It is sad to see that some politicians today just can't take a joke. I am not making a reference to our current president, by the way, even though that is his picture at the head of this blog. What you see is a product that what was available at the University of Tennessee bookstore. The product was removed when State Representative Joe Armstrong, a Democrat, went to the store and made a complaint. Armstrong is quoted as saying, "When you operate on state and federal dollars, you ought to be sensitive to those type of politically specific products. If it was a private entity or corporation or store, (that's different), but this is a state university. We certainly don't want in any way to put the university in a bad light by having those political (products), particularly aimed at defaming the president."
Of course Representative Armstrong doesn't see this as being a free-speech issue. It's just plain offensive to him. I wonder if he's ever looked at political cartoon? The mints are made by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild, who love the put out products with unusual names. Are they just singling out President Obama for ridicule? The answer to that is very easy.
The mints you see here were sold at the University of Tennessee bookstore in 2004. There were no Republicans going in there demanding that those be removed from the shelves. In 2008 another product appeared on the shelves:
Where was the outrage over that product? Personally, I find them all very funny. As usual, when someone tries to make a huge issue out of nothing, it has a tendency to backfire on them. The Disappoint-mints have sold out and are appearing on eBay as collectors items. Representative Armstrong is finding himself becoming an object of ridicule. He should have seen this coming.
As far as I know, that is a mockup, not an actual product. However, I'm willing to bet very soon you will be able to buy those. It'll be interesting to see if Representative Armstrong gets reelected. He really needs to lighten up a little bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment