retarded'” might have been quite apropos.
williamc
oh, and btw, on the Yahoo! homepage right now is a story about the First Lady “overshared” about her daughters’ weight gain…
now I know what my grandmother always meant by “this country is going to hell in a handbasket”…
CalD
@MikeJ: It gets worser still. Even Jane d’FDL mischaracterized something Rahm Emanuel said.
I know, I know. Say it ain’t so, right?
Nellcote
Who brought up something Rahm said back in Aug. in the first place? and why.
freelancer
@Nellcote:
Oh…because we were winning, and cause Sarahcudtard hadn’t seen her name in any eebil MSM puke funnel news stories lately.
de stijl
OT, but Breitbart is having a live Twitter freak-out. It’s like he’s tweeting his way thru his second bottle of Maker’s Mark.
Awesome to the infinitieth.
de stijl
http://twitter.com/andrewbreitbart
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Which raises the question, did anybody ask the retards if they wanted to run track races? I mean, if you asked me to run a track race my response would be, “make yourself useful and get me a beer or fuck off.” I mean, if Tim Shriver said to me, “let’s go run a hundred yard race, it’ll be such fun!” I’d likely retort, “oh yeah, that’d be a fuckin’ treat. Say, I have a better idea, push the Jenna Jameson tape back into the VCR and then get the fuck outta here.” So if they are people just like me I have to wonder about these things.
DonkeyKong
Is there a Retarded Pope Rahm could apologize to. I think that’s usually how these delicate matters are handled.
2th&nayle
@John Cole: Well, by Gawd, that’ll show us! Actually I’m quite hurt, and I know you are as well. Time to take a deep breat….ok, I’m over it.
TR
@BDeevDad:
Christ, that would be great. Obama’s really hit his “no, no, fuck you” stride lately, so I wouldn’t put it past him.
DonkeyKong
Corky the 3rd?
de stijl
Is there a Retarded Pope Rahm could apologize to. I think that’s usually how these delicate matters are handled.
Spencer Pratt
TR
@de stijl:
Holy fuck, that guy is batshit insane!
John Cole
@de stijl: That really isn’t a freakout by Breitbart’s standards. Scroll through a couple days and you will notice all his tweets are like that.
He is insane.
CalD
@John Cole:
FWIW, If it’s any consolation there will always be a place for you in my bookmarks folder.
MikeJ
The ones I know, yeah, they’ve been asked, and they like it. I’m pretty sure Michael Bérubé’s asked his kid.
TR
OT, but both the Daily Show and Colbert brought the big guns out against McCain’s DADT flip-flop.
Michael
Does Sarahteabagger get gubmint money for Trigtard?
It sure as shit wasn’t my choice for her to have a zillion babies and to go past the sell-by date on her ovaries. By teabagger logic, it should be her problem.
freelancer
@DonkeyKong:
Trick question. All popes are full retard. Why do you think they picked a title so close to “poop”?
Iz in UR Vateecan, Rtardin’ UR doodz!
CalD
@Nellcote: According to the Wall Street Journal…
Anyone want to lay any bets on which participants?
Irony Abounds
If I didn’t have a wife and kids I’d be off to Australia pronto. Beautiful women with sexy accents and none of the crap we have going in the States. I quit People for the American Way a couple of years after it started because, while championing free speech it did not take any kind of stand against PC. This is so wearying.
John Cole
Can we try to be over 12. It is one thing to use the word “retard” the way Rahm did- in a heated moment in a private conversation and not referring to actual individuals. That makes me cringe, but it is really no big deal, and I’m sure most of us have done the same.
But running around and calling the developmentally disabled “retards,” like you just did here, is uncool. It makes you look like a jackass, especially since those kids get so much from the Special Olympics.
/soapbox
Al
I was eating nuts when I read “What’s the matter, have you got sand in your vagina?” and I laughed so hard I choked! So when is it appropriate for me to use this? I can hardly wait!
Midnight Marauder
@TR:
Understatement.
Mattsky
If you’re the type of person that thinks that only three out of ten of Americans are for the current HCR bill because seven out of the ten are too stupid to understand it. Then you would also apologize to Tim Shriver instead of the people you insulted for the same basic reason.
Michael
Love ya, John, but the Communications Official from the Special Olympics opened this bag of worms when she decided to sound like a teabagger and be ridiculous.
I don’t look at the developmentally disabled as a sacred cow, considering the extent to which they demand public support.
If they want that continued largesse that doesn’t exactly translate to a utilitarian economic or social good, then my suggestion to the developmentally disabled community is to strap a muzzle to that woman’s mouth. Either that, or fire her teabagging ass.
nepat
Never thought it would be possible for me to sympathize with Sarah Palin but, man, some of the comments on this thread have done it.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Nope. Otherwise you’ll have to chastise about half your readership on this thread.
[sigh] Sarah Palin wins again.
de stijl
My fave Breitbart tweet so far (but the night still young on the West Coast):
Who’re the reals racists? Whyd lefties Planned Parenthood ACCEPT DONATIONS TO ABORT ONLY BLACK BABIES?
PurpleGirl
@slag: As a person who has stuttered her whole life, please do not insult me by using the term “differently abled”. I do not have better hearing or better sight, or a better singing voice or any other attribute in compensation for being dis-abled. And many disability professional do not even consider me disabled. I realize this could start a flame war, and I’m going to bed shortly so I won’t be here to respond… but I really hate the term “differently-abled.” And when I became mildly physically disabled with spine/back problems, I didn’t gain any new abilities either. The descriptive term is DISABLED. /end of smallish rant
General Winfield Stuck
@John Cole: Well, I’ve scrolled the thread 4 times and can’t find the quote. My mind and eyesight must be going. Time for a movie.
parksideq
@de stijl: Wow, that was like watching word vomit from the word toilet’s perspective. Quite a feat to pull off when limited to 140-character heaves.
darryl
IIRC there was only one time I drank an entire fifth, opened a new bottle, and kept going.
I had the shakes for about 5 days after that one.
Yutsano
As someone with a cousin with cerebral palsy, I found myself less than offended or outraged by all this. But far be it for to deny Sarah Palin an opportunity to use her
political toolmentally disabled son to score a point or two.TooManyJens
@de stijl: Wow. There goes my productivity for the rest of the evening.
parksideq
@de stijl:
To paraphrase Jamie Foxx, I blame it on the Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-Rahm.
freelancer
@General Winfield Stuck:
It’s at 65, Alice.
Michael
Shoulda named him “Prop”.
Sly
@de stijl:
Breitbart has a huge bug up his ass about Republicans being called racists.
Which is why everyone should call Breitbart a racist. Loudly, repeatedly, and in a snide and accusatory tone.
General Winfield Stuck
@freelancer: LOL, from steve s. I thought he was the enlightened prog here, oh well.
parksideq
Wow, Brietbart’s thread is unintentionally priceless. One of his recent gems:
To which I replied (I’m twitter.com/parksideq, btw):
I gotta feeling, that tonight’s gonna be a good night.
TooManyJens
@parksideq: I’m popping the popcorn!
Keith G
Wow. Just , wow.
KG
some days, I really hate people. You would think, in the volumes of precedent on the First Amendment we’d have something that would remind people that they have no right to not be offended (shit, I think that’s an old Rush Limbaugh line). The best I can think of is Brandesis’ old line that “the cure for bad speech is not regulation, but more speech.”
Actually, this kind of reminds me of when the South Park boys tried to change the definition of “fag.” Sometimes, it doesn’t mean what you think it means, asshole.
TooManyJens
@KG:
We do, right before the part that reminds people they have no right not to be called assholes if they say assholish things.
L. Ron Obama
Comments in this thread are way more offensive than Rahm’s dumb outburst.
Like when the N word incidentally comes up here, ok, and then some commenters suddenly feel they are licensed to sling it around. At least st*r out that shit so you don’t look like such an asshole.
Michael
Tired of tip-toeing around it. The amount of resources that go out (particularly for the cases of profound retardation) is offensive to me. Sarah Palin sucking at the trough based on the status of little Prop offends me too, considering that she’s a teabagger.
In my state, there has to be progress, according to formula. Every 5 years, a prosecutor, a judge, social workers, a legal guardian, psychiatrists and psychologists get to present a circus for every adjudicated case. You can have a 50 year old who never advanced beyond the mental status of a 6 month infant, and there will be 6 inches of files documenting the work done to get him to learn to swallow on his own. The 6 inches will be the work done since the last 5 year review.
It offends me, considering the needs which go unmet in people who could actually benefit from those wasted resources.
Comrade Kevin
@L. Ron Obama: Being anonymous lets people bring out their inner psychopath.
Michael
What was dumb about his outburst? The idea was fucking retarded. He was speaking truth to power.
GregB
Being anti-politically correct means giving white males the right to heap abuse on women, African-Americans, Hispanics, gays, and Asians while simultaneously taking umbrage at any perceived slight towards Christian, white, straight males of European descent.
-G
freelancer
Could someone conversant with “Breitbart Journalism” explain the history/relevance of Retracto the Correction Alpaca?
It sounds like Skippy, if Skippy was a sanctimonious douchebag.
CalD
@General Winfield Stuck: Ass rabies! LOL!
Sisyphus
Has Rahm apologized to liberals? Who have we designated to receive it?
MikeJ
@Comrade Kevin:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@2th&nayle:
Or he could have been talking about cam timing. Generally, advancing the cam timing improves low RPM power and torque at the cost of high RPM power and torque. Retarded cam timing is just the opposite; more power/torque at high RPM at the cost of some low RPM power/torque.
Maybe Rahm was thinking of this when he said what he did:
Above excerpted from “Dude… Don’t Be retarded“.
Excessive cam retard causes less power, poor performance, increased emissions, fouled plugs, hard starting, lousy mileage and numerous other problems. IOW, performs like shit.
An apt description.
Comrade Kevin
@MikeJ: That may be their best strip.
Cassidy
The kid didn’t do anything but be born.
Tax Analyst
As someone with dsylxeia I accept your apolgoy.
freelancer
LOL, Jeebus He’s replying to every. single. tweet.
Me:
Comrade Kevin
@Cassidy:
It takes a big man to attack an infant.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@John Cole:
Oooh, Calamity Jane is showing you! I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Calamity Jane is just feeding her hamsters to get them to calm down. When they get rowdy her colon starts to spaz out. This will settle them down for a few minutes.
Oh shit. Do I need to apologize to everyone who is a spaz? God damn, what a bitch! What?! Now I have to apologize to fundies and …
Aww fuck it, I give up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tax Analyst:
freelancer
@Comrade Kevin:
Work on your aim.
wasabi gasp
Alls I know is retarded ass fuckers make my pussy hurt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@John Cole: Thank you
General Winfield Stuck
This thread is worrisome
2th&nayle
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
My thoughts exactly! I thought the image of all those indignant progressives running around with fire shooting out of their tail pipes was pretty apt too, considering what they wanted to do was flame the Blue Dogs with their ads! Not that the Bdogs don’t deserve it, but still! haha!
Anonsters
@General Winfield Stuck:
You sir, are and idiot :(
Morbo
Goddammit, where is George Carlin when you need him? Oh right, he’s dead. Piss.
The Republic of Stupidity
@General Winfield Stuck:
As someone who is:
a) Sober…
… and…
b) Been watching it slide further and further towards the abyss over the last couple of hours…
… I can only agree w/ you at this point.
freelancer
“Or are you being a(nd) fake idiot?”
General Winfield Stuck
@Anonsters: Poor baby, did I bruise your tender feelings again.
Brick Oven Bill
Barack bowled on national TV. Before the cameras.
Barack’s score equaled 37. He later compared his ability to that of a retard.
Here, a Special Olympian, speaking in good faith, gives Barack advice.
This Special Olympian bowls an average of 165.
Do not forget that the baseball catcher placed himself in front of home plate for our President, who still put the ball in the dirt.
Morbo
@John Cole: Haha, just now scrolling through the actual thread proper and this made me chuckle.
Morbo +6 or so
handy
Seriously. Brietbart is a prime candidate for an intervention.
Tax Analyst
@Omnes Omnibus:
Why the fcuk cna’t I?
handy
@Brick Oven Bill:
And I bet he never has fired a gun. You know, personally.
Anonsters
@General Winfield Stuck:
No, not at all. And I posted it before I got to this one:
Therefore, I retract my previous comment.
Morbo
@handy: He needs to get in line behind she whose name cannot be typed three times.
General Winfield Stuck
@Anonsters: Get a hold of yourself Sparky. You’re not making sense.
Yutsano
Sigh. I can haz late night open thread now plz?
Thoughtcrime
@John Cole:
“Can we try to be over 12. It is one thing to use the word “retard” the way Rahm did- in a heated moment in a private conversation and not referring to actual individuals. That makes me cringe, but it is really no big deal, and I’m sure most of us have done the same.
But running around and calling the developmentally disabled “retards,” like you just did here, is uncool. It makes you look like a jackass, especially since those kids get so much from the Special Olympics.
/soapbox”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxr0hYefytg
Anonsters
@General Winfield Stuck:
What’s not making sense? I called you an idiot, somewhat playfully, using a 4chan meme, and then as I read on through the thread, I saw you making an apposite observation, and so I decided that you sir, are not and idiot :) (For now. Don’t worry. My judgment is wildly erratic.)
General Winfield Stuck
@Anonsters:OK. If you say so.
Anonsters
@General Winfield Stuck:
NO U
handy
@Morbo:
He’s in full on drunk rage mode, for all the whole world to see. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Tax Analyst
I suppose someone could take a survey of all people with an IQ below 70 and see if they would accept Rahm’s apology.
Or they could just poll a teabagger convention instead.
Yutsano
@Tax Analyst: How convenient one is occurring in Nashville!
Cain
@Tax Analyst:
Well you know, that’s just another kind of sport event too. Requires a lot of open mouths and balls.
cain
Syd B
Rahm should be fired for being a mentally challenged center-right asshat and not for calling a group of people retarded
john b
like anyone would want to R her . . .
Anonsters
@handy:
His Twitter “bio” does make one ell-oh-ell.
freelancer
How difficult would it be for cleek to integrate a script into BJ’s source code so that this quote appears at the bottom over every BOB post?
MikeJ
Wait, Wait, Don’t Eat Me
Tax Analyst
@Cain:
and sometimes the presence of another type of “pole” too.
freelancer
@handy:
If Andy and K-Lo/Althouse had a child, that kid would be born requiring an immediate liver transplant.
BDeevDad
@Michael: As someone with a child who does get “gubmint” money, you’re an asshole.
KG
I know this is off topic, but Stewart (and Oliver, for that matter) are ripping McCain on DADT. “Maybe we shouldn’t let old people be Senators anymore.” Fuck yeah.
JasonF
@BGK: If you’ve been on the internet for 20+ years, you are no doubt aware that September 1993 was the Long September and it never has truly ended. Welcome to the future.
(For the benefit of those who don’t know what I’m talking about, see here).
Anne Laurie
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
Just in case you’re really really young or otherwise have no idea what the world was like more than 15 minutes ago… Back when Tim Shriver’s mom Eunice started the Special Olympics program, the best professional standard was that “retards” should be kept out of public view — for their own good, of course! The bleeding hearts said it was “cruel” to expose “mental defectives” to the stares and jeers of an uneducated public; the conservatives complained that allowing “cripples” to use public facilities was a waste of resources and also unsightly. And, yes, this was within the last 50 years! Setting up sporting programs designed to let these “little unfortunates” get out in the world and participating to the best of their abilities, rather than sitting in a ward, was considered a very daring, risky potentially explosive social experiment. But until the low-information voters of the second half of the twentieth century were exposed, through the popular media, to the concept that “retards” were also people, fellow humans with the same range of interests — including sports — as the rest of us luckier kin, too many people really did assume that having a “retard” (and that included a lot of kids with cerebral palsy, autism, and other unsightly disabilities) in one’s family was a social disgrace, a stigma that could only be combatted by locking the “victim” away and hoping the neighbors never found out. (As I said last year: “I was born in the mid-1950s…I know people of my generation who were never permitted to meet, or sometimes even to know about, their “imperfect” siblings until another family crisis unveiled their existence.”)
You don’t care to run track or play basketball, and frankly neither do I. But there are lots of people, including smart powerful people with other options like President Obama, who enjoy participating in sports just for the fun of it. The “point” to Special Olympics is that people deserve to participate in the world to the best of their abilities, even when what they’re doing seems pointless to the rest of us. (Heck, there are those among us who don’t see the “point” to drinking beer and/or online pornography, I hear.)
BDeevDad
I think some of the folks here should listen to this speech and learn a thing or two before opening their mouths further to prove they are fools (or assholes).
reality-based
(sigh)
(bangs head on keyboard, also!)
The republic, is, indeed doomed – when this just proves that the Palin/GOP wing can pull any idiotic thing out of their ass, six months after it allegedly happened – and the drooling cretins that make up the MSM will obligingly go panting after it.
Fucking doomed, I tell you. Seriously.
Mostly, of course, I am furious that I have to come to the defense of Rahm Emmanuel.
I don’t care who he calls what perjorative – I just think he’s made a whole career out of being stunningly ineffectual, first for Bill Clinton, and now, more egregiously, for Barack Obama.
Oh, he’s very good at promoting his main agenda – the Glorification of Rahm – but actually getting shit passed? Not so much.
and General? Before we start the “Leave poor Rahm ALOONE” stuff – note that Ezra Klein, Jonathan Chait, and Johnathon Cohn – centrists all – are now blaming him for the (tentative) demise of HCR.
(By the way, I looked up the stats for the 2006 mid-terms – out of Rahm’s 22 handpicked candidates – who he threw MILLIONS of dollars at – only 9 were elected. The other 23 seats were grass-roots candidates – who owe their seats to the party-building efforts of Howard Dean – who Rahm all but shoved off the platform on Election night 2006, so eager was he to claim credit for wins that owed nothing to his (bad) strategy.
So in conclusion:
1. This “retard” shit is proof that the media will kill the republic off.
2. But nevertheless, I still blame Rahm for HCR. Me, and a bunch of other folks. Even if it makes John and the Baby Jeebus cry when we do.
See, THIS is the part that still confuses me – Rahm-bo says “you DFH’s shut up and swallow the no-single-payer, no-public-option, no-expanded-medicare, no-collective bargaining on meds stuff we’re shoving down your throats – because us old pros are gonna work with Max Baucus, work with Olympia Snowe, work with Joe Lieberman, and Get the Bill passed.”
“Oops. Our strategy didn’t work!?!?!? I know what – let’s blame it all on the DFHs! After all – they had the nerve to warn us that our strategy wouldn’t work – so it’s their fault when it didn’t!”
Yes, us DFHs are touchy about this – because those of us who warned that Iraq would be a disaster BEFORE IT STARTED – then found themselves BLAMED for the disaster when it happened.!
Clapping louder wouldn’t have turned around Iraq, and it wouldn’t have turned around HCR – and it’s irritating to be blamed for both disasters because we didn’t clap loud enough!
shorter reality-based: we are all Paul Krugman now.
Ruckus
@Tax Analyst:
As someone with dsylxeia I accept your apolgoy
As another participant in the dyslexia experiment in
properreasonable human development I believe the term is lexdysia.wasabi gasp
Darkrose
@L. Ron Obama:
I don’t believe in starring it out, or using euphemisms like “the n-word”. It feels patronizing to me; if you’re going to discuss it, then use the fucking word.
Prospero
What a shitpile of a thread.
Michael
As long as you’re not feeding the rhetoric and ego of teabaggers, you’re welcome to it.
Accountability for teabagging while benefitting from significant government money is a big thing with me – like I said above, my irony meter got pegged on what the woman said. Right now, I can’t afford shit, and have a 15000 deductible on my several hundred dollar a month insurance policy. I’ve got a few thousand dollars owing medical providers right now, 5 figure receivables are effectively dead, my credit is pretty well redlined and I’m eagerly awaiting my tax refund for grocery money. Oh, and there are some new med expenses popping up, plus my middle kid is 16 going on Van Gogh. I’m a little prickly about teabaggers who use (or who serve a community which receives substantial subsidy from) gubmint resources.
kay
I’m just flabbergasted the media fall for Palin’s bullshit every time.
Every. Time.
How many times is one of her stupid non-controversies going to dominate the news?
Oh, and she should stop using that little kid.
Did he volunteer for this? Is he on the payroll?
How is she different from those horrible reality tv parents?
A Mom Anon
@kay: She is no different.
As Governor of Alaska,I believe she cut the budget for public school resources for disabled children. While she hauls Trig around and spouting nonsense about giving a rat’s ass about autistic kids and those with other disabilities.
If she had any moral compass at all,her national prominence could have been used to let people know that we’ve got a long way to go towards real research(all those ribbons and other such window dressing don’t do much except line the pockets of the ribbon makers and sellers),solid therapies that work and educational resources(as well as community ones)for families. But noooo,she’s used that little boy as a political prop and not much more. I have to wonder if Trig is getting any sort of developmental therapies since early intervention helps most kids tremendously. If not,why? She certainly has the money coming in to do that now.
kay
@A Mom Anon:
It must drive you crazy. It would me if I had an actual child in this mix, as you do.
She’s despicable.
JD Rhoades
Has anyone called it “Retard-Gate” yet? if not, can I be the first?
Oh, and while I’m here, is Caribou Barbie going to be going after her supporters at Redstate and Freep and Ace of Spades, and etc etc etc who constantly use the words “Libtard” and/or “Leftard”?
‘Cause she better get busy, she’s got a lot to do.
Michael
Curious, isn’t it?
Michael
Bristol hasn’t gotten around to that, what with keeping the homestead and raising her own child and all while running around and talking about abstinence. It drives the Wasilla Wingnut crazy that Bristol won’t step up and handle things at home now that she’s on the road doing Very Important Things.
JD Rhoades
@Michael:
FTW.
WereBear
@A Mom Anon: I brought up this concern in another forum, and rumor has it that she is not giving him the therapy he needs to help him max out.
Then when she does this kind of thing, it is extra repulsive, since she really should know better.
If she thought.
A Mom Anon
@WereBear: What sickens me is that there is so much bullshit and so many charlatans out there selling parents false hopes(see: McCarthy,Jenny) that someone with a national platform could use it to counter that crap.
Trig and the rest of the family will pay a long term price for any sort of theraputic neglect that child is experiencing now. It’s tough enough with intervention,I cannot imagine how rough it will be for all of them when he’s a teenager. Sarah Palin is no spokesperson for families of children with disabilities of ANY kind. Anyone who refers to her as such needs a John Cole patented Neck Punch. And a kick in the groinocological region.
kay
@A Mom Anon:
She’s suing her grandchild’s father. She could not broker a parenting agreement between two teenagers without a judge. That’s just massive grown-up fail.
This is the spokesmodel for families? She cannot manage a reasonable relationship that is in a child’s best interest within her own family.
Run from this person. She’s a combative disaster.
bob h
We are really to the point that a Chinese takeover of this nation is in our best interests.
They might insist that we do something about our healthcare system, for example.
Keith G
@BDeevDad: Thank you ffor the link to Soeren’s speech. It was a great way to start the morning and helped make up for the anger and sadness I felt as I read some of the comments here.
gil mann
Yeah, and anyone who believes in privacy rights must have something to hide.
BTD
the update is ridiculous.
The original point I thought was that Emanuel made the comment in private and that there was no one to apologize to.
Now the post is a typical anti-PC screed.
Ridiculous.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@BTD:
Passing Judgment Troll has ruled on the matter, debate is over.
CDT
As the father of a kid with Down’s Syndrome, let me say that “retarded” is not off-limits, either to describe stupid but non-disabled people, or as a descriptive, medical term applied to my son’s intellectual disabilities. It’s the term “retard,” when applied to a Down’s person, that’s offensive. The Special Olympics does not have my permission, or that of my son, to take offensive on his behalf.
Shinobi
Santa’s gonna have to work on his laugh or he’ll be in BIG trouble.
Also, what about music people, who actually use the word retard in the sense of “to slow down.”
Does it matter how you meant it or is it only that you used it?
Original Lee
@The Moar You Know: Ghana actually has a sizable American expat population. I understand from friends of mine that it’s a beautiful country and very pleasant to live in, as long as you have enough money to make sure you have proper sanitation and security.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Nope, I’m old and well aware of all the facts you laid out. I just find it remarkable, once again, that the entire premise of the thread has been lost in the ether, but rather than argue it out it’ll be safer just drop it there.