Wednesday, December 17, 2008

What's In a Name?

Here I go again putting myself out on a limb with this story about a store refusing to decorate a cake for a child's birthday. Sounds cruel except that the child's name is Adolf Hitler Campbell. Another story.

But let's get real. The assholes are the parents, not the child. It's rare that I disagree with Keith Olbermann, who covered the story tonight, but it does happen. And he dragged Rachel Maddow into the fray. I see their point but I think they are wrong.

When you go into business, you are in business to serve all people. No doubt they have baked cakes and decorated them for any number of racists, homophobes, bigots, whatever, but it was in a less obvious situation. Refusing to decorate a cake for a child who happens to be named Adolf Hitler Campbell, even if the cake decoration itself was to say only "Adolf Hitler" is unacceptable in my opinion.

Adolf in and of itself is not a bad name. Nor is Hitler. And I'm sure there's been more than one Adolf Hitler on the planet given the preponderance of Germans. And it's not like the parents, assholes though they are, were asking for a cake to celebrate the birthday of Adolf Hitler. His birthday was just two days from mine way back in April. This is a cake for a child who does not yet comprehend the atrocity inflicted upon him by his asshole parents.

Let him have his cake. Give him as much joy as possible in his young years because he will be subjected to hell by the time he's going through school.

Honestly, this hysteria reminds me a bit of the Hussein frenzy surrounding Obama. The difference being that Barack was named prior to Saddam Hussein coming to power. It's just a name. And so is Adolf. And so is Hitler. Deal with it.

The kid is not Adolf Hitler. He is just named after him. He deserves a cake, and more. And Wal-Mart came through for him.

Wow, politics really does make for strange bedfellows. I wish George Carlin was around to pontificate on this story.

What do you think?

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