There has been this lovely debate about free speech in the past few weeks. It all started when Mister Sensitive, Rush Limbaugh, decided it was OK to call Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute. For some reason he felt it was best to berate the woman for three days on his radio show. When a surprisingly strong backlash occurred, he offered a weak apology posted on his website, then an even weaker apology on his radio show arguing the issue was only about the two unfortunate words he used. Since then his friends on right wing radio and Fox News have been upset with what they feel is the liberal piling on of Rush Limbaugh. Time and again they use the ineffective excuse every mother knows, “I may have done it but they did it worse.” The right wing has dug into the archives to find people such as Bill Maher, Ed Shultz and David Letterman who have made derogatory comments against conservative women.

Others have been able to illustrate the error of their ways so I'm not going to feel compelled to bring up that argument, but it becomes an old story when every time a conservative commentator says insensitive things over and over again, they will act as if they didn't know what was said was offensive, then they quickly point out someone who may have said something once or twice and will try to elevate that to a level that doesn't match.

Recently, in a similar vein, FoxNews, specifically Sean Hannity, has been up in arms about Obama hugging a professor in the 90s which somehow makes the President a radical. There is no evidence of the President being a radical, no evidence the professor was a radical, but in their world if you say it enough times it has to be true. There are people who want us to believe the animosity against the President is about policy and not race. If you question them about race emphatic denials will be issued. They will ask for evidence of racism and they can be shown Tea Party posters, emails sent off, watermelon White House front lawns and time and again they will claim those are isolated incidents. They will claim George Bush or Ronald Reagan was criticized for policies. You may want to tell yourself that, Presidential haters, but what you are going is racist not because the President is black but in a good number of items you criticize the President on stems from racism.

Just before the Alabama and Mississippi republican primaries, on Bill Maher's show there was a little video talking with people from Mississippi. It was basically the Yankee coming from the North making fun of the toothless, racist, gun loving, God fearing, gay hating backwards Southerner. In the liberal media there was some discussion if the video went too far. I was working on an article that was going to examine if Santorum might have been a little right about elites wanting to talk down to 'regular' folks. I might still right that article but not now. Every time I feel like having an understanding of the mind of a conservative, something is done that makes me feel it would be a waste of time.

I got a post from a Facebook friend that showed a bumper sticker that said “Don't Renig in 2012.” You may want to try and argue it doesn't mean what it is obviously trying to say, but that would be see it with rose colored glasses and a hint of Mary Jane. Stupid me wanted to get a better picture of the bumper sticker, to see if maybe it was a joke or if it was an isolated incident. I wanted to confirm in my mind this was just something odd and not indicative of a lot of people. I was so wrong.

I ended up going to a website that was selling a variety of bumper stickers with the same message, along with sticker supporting the troops, gun rights, legal marijuana use, kicking illegals out of the country, and yes even one sticker that suggested it was in support of the Klu Klux Klan. I don't know how long it has been since I really thought of the Klu Klux Klan, or even typed the name down. This is how sad things have degenerated in our discourse. It's 2012 and we have people who think it's OK to promote racism, the Klan, to hate the President just because he is black, and most disturbing of all, they are doing it without shame or fear of reprisal. We have legislatures across the country passing laws for invasive procedures on women. They are passing laws to cut medical care for women just because the health care needed is for the vagina, while no one seems to have a problem of men getting pills to keep their heads up. I didn't live in the 50s but it seems like we are living in those times again and it is sickening to me.