Here's a little competition for you: which one of these individuals is the odd one out and why?
1. Natalie Maines
2. Whoopi Goldberg
3. Dennis Miller
4. Linda Rondstadt
5. Margaret Cho
If you guessed number 3., you got the big prize (spare brainpower for the next Dark Ages so that you'll suffer even more). Dennis Miller is indeed the odd one out: a man, a Republican and the only one nobody has kicked out, boycotted or uninvited because of his political expressions. Because he differs in three main ways it's hard to tell why he gets treated like the princess sleeping on the pea while the real princesses get thrown into the pigstye.
So what do these five have in common? Here is the answer:
In March 2003, Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines told fans during a London concert the group is "ashamed" Bush is from its home state of Texas. That led several country music radio stations across the country to pull the plug on Dixie Chicks music.
Slim Fast reportedly dropped Goldberg after she allegedly made sexual and comical references about President George W Bush at a Democratic fundraiser for his presidential rival John Kerry.
"We are disappointed by the manner in which Ms. Goldberg chose to express herself and sincerely regret that her recent remarks offended some of our consumers," a spokesman of the company was quoted as saying.
...comments made by Dennis Miller -- producer and host of CNBC's Dennis Miller -- at a Wisconsin rally for President George W. Bush July 14 drew none of the same media fire, despite the fact that, as Washington Post "Reliable Source" columnist reported , Miller "impl[ied] a homosexual attraction between Kerry and Edwards."
In the July 15 edition of The Washington Post, Leiby quoted Miller: "Those two cannot keep their hands off each other, can they? ... I think I have a new idea for a new campaign slogan -- use the bumper sticker 'Hey, Get A Room.' "
Singer Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino.
Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old rocker called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush.
Fearing something of a Whoopi effect, edgy comedian Margaret Cho has been uninvited from headlining a gay and lesbian unity event scheduled to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.
Now, I don't think that there is anything wrong with alluding that Kerry and Edwards are gays, but this is a sexual allusion, isn't it?
Sexual allusions are supposed to be a no-no as Whoopi has found out. And Dennis Miller has said much worse things about the Democrats in public, yet I doubt that he has lost any support for that. Also, Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't even have to apologize for showing contempt towards the majority of Californians. But then he is a Republican and a man, too.
What is going on here, friends? Is it just that Democrats are a bunch of spineless wimps who crouch down and ask for more when they get beaten by the whip of the Godly Men, aka Republicans? Or is there something else going on here, too? Something about uppity women not allowed to be uppity, even among the lowly Democrats? Hmmm. Should we ask Martha Steward?
I don't know the answer. Republicans seem to have an urgent need to shut up all criticism, whereas Democrats think self-scrutiny and criticism is part of an open exchange of ideas. Maybe this makes us liberals better, more moral people? Or maybe this is all just a desperate cowering kind of politics to appease to the timid moderates that everybody is courting? Rubbish! It's just another excuse not to get off our collective butts and take back the country! Leave it to Natalie and LInda and Whoopi and Margaret! Then when the counterattack comes we can pretend we never liked them anyway, such mouthy broads the lot.