Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Rogue Vogue

By Capt. Fogg

Was the huge vogue for Going Rogue helped along by having SarahPAC purchase thousands of copies of the best seller? Campaign contributors' money and funds from right-wing publications were used to produce and promote the book by giving out free copies while she got royalty checks.

"Irregardless" as a Sarah fan might say, it did help her legally transmute PAC money into a royalty check and since she walked off the job and isn't running for another position of public trust, the conversion apparently wasn't illegal. For those of us still interested in why she quit the Governorship, perhaps the ability to pocket all that PAC cash and avoid going to jail for it might help us to understand.

Perhaps some will remember that before she donned the robes of roguery, it wasn't a particularly nice way to describe anyone. Certainly not as nice or as honorable as Maverick, the title she was forced to relinquish after threats from the descendants of the eponymous cattleman, but who can doubt that the robes fit?

Meanwhile, back at that rogues' paradise called Facebook, Sarah has been channeling the wolves she used to strafe from various aircraft and attempting to sink her teeth into the Obama administration by going after Rahm Emanuel for using the word "retarded" in an internal strategy session -- as though it had been directed at Down's syndrome children and the Special Olympics and not at the stupidity of a co-worker. No, Sarah, retarded is not like the "N word" and although you'd love it to be, and although Mr. Emanuel has already been put in the position of having to apologize to the Special Olympics organization, you haven't said much about the "witches" you've praised your beloved pastor for persecuting. There are no Witches, only innocent people who don't share your religion -- there are people whose cognitive skills fall behind the norm no matter what euphemism you prefer. There are people who are stupid and there are people who are inexcusably and viciously retarding the progress of our country toward Liberty and Justice for all.

(Cross posted from Human Voices)

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3 Comments:

  • Fogg -- Because I hate ALL PC bullshit, I don't have a problem with "retard" of "Neggro" if siad in private company. But there are LEGIONS of Democrats who would be excoriating any top level Republican who had referred to something as "retarded." That said, I kind od like fucking Raham Emanuel. He's and Def. Sce. Gates are probably the people primarily responsible for Obama not going totally soft on terrorism.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:50 PM  

  • Really, you think "Negro" is a suitable word even in private?

    And by "soft on terrorism," do you mean diverting American military and financial resources to a war in the Middle East based on deception, one that quickly becomes a quagmire due in part to gross mismanagement and poor leadership?

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 10:22 PM  

  • It's very difficult to write a check to the United Negro College Fund without using the word. Context is everything and I would argue that virtually all of us are well able to distinguish racist intent when we see it, regardless of whether the prescribed or proscribed words are used. That argument has been used to keep Mark Twain's classics out of school libraries after all, while our TV's and iPods blast out the N word all day and night with little hindrance. To paraphrase Dr. Freud, sometimes negro just means black and I think the presumption of racism in anyone of a different race is in itself racism.

    Isn't there something out of sorts when we insist that whether or not I can use a word depends on the color of my skin or when I'm presumed to be a racist by virtue of the same pigment?

    Of course the term "PC" is a cheap and common straw man and I object to it strenuously, but I also think that whatever there is in a name, it's far less than what's in the intent and tone of the user. I assume that when I give money to the NAACP I'm being no more racist than Ben Jealous is for accepting it on behalf of colored people.

    The resurrection of obsolete 16th century words like "asian" with the intent of making this a more egalitarian society is, for example, not likely to do a damned thing but open opportunities for mockery, since that term can be used with the same sneer as any other pejorative, real or imagined -- and indeed, it already is. I sometimes wonder who told us that to be asiatic is a terrible thing, even if you're a tiger, or that orientalist art is somehow racist but oriental rugs are OK. For what it's worth, I have a large number of Chinese relatives who wonder the same damned thing. Is this really all about some professor who needed to publish something?

    Are we simply doing as we're told by people who get to write books and articles telling us we're all closet racists and have to expiate our sins constantly by buying their arguments?

    Obama isn't "soft" on anything and isn't that soft on this and that trope a worn out, half dead way to disparage what would otherwise be seen as intelligent, pragmatic, disciplined, prudent or effective Vs. the acting out of animal rage preferred by "conservatives."

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 10:22 AM  

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