Serena Williams at the U.S. Open
This is only *** at worst. It was the heat of competition and she was frustrated. Plus, there is a long tradition in tennis of blowing up at the officials and line judges. See McEnroe, Connors.
Rep. Joe Wilson during Obama's 1,567th speech about health care
I'd rate this a ****. While it is a long tradition in some countries such as Great Britain to have shouting matches in their legislature while the Prime Minister is speaking (or even fist fights if you are talking about South Korea's parliament), we don't really do that here. Plus, the President of the United States is a symbol of our nation as a whole in addition to serving as the chief of state who should be accorded a certain respect, regardless of political party. Since we don't have a King or Queen, the office of the president is the closest thing we've got. It is not in our tradition to have outbursts like that when the president is addressing a joint session of Congress. Now, the Dems did boo George W. Bush a few years back, which was also a **** on the scale of inappropriate behavior. Let's be fair. But it was quite rude of Wilson and not a good precedent to set. We are still a far cry from the Civil War days when one southern senator beat a northern senator to a pulp with a cane on the Senate floor, or when Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel by Vice-President Aron Burr. But still, we don't really want to go back to those days, do we? Although, Wilson has recieved over $1 million in campaign contributions since his outburst.
ABOVE: Sen. Brooks beats the crap out of Sen. Sumner on the floor of the Senate right before the Civil War
Kanye West highjacking the mike from Taylor Swift to say that Beyonce should have won the award instead of Swift
I give this ****. Assuming that this was not a pre-planned stunt on the part of MTV to garner buzz for their anemic video awards show, this was pretty damn rude. Even President Obama called Kanye a "jackass." Now, when the president of the United States refers to you as a "jackass," you have probably done something pretty stupid. Even worse than the actual act has been Kanye's inevitable "I'm sorry" tour on the talk show circuit. I did enjoy Jay Leno asking Kanye whether his deceased mother would be ashamed of him, though. That was good.
3 comments:
I mostly agree with your ratings. Serena's outburst was a little out of character for her, but it was really bad and she deserved the penalty point and the fine.
Even though I don't like Wilson and I disagree with him, I think he has a right to say what he thinks, but that was not the appropriate time and place.
Ditto for Kanye. Although I think Kanye's stunt was even worse. I might even go with ***** for that. If he had shouted from the audience, it would be **** but to do that on stage in her face was totally unacceptable. He is a jackass.
Kanye gets *****, definitely, even though the VMA's are probably a sham, which alters it somewhat. I agree with your **** for Wilson. The lameness of what he yelled and his nervous exit from the room afterwards leaven it somewhat. But I'd give ***** to Serena. She wasn't yelling at the chair ump, but at a lowly line girl, and she was obviously being pretty obscene and violent about it (the only thing I could make out by lip-reading was, "...shove this ball down your f***ing throat!"). Nice.
The best thing of the Obama Presidency was calling Kanye a Jackass. I don't know if that comment says more about Kanye or more about the Obama Presidency.
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