It really is hard to understand why some adults feel the need to make fun of Trig Palin, a one-year old who has Down Syndrome. Politics alone cannot explain it. If you don’t like Sarah Palin, fine, but why go after Trig?
The controversy regarding the Photoshop of Trig by Alaskan blogger Linda Biegel is only the tip of the iceberg. Ever since Sarah’s nomination, Trig has been a target. Last fall, the popular DC-based “gossip” website Wonkette joked how Trig must have wished he’d been aborted. Now Wonkette has taken Biegel’s Photoshop antics as an excuse to go after Trig anew.
In a recent post, Wonkette promoted and joked about even cruder Photoshops of Trig at the Something Awful web forum, where people can post anonymously (examples below). Wonkette even included one of these photoshops in its post (above right) while mocking Trig as the “New Jesus,” “Holy Infant” and “Sacred One.”
All the attacks on Trig are Sarah’s fault, according to the Wonkette post, since Sarah had the audacity to bring Trig on stage at the Republican National Convention (where the original photo in question was taken), which Wonkette calls using Trig as a “cheap political prop.” I guess that makes the Obama kids fair game according to Wonkette since they were brought on stage at the Democratic National Convention.
Sarah is to blame for all the new Photoshops of Trig, according to the Wonkette post, because Sarah complained about Biegel:
The Virgin Palin, Our Lady of Eternal Anger, gave birth to the New Jesus at some point last year — or not, who knows, and now Andrew Sullivan just cares about Iran (which is a good thing!) so we’ll never find out the truth — and ever since it has been both a Cardinal/Venial Sin and Sharia Law that no mortal shall “desecrate” an image of the Sacred One … no one but Sarah Palin herself, because Allah both allows and encourages the use of the Holy Infant as a cheap political prop as long as such cruel hackery is performed by the Virgin Palin herself.
Palin’s fury was such, when she found out some blog “on the Internet” had combined a picture of her cradling one of her Magic Babies together with a picture of her Jedi Master, some dingbat old radio talk-show clown in Alaska, that she did verily send her dumbest disciple, “Brother Meg,” to start a Jihad against the Entire Internet.
But we know what happens when a fear-and-anger crazed Snow Witch starts a vain war she can never hope to win: The Internet Strikes Back.
Which is to say, Palin basically poked a stick in the world’s largest beehive filled with cheap & tireless insanity, and the SomethingAwful.com goons have unleashed a pack of Photoshop Dogs From Hell to make the most incredible collection of Sarah Palin Desecration Images in the History of Time, the end.
General Bullshit > Sarah Palin thinks photoshopping special needs babies is appalling [Something Awful]
Here are two of the milder Photoshops in the Something Awful forum which are Sarah’s fault according to Wonkette:
What a riot. It takes small people to stoop this low.
[Note: Accordingly to one of the commenters, the face imposed on the photo immediately above is that of a convicted sex offender, Brian Peppers, which makes that Photoshop particularly sick.]
UPDATE: Huffington Post blogger Jason Linkins has joined Wonkette in blaming Sarah for the crude Photoshops because Sarah complained and used the word “desecrate”:
And now, all of these people that you had heretofore never heard of are famous, because Sarah Palin wouldn’t let the stuff slide. Even dumber, she said that the photoshopping was a “desecration,” which means she believes Trig had been “divested of her sacred character.” Now I think Trig Palin is an awesome kid, but COME ON. That’s a really pretentious thing for a parent to say.
Can’t the Editors at Wonkette or bloggers at HuffPo check the dictionary? Desecrate has more than one meaning, and is not limited to someone being “divested” of “sacred character.” The Mirriam-Webster online dictionary includes “to treat disrespectfully, irreverently, or outrageously” in the definition of the term. Sounds right to me. More important, regardless of which words Sarah used, why does that justify attacks on Trig?
UPDATE No. 2: Check out my post It Always Has Been About Trig.
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Related Posts:
“Palin Lied, People Died” And Other Media Fictions
Psst…Don’t Tell Andrew Sullivan Our Secret
Are Anti-Palin Intellectuals Anti-Intelligence?
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Comments
Wonkette is one of the most vile, contemptable sites on the net. Most of the people who respond to articles about Palin and her family are perverts.
It would be great if some of the resident trolls would come out and unequivocally condemn this (and by that I mean: in the strongest language possible and with no caveats), but I won't hold my breath.
These people go after Trig because they don't like the fact that he's alive. They truly hate this beautiful child not only because his life gives Palin credibility as a pro-lifer, but because we'll be seeing Trig the adolescent smiling, competing in the Special Olympics and joyfully living a life these people claim had no value. These are people who consider themselves smarter than anyone who'd give birth to a special needs child rather than kill him or her and Trig Palin is a threat to their agenda.
I thought I'd grown used to the madness surrounding Sarah and Trig. This takes it to a new lever. sickening.
In the last photo you posted, that's convicted sex offender Brian J. Pepper's face superimposed over Trig's. I would not call that "mild."
http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/peppers.asp
The troops have been sounded. Ken Layne is about to get his cornhole forcefully removed (metaphorically, that is)
Uh-Huh. Guess they didn't hear the messiah saying the leave families alone, or was it just his family that he meant.
I expect more of this to come the closer we get to 2012, for it is the way ofthe radical far left,who still for some odd reason claim to the the more tolerant and open-mind, compared to conservatives. Who they claim to be racist,sexist,and homophobic.
Gee, I wonder if the folks at Wonkette or Something Awful would be okay with posting Photoshops of Michelle Obama with gorilla arms.
It all comes down to the unique level of hatred liberals have for sexy, conservative women. It never fails.
How the hell is that one with the coat hanger mild? I don't even want to know.
These people are sick. They lack the one thing that makes us human. It's called a soul.
This issue shows that race, class, disability and gender still matter in our society. Many "liberals" have attempted to portray Palin as a "poor white female imbecile." Her child's disability adds to the stigma.
Conservative Scalawag: This is not coming from the "radical far left" (assuming you mean really progressive people). TRUE progressives condemn sexism whenever it exists. I was writing on the subject of "liberal sexism" against Palin back in October of last year: Is Liberal Sexism Against Palin OK? No!.
I would add that sexism (racism and homohobia) is not limited to "liberals." The solution includes taking these matters seriously and not dismissing them as PC blather….Imagine how people who are not powerful governors experience these issues? They have far less power to minimize the harm. Strengthening civil rights and advocating tolerance are good steps toward this end.
@Daryl – Didn't realize the connection. Makes the image even sicker. @Daryl and @DarkGravity – I'm using the term "milder" as compared to the rest of the images.
The Something Awful photoshops are pretty horrible and over the line IMO, but let's not pretend there's any equivalency between the Obama kids appearing at the convention and Palin's relentless use of that poor infant, not to mention the rest of her kids, as a photo prop during the campaign. She carried that baby around like a sack of flour everywhere, dragging him onstage and into TV interviews repeatedly, along with the six year old who functioned as on-stage nursemaid. I've never in 40 years of poli-watching have seen such shameless exploitation by a candidate of their own children.
It would be great if the kids were left out of it by the media, but if Palin wanted to keep their private lives private, she should have kept them out of the spotlight. As it stands, she doesn't have much room to complain.
Given the hateful stuff directed at Palin regarding her children, I wonder what the response would be if some disgusting soul photoshopped Barry Hussein's children into Buckwheat type characters and began referring to them as the Obama Pickaninnies? Want to bet the same folks who argue that Palin politicized her kids would scream bloody murder and insist that the president's daughters are off-limits?
We've already seen such hypocrisy, of course, in the Obama/chimp controversy — which followed 8 years of these same liberals voicing not one word of outrage (laughing their butts off, actually) regarding the depiction of Bush 43 as a chimp.
The Something Awful photoshops are pretty horrible and over the line IMO, but let's not pretend there's any equivalency between the Obama kids appearing at the convention and Palin's relentless use of that poor infant, not to mention the rest of her kids, as a photo prop during the campaign. She carried that baby around like a sack of flour everywhere, dragging him onstage and into TV interviews repeatedly, along with the six year old who functioned as on-stage nursemaid.
What's she supposed to do, leave him in the car? He's an infant and she's his mom. If you never saw him with her, you'd say she was ashamed of him.
And if Palin were a liberal Democrat, you'd be praising her. But then, if she were a liberal Democrat, he probably wouldn't exist.
I don't believe Celtic Diva did the photoshopping. And I do not believe that the image she had on her blog was directed at Trig. She was making fun of Palin (again). And, frankly, Palin has no business being upset. She is an elected politician with a slew of ethics problems who is fair game under our 1st Amendment. If the heat is too hot in her office, she can always get up and walk away. But she's not walking away. Instead, Sarah Palin is putting her children front and center – almost as if she's hoping the presence of kids will make people tone down the criticism directed against her.
But I do agree that politics is personal, and in Alaska, sometimes goes over the top on both sides.
Some of the above comments are almost hillarious.
1) when Obama said to leave the kids alone, he was not talking about his own but about Palin's (particularly the then-pregnant Bristol).
2) the Alaskans who tend to hurl the most objectionable comments about Palin have never painted her as "poor white." They do describe her as stupid, inter alia.
3) while some of the stuff hurled at Palin can fairly be described as "hateful," many of the people who hurl the word "hateful" tend to ignore or bury the very valid complaints about Sarah Palin.
4) while the hardcore defenders of Palin complain about over-the-top comments about Palin, those same hardcore Palinistas have no problem referring to Obama as "the messiah" and other similar names. And those same folks laughed when Michelle Obama was essentially called an ape by a conservative.
5) there are hypocrits on both sides.
Mr. Treacher, I assume she would do what every other working mother does, hire a real nanny and keep the child off stage while she's working. Do lawyers carry their infants into court? Teachers carry their babies into the classroom? Doctors bring their kids into the examining rooms? And how does that explain the 6 yr. old? Or the teenagers? Sorry, but I see it as a calculated PR tactic to establish her persona as the "hockey mom." I can understand the value of taking them out of school and on the road. It's an educational experience they wouldn't get otherwise. But repeatedly dragging them into the public spotlight only invites the media scrutiny she says she deplores.
And I love how you folks on the right are so good at reading my mind. I would have the exact same criticism, no matter who was doing it. I just can't think of anyone else who ever has. I asked this question of many of her defenders and have yet to get an answer. Maybe you have one. Name me one other politician in the last 40 years, on either side of the fence, who routinely trotted their kids out on stage, and in televised interviews and such, with the frequency she did.
So it's not Celtic Orca's fault because she didn't do the photoshop herself, and besides, it wasn't really an attack on the baby who's actually in the photo, and besides, the kid deserves it because run4chocolate doesn't like his mom.
Oh the (phony) outrage.
Perhaps she shouldn't use her children as stage props, yes?
On a more serious note, she want's to be President, so why don't her handlers let her appear on "Meet the Press"?
She can't even mentally handle a half hour of "Meet the Press"… that's just astounding.
Mr. Treacher, I assume she would do what every other working mother does, hire a real nanny and keep the child off stage while she's working.
Ms. Spencer, I assume you'd say the same thing for any other politician with a small child. The little brats are just sacks of flour, right?
Do lawyers carry their infants into court? Teachers carry their babies into the classroom? Doctors bring their kids into the examining rooms? And how does that explain the 6 yr. old? Or the teenagers?
It's different when Obama appears in public with his daughters because it just is.
And I love how you folks on the right are so good at reading my mind.
Well, it's a very short story, without a lot of big words or complicated ideas.
I would have the exact same criticism, no matter who was doing it. I just can't think of anyone else who ever has.
You can't think of any politician who's ever appeared in public with their kids? I can't tell if you're being serious or not. Is there supposed to be some sort of quota?
And those same folks laughed when Michelle Obama was essentially called an ape by a conservative.
Despite her behavior, Michelle Obama is not a little baby.
Oh the (phony) outrage.
All outrage is phony if you don't share it.
Perhaps she shouldn't use her children as stage props, yes?
Perhaps you shouldn't parrot talking points you haven't really thought about much, yes?
She can't even mentally handle a half hour of "Meet the Press"… that's just astounding.
Biden.
In America there's something called the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights which protect all citizens rights regarding freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Citizens have the right to address and comment on the actions of their publicly elected officials. The government and any government official are not allowed to take those rights away.
You take the good with the bad with these very basic American Rights, but ultimately it is by the far the best way.
Anyone who is not happy with these rights is very welcome to move to China, Iran, Cuba or North Korea and see how it works up close and personal when you do not have these protections in place.
conservatives, lol.
Something Awful owns you!
http://forums.somethingawful.com
If you all are so outraged, come and register an account with us, it's only $9.95 for the privelege of having us tear you to shreds! Bring it!
Jim Treacher: So it's not Celtic Orca's fault because she didn't do the photoshop herself, and besides, it wasn't really an attack on the baby who's actually in the photo, and besides, the kid deserves it because run4chocolate doesn't like his mom.
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See, there ya go again, Jim. It's not the substance in my comment but how you spin it into a personal attack. Isn't that part of the overall problem in politics these days?
Besides… it's not as if the palinistas themselves did not doctor that very same image for their own purposes when they falsely accused Letterman of raping Willow.
And I love how you folks on the right are so good at reading my mind. I would have the exact same criticism, no matter who was doing it. I just can't think of anyone else who ever has.
Libby, it's already been brought up on this post that Obama has used his kids as campaign props. If you deny it, you are a willful hack for the donks. If you overlooked it, now that it's brought to your attention, I want you to condemn Obama for doing so on this board right now. Do it!!!11!!one!!11
In America there's something called the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights which protect all citizens rights regarding freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
Which is why people are using it to express their disgust with those who are making fun of a little baby. Nobody's 1st Amendment rights are being trampled here, professor.
See, there ya go again, Jim. It's not the substance in my comment but how you spin it into a personal attack.
Which part was the "personal attack"? (Please note that disagreement does not necessarily constitute a personal attack, no matter how it might hurt your feelings.)
Jim Treacher, your arguments are classic straw men.
You'd fail in any true debate, much the same Sarah Palin would.
Sarah Palin failed because she avoided debating Joe Biden by announcing at the onset of her one and only debate that she didn't plan on answering any of the questions the moderator was going to ask both of them.
She counters her own outrageous behavior — plagiarism, mistreatment of First Alaskans, bad policy on oil company negotiations, twittering religious messages instead of issuing official press releases (without religious messages), implying her state National Guard troops will be abandoned by the Feds overseas when it's HER responsibility to get them home from their stateside disembarkation point, keeping her overseas itinerary secret due to "safety and security" yet going out jogging in the hills outside Kosovo, insulting a Senator in a political speech on an Army outpost (violating Federal regulations x2) in a childish tit-for-tat, accusing a comedian of pedophilia (reference to keeping her child away from said comedian) and her own child of consenting to sex (the "statutory rape" meme), and this latest "desecration of an iconic image", a completely ignorant misuse of religious terminology — by being the Attack Barracuda.
It makes her base happy, but it sure makes Sarah Palin look ridiculous to anyone who's NOT her base.
(ha, my WV is "inest")
By the way, who accused David Letterman of raping Willow Palin? Links, please.
Thanks Jim for your opinion… but as most right-winger not in touch with reality.
I've been around the block and I'm a great judge of character.
Biden, like Ronald Reagan has early onset senility, no doubt.
Sarah Palin is simple… the lights are all on, but no one is home.
Palin is all style over substance and she uses every trick she has.
Palin clearly uses Trig and her children as a stage props.
Again, she's mentally incapable of handling half an hour of "Meet the Press"… that's not a problem for the right.
If you think she's your messiah then go for it, "Saturday Night Live" could use the material…politically she a dead end.
Btw, I know your kind.
Tough guy on the internet, needs always to get the last word so you can feel clever… in person a soft, lazy endomorph who can't even bench his own weight.
The basis for Palin's complaint was that the photo is "an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child."
Give me a break. That's not organic outrage, that's pure political opportunism.
No, some of the photoshops are not appropriate, and I have very little time for Wonkette (and even less for SomethingAwful.) But the fact of photoshopping that image is not inherently problematic. The Stormtrooper photoshop, to take the top example on this post, is completely innocuous (unless there's an interpretation I've missed.)
Jim Treacher, your arguments are classic straw men.
Whereas yours are classic projection.
Thanks Jim for your opinion… but as most right-winger not in touch with reality.
That good point, you smart.
No one's making fun of Trig Palin. No one. The target is Sarah Palin and her megamouth Meghan Stapleton, who is the source of most of the horrible faux pas that Palin has been involved in the past month or so.
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"Obama has used his kids as campaign props".
Are you talking about 1) the Obama girls appearing on stage at the DNC? Or 2) on stage when Obama gave his acceptance speech upon election? Well, I'll give you that second one — Sarah Palin probably wasn't too keen on having her brood witness her humiliation at having to stand there silent while McCain conceded the election.
CNN mentioned this in May 2008: "On the ground we saw Senator Obama yesterday having this kind of family picnic. It was really unusual seeing, because you had Michele Obama, the two kids, Sasha, Malia (ph), they were out there, Sasha yelling vote for any daddy on the stage. So it was really kind of this warm feeling. You saw Barack Obama in a different light. You're reminded that he's a father, that he's a husband, that he can relate in some ways to some of the things people are talking about."
That's quite a bit different from 1) Palin taking Piper out on the ice with her in Philadelphia in mid-October 2008 to drop the puck (and 2) other appearances in Penns.), or 3) for Palin to allow her middle and youngest daughter to sign autographs while she gives a campaign speech, or 4) to have her whole brood line up on the tarmac to greet McCain, 5) Palin and her family being on THREE People covers, 6) Palin using her state of Alaska website as a personal photo album, 7) Piper Palin and Meghan McCain making a video urging voters to vote McCain/Palin, and 8) the youngest 3 Palin children sitting in on a Greta V-S interview October 31, 2008 in Palin's campaign bus.
I'd challenge anyone to find evidence that the Obama girls attended their father's campaign stops THAT much.
Would Planned Parenthood have the right to sue for the use of their logo??
Jim, don't let facts get in the way of your delusions pal.
A partial Google search shows that Biden appeared on "Meet the Press":
June 14, 2009
Sept. 7, 2008
Apr 29, 2007
Palin?
Palin will never appear on "Meet the Press" because she is unable to speak coherently off script.
That's not a problem for the right of course.
Jim, don't let facts get in the way of your delusions pal.
And don't let your Enter key get in the way of your anger.
Palin will never appear on "Meet the Press" because she is unable to speak coherently off script.
Then why do they keep sending Biden?
It's pointless to argue when you're being deliberately obtuse. Bringing your family on stage when you accept the nomination is customary. Taking them to an occassional event is also customary. Bringing them on stage at nearly every campaign stop and TV interview and photo op is not. And it's clear not one of you can come up with a name of anyone who has ever done it with the frequency that Palin has. Which was the question as clearly stated in my comment above. Furthermore, there's the matter of her being dunned by the state of Alaska for wrongly charging off the expenses of bringing her kids to ceremonial events and various conferences, to the state.
If anybody has a list of the times Obama has deliberately used his kids as a prop, I'd love to see it. And photos generated by the press gaggle who follow him relentlessly, after he became president don't count. For instance, going to his kid's sports events or stopping for ice cream while he's on vacation. We're talking about campaign stops, media interviews and official functions. I can think of only 3 with the Obama kids. I can think of dozens with Palin's kids.
There simply isn't any equivalency and you all know it. But go ahead and invent one if it makes you feel better.
I'm loving the eighth-grade civics class rhetoric that these Something Awful kids are spewing by way of "debate". Most of the drivel just doesn't even require a response, because they've contradicted themselves several times by paragraph two. All I'm saying guys, is maybe you should stay on your forums, or stop skipping U.S. Constitution 101 to play beer pong with the Earth Science majors. Calling somebody on the way they're using their First Amendment rights in no way constitutes an "attack" on the First Amendment.
They're scared of Palin. Nobody in the RNC is worth half a nickel at the moment, but Palin puts the fear of God in some of these moonbats. Palin/Keyes in 2012.
The point, genius, is that they keep letting Biden out in public, and yet you guys keep saying Palin is the bigger dummy.
Many of these people are missing the point. Are there always going to be people who make improper comments and display improper actions- yes. Do they matter in the long run- no. However, many of us (and I'm going to guess the Gov as well) feel that these photographs are wrong. Period. That's what's at the core of this problem among MANY on the left.
They engage in behavior that is obviously wrong and instead of taking responsibility for their actions they blame someone else, particularly the victim. I'm especially appalled at those of you who seem to think that just because she's in the spotlight and sometimes her kids are around her, that somehow makes her culpable in this. It does not. If that was the case then it would be perfectly OK for someone to make fun of the Obama children in the same way, right? And if you say that she's using them as political props and the Obama's are not, then take your own standards and apply them to the various covers/public appearances of the Obama family and I'm sure your arguments will not hold water. (I mean did he have to take his children out to get ice cream? Doesn't he realize that people like you guys will there to pounce and take advantage of them?)
This attitude speaks to something larger and more sinister in our society. Moral relativism and the ability to reason and explain away bad behavior. You can not say that the pictures are wrong and then say they're not a big deal or that Palin is somehow responsible because she held her son that day and cameras were present. If you are able to do that, it's only because you are unable to admit that your are bad person for engaging in this uncivil, horrendous activity. And by not calling this EXACTLY what it is (morally wrong), you give credence to it and allow this to expand. Because according to you it's always the victim's fault- "it's her fault she was raped becuase she wore a skirt too short"; "she should have know he didn't like mayo on his sandwich so it's her fault that he hit her"; "I can't believe that Republican woman did not abort her down syndrome child and instead has the nerve to hold up her baby (like she's proud of him) and take pictures during an election year, it's her fault that I'M SUCH A COLD-HEARTED, SOUL-LESS, PSYCHOLOGICALLY DEBASED JACK@**! But the minute anyone criticizes Obama's policies, I'm gonna lose me FREAKIN' mind!"
In fact the only ones making the children "political props" are the very people attacking the kids and blaming Palin. She spends most of her time talking about Alaska and energy than her children. Projection is a mild symptom of this PDS that has infected many on the left. The disease is down to the marrow, and unfortunately very contagious. Our society is at stake. The only known cure is a basic sense of right and wrong and willingness to call evil, evil.
Jeez Kajo, maybe you're right. Why not just go out and kill the kids if it makes you feel better.
Jim Treacher, your post @ June 29, 2009 12:39 PM is also a classic case of deflection.
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Jim Treacher said…By the way, who accused David Letterman of raping Willow Palin? Links, please
Actually, it wasn't an accusation of Letterman raping Willow. It was an accusation that Alex Rodriguez raped Willow, but the accusers got that all wrong, too.
The Palin supporters at Conservatives4Palin.com first reacted to the Letterman joke the day after it was in his monologue by jumping to the conclusion that it was Willow Palin, not Bristol Palin, whom he was joking about.
Contrary to what Free Republic denizens and others have accused, Letterman actually said “One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” No mention of a daughter's first name anywhere in the "joke".
(the problem here for both Sarah Palin — who's claimed otherwise — and her followers is that Willow Palin was NOT at that June 7th baseball game Letterman referred to, nor Bristol Palin, the actual subject of the joke — in fact NONE of the Palins were at the game during the 7th inning, they'd left by then — eventual proof will show up when Palin itemizes the $2,600 seats on her public disclosure statement)
Then Todd Palin posted on his Facebook page June 12th "Any 'jokes' about raping my 14-year-old are despicable."
THEN Sarah Palin herself — via her spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton again — issued this statement" “I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country” for contributing to a culture “that says it’s OK to talk about statutory rape,”
That's a HORRIBLE accusation to make about one's own daughter, no matter what age she is. You see, by using the word "statutory", Sarah Palin was suggesting that her daughter CONSENTED to sex. No one had brought that up until SHE said it.
"It takes small people to stoop this low".
No, it takes people who are dead inside and don't know it to stoop this low.
No mention of a daughter's first name anywhere in the "joke".
If you take your daughter to a baseball game and David Letterman mades a joke about your daughter doing something at that baseball game, you'd be dumb to think he meant the daughter who was at the baseball game.
You see, by using the word "statutory", Sarah Palin was suggesting that her daughter CONSENTED to sex.
Ah, you're a legal genius as well. See, here on Earth, "statutory rape" means the victim is below the age of consent. But you know better.
It's pointless to argue when you're being deliberately obtuse.
If you really believe I'm being deliberately obtuse, mindreader, it seems silly for you to persist doing what you've just said is pointless. Please continue.
If anybody has a list of the times Obama has deliberately used his kids as a prop, I'd love to see it.
Oh, so whenever he's in public with them, he's inadvertently using them as props. Far preferable.
Jim Treacher, your post @ June 29, 2009 12:39 PM is also a classic case of deflection.
Yes, we're all very impressed that you know how to spell "deflection," even though you can't use it correctly in a sentence.
Actually, it wasn't an accusation of Letterman raping Willow.
Don't tell me, tell run4chocolate.
It seems to me that a lot of people on this thread seem to think that if Palin has her kids around her, they're props…
BUT…
If Obama has his kids around him, he's just a great father (even when it's on the cover of People magazine, a venue that far, far more people in the USA–and the world–would see than any sevearl dozen speeches by Palin).
Do those of you that persist in this double-standard not see the contradiction? Are you not capable of simply decrying such behavior for what is? Are you that sick and dead inside that you can actually excuse attacks on a toddler because, in your broken mind, it's OK to mock and abuse a baby to get at her mother? Is this what honest political disagreement has come to?
I'll say it again: is there not a single lefty that can simply state, unequivocally and without caveats, that this is a digusting, demeaning, act and that anyone that engages in going after someone's children for any sort of gain is wholly and completely out of bounds?
Jim Treacher: Me: Actually, it wasn't an accusation of Letterman raping Willow. You: Don't tell me, tell run4chocolate.
I did. Run4chocolate can read what I said in my message to you. It's not like you're the only one who could/should.
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How many times do I have to say this? WILLOW PALIN WAS NOT AT THAT GAME.
Rudy Giuliani talked only about Sarah Palin and Todd Palin being there in his interview with Eddie Burke the next day. I contacted a sports reporter who was at the game, and he only saw Sarah Palin, Todd Palin with Rudy and Judi Giuliani. There are no pictures of Willow Palin present at that game from fans posted on the internet, nor any from news agency photo sites on the internet — although there are dozens of Sarah and Todd Palin, and them together with the Giulianis.
As a matter of fact, NEITHER of the Palins who WERE accounted for were even there during the time frame of the Letterman joke — the 7th inning of the Yankee game on June 7th.
Last but not least, the joke was "her daughter was knocked up…"
OK, who immediately comes to mind when you say "Palin", "daughter", and "knocked up"? Would it be the one who's been svelte and thin and in the background for the past year, or the one who was announced as being pregnant last August and paraded around on stage at the RNC?
OK, don't tell me your conclusion yet. I want to see if you can connect the dots first.
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Well, oops, maybe you can't. I see that you've concluded that "statutory rape means the victim is below the age of consent".
Now, Sparky, being ABOVE "the age of consent" in a rape case is about as relevant as being BELOW "the age of consent". You see, "rape" is not consensual at ANY AGE.
However, "STATUTORY rape" means 1) that ONE of the participants is ABOVE "the age of consent" — thus, meaning consent given is legal, and 2) ONE of the participants is BELOW "the age of consent", meaning that there WAS consent, but that it wasn't legal. Summary: it was not legally (mutually) consensual.
Or, to put it another way, the FBI definition is, "statutory rape is characterized as non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is younger than the statutory age of consent".
Get it? Maybe you should ask the college law professor…
—————-
As for the comment at 2:35 PM…
That's only if you jump to the erroneous conclusion that the highly religiously-inflected "malicious desecration of the iconic image" refers to the baby and not the smirking image of Sarah Palin.
Problems do arise when Sarah Palin's followers jump to conclusions like that, and like the escalation of the Letterman joke about a Palin daughter into a SPECIFIC Palin daughter, then in to rape, then statutory rape.
————
You're getting pretty desperate if you're now complaining how I used the word "deflection" in a sentence. Just consider that I used it in the physical sense — as in physics: "deflection is the event where an object (your comment about Biden) collides and bounces against a plane surface." (davemartin7777's comment about Sarah Palin avoiding "Meet the Press")
Libby Spencer: If anybody has a list of the times Obama has deliberately used his kids as a prop, I'd love to see it.
JT: Oh, so whenever he's in public with them, he's inadvertently using them as props. Far preferable.
Wasn't this specific discussion's time frame during the 2008 Presidential election campaign? Didn't Libby Spencer use the words "deliberately used his kids as a prop…"
So why are you discussing it in the present tense, Jim Treacher?
There is nothing surprising here…
The left is the world's largest hate group, they don't mind eugenic insults, they would do worse to Palin if they thought they could get away with it without looking bad, because she represents the horrible truth for the committed left…
…That truth being that they are the "bad guys" when the counting eventually is done, that they have been wrong about most of the fundamentals of their own causes… That they can and will justify anything without boundaries eventually… that they are the closed-minded, the pious, the self-rightious zealots who will eventually create horrors on this planet in the name of their Utopian visions…
She is a threat to their junk science, because she leads without having to comply with their membership requirments… A living symbol that all of their predictions about feminism have been pointless, flawed, and wrong…
They *have* to destroy her, because that is what pseudo-intellectual scum have done since the dawn of societal man… And they will not let a little thing like ethics, or a husband, or a daughter, or a baby slow them down…
That is the the truth… ugly though it is…
Allow me to call BULLSHIT Libby Spencer.
Show me the posts you made concerning the disgusting way John Edwards used his wife's cancer to further his political ambitions. Show me your outrage at the photos of their "perfect" family with their cute young children out in front like stage props, while they used the story of their son's death to deepen the appeal. Show me your outrage over Barack Obama inviting cameras into his home so they could ask his young daughters questions about how Daddy was there to do things with them. Clear exploitation of his children in an attempt paint himself as the good Dad with the happy family.
You can't provide such comments, because you're completely full of shit when you say "I would have the exact same criticism, no matter who was doing it. I just can't think of anyone else who ever has."
So which is it, Libby, willful ignorance or are you just that obtuse?
kthxbye
Unless one agrees, without reservation, with DarkGravity, then you are just engaging in moral relativism of the worst sort. Which makes you soulless.
http://i39.tinypic.com/el8876.png
Hey look, Michelle Obama with gorilla arms! Courtesy of the "Lie-berals" you hate so much!
These Obamaites re-enforce my distaste for them every time I see these attacks against Sarah and her kids. She did nothing but introduce them to the public like every other candidate has, yet because the demo-rats have little to attack her on they switch targets to the families. How loathsome. I look forward to supporting Sarah politically in any way she chooses to serve this country. As for the demo-rat trash, I look forward to cleaning the halls of government of your filth in 2010 and 2012. Drink all the Kool-aid you can, 'cause day going to come when the fountain of spew is going to run dry and the bill is due.
Go Sarah!
http://operationcleensweep.blogspot.com/
The only time Palin brought her family on stage when we McCain introduced her as his runningmate and when she accepted the nomination for Vice President of the United States. As a Repbulican mother of a special needs child I was encouraged and moved when she held Trig up. That wasn't exploitation, it was pride.
I think you've lost site of the fact that you're defending the mockery of a handicapped baby. Keep it up progressives!
Now tell me how the Palinistas are the dub hicks with no class.
For those of you bent on defending this sort of thing, try this thought experiment on for size:
Take a smattering of these pictures and show them to your apolitical friends (you know, those people that are barely cognizant of who controls the Congress; probably has no idea the cap and trade bill passed without being read; etc.), then ask them what they think of them and whether they think it's fair game to go after someone through their (handicapped, no less) children. (For good measure, you could also mock up some images doing the same to the Obama children just to make it 'fair'.)
Having done this thought experiment (because there is literally no chance any of you would dare and try defend such imagery outside of the confines of the cloak of anonymity the Internet provides), can you honestly come to any conclusion other than your apolitical friends would be just as appalled as those of us decrying this sort of degeneracy?
The Leftists here are being deliberately dishonest. They have no intention of admitting the obvious: if a person doesn't engage in their GroupThink, then there are no limits as to what can be said about them or their family.
That they can't even admit this obvious truth is more a sign of their own moral cowardice than it is about Palin. They have no understanding that reading through their comments is akin to taking a walk through the sewage of humanity. They pretend to moral superiority, yet have no thought to going after children. Even their white-hot hatred for Palin isn't justification for going after children in the world of the decent. But that's not a world they inhabit or have ever even visited.
Here's a clue, Leftists: no matter how hard you go after Palin's family, you're not going to intimidate her. The most likely result is that you are going to increase her popularity: much the same as when Clinton's popularity rose when the general public thought he was being treated unfairly. The American public roots for the underdog: always has, always will. All you're doing is making her the underdog.
Much like Perez Hilton going after Carrie Prejean, and the gay jihad after Prop. 8, the polls show that support for gay marriage dropped as a result of your bad behavior. No one wants to be lumped in with the hooligans and animals who support going after children.
Better that you ignore her than show yourselves for the rabid hate-mongers that you are. Palin's popularity is rising while Obama's is falling, and if you don't think comments like the ones above are a part of that then you're part of the Left's problem not the solution.
Those who have no spirit shall be condemned in life to spew their hatred for those who have one. I believe Wonkette is showing its IQ, better close the curtain before all your brains spill out.
If you have no ammo to debate you turn to character assissination, that will show them.
BIGMOUTHMOM
Much ado about manipulating a picture of ONE moron holding ANOTHER…
HYUCK!
How many times do I have to say this? WILLOW PALIN WAS NOT AT THAT GAME.
You can say it all day long if it makes you feel better, but it doesn't make it true.
Besides which: If Willow wasn't there, and Bristol wasn't there, who the heck was Letterman talking about?
Statutory rape, blah blah blah
It takes a real lack of talent to make rape boring, even statutory rape. Which is what it would be if Alex Rodriguez or any other adult had sex with Willow Palin. Letterman apologized for joking about it, and here you are saying he shouldn't have. Good luck selling that one, Perry Mason.
You're getting pretty desperate if you're now complaining how I used the word "deflection" in a sentence.
Less a complaint than a statement of fact. Please try to keep your reply to 500 words or more.
So why are you discussing it in the present tense, Jim Treacher?
How cute, you think he's ever stopped campaigning for a single minute.
Man, I love Conservatives. 'Gay Jihad' – Priceless. Cultural warriors all looking to establish their 'American values' by ramming their big white feet in their respective faces.
I could really care less about these shenanigans, mostly because I understand that the Internet is the Internet – Either you stay away from those 'dirty, dark, places', or learn to cope. And if those places find you (on the Internet), well, you can always go hang out at Church where you're accepted for hating gays, am I right?
Rofl @ GroupThink – That's why liberals get their agendas from radio personalities. Hate is a two-way street, and at least I'm intelligent enough to realize that, yes, I hate some people – Not strictly groups of individuals though (like most racists, homophobes, and other far-right groups), just people who willingly prove their idiocy. I can see most of the 'conservative' people posting here have done a fine job displaying their willful ignorance towards reason.
But alas, I am not 'liberal' nor 'conservative', because unlike 'conservatives', I understand that political realities (and for the most part every other aspect of reality) does not fall upon simple binary values. (That's analogous to white and black for you non-technical individuals). OMG Relativism!?!?! Didn't Einstein say something about that?!?!
Keep up your culture war, while you grow older and more senile with rage, the youth will laugh their way above your silly, incendiary, and wholly worthless campaigns for 'family values'.
Way to stay relevant in the 21st Century!
Lastly, even the most horrific pictures (most insulting I suppose you would say) made me laugh the hardest. Y'know, those gut laughs that keep you smiling throughout the day.
Well I'm one of the trolls and I absolutely condemn anything that makes reference to Trig. It's represensible and can't be condoned by even the people who hate Sarah Palin. If they want to put a different face on the baby in Sarah's arms, that's alright with me because they are demonstrating hate for Sarah but they better not use Trig's face or do anything to Trig's face to make mockery of him.
I can understand why some of them want to get even with Sarah now because about 2/3 of the people polled on the question of whose baby Trig is, said Bristol's. That's all fine for them to think what they want until Sarah comes out and proves that she was pregnant with Trig by showing some pictures.
Just leave Trig alone!
I'm saying this as someone who is a registered republican and voted staight party-line in the three elections I've been able to vote, guys; The stick or your head: There's only enough room in your ass for one.
Those photoshops (and the subsequent blog posts at various non-"right" sites) are sheer ugliness, humanity at its most inhumane. People who do this kind of thing are incapable of seeing other human beings as human (surprisingly, non-"rights", that includes Trig Palin who may one day see these photoshops online, since this crap never goes away). I don't care what you people say or think about Sarah Palin the politician, but I hope someday you get even an inkling of shame at what you've had to say about her children. In the meantime, I hope you stop to consider what you'd think if someone made the same kind of ugly, hurtful remarks about Barack Obama's daughters.
Do lawyers carry their infants into court?
Uh, yes, they do… and judges, too.
Just keep whatever's up your ass to yourself, Moby.
Who are you addressing?
http://www.moonbattery.com/michelle-obama-arms.jpg
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h124/Roscoe_Karns/Obama/michelle_arms3.jpg
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5508/ewingbird.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/35l84k8.jpg
Dont worry I got all these michelle shops at Free Republic, search michelle over there pure comedy.
Wow, Sarah Q, what a convoluted response!! Sarah is Trig's mother. Do your sums regarding the length of time between Trig being born and Bristol's baby…..
sheesh
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a bunch of anonymous internet goons aren't trying to score any liberal street-cred, or trying to discredit Sarah Palin or make fun of her retard baby. They're probably just doing it because it's funny.
Kajo: Have read your comments and again am totally confused by you Leftists and the rank disgusting hypocrisy of your stand. Sorry, but your "arguments" stink like a skunk.
Frankly I am tried of the Obama's and how they use their children for photoshops.I wasn't until I had to get through your drivel, but as tired as I am by the left's hypocrisy it has come to this. don't whine when people make bad jokes about the Obama girls.
Puh-leez, Trig Palin's the LEAST ret@rded thing to come out of Gov. Palin in the past 18 months…
Liberals, including a number of respondents here, are simply too insane to understand how reprehensible their words and actions are.
They deride, ridicule, and scoff. Poor achievements that represent a dearth of intellectual honesty.
At least we know they will each be deep in their cups come 2010 and 2012.
non-liberals, including a number of respondents here, are simply too self-centered to understand that the photoshopped picture of Palin with the Eddie Burke baby is the very same picture utilized by the palinistas to attack David Letterman.
If it was okay for the pro-palin's to photoshop that picture to attack Letterman, why is it not okay to photoshop that very same picture to attack Palin and hate-monger Eddie Burke?
Kettle, black, make up my freakin' mind.
btw – as to those pesky ethics complaints – specificially those which appear to have been dismissed to do the filer announcing their intent, consider this:
**** NEWS ALERT ****
Please pass this on to the folk(s) who had their ethics complaint dismissed due to announcing their intent to file…
from http://www.pennlive.com
Federal judge rules state Ethics Commission ban on discussing complaints against public officials violates free speech
by Pete Shellem, Of The Patriot-News
Monday June 29, 2009, 4:47 PM
A federal judge has ruled that the state Ethics Act’s ban on publicizing filings against state officials is likely unconstitutional and has granted a temporary injunction to a local activist who was fined for violating it.
District Judge Christopher C. Conner granted the injunction to Middle Paxton Township activist Gene Stilp, who was charged with violating the act after he announced he filed a complaint against former House Majority Leader William DeWeese based upon a newspaper article that accused DeWeese of spending $290,000 in tax money on political polls.
Within a day, the State Ethics Commission ruled there was not enough evidence in Stilp’s complaint to conduct an investigation and instead charged Stilp with violating the act by publicizing the filing of his complaint. On Oct. 16, Stilp entered into an agreement with the commission in which he admitted violating the act and agreed to pay a $500 fine. Stilp then filed suit in federal court to enjoin the commission from enforcing that provision of the act, saying it was a violation of his right to free speech.
Feel free to pass this on to Palin’s folks who’ve yapped about how filers have violated the law. …
Palin is a talentless hack. McCain had no intention of winning the 2008 election. Your vote doesn't matter. Obama is a front. The people who really run this country are not elected. All your pointless bickering only serves to show how brainwashed you are.
TruckNutz!! Also.
Haha, Palin admirers are all butthurt now. I guess Something Awful is good for something after all.
Listen, a photoshop of Sarah Palin cuddling a tiny conservative talk show host might not be funny, but it's certainly not mean or out of bounds. And Palin snuggling with a tiny Stormtrooper is just adorable!
The blogger who posted the original photo wasn't making fun of Palin's child. Wonkette isn't making fun of Palin's child. The only people who are making fun of Palin's child (which is mean and dumb) are a few jerks on the Something Awful forums. And while I don't like personal attacks on candidates' children, everything else that has come out of this, not least dumb Sarah Palin and her fawning conservative admirers jumping into the traditional defensive offended-by-everything liberal role, has been hilarious. Keep up the good work!
Really? Palin uses her kid like a hand puppet and we're not supposed to notice? Or call her on the shit? Woman please.
Hello everyone, I am the person that created the "coat hanger" image. You folks are really over-thinking this whole thing. I don't have a political motive. I simply spent a (very) few minutes to create an image as over-the-top offensive as possible. There are real problems in the world and you are wasting energy on my obviously ridiculous rude joke. You must realize that your puffed-up moral outrage only encourages more mockery.
I've looked at numerous still photos and several video's of Rudi Guiliani and his guests at that Yankees game. Willow Palin is no where to be found. And the Palin family remains silent on whether or not she was actually at that game.
Given the evidence, or lack thereof, it seems Willow was not there.
So. Who would Letterman be making a joke about?
Well… seems that only ONE Palin daughter (excluding Sarah) got "knocked up." Her name is NOT Willow.
Please, Palinista's… tell me Bristol was not knocked up and that Levi is lying about getting her pregnant.
I know you have lis "problem" with diddling kiddies, Mutant, but do you think you could please keep it to yourself from now on?
For all you who are claiming that Sarah Palin did not bring her kids with her…
The fact is that all of the kids were on the campaign trail with her the whole time and appeared at every rally, except when the pregnant one was excused to take care of the baby. Both Bristol and Levi missed so much school that they dropped out. And Piper said in an interview in early December that being on the campaign was very boring and she had had trouble catching up with her class at school.
You people need something more important to fight about. Have you considered taking on 4chan?
So. Who would Letterman be making a joke about?
You are truly a genius. He was joking about the other daughter who wasn't at the game or even on the same coast, despite multiple reports that Willow was at the game, because you can't find a picture of Willow at the game. Have you found Trig's real mom yet?
Wow… "humanity at it's most inhumane" – Rebecca
A few silly photoshops, taking the micky out of a woman's over-reaction to a harmless photoshop, is the apex of inhumanity?
I would like to think it was up against some pretty stiff competition, but there you go, the bar has been set people.
-Hellbastard
For the love of Jeebus! Conservatives need to go back to church and ask for a helping of humor.
What the fuck is wrong with you? Yeah, killing abortion doctors are fine but make fun of Sarah Palin and her tard-baby OH NO THATS WRONG!
No one is even making fun of the fact that her baby has downs, we are making fun of her bitch-fit reaction that only makes matters worse for herself.
Jim Treacher said… So. Who would Letterman be making a joke about? You are truly a genius. He was joking about the other daughter who wasn't at the game or even on the same coast, despite multiple reports that Willow was at the game, because you can't find a picture of Willow at the game. Have you found Trig's real mom yet?
You got everything right in that post, JT, except one thing: There WERE NOT MULTIPLE REPORTS about Willow Palin being at that game.
There was only one verifible statement, by Sarah Palin herself (about whom most people reading her "exploits" realize she's either a habitual or a pathological liar).
All the rest of the "multiple reports" were quotes of that one statement — and as is usually the case with the MSM, they did no fact checking.
I did. I have at least one eye witness at the game who says Willow Palin was not identified as being in the Palin/Giuliani party in those $2,600 seats.
And I have to admit, it would only serve to confirm once again Sarah and Todd Palin's carelessness about the welfare of their children if they let Willow Palin, a naif if ever there was one, wander throughout Yankee Stadium not under their "watchful eye" (hah!).
You got everything right in that post, JT, except one thing: There WERE NOT MULTIPLE REPORTS about Willow Palin being at that game.
You're either lazy or a liar. Actually, I'm gonna go with both.
I'll ask again, even though you're too dishonest to answer: If neither daughter was at the game, who was Letterman talking about?
How very distasteful all of this is. For goodness sake the country is falling a part and people are spending time editing photos of a little baby. Take your freaking time, energy, creativity and do something worthwhile. For crying out loud. Quit the whining Obama won.
As far as using her family as a prop. Sarah is a mother that is in love with her family and she happens to be in the public eye. She wanted them with her because they are part of her. There should be more families as close as the Palins.
Also Obama had MANY more months in the spotlight his exposure was spread out. Sarah had publicity time to make up for.
So just stop it and go contribute something worth contributing and…go fall in love with your family.
If you can afford to bring up a damaged (whoops, "special needs") child, as the Palins obviously can, great. Everyone needs a hobby. But if you can't, quit advocating for any sort of ABSOLUTE "right to life" for these unfortunate non-winners of the DNA lottery, whose "normal" lives are bound to be utter torment under the government funding and management of kids lives inevitable under obamacare. By then, of course, even the "rich" will no longer be able to afford to bring up special-needs kids responsibly once the Messiah has taxed away their ability to VOLUTARILY provide.
The photoshops are more of an attack on Palin for using Trig as Campaign tool. If she was smart enough not to showboat her kids and put them in the line of fire a lot of this probably would not have happened. A lot of them are grotesque but that shows what kind of site Wonkette is. But on the other hand you're beating a dead horse, people will still be cruel to her children, people will still think shes hot, (which on a lighter note, she is) take up a better rivalry with a different blog website, SA goons will go to wonkette for laughs, the only thing you're doing right now is sponsoring more links to wonkette and the photoshop galleries.
If you really want to post photoshops and silly things like that about obama, feel free. A lot of people probably won't laugh on the count of racism or they just don't understand any jokes about his campaign issues. If you manage to get a few good ones in there will be cruel people on the internet who will laugh, just probably the people you don't want to associate with.
That is seriously the best thing ever. The crazy witch lady steps down because of mean interwebs pictures? How the hell would she have EVER stood up to, say, a terrorist, if her entire facade crumbles because da big mean INTARNETZ!!! refuses to say what a special perfect magically MAVERIKY holy family she has?
The Planned Parenthood one kind of sucks, though, you're right–they already have TWO tardbabies, one from Bristol and one from her mother, thus tardism clearly runs in the family and trying again will likely only result in a worse tard and more worthless meatbag.
Welcome to the Internet, my friend. Hope you can stick around to lean one essential fact abut it: there are a lot of jerks on the 'net, and that cuts across all bounds of liberal or conservative. Like the people who photoshopped Michelle Obama so she looked like Zira from Planet of the Apes.
But here's another essential fact: if you whine about it, they come after you even harder. If you can't stand that, then maybe you should just go read a book. You know, quit. Like Palin.
Rush was right, there is no point in arguing with these people. They are simply demented.
What should be done is this: Continue to quote them, and make it clear just how degraded they are as human beings.
At this point, I no longer take liberals seriously, I only wish I had come to this conclusion sooner.
You're all stupid. Really.
Ds: You Rs are mean and hateful, and I hate you for it!
Rs: You Ds are mean and hateful, and I hate you for it.
Two ugly peas in a damaged pod. I don't hate you for it, I just feel sorry for you and those around you. Get a (real) life. Some people just can't handle the internet.
Boo fucking hoo. I would actually feel bad for Sarah if she wasn't so fucking desperate to become a celebrity; she brought this all on herself.
As for Trig, he won't know they're making fun of him – he's retarded, remember?
there is no doubt in my mind that the libtards who have posted here are in fact more retarded than the baby Trig Palin. Most of the comments are totally appalling and in my mind show the lack of moral ethics that exists amongst a younger generation that think themselves superior to others and seem to think that they can impugn others in such a disgusting fashion. The left-wing liberal meme is getting boring.
Trig has Down's Syndrome. This is something that is common amongst women over the age of 40 who have children (and not necessarily a first child). It happens because of a faulty chromosome. The child with Down's Syndrome might have other complications including heart problems. Some children are very close to normal, but others have more serious problems, just like children that are born without this faulty chromosome or gene. When these children are raised in a proper way and are not neglected they remain functional members of society. How do I know? I have had contact with several during my life. What I have seen is that when they are treated properly they are capable of taking direction and working like normal people – and they work harder than drug affected types.
These children are far better than those who blow their brains through taking drugs.
So shame on all of you. The least that you can do is learn about Down's Syndrome so that you too can learn and have a heart where others are concerned.
The internet is serious business. Calm down and think before you net-rage.
Palin-lovers are the most pathetic people I have yet to encounter. They're dumber than Trig, that's for sure.
There will soon be a change in the public's opinion of Governor Palin. Please read my latest post about the effect of the ongoing media criticism.
http://itdontmakesense.blogspot.com/2009/07/rope-dope.html