Your Curmudgeon has been watching the blathering news take a back seat to Olympics (rightfully so- the Danish Women's Curling Squad wears skirts and stockings) and All Things Tiger (not so rightfully so, see the latest American Patrol entry).
In spare moments, I think I have caught the real clue about the Palin Panty-Wadding over the term "retard". The winktacular Caribou Barbie has been taking on somewhat of crusade over the word "retard".
To recap the unfolding of the story:
Rahm Emmanuel (who could best serve the nation by going to 'spend more time with his family', or alternately, rest his severed head on a pike on the White House lawn) called politcal lefties "fucking retards". Palin got upset, and wanted Rahm fired. Rahm apologized.
Rush Limbaugh used "retard" like it was fresh cracked black pepper on his piccata. Palin demurred. Rush continued to bloviate.
Family Guy used the word "retard". Palin's panties got sucked into a massive two-hole wad.
Now, at every juncture of this event, there has been commentary from left and right over this, ranging the spectrum predictably from fawning praise to cries of 'hypocrisy'.
Just as predictably, the above mentioned response have been thus far considerably far from the mark.
I don't think that hypocrisy is the prime motivator here. Just as the LBGT community took over the word "queer", the kinky community reclaimed "pervert", and the black community turned "nigger" into "the n-word"... the fRight wingnuts have been looking for a word to claim as their own- and in 'retard', they've found it.
Whether this move on the part of Palin et al is praiseworthy will remain as a mental exercise to the reader.
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