Have a nominee for Asshole of the Week? Send it to us!

We love the First Amendment. We love that, in this country, people are free to express whatever their views are, regardless of how idiotic, offensive, or flat-out wrong those views are. That's why, in one sense, we thought it was a little ridiculous when, in June 2006, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission received a complaint against Geno's Steaks owner Joe Vento for the now-infamous sign he put up at the Geno's window that said, "This is America. When ordering, please speak English." It's impossible not to have an opinion on the sentiment Vento expressed, but that's not what we're talking about right now. The point is, he had a right to say it. That being said, we're not sure where in the Oxford English Dictionary the words "whiz" and "wit'" appear, and we suspect that anyone who attempted to order a cheesesteak from Geno's in proper English was turned away and/or "corrected" in their vocabulary.

Last month, the PHRC ruled that Vento's sign was not discriminatory in that it did not convey a message that service would be refused to non-English speakers. Really, that should have been the end of it. Vento should have kept his sign up, and anyone who has a problem with it should simply not patronize Geno's. Of course, we don't understand why anyone would patronize Geno's anyway, but that's because there are a number of far superior cheesesteaks to be had in this city.

But of course, being vindicated in his right to post the "please speak English" side isn't good enough for Vento. Vento has demanded that the PHRC amend their practices, and he wants an apology from Mayor Nutter, who returned the $1,000 that Vento had contributed to his campaign and who supported the PHRC's pursuit of the case. Okay, Vento is right in that it's unacceptable that it took 21 months to get his case resolved by the PHRC. But sorry, Joey, just because you're an obnoxious loudmouth, it doesn't mean that your case gets handled before everyone else's. You go to the bottom of the stack of complaints and wait your turn like everyone else. (Maybe Vento should really be bitching about all the bullshit human relations complaints that get filed in our hyper-politically correct society that create an enormous backlog for bodies like the PHRC.)

And now that Joey's case has finally been decided in his favor, he's really bitching and moaning. He wants the city's fair practices ordinance to be rewritten, and says that if it's not, he's going to take the matter back to court, this time as a plaintiff challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance. Of course, we're trying to wrap our head around the fact that he's challenging an ordinance under which the PHRC found he didn't do anything wrong. So he really can't now say that there's anything wrong with the actual ordinance. Perhaps he has a legit gripe against the people in charge of enforcing the law.

Was Vento wronged in this whole thing? Yes, distasteful as his views might be to many. But when the system works, and he still won't be satisfied, we've got to say that enough is enough. So, for being the sorest winner in recent memory, Joey Vento is our Asshole of the Week.