Miss California 2009
I've never in my life paid any attention at all to beauty pageants. It just doesn't interest me. But in the Miss USA pageant a few weeks ago, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, made headlines by daring to say - in public - that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. Think about that. In 2009, this is ACTUALLY a controversial subject. Where has this country gone in the last generation?What happened was that (video here) she was leading the competition and entered a phase where you have to answer a question on your feet while the whole world watches. Now, when I grew up this was a big joke because the stereotypical question was something like "What do you wish for in the world" and the answer was something along the lines of "world peace." This is a famously ridiculous Q & A.
But this time, for some reason, the process went differently. Somehow, this gay activist, Perez Hilton (why name yourself after an amateur porno star? Doesn't that just make you look like a loser to start with?) got to be a judge, and was drawn to ask Miss Prejean her question, and it was, roughly, since Vermont is the 4th state to legalize gay marriage, do you think all the other states should follow suit? Without missing a beat (I've done this kind of Q&A before as an exercise, and I usually stall a few seconds at least), Miss Prejean answered that she was happy to live in such a wonderful country where we can actually HAVE such a choice and, no offense to anyone else, the way she was raised she believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
That was about it. Tough question, very impressive answer. Whether you agree with her position or not is (should be) irrelevant. What is important here is that she gave a substantive answer to a difficult question and she did so quickly and thoughtfully, and was pretty articulate, too. She deserved high marks for her answer.
Wrong Answer
Of course, this was not how it went for her. She went on to get second place in the competition overall. Before even leaving the building, Hilton posted a video on YouTube where he ranted about her answer and basically what a low-life idiot she was. He called her "a dumb bitch" and said she deserved to lose because of her answer. Days later, he reportedly filed another video wherein he referred to her as a "c--t."A few more days later, Keith Olbermann "interviewed" another gay columnist (video here) by the name of Musto on his nationally televised MSNBC show. The two of them played off of one another, going back and forth to see who could toss out the meanest insult at Miss Prejean. They sounded like two junior-high kids. Olbermann made several crude remarks about Miss Prejean's breasts, and then Musto said things like this: "This is the kind of girl who sits on the TV and watches the sofa. She thinks 'innuendo' is an Italian suppository." This banter went on, and on, and on. Again, on national television. It was absolutely disgusting.
The left went on a crusade, as they often do, to destroy this poor woman publicly. Another of the pageant judges said that she would have ranked Miss Prejean 51st specifically because of the answer she gave to that question. Leftists got on talk shows and mouthed off similarly about how vile she was. Someone posted some risque pictures she had taken several years ago and the Miss California pageant announced they would be investigating and may strip her of her title.
The Left Now Does This Regularly
These tactics are familiar to those who remember, during last year's presidential campaign, the similarly brutal attacks on Sarah Palin (and her family), and against Joe "the Plumber." These people stood up and said what their values were, and because they weren't leftist values, they were publicly humiliated by Leftist wingnuts and their compliant mass media. Governor Palin was ridiculed by reporters and anchorpeople as being stupid, and hordes of operatives were sent to Alaska to try and dig up personal dirt on her. Pictures of her in a swimsuit, during a long-ago beauty pageant, were circulated and made fun of. Her daughter was called "a tramp" and the maternity of her newborn son was questioned. As though any of those things was anyone's business or had a shred of relevance to her campaign.
Joe the Plumber was investigated and the fact that he owed some back taxes, and that he was not properly licensed as a plumber, were put out on the air. They tried to ruin the man's life, and he had never run for a single thing. He just happened to be at the wrong place (in his front yard) at the wrong time (when Obama came into the neighborhood for a visit) and asked Obama a challenging question, to which Obama gave a truthful answer supporting socialism. For this the left tried hard to destroy him.The Prejean Saga Continues
During all this time, interviews with Miss Prejean showed her to be the kind of upstanding young person we dream about being raised in this country: Beautiful; devout Christian; server of the poor and downtrodden; polite; hard working; focused. She never wished ill to any of her critics, just expressed that she shouldn't have lost or been persecuted for expressing her opinion. Which is absolutely correct. She took the high road, despite being mercilessly bashed in the media for weeks.Ultimately the pageant, led by Donald Trump, announced that "the pictures are fine" and that she would keep her title. Miss Prejean choked up a bit when defiantly - and rightly - pointing out that, in this free country, she ought to have the ability to speak her mind without fear of public persecution or of losing a beauty contest.
White House Leftist Piles On
This horrible saga should be over by now; it's been 3 weeks. But just when you thought it would be, none other than Barack Obama's right-hand man, David Axelrod, who ran his successful presidential campaign, referred to Miss Prejean as a dog during a quiz show on National Public Radio (audio here). Talking about helping pick the new dog that the Obama family just acquired at the White House, Axelrod joked that he'd been consulted on "the final three. And one was Miss California." This is the guy who got Obama elected, one of the president's closest confidants. How sick is this country that we are taking seriously and electing people like this to high office?Axelrod's rude comment comes, of course, on the heels of an absolutely despicable performance at last week's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, an event that the president himself attends and where he is typically made fun of - in a good-natured way - by the correspondents or by people they invite. The group this year invited an obscure black comedienne named Wanda Sykes to do a few minutes of standup at the lectern, mere feet away from the president. During her performance she somehow never got around to making fun of the Messiah, the president, but dished it out hard on his critics. Discussing Rush Limbaugh, Sykes mis-interpreted something Limbaugh famously said about hoping Obama fails, using it to liken Limbaugh to Osama bin Laden and then to say that she believed Rush was the 20th hijacker but had missed his flight because he was strung out on painkillers. She went on to say she hoped his kidneys failed (i.e. "I hope you die"). Throughout all this mess, President Obama sat there and laughed at every joke. Our president, laughing at a 9/11 joke and at wishing one of his toughest critics - an honorable man - dead.
And the media, by the way, reported nothing about the disgusting routine until word of it leaked out from the British press and conservative bloggers and talk show hosts began talking about it. We used to make fun of the old Soviet newspaper, "Pravda" and how they only reported what the government wanted people to hear. How is this situation with our American media much different? As Obama himself said in his speech at the dinner, "Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me." God forbid they ask him a tough question at a press conference, or make fun of him in any way, even at a dinner that is known particularly for such things.
This is the world we live in. How we got here in such a short time I have no idea, but the left, which has hypocritically complained about partisan politics and about the country's divisions, is by far the worst offender in this regard. With the left, you either agree with them or they try to ruin your life. They hate you; despise you; might like to kill you. It is not enough to even tolerate their views as Carrie Prejean stated she did. You must accept them outright or you will be destroyed personally.
The only thing I wonder at this point is whether there will be any kind of backlash against these people. What has happened to the good and decent country I grew up in and love so much? How do such hateful people get to be in such lofty positions, put there by my fellow citizens?? When will I wake up from this nightmare?
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