Brad Warthen, Enemy of the Downtrodden

During the initiation of the rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina, there were confirmed reports of snipers and looters shooting at law enforcement and rescue workers. Thankfully, order has been restored.

Today, the rescue efforts have reached a point where they somewhat less immediately urgent--but somewhat more important for the long-term survival and recovery of New Orleans. One of the first jobs is getting children the education they need almost as badly as anything else.

So why is editorial sniper Brad Warthen shooting at the plan to help the children of the Gulf Coast by allowing their families to get their kids back into school? Why does Warthen hate freedom of choice so much that he's willing to sacrifice children's welfare to make sure it doesn't happen?

Is protecting a bureaucracy really more important than getting kids back into a secure, functioning learning environment?

Only to a moral idiot like Brad Warthen.

False Prophet

Brad Warthen purports to speak for God.

How do you spell "blasphemy?"

Gulf Coast Dictatorship

...the latest proposal from Brad Warthen, reflexive authoritarian.

Consorting with the Scum of the Earth

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.

This is News?

Ever since the reactionaries at The Statist decided that letting South Carolina's parents opt out of the state's godawful public schools would be a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions, hitherto unseen on the North American contintent, the Keystone Cops of journalism have more-or-less ignored serious proposals to reform and improve education.

Well, no more.

No Longer Just Ignorant. Now Disrespectful, Too!

How do you know that you are a beloved, admired, and invaluable contributor to the state of South Carolina? Why, when a professional mediocrity such as Cindi Ross Scoppe deigns to attack you, of course!

Stan Spears, Grady Patterson, and good ol' Strom(RIP)—thanks for all you've done for our wonderful Palmetto State!

New Galaxies of Journalistic Malpractice

Ugh.

We all like to get in good with the new boss. But Brad Warthen redefines the word "suck-up" with his obsequious, toadying, lackeying, sycophantic style. Seriously, Brad, I know you want to keep your prime parking spot, but forcing the rest of us to witness your undignified groveling is cruel, bordering on inhuman.

Lee Bandy is a Hack

I wonder how much Inez "It's All About Me" Tenenbaum and Joe Erwin are paying Lee Bandy to put on the short skirt and play the part of pom-pom waving Democrat Cheerleader? (And if they're not paying him, well, they ought to be.)

Here's Bandy's latest "Rah-rah, Republicans Stink" cheer. He interviews about seven people—as far as the reader can tell—and after culling their most ambivalent, anti-Sanford quotes, he decides that "His support is a mile wide and an inch deep" according to unnamed political "experts."

It's as if Bandy doesn't know that actual political scientists who have the most advanced techniques use polls of hundreds or thousands of people, rather than taking the opinion of the first three people they see on the street. Bandy has to know that what he's doing is worthless for predictive purposes.

It's time put Lee Bandy out to pasture. Maybe someplace in this state, there's a place with a golf course or some poolside with umbrella drinks that Bandy could call home. Because it's clear that Bandy no longer has the energy, integrity, or competence to do his job in a professional manner.

Shocking

This is beyond bad journalism. This is bad taste.

Citizens, Rejoice! The State Will Tell You What to Think!

So I have a question: What's wrong with Cindi Scoppe? I mean it. I'm really concerned.

It's pretty clear that she doesn't understand what it's like to live in an Open Society. It's as if she didn't grow up in a free country (so doesn't understand the blessings of liberty), nor did she grow up in a tyranny (so she can't understand what it's like to always have other people tell you what to do—at the barrel of a gun).

Since America is (still) a free country, I worry that Cindi Scoppe might have some trouble getting used to it.

I kid, I kid. But Cindi Scoppe's most recent article is truly bizarre. First, she attacks bloggers as "loud-mouthed know-it-alls on the political extremes who delight in their uninformed ignorance and spew disdain upon the rational among us who actually know what they’re talking about."

Now clearly, with regard to some bloggers, she's right. But, really, who else could she be talking about? Is she talking about Laurin Manning? Or Tim Kelly? Or Jeff Quinton?

Scoppe goes on for another few hundred words to herald how important it is for people to know what they're talking about. But, of course, Scoppe's idea of people "knowing what you're talking about" means that ordinary citizens can't simply talk about politics. It's not their area of expertise, you see. In order to talk about politics, you have to be a politician, or the editor of a newspaper, or, well, Cindi Scoppe.

When it comes to minor, unimportant concepts like a citizen's right to freedom of speech or public debate in a free country, Cindi Scoppe doesn't know what she's talking about.