I've been gone a few days swamped at work and this is what I come back to?

[TeamsterDem]

9. Oh please, how ridiculous

If anyone anywhere ever utters the C word they're a sexist? What happens when women use the word? Do they hate their own gender? What a load of malarkey.

If the "rule" now is that any man who uses the C word is a sexist, then I submit that any woman who's ever uttered the words used to describe male genitalia is also a sexist. That's right, if she ever got mad and called her coworker a "dick," or if she ever suggested that a man was thinking with "the other head" then she's an unabashed sexist. I mean, according to you, the mere repetition of a word irrespective of the intent of the speaker is absolutely sexism, and if we're going to apply that rule, let's be equal in its application.

In your world apparently the word of a comedian should be taken literally. Richard Pryor once did a bit about lions in Africa speaking, like in English. Are you suggesting that they actually did? Or that Pryor, what, hallucinated it? It was a joke, and he said it to make the point that animals in Africa aren't as tame as they are here, for the most part. Maher's comments about Palin were offensive, intentionally so, because she's an offensive human being. She makes a living offending people. What do you call that person if you're a comedian? An "offensive human being"? Boy, I can hear the laughs rolling in already! He's unequivocally stated that he doesn't judge Palin for being a woman, rather that he judges her for being an idiot. He's said that explicitly. Yet you and people like you simply choose to hear otherwise, demanding that everyone conform to YOUR values or risk being labeled as something they're not.

We all work to pay the bills. Maher pays his bills by telling jokes. He makes fun of every group, including the groups in which he resides (male, white, Jewish, Hollywood, etc.) So I guess because he's joked about Jewish people that he's an anti-Semite, right? That might be difficult, though, considering his mom is Jewish, and he considers himself half-Jewish. He's said that old white men shouldn't be making the rules for everyone else, so I guess he's anti-white? Yes, he clearly hates himself. I mean why is it that his jokes about every other group don't necessarily make him a hater of those groups, but the one group - women - he simply shouldn't joke about that. Why? He's never once stated that women are lesser than men, and in fact he's discussed the wage gap between men and women and said it's appalling. He once called Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann "boobs," and of course he was roundly criticized for that - seemingly unnoticed, though, was the fact that he also called George W. Bush a boob, and that one of the dictionary definitions of "boob" is "a stupid person; fool; dunce."

There are some words that certain groups should never use. The N word is clearly one of those because it can only be said to disparage, demean, and hurt a group of people. But the C word is often used to describe things quite apart from a sexual organ, and is also used in reference to both sexes. If you're offended by the word's usage I'd point out that's YOUR problem, not the speaker's, inasmuch as it has multiple uses and meanings, and it doesn't inherently denote sexism or even a gender calculation. By contrast, the term "slut" is much like the N word inasmuch as it inherently implies a value judgment of the other person; their perceived "worth" is inherently demeaned simply by saying the word. There is no equivalency between Limbaugh and Maher, at least not for those of us still blessed enough to remain attached to reality.