Saturday, June 13, 2009

Politcally Incorrect?

On these two issues, I find myself more conflicted than usual. First: the joke that David Letterman told about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter getting "knocked up." Palin says the late night comedian owes all women an apology. I'm not sure about that, but he certainly could apologize to the Palin family. Was it really necessary to bring a politician's children into the fray, whether they are 18 or 14? Women's rights groups find themselves on a different side of the fence on this issue. Many liberal Democrats will say she should lighten up. I wonder if they would feel the same way if a liberal politician's family had been the butt of this joke. Conservatives are always criticizing "politcial correctness," but have made this issue a call to arms. The liberal Huffington Post says Jay Leno told a similar joke, but where's the outrage there? Bottom line: Letterman should attempt to smooth things over. If Palin will then have none of that, then that would be unfortunate. UPDATE 6/17: Letterman issued what could be considered a more sincere apology on his show, and Sarah Palin apparently accepted it.
Issue #2: Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was "fired" by Donald Trump after previously getting his support. Now the charges are flying back and forth. While I don't subscribe to Prejean's opinion against gay marriage, I don't see anything wrong with her right to say what she honestly thought. That's what we do in America. I also have a hard time believing that her opinion on this topic didn't have a lot to do with Trump's flip-flopping on Prejean retaining her title. How much politics do we need to inject into a beauty pageant?

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