Opposing Views: Feminists Take Sarah Palin's Side in Letterman Feud

Feminists Take Sarah Palin's Side in Letterman Feud

Opinion by Jill Stanek
(June 14, 2009) in Politics

Now Amanda Fortini at Salon has jumped on the anti-misogynist Letterman bandwagon, also calling out feminists who avert their eyes when conservative women are the targets. In an overall good piece just out:

If there was any question that a stubborn strain of old-school sexism persists in Obama's America, one has only to look at certain leaders of what the right wing loves to call the "liberal media" but which is sounding and acting, recently, more like the frat-house media.

There, like a virus hiding in the body before, perhaps, staging a comeback, misogyny has found a place to lurk almost undetected, at least by the usually sharp eyes of progressive feminists.

Examine the symptoms of this infection, beginning with David Letterman's comments....

Shouldn't liberals exhibit the same sort of decorous treatment we demand for ourselves? Sexist comments like Letterman's and Cimbalo's also conjure a troublingly insular, clubhouse atmosphere in lieu of an inclusive political party. What's more, the gender-based stereotypes they conjure are as stale and ignorant as any voiced by the old Neanderthal right: Pretty women are de facto stupid, sexually promiscuous and low-class....

And what's the problem with sexy women, anyway? The facile answer is to say that female sexuality is threatening in some visceral, primitive way. But maybe the deeper fact is that pretty women remind us that the world is essentially unfair -- and if the world is unfair, then the progressive quest for fairness may be quixotic and unnatural. There is no more free market economy than your average singles bar. In any case, stern conservative strength in a woman has undone the left for ages: See Margaret Thatcher. Liberals would probably contend that these women present much to argue with, propounding odious views with real-world implications -- they do, they do -- but why not attack their ideas rather than insult them?

Asking why it is that liberal women do not often take liberal men to task for these attitudes is well worthwhile. Maybe we don't want to appear shrill and humorless, unable to take a joke. Or maybe it's thought that conservative women are too ideologically reprehensible to merit a defense. But to challenge this kind of sexist talk is not the same thing as agreeing with a woman's politics. If the left is allowed to remain a refuge for this sort of misogyny, if this virus in the body politic is allowed to flourish, then it is likely only a matter of time before it is once again directed at liberal women who are threatening in some way, as happened to Hillary Clinton....

Well, I'm pleasantly ~~surprised~~ shocked. The National Organization for Women is at this sliver in time getting back to true feminist roots, putting women first, not abortion.

As a Biblical egalitarian and American feminist in the pattern of Susan B. Anthony, I agree with everything NOW has to say about David Letterman's misogynist jokes at the expense of Sarah Palin and her daughters. See them all here. I even agree with NOW's last paragraph:

If only NOW et al would stick to stuff like this. Tragically, its dogmatic promotion of abortion has the opposite impact on women, exploiting and hurting them in the worst possible ways.

It seems to me if NOW can think with such clarity as it demonstrates in the blurb above, it must know the truth about abortion - particularly as time goes on and consequences (such as the Asian gender imbalance) become more obvious - and is simply in too deep.

Nevertheless, NOW's shot across Letterman's bow is sure to have a quieting effect - finally - on the shameful sexism displayed against Sarah Palin and her daughters by MSM and liberals. And that is good.

Regarding Opinion

Hallelujah

I was bothered by the blatant sexism displayed displayed during the presidential campaign. Normally intelligent men and WOMEN were more interested in bashing Palin for the most trivial things, like her hair and makeup, then they were in the issues.
I cringed at the jokes the men made, and was ashamed as my women friends laughed along.
FINALLY someone is actually being held accountable for some crude comments. It's about time!

- Weslie June 14, 2009 7:08PM

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Palin begs to pilloried

Granted, Lettermen is tasteless, but we all knew that. Palin, on the other hand, has zero concern for her daughter. The basic truth is this: if Palin had sent a letter to David Lettermen, telling him she was offended, he would have probably apologized, without mentioning the joke, the next day. Instead, Palin chose to SEAR THE IMAGE OF HER DAUGHTER'S RAPE into our national conscience. In fact, Mr. Lettermen never ONCE used the word "rape" in his monologue, he alluded instead to consensual sex. Palin, on the other hand, has no compunction about parading her already embarassed and sinful family in front of the national cameras, again, in order to maintain her own spotlight. How very trailer trash, queen of the high school promesque that really is, and, if "feminists" feel like hitching their wagon to this caricature of the most base, vile and disingenous parts of our culture, then, you really need to re-examine your connection to "femninism," because I think you are getting a little off track with your latest "victim."

- Owl June 14, 2009 8:59PM

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- Hey, look, YOU are the problem
  
  "Palin, on the other hand, has zero concern for her daughter."
  
  And how on earth could you possibly know this?
  
  Oh, right, you're making it up. Sorry to interrupt your oblivious rant, please continue.
  
  "The basic truth is this:"
  
  I read your "basic truth" and think you're full of shit. You are AGAIN presuming you know what would happen when you couldn't POSSIBLY know anything of the kind, then using your moronic assumptions to justify your bigotry.
  
  "he alluded instead to consensual sex"
  
  It is BY DEFINITION statutory RAPE. You're getting dumber.
  
  "if "feminists" feel like hitching their wagon to this caricature of the most base, vile and disingenous (sic) parts of our culture, then, you really need to re-examine your connection to "femninism,""
  
  What a colossally idiotic thing to say, because she's classless than means in your opinion, she's not deserving of protection.
  
  Are you really that stupid, or are you just trolling?
  
  - Blappo June 14, 2009 10:35PM
  
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  - Palin is an idiot exhibitionist who could care less about her children
    
    How do I know? Because of the way she PROSTITUTES them in the media . If you were 18, male or female, and had a child, would you:
    a.take care it in private
    b.go on a national tour telling other kids to not have sex while living in the spotlight of the international media glare?
    If you were a parent, which would you advise?
    
    Lettermen made zero comments about "statutory rape." That's YOUR filthy mind. You are clearly a male writing this bilge.
    
    Palin is not only classless, she is also clueless and NOT a feminist. Palin believes and supports so many different policies that are in DIRECT CONTRADICTION to feminism, that for your tortured, male, uneducated brain to even begin to conceive of them would be too much. If you think that being born with a vagina and being elected to some office makes you feminist, you are mentally deficient, and there is no hope for you.
    
    Claiming Palin is a feminist is like claiming Lincoln is a Republican: sure, he signed on to a piece of paper that said so, but if we examine his ideas, they are clearly not in favor of the Confederacy, the South, or anything smacking of modern Republicanism. Lincoln was a CARPETBAGGER.
    
    Palin is no feminist: she opposes abortion , opposes contraception as a first line of defense against pregnancy , believes that God, rather then Human Rights is the basis of political action, and has a dismal record on womens' issues from equal pay to health care .
    
    The idea that you misfit republicans, with only high school educations in most cases, are bandying about words like "feminism" and "socialism" is sort of funny. It's like kids in 8th grade trying to act cool by saying things about an algebra class like, "we were talking about differential equations all morning," when, in fact, that's for folks way farther ahead intellectually. I doubt, given a college assignment: define feminism in the next 20 minutes, that you would get a passing grade.
    
    - Owl June 14, 2009 11:44PM
    
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    - Conservatives
      
      Conservatives are not stupid. Conservatives have different values than you have. In fact, they HAVE values, while I think that you just have feelings with no room left for values. Abortion is flat out murder , but you would rather just be able to kill off babies than be responsible and take care of them. Nationalized health care is a failure in every single country that has it. But you want to destroy the best health care system in the world because it isn't perfect. Anyone who thinks the government can do ANYTHING better than the private sector is clearly moronic AND lazy. Medicare is a failure. Companies get paid a YEAR after they render services and products. They have whole departments full of people who just ensure the government pays them - what a WASTE! The housing market disaster is mostly the fault of the government and its absolutely sickening LIBERAL policy of " equal opportunity lending". You support the government bailing out the failed car industry in order to bolster unions that give loads of money to Democrats. You are all a bunch of whining, short-sighted, mis-educated, blind hypocrites. You call Republicans racists because of why? How can you possibly make such a ridiculous statement? I think Liberals are racists, keeping African Americans down through Affirmative Action. They don't have to reach any common standards, making them second-class citizens. Well-educated blacks have a harder time getting hired because nobody believes they deserved their degrees. THAT is an example of liberal short-sightedness, and I think that sucks. You screwed black people - do you get that?! Liberals never take a long-term view, never see that their policies cause problems because they never think that far ahead. It is so frustrating to watch corrupt government grow and individual power weaken. Big government robs us all of freedom, but you are all about the short-sighted, unreachable goal of "let's help people never suffer" rather than let's take responsibility for ourselves and each other without the government. And the Bush you hate so much, well, he was NOT a conservative by any stretch. Remove the war from the record, and his policies was mostly middle-of-the-road, big government policies, NOT conservative.
      
      In addition, making a joke about a 14 year old getting knocked up by an adult is making a joke about statutory rape, whether you like it or not. Sure Letterman is "free" to make such remarks, but that doesn't make what he said anything less than insidious.
      
      - NHBuckeye June 15, 2009 5:15PM
      
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      - Conservative ideas misguided and off-base
        
        1. I took a semester long course in college on Abortion and it's moral and ethical implications. As I said in the earlier post, your position is "uneducated." In fact, a long, ponderous philosophy course sets MOST folks straight about the NONSENSICAL comment that " abortion is murder ." That is is the most unthought out, ill-conceived sentence in the american lexicon right now. Don't know why? GO TO COLLEGE AND LEARN PHILOSOPHY.
        
        2. Let me see: out of one side of a conservative's mouth: "Don't question the government as it steals your rights and wages endless war," out of the other side: "government can't handle anything efficiently." WHICH IS IT? Are you someone who thinks this government is COMPETENT TO ATTACK AND ESTABLISH DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ, but CAN'T ADMINISTER HEALTH CARE TO THEIR OWN CITIZENS? Has it ever dawned on you that AMERICANS CAN DO WHATEVER THEY DAMN WANT?
        
        3.You claim the housing market is the result of "poor lending decisions based on EQUAL OPPORTUNITY???" That is so far from the reality of our housing market, I'm confused as to where you picked up that drivel. The housing market is a result of JAPANESE LAND SPECULATION IN THE US, REAGAN DEREGULATION OF S&L'S, THE RELIANCE OF INSURANCE ON LAND VALUES, THE MISUSE OF HEDGE FUNDS AND A HOST OF OTHER COMPLEX ECONOMIC ISSUES! Your literally comical and absurd characterization of the problem being related to LENDING MONEY TO POOR PEOPLE is so funny it makes me laugh.
        
        4.Republicans are racists. Rather then focus on ONE of Sotomayors' decisions, the ENTIRE conversation "offered" by the Republican leadership revolves around ONE comment she made in a 3000 word speech about the effect of minorities on the Federal judiciary! NOT a judicial decision! That statement, taken TOTALLY out of context, suggests SHE'S a racist, something that has never come up or been suggested in her 17 YEARS OF JUDICIAL SERVICE. Who's calling who a racist and why? The answer is obvious.
        
        5.In 1950, there were literally NO blacks or hispanics at ANY level of corporate america. They were less then 5% of graduates. Your IDIOTIC contention that Affirmative Action has not benefitted them is impossible to juxtipose against the very real gains that AA has achieved for these minorities. You CLEARLY have NO IDEA of the reasons for and the effects of AA, arguing that it is "immoral," as if "immoral" means "ineffective." In fact, even when it was CONCEIVED, the perpetrators of AA ACKNOWLEDGED IT'S IMMORALITY AND ARGUED THAT THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY NEGATED THE EVIL OF AA. Your ingenous arguments that it is not moral have NO RELEVANCE, the idea was to give blacks OLD BOY NETWORKS, and IT WORKED.
        
        6.Finally, Bush IS a conservative, and all your yelling and gnashing your teeth WON'T CHANGE THAT. He was a PRESIDENT OF THE US, ran as CONSERVATIVE and won a SECOND TERM as a CONSERVATIVE. His policies are CONSERVATIVE. You can pretend that fools who practice your stupid ideas and embarass themselves aren't connected to you, BUT NO ONE IS FOOLED ANYMORE.
        
        - Owl June 15, 2009 8:14PM
        
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        Careful how you rely on a Liberal education
        
        You place your full credibility on having taken a philosophy course in college . That's like being raised by liberal wolves and deciding you're an environmentalist. You are the one who paints the government as stealing your rights and waging an endless war, so don't you agree they should be the last ones to run our healthcare ?
        
        Many factors contributed to the housing crisis, not the least was the left's insistence that loans be made to poor people who could least afford to pay a mortgage. Don't dismiss this as trivial.
        
        "Republicans are racist"??? What world are you living in, your racist double standard has been evident for years. From the Republican Congress that passed the Civil Rights Law in the 60's to today's Black Caucus (The ULTRA racist group of all!), you don't see Robert Byrd carrying the conservative flag, but it's ok for this KKKer to march on your side of the aisle?
        
        Saying that in the 50's there were no blacks in corporate America is a bit dated, don't you think? Haven't we made ANY progress in 50 years? Of course we've made great progress! But then you would also question why there is such disproportion of blacks in our prisons...clueless!
        
        Bush ran as a conservative, but is hardly a conservative in his fiscal policy. Social yes, fiscal, no.
        
        - Blackbird June 16, 2009 1:05PM
        
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        Look at how pathetic your responses are
        
        Instead of acknowledging that you have no philosophical training, you instead attack education as "liberal."
        Instead of addressing the fact that you TRUST the military and SUPPORT the war, you twist it around so that YOUR philosophy concerning war doesn't matter, and MY attitudes concerning the MORALITY of the war is elided into an attack on the CAPABILITY of the military. I may DISAGREE with the the war, but I HAVE NO QUESTION THAT MY MILITARY CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT IT WANTS WHEN REPUBLICANS DON'T INTERFERE WITH IT. The losses in the last war (Iraq) stem DIRECTLY from the last administrations DELIBERATE REJECTION OF THE ARMY AND CIA'S RECOMMENDATIONS.
        How can you seriously deny that the Republican Party, which at last count was 80% white staffed by an overwhelminlgly male administrative staff isn't BOTH racist and MYSOGINIST??? In the last ten years, the Republican party supported
        1.State ID at voting booths: a CLEAR attempt to limit minority voting in Ohio, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia.
        2.Electronic voting machines: the head of Diebold is a radical right republican who literally admitted he denied the vote to black Ohians in the 2000 election.
        3.Ending looking at the number of minorities in School, and trying to declare that " racism is over."
        These positions are exactly 180 degrees from the stated positions of goals of minorities in this country, or at least any advocacy group for them. Now, if you now tell us that "minorities shouldn't have advocacy groups," YOU'RE A GODDAMN RACIST!
        You have the temerity to deride Robert Byrd, a man who rejected his participation with the KKK in 1940! While supporting someone like O'Reilly, who YESTERDAY was attacking and besmirching folks who disagreed with him and may have helped promote the latest spasms of violence in the last week???
        Your comment about "progress" is outrageous. After 60 years of agitation, civil rights and violence, 4 out of 5 prisoners are still black or hispanic, Blacks get paid 3/4 of whites for the same job, and black women get paid even less! And most of the crimes? LOW LEVEL DRUG BUSTS DIRECTED AT MINORITIES THAT ARE NOT ENFORCED AGAINST WHITE PEPETRATORS. It is an ABSOLUTE LIE that the majority of minorities in jail are in for violent crimes. They are in for "being black while high."
        It must be nice to live in a country where every civil right was fought for by "do gooder hippies," but all the results were somehow the responsibility of the Republicans. In MY recollection, your REPUBLICANS stood IN THE WAY of every reform since 1960, and your pathetic attempt to take credit for the Civil Rights movement is basically met with derisive laughter by those of us who actually suffered, were arrested and worked day and night over our lives to insure that others are treated fairly. My guess, while in your twisted vision Republicans "invented the black caucus," I'm pretty sure YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OF THE SORT. On the other hand, when someone says to me, "you saved that forest," I can show months of ACTUAL work that I did, including letters from congressmen, votes, meetings at congressional offices and zoning meetings, to EFFECT CHANGES THAT YOU BLITHELY TAKE CREDIT FOR AS A THIRD PARTY TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. It is really demented to be honest. You did nothing to make this country fair or economically safe, but you feel like taking credit for all the things that are CLEARLY the result of DEMOCRATIC actions.
        Finally, you DENY you own philosophy's results and try to convince us that the last ten years weren't "conservative," when EVERY THING THAT WAS DONE WAS OPPOSED BY DEMOCRATS. Now, desperate, reviled, and repudiated, you attempt to convince us that "you're not "that" type of conservative." WHAT A HOOT!
        
        - Owl June 16, 2009 1:58PM
        
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    - Palin is no feminist: she opposes abortion
      
      Difference of opinion here:
      Palin is a true feminist BECAUSE she opposes abortion .
      Any feminist worth their salt understands that the rights of ALL woman should be equally protected...not just 'some' women.
      A true feminist doesn't make a distinction between born and preborn women. That would be discrimination and as feminists we are opposed to that =)
      
      - lisajulia June 17, 2009 11:21AM
      
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      - Feminism isn't about single issue unthought out viewpoints
        
        Even if Palin is opposed to abortion specifically to protect the life of women, that DOES NOT MAKE HER A FEMINIST. Gosh, it's like talking to people in sixth grade who are convinced that 8x8 is 72. It's not, IT'S SIXTY FOUR. The problem with anti-intellectualism is that it is not aware enough to deal with complex issues, nor is it open to debate. Here's a complex question: there are many science publications, magazines and historical monographs in your local library. Who do you suppose reads them? DO YOU? I SURE DO, and I read ALL the opinions. It is quite clear that most conservatives DO NOT. Unlike a conservative, I can say that I listen to ALL news sources, read ALL publications, including right wing drivel, such as the National Review, the Spectator and FOX news, and I find those sources PATHETIC AND AMUSING. Having been through rigorous historical and compositional training, and having been forced to footnote things during my life, I find right wing outlets to be USELESS FOR CITING IN PAPERS. They usually have no source for their accusations, no proof, and often within a few weeks are shown to be wrong. But, THAT DOESN'T MATTER TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T DO ANALYSIS OR HAVE ANY STAKE IN THINGS BEING TRUE OR PROVABLE. That is most conservatives. They have little to lose if they are wrong. They can't figure out why folks who have a LOT to lose if they are would get angry and possessive when confronted with the cold, numerical way of thinking that most conservatives have. You talk about compassion while supporting a women who shoots animals out of a helicopter. You are confused.
        
        - Owl June 17, 2009 11:48AM
        
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        Wondering if it is possible for you
        
        to state your opinion without relying on accusatory name calling. It gives the impression that your 'impressive' education didn't include communication skills supported by good manners.
        My comments directly addressed what i quoted in the subject line in my first post. The following is a list of known feminists to assist you in learning about true feminist philosophy. It is widely accepted that Susan B. Anthony was a leader in the original feminist movement.
        From Wiki:
        Famous anti- abortion feminists
        
        * Jane Addams (1860–1935)[5]
        * Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)[5]
        * Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)[5]
        * Dorothy Day (1897–1980)[5]
        * Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898)[5]
        * Angelina Weld Grimke (1880–1958)[5]
        * Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977)[5]
        * Charlotte Denman Lozier (1844–1870)[5]
        * Sarah F. Norton[5]
        * Breda O'Brien (born 1962)[5]
        * Graciela Olivarez (1928–1987)[5]
        * Sarah Palin (born 1964) [1]
        * Alice Stokes Paul (1885–1977)[5]
        * Susan LaFlesche Picotte (1865–1915)[5]
        * Cicely Saunders (1918–2005)[5]
        * Juliet Stillman Severance (1833–1919)[5]
        * Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)[5]
        * Lois Weber (1879–1939)[5]
        * Frances Willard (1839–1898)[5]
        * Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)[5]
        
        - lisajulia June 17, 2009 12:13PM
        
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        onemore time:
        
        Just because you support any single issue DOES NOT make you a feminist. Conversely, just because you don't support abortion also DOES NOT NOT MAKE YOU A FEMINIST. You're intellectually inferior and dishonest way of reasoning is so awkward it should be on late night! Here's another example of your faulty reasoning: Hitler was a vegetarian , Most vegetarians believe in peace and not killing. Thus, Hitler wasn't a Nazi. I could really care less what some 19th century women, none of whom even had the right to vote, have to say about the complex issue of abortion in modern times. I also think, that, despite these women disapproving of abortion (which most people do in any case), they were NOT on the bandwagon of OUTLAWING it. Please limit your comments to your own opinions, rather then mistating and misrepsenting women that, at the time they were alive, you would have disagreed with and called "tramps, whores and 'too manly.'"
        
        - Owl June 17, 2009 12:35PM
        
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      - one more thing
        
        Oh, and if you get pregnant tomorrow, and I say to you, "you can't have an abortion ," does that make me a feminist? listen to yourself.
        
        - Owl June 17, 2009 11:52AM
        
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- Not very compassionate
  
  David Letterman's joke was about statutory rape, which has nothing to do with consensual sex. Look up the law and you will see for yourself. Not to mention that Mrs. Palin rightfully made a statement to stand up for her family that is attacked in such an unprecedented way. She and her family have been butt of jokes and other sneering on the national stage that Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden, and even Mr. McCain have never received. Even Mrs. Clinton does not receive such ire as Mrs. Palin and her family. Clearly you are a part of that hateful group of people.
  
  - NHBuckeye June 15, 2009 4:50PM
  
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spatch

Comments like owl's come through as full of hate and distortion. I don't get where he comes from accusing Palin of not being concerned about her daughter. Every action of hers contradicts his contention. She supported her daughter through the pregnancy . I have watched interviews with both of them without the cynical eye we constantly get from people like Owl and was proud she accepted what had happened without trying to hide it from the public. People like myself get pregnant despite the beliefs of my family and that doen't make them hypocrites..it makes me responsible for my behavior. I find the phrase "knocked up" a crude substitute for" getting pregnant" and am tired of codes of behavior and hypocritical standards of morality
that degrade women. Whether Letterman used the word rape or not doesn't justify the crudeness of his remark and it's implication that these attacks on families of politicians is ok. Would Owl feel the same if Letterman had accused A-Rod of"knocking up " one of Obama's daughters, since he also brought his children into the political spotlight. And how about some outrage that he branded A- Rod as a predatator. I find that equally unpalatable.

- spatch June 14, 2009 10:13PM

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- Palin is the one stoking these fires
  
  Letterman made a bad joke, which he indirectly and then directly apologized for. Palin, on the other hand, chose to broadcast the image of her 14 year old daughter "having sex" to be generous, or, to be ungenerous: either being raped or having consensual statutory rape sex with A-Rod. She then proceeded to keep this image on all of your filthy minds for 2 weeks. You really dont' get how played you are. You are being played. You are allowing a political whore to abuse her children in order to tar your opponents with what: ASSOCIATION WITH DAVID LETTERMEN????? WTH are you talking about? We have real issues to address, and your puerile desire to "feel for Palin" on this "issue" and then think that "Liberals make rape jokes," is so far from reality and the truth, it's hard to fathom where you are coming from. Liberals spend time figuring out how to build highways, pay for schools and protect women's rights. The " pro-choice " movement is about WOMEN'S RIGHTS. Think of it like this: who is more likely to make a stupid joke about girls??? Your right wing football jar head friend, or your LIBERAL GEEK FRIEND???? WAKE UP, YOU ARE BEING PLAYED.
  
  - Owl June 16, 2009 3:38PM
  
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  - spatch
    
    Not much need be said about Owl's comments. A person filled with hate, paranoid, unable to view Palin from an unbiased viewpoint. The comments revealed a singular dislike of her from a personality viewpoint. I would suggest clearing out the bias and look at some of the facts of her political career.....routed out corruption in her state, managing a state and it's budget positively, succeeding in reducing citizen's burden by taking on the oil companies. I know those are facts and that makes it hard for people like Owl to deal with...instead relying on unfounded emotional bias and paranoia.
    
    - spatch June 16, 2009 6:49PM
    
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    - Great, and Nixon opened China
      
      So what, Palin, in the richest state in the Union, "takes on oil ," whatever that means. She also abused her power to try to get an investigation of an ex, and when that didnt' work, she fired the chief of police because he wouldn't break the law for her. Then, she exacerbated it by continuing in the same vein with the next police chief. She had zero experience coming into the governorship, her job in her home town consisted as mayor of meeting once a month to sign paychecks. As governor, she has a spotty record, and before being governor she supported States' Rights so vociferously that she was noted as being "pro-succession" for Alaska. You claim she's good for Alaska, well, maybe, but her basic concept was "Alaska for Alaskans," not a very patriotic or politically intelligent decision, and one that, imho, is bad for Alaskans and, if you support it, why are you here in America arguing? Palin is opposed laws governing fair wages, laws protecting minorities from hate crimes and laws protecting women from age and sex discrimination. If you think that the Republicans, or Palin, represent your interests, good luck! You can "love" miss "break up the US and make it a theocracy" all you want, but frankly, I find her life story and her family story pathetic, and if it was a black woman, all you Republicans would spend 28 hours a day castigating her for her "lousy morals, her lousy children and their sins, and her lousy marriages." SOUND FAMILIAR??? The only difference: BLACK FOLKS LIVE IN POVERTY AND HAVE AN EXCUSE.
      
      - Owl June 16, 2009 7:17PM
      
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Truth?

The author wrote:

"But maybe the deeper fact is that pretty women remind us that the world is essentially unfair -- and if the world is unfair, then the progressive quest for fairness may be quixotic and unnatural. There is no more free market economy than your average singles bar."

The progressive quest for fairness is quixotic and unnatural. Man can't force nature to deliver fair outcomes. Therefore, the only way to make outcomes fair is to redistribute them according to some standard of fairness that is unnatural, i.e. a figment of the human imagination.

Smoking hot babes get more attention from men than ordinary looking ones, so the latter (and their sympathizers) falsely accuse the former of stupidity and loose morals to level the playing field, i.e. make it more fair. False accusations launched to lower the lofty to the same level as the false accusers is an ugly means of redistributing social status. (I might also add that it violates the 9th Commandment.)

Since this is what Letterman and leftist feminists have been up to since Mrs. Palin was nominated to the McCain ticket, I'm surprised it's taken this long to call out the wrongdoers. But why are they still playing at this game more than 8 months after her electoral defeat?

- Lavaux June 16, 2009 2:13AM

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What this proves, more than anything...

Is that feminists can't take a joke, have no sense of humor, and have an uncanny knack for turning molehills into mountains.

- ebsarver June 17, 2009 2:25PM

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Sarah Palin saved us from McCain!

Obviously the joke was in poor taste and Letterman apologized. So give it a rest.
Sarah Palin is this generations Dan Quail. I hope she stays in Alaska and polar bear eats her.

Freedom of speech is making an exit from this country.

- bhall June 17, 2009 3:54PM

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Sectarian views abound here

Unfortunately, Jill missed an opportunity to reach out and work with another group on a common issue. There was no need to bring up abortion or any group's particular stance on this when the issue at hand is much broader. Women are treated unfairly, and though I usually find Letterman's humor funny, this time he was way off. Whether I agree or not with Palin's political views, her right to have them is undeniable. Her family should not be subjected to ridicule because of her public service. Insinuating that someone's daughter is, in so many words, a "loose women" is clearly in bad taste.
There is also a huge difference in tone with the way he joked about Hillary's pants suits in the past and saying that Palin looked like a "slutty flight attendant".
Women, usually find themselves in a no win situation. They must either be ugly and dress conservatively to have their ideas taken seriously or they must dress to be sexy and hope they have the good looks to help them.
Their sexuality or perceived lack of it, is always at hand to be used as a weapon of ridicule against them.
Conservative and liberal women's organizations should leave aside their parochial issues when the opportunity to work together in defending and advancing women's rights arises.

- mangueken June 17, 2009 8:36PM

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Wow

ebsarver and bhall appear to have it right on point. Sarah Palin is our best hope to have leadership less intellectual than “W” and a perfect target for late night television. After all, what is late night television without tasteless humor?
Now to off topic as so many others have:
All discrimination is dysfunctional. Sure it also creates victims, but the discriminator inevitably receives sub-optimal results by making judgment based upon irrelevant criteria. Although this is not a point that can lead to me becoming a compensated victim it is the point that makes it truly antisocial and is completely missed in our litigious society .
As for anti- abortion : why must the egg be fertilized before it becomes protected? If life is truly sacred why can’t we agree that any unfertilized egg is a potential life wasted? Every empty womb, a recourse wasted? And my beliefs and values guild your life and resources? Remember, most extremists think that they are the only rational ones. Now reflect.

- RichNau June 18, 2009 1:26PM

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