Vegas Retards!

The latest firestorm hitting President Obama is that he's now pissed off Las Vegas. Apparently, a couple comments about how people should be spending their money wisely and not "blowing it in Vegas" is taken as a crack at the Las Vegas tourism industry, and the city itself, which has been hurting already in this recession.

Granted, the city is dependent on tourism and having the President single you out as a place people shouldn't go must smart a bit, but consider the implication--people with tighter budgets now should be taking pleasure trips to cities that eat up all your money in casinos? I mean Vegas is great and all, but it's really a place you go when you have money you'd like to be rid of. If you're deciding what day of the week to buy gas because your income is diminished, or you have to clip coupons at the store--well, then maybe pumping hard earned cash into those shady casinos isn't the best idea. Sort of a no-brainer!

But we are now in the midst of an "outrage culture"--take as another example, Sarah Palin's call for Obama to fire Rahm Emmanuel, his chief of staff. Rahm apparently called some liberals
"f---ing retards" for their plan to make attack ads against some Democrats. Palin's youngest kid is retarded, as it happens--and she finds the "R-word" as offensive as the "N-word". (Discussion of the "N-word" is best left to another post) Okay, point taken--the word "retard" does technically mean mentally challenged, even though is most common usage, incuding Rahm's obviously intended usage, it is used to describe non-handicapped people doing something boneheaded. Clearly, Rahm wasn't suggesting that these liberal activists had Down-Syndrome or were low functioning adults. A reasonable response by Palin might have been "hey, I know Mr. Emmanuel didn't mean offense to the mentally handicapped, but he shouldn't be using the R-word as many of us find it offensive in such context". Of course, this is Sarah Palin we're talking about so she's going to go for the cheap political shot and call for his resignation.

How about we all make some pledge to get a thicker skin?