I have a joke for you. “What does an executive, a comedian, and a sports writer have in common?” The answer is “Pie in their face.” Over the past weekend, “jokes” was one of the biggest stories being covered by the 24-hour media. Many of the jokes were funny, but three individuals told jokes that I have to take issue with. The individuals are President Obama, Wanda Sykes, and David Feherty.

Joke #1 (brought to you by President Obama): Dick Cheney was supposed to be here, but he is very busy working on his memoirs … tentatively titled “How to shoot friends and interrogate people.”

Joke #2 (brought to you by Wanda Sykes): Rush Limbaugh [said], “I hope the country fails.” I hope his kidney’s fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that’s what he needs.

Joke #3 (brought to you by David Feherty): From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.

What do these jokes all have in common? Violence. As I mentioned in two articles back in February (regarding the cops shooting the ape and discussing the stimulus bill), I am against violence – especially violence towards political officials. There is no place for it in American politics, especially at the highly publicized White House Correspondence Dinner, and especially from the President of the United States.

While I do not demand apologies by these individuals for their jokes, David Feherty has already issued one. In his statement he says, “In retrospect, it was inappropriate and unacceptable, and has clearly insulted Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, and for that, I apologize.” The White House nor Obama have apologized for his joke, but they have distanced themselves from Wanda Sykes joke. Robert Gibbs stated that they do not book the guests for the correspondence dinner and “that there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy.”

I hope in the future that people learn from these three examples provided above, as well as from the fallout over the political cartoon by Sean Delonas. If we are to be a “civilized society” and an example for the rest of the world to look up to, then we need to drop the violent speak directed towards the members in our political environment, even if it is meant in jest.

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