TYT: Bill Maher calls Sarah Palins 5 yo child ''Retarded'', Cenk Uygur ruling in favor of...

[SamuelB]

[CrazyJudy]

1. Calling a child retarded is not all that funny.... ever... n/t

[faithnomore]

2. How about if we call Sarah a "retard."

[karynnj]

13. No

The word is inappropriate applied to anyone.

[ScottLand]

25. I agree that calling a child retarded is not funny. It's also deeply offensive to off-handedly

suggest someone is "palling around with terrorists" without a shred of evidence.

If Palin truly meant to take the high road, she would never say something as obscene as that.

[ScottLand]

3. Gotta respectfully disagree here, Cenk.

I wasn't there so I don't know if it was correctly reported. And she paraded her baby around to everyone, whilst reminding us all it was special needs. AND I have never heard her take a Republican (i.e. Ann Coulter) for calling someone retarded.

Just don't think she minds it if it's happening to someone besides her.

[maddiemom]

4. You're right. Coulter flings the term "retarded" around indiscriminately as an

insult to anyone who disagrees with her. The term "retarded" started out , if I'm not mistaken, as a P.C. term for some truly cruel terms for the mentally handicapped (probably not the correct term either---special needs?) Within a couple of generations, due to people like Coulter, it became an insulting term.

[karynnj]

14. So, two wrongs make a right?

This is wrong if it is Ann Coulter or Libertarian Bill Maher.

[SemperEadem]

17. No, two wrongs don't make a right

but spalin shouldn't tear into Maher while at the same time keeping silent about coulter... and someone else on the right used the term retarded and spalin didn't make a peep about it... which makes it look like if you are politically aligned with spalin, she doesn't care if you use the word "retarded" and she will keep her big yap shut about it.

I can't hardly feel anything for her as long as she's keeping quiet when people in her party throw the term about and she just grins and stays quiet about it.

[karynnj]

21. It is idiotic that you suggest that I am "politically aligned with Palin"

If there is anyone I am aligned with, it is John Kerry - who in all ways may be the closest thing to the opposite of Sarah Palin. Note that I did NOT say it was ok for Palin to not criticize Coulter - that is obviously the second "wrong". The first "wrong" was Maher's comment.

My objection is NOT based on what Palin experienced. It is that tone in which it was used - by both Maher and Coulter - is demeaning to people who are mentally challenged and the people who know and love them. I am being intellectually consistent, although this is less a test than if someone I was more aligned to than Maher had been the other person.

I think we lose our integrity if we defend or accept from someone we like the kind of idiotic, demeaning language as was used here. I have no problem with staying quiet - as Maher is not all that important, but I really do not think ANY defense is in order. Had it been someone I respect in a political position, I would be appalled and I hope I would criticize them.

[ljm2002]

27. I think you may have misinterpreted this part...

..."which makes it look like if you are politically aligned with spalin"

try substituting "which makes it look like if one is politicallly aligned with Palin,"

in other words what the poster was saying was that Palin will keep her mouth shut about people who use the term retarded, as long as those people are on her side of the political spectrum.

[SemperEadem]

30. Thank you... that is precisely what I was conveying

I'm glad there is someone here who has reading comprehension skills.

[SemperEadem]

29. and I think

that it's breathtakingly misguided of you to take a post I made, where I made absolutely NO reference to you specifically or what you think/believe and go on an hysterical tirade about something I never suggested or insinuated.

The word "you" is also used in the universal sense, which is the way in which I applied it.

[ScottLand]

24. I'm not saying I condone using the word or with demeaning anyone.

I'm merely keeping a balance. I haven't seen a clip of the Maher performance in question.

And Palin was the very FIRST person to exploit her child (and her other children) to show what a great family person she is. If she wanted to protect them from scrutiny, she could have set the tone from the beginning. She hasn't exactly been shy about using slurs to put others down.

[The Wizard]

5. Technically

as in engine timing, it means behind the curve. Engines can be set at after (retarded) top dead center or before (advanced) top dead center. Advancing the timing will increase the idle speed and retarding will slow it. Too far advanced gives an engine knock (ping) and retarding it too much will cause eventual overheating.
Taking every utterance and turning into some kind of affront that brings on the vapors is a waste of time. Idiot, imbecile, and moron are technical terms that could well be used to characterize Sarah Palin and no one would whimper. She's there to essentially give depraved Republican males a masturbatory fantasy. They really just want to look up her skirt to see the wizard's sleeve.
If you find this post offensive, go ahead and flame me. I have better shit to do on a beautiful Saturday morning. Who knows, maybe some administrator with their drawers in a wad will remove it, but I had some giggles writing it. Are we that childish that we now say the "R word" instead of speaking in plain English? Further responses by me will not be forthcoming.

[groundloop]

6. In general I agree. HOWEVER, who needs to stoop to making jokes about a 5 year old?

I just think that Bill Mahr didn't need to sink to picking on a 5 year old. Hell, he could have just stayed on the topic of Sarah, Lord knows there's plenty of material there.

[Joanie Baloney]

7. I agree

It's a perfectly acceptable word.

[Half-Century Man]

8. Retarded means slowed, held back, or behind.

I think it came into being in the fifties or sixties as the PC term to describe persons who had to repeat grades of school. It became an insult after that to describe someone slow on the uptake. I've used it, and been called it.

I once referred to a workplace as a magnet for the retarded, the socially retarded, the emotionally retarded, the humorously retarded, etc. By the overall reaction it was about 50% effective as a joke.

[AtheistCrusader]

32. It is at LEAST as old as the internal combustion engine.

Its use as an invective may be newer than that, though.

[Half-Century Man]

33. Did not research it

Just reported personal history/ experience with it. If I recall correctly, was a politically correct term at one time.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. It was, and it is multi-purpose.

Though modern internal combustion engines rarely refer to the concept, lacking distributors, vacuum advance and points to adjust, electronic ignition has largely done away with the term, at least in common usage. (The concept still exists though, for instance, the car may advance or retard timing if the engine is detonating, or 'pinging', tripping the knock sensor. It just hardly ever comes up)

Special needs was a politically correct term as well, but it too gets used as an insult these days.

[alp227]

12. WAKE UP. Modern people have perverted "retard" far from its real meaning.

Such as using "retarded" as a synonym for anything bad, or "retard" as a noun for anything they don't like. Does that not outrage you?

[Quixote1818]

23. Problem is anything you attach to people who have less cognitive ability

eventually becomes perverted from its meaning. They changed it to "Special Needs" which is now a big joke. "Hey look at Jimmy, he is special needs." You get the idea.

The fact is doctors still use the term Retarded http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/mental-retardation. Or we just keep inventing new terms as old ones are hijacked and become derogatory.

[AtheistCrusader]

35. It's a verbal arms race.

Downside is, the people who deserve the mistreatment, aren't the ones that catch it. Palin's kid has done nothing, and hurt no one. Mom on the other hand has earned the scorn of millions. No mean feat.

[sulphurdunn]

9. Usage is important.

The meaning of a word can change over time. Using the word "retarded" to describe Sara is appropriate. The correct term to describe her son is "intellectually disabled." The difference is that Sara chose to be retarded. Her son did not choose to be disabled.

[BlueJazz]

10. To me: "Special needs" or any other term to describe a lower IQ person is the same as..

...saying retarded. I've never associated the word with nastiness or anything derogatory.

(I don't use it though as some people freak-out about it)

[Quixote1818]

20. I agree

Have always thought the same thing. I mean "Special Needs"? Kids go crazy with this term. For example "Look at Timmy, he is special". I hear it all the time and it has almost become as bad as saying the r word which was originally just a short version for the medical technical term. If Maher is in trouble what about Psychology Today? http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/mental-retardation

[ninjanurse]

11. Off Limits

Trig Palin never ran for office. Until he does, then leave the kid alone. In fact, leave all the kids alone. No one chooses their parents.
And how can anyone run out of reasons to criticize Sarah Palin for her actions alone?

[oldandhappy]

15. cheap shot

[PearliePoo2]

16. Sarah, you hypocritical P.O.S, you yourself, behind closed doors...

would come home from work and ask Bristol and Levi, "where's my little retarded baby? Levi says you did it ALL the time, it actually shocked him and I believe him over you any day.
When Rush and Dr. Laura used "retard" as part of their shtick, you defended them and dismissed it.
Second, so far, there is NO video, tape or confirmation Maher even SAID or told a joke using the word retard. None. If anyone has it, let's see it. Produce it Sarah or STFU.
All you are doing, Sarah, is trying to insert your pathetic, dumb-ass self back into a discussion...any discussion.

[SummerSnow]

28. You are right...

And when Limbaugh said it, she said it was "satire"

[Quixote1818]

18. This is the lady who named her kid after his disease

And she didn't seem to have a problem with Rush Limbaugh saying the word Retarded.


http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread542247/pg1

[PearliePoo2]

22. You are correct. Palin says her doctor gave her a book about Down Syndrome...

so surely she read (if she reads at all) that:
"Down syndrome (trisomy 21, trisomy G) is a chromosomal disorder resulting in mental retardation and physical abnormalities." Trisomy G, or TriG, for short.
Really funny Sarah, just a barrel of giggles.

'Course she loves to have fun with her kid's names, she named her oldest son Track Enfield Palin.......get it??

[SCVDem]

19. I guess most of you are too young, but

back in the day when cars had point gap ignition and used timing lights, we would advance or retard the timing.

Retarded meaning firing before top dead center or not all the way advanced.

Don't hijack words to fit special meanings. Palin is just a bomb thrower. (WHAT!? Can't use that term any more either?)

On a related note, I heard the song 'Money for Nothing' the other day and noticed the word faggot had been replaced with pistol, (sounded like anyway). Now some words have a singular meaning unless it's Andy Capp looking for a 'fag', a cigarette. I canunderstand the societal change from 1985 with that word.

I don't see retarded falling into the 'never use it' category.

These are my thoughts and not meant to offend!

[ljm2002]

26. Of course Maher should not have said that...

...even though we do not know exactly what words he used, we do know that he made a joke about her child and used the word "retarded" in the joke. So far I'm with Cenk on this, along with all the caveats he says.

But.

Ms. Palin loves to ridicule people. One of the things she loves to ridicule is political correctness. She just thinks that is one of those pathetic liberal things... until, that is, she has a chance to be the PC police with respect to her own child.

If she herself did not have a special-needs child, you can bet your bottom dollar she would not give a shit if people used that word or not, and furthermore, if she ever heard a liberal complain about it she'd have ridiculed them for it and accused them of whining.

All I'm saying is she's still a hypocrite on this issue, even if Maher was out of line.

[onpatrol98]

31. Making Fun of Individuals

I think it says more about the individual doing it than the person they're doing it to, but that's just me.

It reminds me of being in high school, walking down the hall and watching the behavior of bullies. It's professional bullying whether republicans do it or democrats do it. And, I make no distinction between whether people do it and call it satire or anything else.

It's the behavior of children in classrooms around the world. So, I have absolutely no respect for Bill Maher. I don't think he's funny. I think he's a well paid, professional bully. He's just taller and can do more damage than the average 7th grader confined to a single school. Because, he legitimizes a practice that we pretend to despise in our children. When really his ability to do his shtick and become a 1%er at it is proof that the world makes a place even for bullies as long as you pick on the right people.

But, to my mind, there is NEVER a reason to pick on a 5 year old. Anyone's 5 year old. A true satirist, in my humble opinion, would know that. But, a bully makes no distinction.

So...my kids understand that when you see someone bullying someone else, even when it's someone you don't like, what do you do? Well, you certainly don't stand there and laugh. Then, you're no better than the bully. What the bully craves is attention. So, you deny them that. They feed off the attention of others like an addiction.

He'll have to stay in the 1% without my help.