Thursday, December 9, 2010

Fer Cryin' Out Loud

This is not ordinarily a "political" blog. The Bag Lady usually prefers to keep her head planted firmly in the sand leave politics to people who know more than she does about such things. Occasionally, though, something so ridiculous or idiotic happens that she simply cannot let it pass without some comment. Such a thing happened the other day while the Bag Lady had half an ear open to the television news while she was doing something else.

By now you are all, no doubt, aware of Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks. The Bag Lady has not been paying a huge amount of attention to exactly what his 'leaks' consist of, but she tends to think that a little light shining on some of these documents is not a bad thing at all.

On Nov 29th, Calgary professor (and former advisor to Prime Minister Harper) Tom Flanagan made a tongue-in-cheek comment in an interview on CBC regarding Assange. He said, “I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract or maybe use a drone or something.” The Bag Lady heard this statement and dismissed it as a slightly tasteless joke.

Imagine her surprise the other night while listening to the news to hear that Mr. Flanagan was being investigated for "counselling murder"! It was a freakin' joke, people! Tactless, yes. Indictable? C'mon.
The University of Calgary has since determined that Professor Flanagan was expressing a personal opinion and will not be sanctioned.

What bothers the simpleton Bag Lady about this is the fact that it is indicative of a greater problem with society. No-one is allowed to honestly express themselves in public. We all have to be so careful of what we say or how we say it because we may possibly offend someone (or incite an unbalanced person to act on our words). It seems to the Bag Lady that it was a huge waste of resources to investigate Professor Flanagan. She wonders how many people dug into his past and scrutinized his actions, trying to determine if he was a terrorist inciting action. How many humourless people analyzed his words, his body language and his intentions before they came to the conclusion that he just might have blurted out something ridiculous in an unguarded moment.
And how many of us have done something similar? Granted, not on national television, but the Bag Lady is willing to bet that every one of us has said something without thinking.
The Bag Lady is actually quite famous for speaking without thinking. Ahem.

She hopes she can sneak this blog post under the radar of the thought police..... 'cause really, they shouldn't waste a precious second of their time investigating something as negligible as the Bag Lady's thoughts!

11 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

We've lost our collective sense of humour, Bag Lady, and with it went much of our collective sense.

messymimi said...

Agreed.

Like the man who jokingly twittered something about planes and is now having to appeal a terrorism conviction.

Some of us just aren't that dangerous.

solarity said...

I have nothing to say on the subject--at least nothing I can spell. It goes something like "AAAHRROOARGH!"

Mary Anne in Kentucky

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

I know what you mean.
I've had to stop saying "Brain 'em with a poker" due to strange looks from others. I also do not recommend telling people that the reason the kids are so well behaved is that we "beat 'em when they're young."

Humorless and overly P.C. people just lead to increased stress... and some crazy airport security systems.

Cheryl Kohan said...

Leah hit the nail on the head (or can't I say that??)! We have definitely lost our collective sense. I had to laugh at kcinnova, too.

I can't tell you how many times I've told our kids that a good smack on the butt (their kids' butts, of course) would nip a lot of naughtiness in the bud. It's called parenting, for goodness sake!

You'd think I was advocating child abuse.

I'm thinking that Julian Assange never got smacked on the butt when he was little.

Geosomin said...

Yes. My Dad's friend was an MP and he has said on many occasions how relieved he is to be retired just so he talk talk out with friends in a restaurant or anywhere and not worry about every word he says possibly being taken the wrong way.
Yes public figures should hold themselves to a higher standard, but people need to relax and have a sense of humour. I think the public needs to relax and allow people to make mistakes too.

Why can't we all just get along? :P

Aleta said...

"Politically Correct" - that's what's wrong with this world today.

Reb said...

Once common sense left, it was only natural that humour would follow. *sigh*

Levi said...

I never make mistakes like this one.
Except being with my last bf for all those years. But saying things to inflame never happens with me.
NEVER. And I don't lie either. Not a liar. Not an inflamer.

Hilary said...

So true. We go too far. In order to keep everything right we make so many stupid mistakes.. collectively that is. Leah is right. And KC is a hoot.

Marianne @ MealMixer said...

What? We aren't supposed to smack our kids when they get out of line? I always thought the reset button was located in the buttocks. Maybe that's just in my kids...