What Do You Consider Offensive?

Obviously, there is a segment of our world that is offended right now, in particular by the words of Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. This isn’t an unusual happening – nearly four years ago (wow, that was a long time ago!), I wrote about Rush Limbaugh, and while he may have said some offensive things, other issues brought up in the same article may or may not offend you (the use of the word niggardly, for instance, which has nothing to do whatsoever with that other n-word).

Both of these things focus on the African American population, and that isn’t intentional – it was just the only other item I could think of off the top of my head that had written about. I also didn’t realize it had been four years since that other entry. But it can also be something religious that bothers us, or perhaps something lascivious (preferably not something lascivious and religious – that’s a little over-the-top, even for me). Let’s look at a few things that can offend, just so I’m not painted into a corner.

One of my favorites pastimes is food, and one of the largest controversies of all is sex, so it’s only natural that something that combines the two would catch my eye – both literally and figuratively. In this case, there was a picture, but it was the headline that first drew my attention (for a short while, anyway!). The Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Arizona serves up their signature bypass burgers in single, double, triple and quadruple varieties – but to put a spin on it, the burgers are delivered by “nurses” in very skimpy outfits. Visit the site and you’ll get music that really puts you in the mood. The pictures on the main site aren’t bad, but the blog, run on TypePad, has some, uh, interesting ones, and you can even add your own. Consider yourself warned.

In New York, an artist has created an exhibit of a naked, anatomically correct Jesus. First, I want to know how anyone could possibly know that – I’ve never seen that verse in the bible. But I digress. The problem? It’s made of chocolate, which puts food into the mix again, and I suppose you can throw sex into it too, since he’s naked. But I suspect it’s the religious aspect that really has people going – or maybe they are just worried that those hot lights will melt the chocolate, resulting in a huge amount of waste. I just don’t know where to begin on this one, as there are so many avenues of offense! Apparently the display has been shut down after repeated angry calls – including death threats to the artist.

Finally, in Las Vegas, three homeless men were mistakenly arrested last year on charges of sleeping too close to a pile of – wait for it – feces – have settled a lawsuit for $45,000. The really bad part is that they got off because the law is actually no longer on the books. The city council approved it in August, making it illegal to sleep within 500 feet of feces or urine, and then repealed it in September. Since the men were arrested in November (on the 26th – hope they had a nice Thanksgiving dinner earlier that week), they were able to get out of it, and collect some nice cash in return. Frankly, I’m offended here by the law – if I want to sleep next to feces (or urine, for that matter), I’d like to think that I could do so, without fear of being arrested. I’m just glad that justice prevailed.

So how about it – what offends you?