When I decided to come back to blogging this past holiday season, I made a little secret pledge to myself to avoid blogging about certain topics – and people – during this round.  Talking about the myriad sins of folks like Glenn Beck, for example, just makes me angry and cynical and further drags me (and you) down in the media cesspit that so many of us work so hard to avoid.

Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh were also on that short list of  Topics About Which I Would Not Blog.

But.

No, I’m not going to mock her for using the crib notes she literally palmed during her incoherent, incomprehensible excuse for a speech this past weekend. All that means is we really don’t need to pay any further attention to the Right’s incessant bleating about the President’s use of a TelePrompter (a device St. Ronald wouldn’t have lasted five minutes without, and let’s not even talk about our previous Grammar-and-Syntax-Abuser-In-Chief).  As if we ever did.  So if the best we can do to criticize her is to point out that she writes on her hand as a way of reminding herself of something, we’re not really paying attention. 

No, and I won’t bother mocking her snark and her utter dependence on ambiguous, cliched one-liners or her feigned, forced folksiness.  Or about her “makin’ stuff up.”  Or about the complete phony baloney-ness of the whole Tea Party “movement.”

No, I’m a lot more worried about what came out of her mouth.  This is about her use – and endorsement – of hate speech.

It’s about the “r-word.”

As y’all know by now, during the week leading up to the Tea Bagger conclave in Nashville, a story broke that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had last summer lambasted liberal and moderate Democratic ongresspersons by calling them “f-ing retards.”  Former Half-a-Term* Governor Palin blasted Emanuel for this remark, and rightfully so, in my opinion.  While this doesn’t rise to the level of a firing offense (which is what Palin wanted), it certainly deserves rebuke.  Which is what he got.  And Emanuel apologized (however weakly) and has he vowed to never use that hateful word again.

Ms. Palin was right to rip someone who should know better for using that word.  She’s a mother of a child with Down Syndrome.  She has, apparently, been something of an advocate for the disabled, and I am willing to give her credit for that, even putting aside my cynical reservations regrading the intention behind that advocacy.  Far be it from me to make the judgment that she’s “using” her son’s disability for political gain.  Not going there.  As the uncle of a beloved niece who’s “on the spectrum,” and as someone who every day gets to work with kids who have all manners of physical and mental disability and health issues, any support we in the “community” can get – left, right, or center – is okay by me.  Common ground means there’s always potential to grow something good.

But.

The next day, the Dark Lord of the Conservative Universe, Rush Limbaugh went on the radio and proceeded to address the issue by saying that Emanuel was right, that liberals are indeed “retards,” and he said so more than a dozen times.  And, in response,  the day after that, after we’d all waited to see what her anticipated outrage would sound like, Former Half-a-Term Goverrnor Palin’s spokeswoman emailed Limbaugh’s producer to express her (the former half-term governor’s) unhappiness about the use of the term.

In other words, Ms. Palin was not nearly as unhappy with Limbaugh’s use of the word as she was with Emanuel’s, and she certainly wasn’t calling for his firing. Probably because of the parasitic relationship that most conservative politicians have with Mr. Limbaugh.  Ya think?

Then, Ms. Palin further defended her lack of criticism of Limbaugh on Chris Wallace’s talking bobble head show on Faux News this past Sunday.  Here’s a sample:

“They [meaning us liberals] are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh,” she said, when read a quote of Limbaugh calling liberal groups “retards.” “Rush Limbaugh was using satire … . I didn’t hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with ‘f-ing retards,’ and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that.  There is a big difference there.” (Emphasis mine.)

Oh.

I see.

Rush Limbaugh was using the term to be funny. So that makes it okay.  Got it.

Which is interesting.  And telling.  I mean, that’s the same excuse middle school kids use when they get caught abusing each other.  “We didn’t MEAN it, it was a JOKE.  We weren’t trying to HURT anybody.”

And that doesn’t even address her use of the phrase “lamestream media” in the Q & A session that followed her presentation to the Tea Baggers on Saturday night.  You know, “lame” as an euphemism for “bad” or “weak” or somehow “not good.”  Using a word that used to be synonymous with disabled to stand in for somehow bad or less than worthy. That seems to be acceptable as well.

I wrote here recently about the whiny persecution complex that some conservative Evangelical Christian leaders have, the one they use as a way of deflecting attention away from some of the hateful things they do in the name of their religion and as a way of boasting their fund-raising.  The frequent claim made by these folks goes something like this: that “picking on Christians” is the “last acceptable form of discrimination” left in the United States.

Which, of course, is laughable on the face of it.  (Taking in a couple of those awfully sexist (and homophobic) ads during last night’s Super Bowl game puts the lie to that one.  Christianity is waaaaaay down on the list of acceptable targets in 2010 America, folks.)

No, what continues to be completely acceptable in this culture is bashing the mentally and physically disabled.  Using a hateful word like “retard” to insult someone is just the worst example.  Think about how often we use the word “crazy”  as a pejorative.  Or “psycho.”  Or “schizo.”  Think about how many times you as a reader have seen with your own eyeballs how supposedly progressive bloggers and supposedly progressive commenters on supposedly progressive blogs use the suffix “-tard” all the time to somehow cast aspersions on folks with whom they disagree.

Maybe you’ve used it, too.

And now you can start formulating your responses, that I need to lighten up, that I’m taking this way too seriously, that there are other things in the world to be more concerned about, that I’m being too “politically correct”…

Or, to use Ms. Palin’s pretzel logic, that, after all, it’s just a joke.

Okay.  So, as an essayist writing about the use of Native American images and names as mascots or logos for sports teams once opined, let’s “spread the fun around, ” shall we?

Let’s just laugh at anyone (including ourselves) who makes use of a word like, say, “faggot.”

I mean, that’s another one that kids use all the time.  They don’t really mean it, I’m sure.

Or bitch.

Or lezbo.

Or how about kike. Or Jewboy.  There’s a  couple knee-slappers for you.

Yid.

Hebe.

Spic.

Wetback.

Greaseball.

Dago.

Redskin.

Wop.

Mick.

Raghead.

Towelhead.

Beaner.

Paki.

Dothead.

Wog.

White trash.

Trailer trash.

I’m sorry.  Is this making you uncomfortable?  It’s just me being funny.

Polack.

Chink.

Jap.

Slant.

Sped.

Spaz.

Fatso.

Porker.

Gook.

Coon.

Sambo.

Or

maybe

even

…

shall I go there?

Or do we get the point?

See? 

That didn’t hurt anyone, did it?

It was just me being  funny, right?

Like I tell my middle school kids when we talk about hate speech, think about the worst thing that someone could call you, not because of something that you’ve done or something that you’ve said, but based on who you are.  Based on what makes you you.  Based on how God made you (no, I don’t mention the God stuff in class, but you get the idea).

What hateful – but apparently acceptable – label might someone decide to throw at Trig Palin someday when he’s in school?  If I could’ve asked Sarah Palin a question on Saturday night, not one of those softballs that passed for questions from her adoring audience but a real live question, that’s what I would’ve asked her.

What name would be acceptable for someone to call your son, Mrs. Palin?  Other than the one you gave him, that is.

Would it be okay for Rush Limbaugh to call your beautiful boy a retard?

I mean, it’s just in fun, right? 

Right, Ms. Palin?

(Photo: AP)