June 13, 2009
National Organization for
Talk show host David Letterman won't apologize for suggesting the statutory rape of Sarah Palin's 14-year-old daughter Willow, beyond a half-ass attempt to claim that the rape of 18-year-old Bristol Palin was his actual intention.
I have peers in the blogosphere that would like to see the aging hack boycotted and fired for his comments... I don't see the effort being worthwhile. Letterman's sagging rating would only be buoyed by continuing to low-boil the saga, and his fellow liberals—the real problem—would only support him more in political solidarity by assigning more relevance to him than a late night talk show host with a worn-out and increasingly bitter schtick is worth.
But the biggest argument against boycotting Letterman is that he simply isn't that big a fish. If people who are disgusted by Letterman's misogyny really want to make a difference, they'll target those that do the most in allowing the degradation of women.
They can do no worse than starting with the National Organization for Women.
NOW was silent about Letterman's advocacy of statutory rape until they were forced to speak. Ignoring women's issues that are not politically advantageous for the organization has been NOW's most defining characteristic since the Clinton era. If women are abused by Democrats—especially liberal Democrats—then NOW has little or nothing to say unless pushed out on stage like a recalcitrant four-grader. Even then, ideologically battered, they never take a more forceful stand than they absolutely must, and then they quickly retreat.
Like liberal abusers of women, Muslims don't exist in NOW's universe. Though their women have few if any rights, and can be beaten or slaughtered under sharia law for vague offenses to the honor of a savage and often primitive culture, NOW simply prefers to pretend the problem doesn't exist. The fierce urgency of NOW no longer even pretends to represent all women. It protects only the ideology of liberal women... and only when they aren't being attacked by useful liberal men.
No, it seems that the primary goal of NOW—and other left wing organizations—is to demand conformity from those they claim to represent, not liberty or independence. They exist to best serve themselves, like the government they champion.
This world would be a lot better off if there actually was an organization that cared about the rights of all women, and who had the courage to stand against brutally and abuse, and for equality, no matter where it originated.
But it certainly isn't NOW, who can't even stand up against a bitter old comedian that thinks that the public statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl makes for a great punchline.
Like so many other new lows, this is an astonishing decent even from the Clinton era. At least then they had the bad justification of maintaining their President in office despite his known sexual violence, even in the workplace. Now what does NOW have to excuse their complicity (by their own definitions) in the most gruesome regime of sexual exploitation in today's world? Not incidentally, that exploitation also includes boys which any root causer will tell you guarantees it will perseverate throughout the Muslim world.
Posted by: megapotamus at June 13, 2009 09:39 AMhttp://www.cwfa.org/main.asp
I thought I saw something about a Conservative Womens group. The link above is the one I found for them. Maybe they can start taking NO(L)W's place. We'll see.
Posted by: Jim at June 13, 2009 10:35 AMOrganizations such as NOW are simply ideological front groups for advancing leftist ideas. In that way they are no different from the global warming crowd.
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at June 13, 2009 10:54 AMBob
I think you are mistaken in saying that evicting Letterman isn't worth the trouble. The leftards have used this tactic--amongst many others--as a way to eliminate their enemies in the media. Letterman is clearly an enemy of both conservative/classic liberals such as ourselves as well as the numbnuts party that claims to represent us (GOP). So hounding Letterman out of the media will do all of us a valuable service. First, it will eliminate an enemy. Second--and more important-even the effort will serve notice on the rest of the leftards in the media that this kind of filth is unacceptable to the majority of the country.
So go ahead and write to CBS and tell them you are done with Letterman. And inform CBS that you will advise your friends to do the same. But also write to the advertisers who place their products on CBS. Tell the advertisers that you will avoid their products whenever possible and let as many friends as possible know why you are doing so. Advertisers love controversy (not).
It will do good even if this sad, old, bore remains on TV. A number of people, Letterman included, will have been notified that this kind of below-the-belt insult of their political opponents will come at a cost from now on.
Eh, if it was the 18 year old, as there was no intimation of coercion, it wouldn't have been rape. In extremely poor taste? Yup. Still worth complaining about? You betcha. At some point the women of the US will notice which party the misogynists are most comfortable in, and that will make a difference, and protesting will help bring that about. But only if we don't overstate the case.
Posted by: Skip at June 13, 2009 02:04 PMExcept, Skip, it wasn't the 18 year old. She was back home, across the continent. 14 year old Willow is the one that attended the game with her parents, and the one targeted by Letterman.
His "excuse" that he meant another daughter is a red herring. No he didn't.
Posted by: Steve Skubinna at June 13, 2009 06:36 PMI remember back when Rush had his T.V. show, he did a thing where he was talking about the Clintons in a "news reader" type skit and when he mentioned Chelsea's name the control room "accidentally" put up a picture of Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz! He took all kinds of grief for that. In fact, even though that was some 15 years or so ago, I have a liberal friend who STILL brings that up!
Letterman needs to make a sincere apology, but I really don't think he is capable of it! He doesn't have a sincere bone in his body.
One of the things that keeps me from going into the entertainment industry (other than lack of talent) is that I would have to rub shoulders with people like him!
Posted by: GEJ at June 13, 2009 07:09 PM"Organizations such as NOW are simply ideological front groups for advancing leftist ideas. In that way they are no different from the global warming crowd."
+1
Posted by: Capitalist Infidel at June 13, 2009 07:21 PMWhy are you so convinced it was the 14-year-old? Do you really think Letterman's writers carefully fact-check their jokes? Honestly, there's enough genuinely outrageous things in the world that this faux outrage just looks dumb.
Posted by: Mike at June 14, 2009 09:11 PMMike, because she was the one with Sarah at the game. That was the entire joke.
Posted by: Capitalist Infidel at June 15, 2009 07:21 AMThey can do no worse than starting with the National Organization for Women.
Hmmm.... is that evaluation somehow reversed? There may be better organizations than NOW to address with castigation, but I can't think of any.
Posted by: Micropotamus at June 15, 2009 11:43 AMMike, because she was the one with Sarah at the game.
That's what I said in the first place: you're assuming that his joke-writers knew that. I didn't. Neither did you, until this whole thing because a cause celebre. But you're convinced that a couple of guys sitting around a table going "Let's see, Palin. Winks a lot. Shoots moose. Wears too much makeup. Can see Russia." were in command of all the facts.
Posted by: Mike at June 15, 2009 11:05 PMPlain and simple .. it's the National Organization for .. Abortion
Posted by: Neo at June 17, 2009 12:22 AM
