Good grief... I honestly don't care how he intended the remark, whether it was a snipe at the President or a snide remark concerning lowbrow military service I think the mere voicing of such a statement shows poor leadership and even poorer taste.

By the way, to later claim it was a botched joke, does anyone honestly buy this? Just because Kerry did serve in the military doesn't automatically exempt him from prejudicial feelings concerning our current soldiers. (However I highly doubt that this is the case)

I am not condoning the response of right wing pundits but I'm not giving Kerry a pass here either. I don't have my feelings hurt at all, I'm just disappointed (mind you not surprised).

Decius wrote:
Have you ever had an argument with someone because they misinterpreted something you said about them. You tell a joke, and they read it the wrong way and get hurt. I'm sure this has happened to everyone. Its human.

Usually, if the person is reasonable, and you explain to them that they misinterpreted you and that you didn't mean what they thought you meant, you can work things out, and everything will be OK.

Sometimes, however, those people will insist that you did mean things the way that they chose to interpret them. They will refuse to accept your clarification and they will continue to be hurt. This sort of behavior is often associated with clinical depression. People who want to feel hurt will insist on an interpretation of events that allows them to feel that way, even if that interpretation isn't rational. Sometimes this is simply a matter of maturity.

I live in Atlanta. I listen to right wing talk radio. I don't really like right wing talk radio. I wish that I could turn on the radio while driving home from work and listen to a sane person tell me the news. I don't have that choice. Its either bad pop music, art music that I'm usually not in the mood for after work, sports, or right wing talk radio. There used to be a left wing talk radio station, but they were just as bad as the right wing talk radio stations, and they don't seem to be on the air anymore. I really ought to start downloading podcasts onto my ipod, but I've been too lazy.

I almost never agree with anything I hear on talk radio, be it right or left. Talk radio usually consists of angry people making bad arguments for bad ideas, and often they are downright hateful to boot.

Today's installment of right wing talk radio consisted of a riot over the following statement made by John Kerry:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

It seems obvious to me that this is a snipe at the Bush Administration's Iraq Policy. Kerry is calling the administration's Iraq policy stupid. I think its funny. I actually laughed out loud when I heard t... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Tsudohnimh wrote:
By the way, to later claim it was a botched joke, does anyone honestly buy this?

Really consider the alternative. Do you seriously beleive that a Senator who got 48% of the popular vote in the most recent Presidential election would stand in front of a public audience at a campaign stop and deliver a prepared speech which intentionally mocks U.S. troops for being uneducated? You must not only hate John Kerry enough to think him capable of doing that, but also hate "liberals" enough that you think that they would welcome such an observation and make it a prudent thing to do. I know there are people in this country who have drunk enough of the conservative koolaid to honestly beleive that liberals hate America, hate the troops, and hate freedom. This is the world that they live in, but my point is that those people aren't entirely sane. That world isn't real.

I was a joke about Bush. If the insanity of the alternative isn't enough to make that obvious, try putting the comment in context. It was delivered immediately following ... a joke about Bush.

It certainly isn't the most interesting or high brow comment. It wasn't well delivered, and it wouldn't even be funny if people weren't so damn worked up about it. Furthermore, he should have forseen this misinterpretation and not told it. It was a stupid thing to say.

But it doesn't matter. The comment is not important and should never have been a subject of discussion. Whats important is that half the country has been raging on every available information outlet for the past 24 hours about this totally irrelevant comment that clearly doesn't mean what they claim it means. Half the country is raging about something that obviously isn't real. I'm not half as concerned about John Kerry's lack of tact as I am about the fact that half the people in my country seem certifiably out of touch with reality. If I add in all of the left wingers who are also certifiably out of the touch with reality, the number of people who have two feet firmly on the ground seems very very small.