982: For Love or Money

[Grapist]

Originally Posted by sully_04

they are of various ethnic diversities and offshoots of Vietnamese and Cambodian broods (much like gypsies or Pikies in europe are welsh, irish and scotish) and are nomads. from what I recall all of these peoples get lumped together as Montanyards and shit upon by the pure "yellow" people.

No Texan mixed in there?

[sully_04]

Originally Posted by Grapist

No Texan mixed in there?

I think they wear funny hats too? Is that close enough.

[DarkKnightJared]

Originally Posted by Grapist

Russia doesn't "border" Alaska, and dealing with Canada is something you consider to be a "foreign affairs" issue?

You just get more and more funny with every post.

You mean you trust those filthy Canucks? And you're calling him the idiot?

[Claire]

Montanyards or Hmongs are considered minorities, gypsies if you will. The fought along side our (American) special forces in Vietnam and Cambodia and are creepy little pygmie people.


The Hmong are from Laos and are not creepy. They are small in stature I will give you that.

[Forkhead]

The whole thing is stupid and douchetastic. If you don't like someone's politics, going after their children is lame. Responding to the joke and exaggerating the level of offense doesn't help.

[spooky]

Originally Posted by Mike C

The dumbest thing about this Letterman/Palin thing is that someone (maybe it was Palin) equated Letterman's joke with rape. Listen to what Letterman said and draw the line to rape. I bet you can't. For one, are the Palin idiots saying every woman who got knocked up was raped? Really??

statutory rape. It's an easy line to draw, especially if you have an agenda. Palin and her 14 year old daughter, not 18+ year old Bristol, were at the game Letterman joked about.

Originally Posted by Mike C

Rape is a violent act of sexual force. It sounded like Letterman barely broke a sweat while making a comment just over his breath as he pondered a train-of-thought connection between a family who already has at least one pre-wed pregnancy and questionable motives with a guy who is know to like to fuck. It's kind of like making a "who ate my pizza" joke about that fat fuck, Santa Clause.

Statutory rape, sir. Just because 33 year old A Rod is a Dominican does not mean he has to use violence to bang a 14 year old. Were you a politician, I would accuse you of racism and the press would make you apologize.

Originally Posted by Mike C

I believe it's obvious that Palin is just trying to scare up some press.

Her PR machine has an axe to grind with Letterman, who openly attacked her many times during and after the election. Letterman is open with his political agenda, he uses his position to push it, going a step beyond satire. It just makes good sense to discredit him, both for herself personally, and for the opposing agenda she pushes, where and when he sets himself up for it. So in a sense, yeah, the press is what she was trying to scare up.

Originally Posted by Mike C

Getting back to the point, though, it's scary how people use symbolism to somehow equate Letterman's joke to his raping a 14 year-old (or anyone). These leaps of "logic" are what will kill us as a people and it's how dumb people get power and how powerful people use the dumb people to get more power.

fail. Stick to the points, it was a dumb minor throwaway joke, and his writers should have been a bit more careful with the phrasing. If you want to wander into politics, words carry a bit more meaning, there's a slightly different set of rules you have to work under. There is no leap of logic to be made, you just are pretending to not know the difference between rape and statutory rape, I assume to push your own political agenda?

Originally Posted by Mike C

In the end, take everything that was ACTUALLY said and you find the following: The Palin side's argument falls completely apart; and, also, kind of, so does Dave's joke.

If it fell apart, the media would have been talking just about how stupid she was yet again. If you listen to what Dave said, you would see that if he would have just used Bristol's name, he wouldn't have given her ammunition to use against him. It's very cut and dry, very petty, very stupid, but it has validity, Dave opened himself up to it. That's why he apologized, and I'm sure he will redouble his efforts to push his agenda and be more mindful of phrasing during political jabs.

Originally Posted by Mike C

People: think about what you are ACTUALLY saying as opposed to saying stuff based on what you think you believe. Keep in mind, your belief's box is where you keep things you want to go into your facts box but you haven't yet proven them. Nonetheless, until you prove them to be fact, they are still beliefs -- so be careful when you start throwing around your beliefs -- you might hurt someone or make yourself look like a moron.

Ahem.

Yeah. Get your facts. Sex between an adult and a child is illegal, sir, just an FYI. I'd hate to see you bang a ten year old, then in court use the defense that she wanted it, that she came on to YOU.

For the record, Dave meant Bristol, she is the only kid the public really knows about, and it was a throw away joke anyway. Even if he meant the 14 year old, which he didn't, I still would laugh, and still wouldn't care. But I don't write the rules of political press and public relation.

For the record, I support Dave's apology, not because he did something morally wrong, but because if he wants to maintain his political credibility, it's just what needs to be done to placate the masses.

[Mike C]

Spookster! So nice to hear from you.

I think you nicely supported my point with what you said about Dave's comment being a "minor throw away joke".

A joke -- that's what it was.

It wasn't penetration.

It wasn't Dave saying he'd like to have a sexual encounter the little Palin girl.

In fact, it was not even his saying Willow was attractive to him.

Frankly, if anyone should be upset with Letterman for his joke it should be A-Rod for suggesting he would possibly commit statutory rape.

But Spooky, for being such a logical and thinking guy, you kind of illustrate my point on the not-so-flattering side, too:

Originally Posted by spooky

Just because 33 year old A Rod is a Dominican does not mean he has to use violence to bang a 14 year old. Were you a politician, I would accuse you of racism and the press would make you apologize.

When did anyone say anything about A-Rod's race? This is the kind of leap of "logic" that get's us as a people in trouble. With what you said in mind, are the people who said Lebron James was a poor sport for leaving the court before the hand shake after the Cavs lost the series to Orlando also considered racists? You know, Spook, Lebron James is B-L-A-C-K. <sarcasm>Oh -- let's start a big stinky battle because one person exaggerated what another person said -- which was an exaggeration itself. Never mind actual logic -- it's a person's right to malign others in defense of his or her own over-sensitive feelings. The casualties are well worth protecting one's own ego.</sarcasm> Seriously, man, that kind of crap is to logic as Madoff is to investment banking. As logical, thinking people, we should really not encourage this kind of behavior.

Besides that, I kind of think Letterman's joke was poking fun at the whole Palin family; not just Willow or Bristol. As you may recall, Bristol was not the only Palin who was suspected of putting the conception before the vows -- yet St. Sarah seems to be running on the Republican's tired old somewhat hypocritical "Family Values" plan (in reality it's more like our families have value -- other families don't). Frankly, I don't give a wozzel-woot about if Sarah and Todd played hide-the-sausage before they got married or that it may have lead to their feeling the need to elope. I do, however, find it annoying that she is trying to push her "bible believing Christian" dogma into our government. From what I understand: though I don't have a problem with Todd and Sarah poking the yolk a little early; she and her god fearing colleagues DO have a problem with this. I also understand that her kind are not supposed to bear false witness -- but perhaps it's OK when someone says something that hits a little too close to home. I should probably pick up a copy of the Bible some time and see if I can find the section on proper Christian Strategic Warfare. Maybe it's in a part of The Book Of The Crosstika (isn't that near Ecclesiastes?).

Spooky, I realize that if I were a politician someone would make a big deal about defending Letterman with the kinds of ill-fitted logic you presented; but, I'm not a politician. However, I believe that politicians should stop with the drama train. Further more, if it takes talk show hosts, comedians, pop culture icons, podcasters or even fucktards like me to point out the ludicrousy of this bad logic, so be it. Someone has to curb this crap.

Perhaps Letterman made a bad joke (I kind of enjoyed it because I think Sarah Palin is an embarrassment to the already embarrassing U.S. political arena) but by apologizing, he basically said, "we as a people are not only susceptible to crap dramatic logic, but we also will gladly be ruled by it".

Also Spooky, don't wait for the media to be the cavalry that comes over the hill to save us -- they are only interested in drama. It writes itself and it sells, sells, sells. Besides, drama means they don't have to actually think of something newsworthy to report.

Just so you know, I've lived in a political family for just about my entire life and though I'm very proud of what my political family members were able to accomplish, I'm also painfully aware of how the public will twist things that really shouldn't matter -- maybe that is why I'm so vehemently opposed to letting these tactics control us.

Lastly, David Letterman is not a significant political player (as in becoming governor, senator or the like). He can do more to further his agenda by not bending to the idiocy by apologizing. Dave should take a lesson from Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
--Thomas Jefferson (former president or something)

No wonder Bernie Madoff was so successful for so long -- people just seem to prefer to bend over and hold their socks rather than actually have to think.

You're a good shit, Spooky. Keep on being you. We'll talk some more.

ox
Mike

[Mike C]

Originally Posted by Mike C

Frankly, if anyone should be upset with Letterman for his joke it should be A-Rod for suggesting he would possibly commit statutory rape.

As it turns out, A-Rod wants an apology, too (according to the Alaskan Dispatch article A-Rod demands apology from Letterman over Palin joke).

The problem is, instead of going for the more powerful possible accusation of statutory rape (it's a stretch considering Letterman was telling a joke about silly public figures), he went with some kind of "crying like a baby" thing where he actually thinks someone really accused him of impregnating Willow Palin because of his good looks or some such shit. Boy he's gonna have egg on his face when they find out she was never even pregnant and that it was all a joke.

So many people are fucking morons. Some days I wish kind sweet merciful death would whisk me away from these jackasses like a bathtub full of Calgon.

[Mattman]

Originally Posted by Grapist

Minorities, what local minorities are there in Vietnam? Do they have Mexicans, Taiwanese?

This was a perfect example of a Palin-style foreign policy commentry. Whether or not she was "not yet ready" to be Vice President, there are some things that cannot be handled by briefings from aides. Most of what she said, off script, was inane and anyone who watched or read world news would almost instantly opine that she was a mental pygmy.

And talking about pygmys .... Vietnam is a really interesting country. Just looking around at people's faces you can see so many different race types from the really Chinese-looking to the dark-skinned looks of the Thais. Over the years, the borders of "Indochina" which is what the region was once referred to were pretty liquid, and there were many migrations of different ethnic groups, resulting in a diversity of settlers. The population is more than 80 million now with large concentrations in Ho Ci Minh City (Saigon) and Hanoi.

I've been here 1 1/2 years so far, and I haven't even started to know the country. I thoroughly recommend it as a holiday destination .... provided you don't refer to anyone who is not American as a "minority". If you do think that ... try Alaska.

[sully_04]

Originally Posted by Claire

Montanyards or Hmongs are considered minorities, gypsies if you will. The fought along side our (American) special forces in Vietnam and Cambodia and are creepy little pygmie people.


The Hmong are from Laos and are not creepy. They are small in stature I will give you that.

Right and they of course honor International borders and never crossed into the forbidden land set out on a map they have never seen. This is not conjecture, it is history.

and, yes they are creepy.