{"id":1540,"date":"2011-01-29T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2011-01-29T05:00:22","modified_gmt":"2011-01-29T12:00:22","slug":"sarah-palin-crude-language-crass-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1540","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin, Crude Language & Crass Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Definition of CRASS<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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a<\/em> : gross<\/a>\u00a0; especially<\/em> : having or indicating such grossness of mind as precludes<\/a> delicacy and discrimination b<\/em> : being beneath one’s dignity <crass<\/em> concerns of daily life><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Synonyms:<\/strong> common, coarse, crude, gross, ill-bred, illiberal [archaic<\/em>], incult, insensible, low, lowbred, lowbrow, raffish, rough, rough-hewn, roughneck, rude, rugged, tasteless, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unpolished, unrefined, vulgar Antonyms:<\/strong>\u00a0civilized, cultivated, cultured, genteel, polished, refined, smooth, tasteful, ultrarefined, well-bred<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Sarah Palin sure has a way of bringing out the crassness\u00a0in not only other people, but also herself.\u00a0 This week alone, there are multiple examples of crass behavior involving the former Governor of Alaska.\u00a0 What does it say about our culture that crassness has become so common place and accepted?<\/div>\n
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In response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, Sarah Palin was interviewed by Greta Van Susteran on Wednesday. (view video here<\/a>)\u00a0 Going “On the Record,” <\/em>Palin proceeded to criticize\u00a0Obama’s State of the Union\u00a0rhetoric, particularly his use of the phrase, “winning the future.”\u00a0 No problem in pointing out areas of disagreement with the President.\u00a0 I’ve got many myself.\u00a0 However, Palin then cutely suggested there were more “WT*” moments throughout Obama’s speech.<\/div>\n
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Why did I use an asterisk\u00a0for the last letter?\u00a0\u00a0As a stand-in\u00a0for a particularly\u00a0crude word that, unfortunately, has become all too common\u00a0in our crass culture.\u00a0 Many (perhaps most) people\u00a0who\u00a0have watched Sarah Palin’s interview\u00a0immediately understood what she\u00a0was saying.\u00a0 I must admit, even as a pastor, I knew exactly what she was communicating \u00a0to the audience\u00a0who were\u00a0watching Fox News that night.\u00a0 If Palin was not trying to use shorthand for a vulgar term, then I’m really not sure what she was trying to accomplish.<\/div>\n
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I am neither a devoted\u00a0fan of Sarah Palin\u00a0nor a foe.\u00a0 I think that she has many wonderful qualities, but\u00a0 I am not inclined to vote for her in a Republican primary, were she to run in 2012.\u00a0 That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t vote for her in a general election,\u00a0especially if she were running against the current occupant of the Oval Office.\u00a0 However, just because\u00a0she is a conservative Republican does not mean that she should get a pass when she says something that is out-of-bounds.\u00a0 I seem to remember lots of conservatives (and Christians) getting mightily upset when Vice President Joe Biden was picked up on a mic\u00a0uttering a certain profanity\u00a0into President Obama’s ear.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I find it hard to believe that anyone could believe that this was anything but a crass comment, notwithstanding a poll on National Review Online <\/a>(since removed) that resulted in less than\u00a030% of poll-takers (including yours truly)\u00a0finding Palin’s comment crass.\u00a0 If this is what passes for cultivated, cultured, or tasteful in our society,\u00a0then we must be having a Strother\u00a0Martin “failure to communicate” moment.<\/a><\/div>\n
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We can try to pass\u00a0off\u00a0Palin’s WT* moment as nothing more than one of her homespun, Alaskan ways\u00a0of talking to ordinary folks, but let’s not kid ourselves.\u00a0 If she wanted to communicate her critique of President Obama to be central, she\u00a0would not have\u00a0resorted to an\u00a0obviously prepared “joke” that\u00a0was indeed crass.\u00a0 After all, does\u00a0anyone remember what Palin’s substantive analysis of Obama’s SOTU\u00a0speech was?\u00a0 Me neither.\u00a0 That others — most notably the leftists at MSNBC\u00a0with severe\u00a0“Palin-Derangement\u00a0Syndrome” — have\u00a0savagely criticized Palin’s use of WT* (here <\/a>and here<\/a>) should in no way excuse Palin’s\u00a0crass\u00a0language.<\/div>\n
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If Palin’s language was crass, what can one say about “comedian” and\u00a0“30 Rock” <\/em>star Tracy Morgan?\u00a0 Interviewed during the pre-game “Inside the NBA”<\/em> show on TNT<\/a>\u00a0prior to Thursday night’s game\u00a0at Madison Square Garden between the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat, Charles Barkley asked Morgan if he thought Sarah Palin was “good-looking.”<\/em><\/div>\n
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Morgan quickly responded with a crass sexual comment involving the former Alaskan Governor and Vice-Presidential running mate of John McCain.\u00a0 I’m sure that Tracy Morgan thinks that he is funny, but why inject such a vulgar, tasteless comment into a sporting event?\u00a0 While I do not personally follow the NBA, I’m sure that there were many folks watching that night — including children — who wanted to hear about basketball, not be sucker punched with material from one of Morgan’s HBO specials.<\/div>\n
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Morgan’s is but one of a myriad of examples\u00a0of the crass, tasteless, lowbrow language that is becoming the norm in our culture.\u00a0 Everywhere we turn, we seem to be inundated with crude speech.\u00a0 One cannot stand in the check-out line at a grocery store without be subjected to some of the most vulgar language, all spoken as if this was normal.\u00a0 And many times, the most foul-mouthed are women (certainly not ladies).<\/div>\n
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What would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago has become common-place today.\u00a0 How do we combat the crassness that has taken hold in our culture?\u00a0 Is it\u00a0too late to\u00a0return to a more civil, refined culture?\u00a0 With\u00a0my own children\u00a0coming of age in the present generation, I hope\u00a0that we have not passed the tipping point.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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If we are to see changes, it must begin in each of us.\u00a0 But, it should\u00a0also be modeled by our leaders —\u00a0elected, appointed, anointed, self-proclaimed, liberal, conservative, moderate, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist\u00a0— in a variety of situations.\u00a0 Whether it’s answering Greta’s or Charles’ questions —\u00a0on Fox News or TNT — language matters.\u00a0 Will it be crude or tasteful?\u00a0 That will go a long way to determining\u00a0if we are a crass\u00a0culture or a civilized one.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Definition of CRASS a : gross\u00a0; especially : having or indicating such grossness of mind as precludes delicacy and discrimination b : being beneath one’s dignity <crass concerns of daily life> \u00a0Synonyms: common, coarse, crude, gross, ill-bred, illiberal [archaic], incult, insensible, low, lowbred, lowbrow, raffish, rough, rough-hewn, roughneck, rude, rugged, tasteless, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unpolished,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[133,207,263,270,401,459,521,629,651,683,703,704,719,743,801,864,937,989,993],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civility","category-culture","tag-basketball","tag-charles-barkley","tag-crass","tag-crude-language","tag-fox-news","tag-greta-van-susteran","tag-inside-the-nba","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-miami-heat","tag-msnbc","tag-national-review-online","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-on-the-record","tag-president-obama","tag-sarah-palin","tag-state-of-the-union-address","tag-tnt","tag-tracy-morgan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-oQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}