Saturday, September 24, 2005
Usually I confine this blog to items that appear in the print version of
The State. But I have a masochistic streak a mile wide, so I must confess that I also read
Brad Warthen's blog. After all, he's more often wrong than boring (although he can occasionally be incredibly boring, like when he's
sucking up to the boss.)
So I was looking on Brad's blog the other day when I noticed that he had an
exchange with the most loathesome man in American media. I was taken aback.
Ted Rall is a cartoonist and a self-styled radical. He achieved the height of his "fame" when, in March 2002, he drew a cartoon that made fun of "terror widows"—women whose husbands had lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. He accused them of being self-serving and creepy.
Women who have had their husbands murdered are not usually the objects of ridicule. Society usually thinks they deserve sympathy and consolation, not ridicule.
Indeed it may be hard for you to believe that anyone would be enough of a moral idiot to make fun of people for having lost loved ones.
So here is the cartoon.I was shocked when I saw that Brad Warthen was featuring this disgrace of a human being, Ted Rall, on his blog.
People have the right to say whatever they want in this country. They can even say hateful, stupid, and ridiculous things. That's the price of freedom. But we don't have to pay attention to them.
So why is Brad Warthen giving a friendly hearing to, and having a respectful exchange with, the most insensitive and least insightful "artist" in the whole country? If we are going to have decent society, enforced by voluntarily and not by law, we are going to have to shun bottom-feeding scum like Ted Rall.
That means you, Brad.
UPDATE: Here is one widow's reaction to Rall's 9/11 comic strip.
Posted by Bill Smith at 9:10 AM |
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