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Message: <blockquote data-quote="APewty" data-source="post: 4503682" data-attributes="member: 71816">He sounds like a kook. If Todd Palin is involved in an Alaskan terrorist organization then the people of the country need to know this. I'm not against it at all. My sense of humor can be very black, very dark, very crude and very tasteless but I pick my moments. Just a week or two ago, we had a patient in cardiogenic shock. He was like 93, and in poor health. In essence, he was trying to die. His family wanted us to do everything we can to save him. As we waiting in the cath lab suite for him to arrive (which took over 30 minutes, prompting us to assume this ER patient perhaps had already died), I said to a couple of folks that his family must like vegetables. Very crude and mean spirited. The point was to break the tension to the other two people I was talking to. I would never say that to the whole room or take that attitude in my other actions. Most of the time, even if I think of "black" things in serious situations, I don't say them. I suppose I am more sensitive to the bad side of humor. For instance, I never make racial jokes. I have memories of being a young kid and hearing other kids tell dirty and racial jokes. I was always embarrased. Sadly, family members continue to partake of racial or class based jokes, and political jokes involving Democrats. I get these in e-mail. I never open them, never read them but delete them (if I can tell by the subject what it is) or delete them once I see the contents. That's just how I am. Even though I am capable of thinking horribly insensitive jokes or humor I try not to put it out there when I feel it's not appropriate. I guess I don't know if my opinion on this is right or not, but it's what I've felt for a long time.  In essence I feel that political humor is truly an attack. It's one thing for the target of a question about their past to claim it's an attack, a so-called personal attack. This can be argued. However, for someone to make fun of a person's beliefs, actions, or appearance, I feel is unquestionably a personal attack. It matters not whether the "humorist" has good intentions or not. There is nothing to be gained by it except a laugh, and I'm not sure that's accomplished every time. Therefore, why make a personal attack just to try to get a laugh? As for using satire to show the absurd, those intelligent enough to understand the satire don't need satire to see the absurd. And I would argue that if you don't think something's absurd without satire being applied, you're not likely to think it's absurd after it's satired! The satire is only effective to those that see it in the first place! How often does anyone that sees satire really feel a change in their opinion? I doubt the efficacy of satire. When you enjoy the political cartoons on the editorial page, do you enjoy the ones that poke fun at your beliefs? Or just the ones that poke holes in the things you despise?</blockquote>

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