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thatcrazycajunC. Thomas Sowell, whom longtime readers of this blog will have long ago learned is not exactly on my exceedingly short list of worthwhile conservative intellectuals (if that very term isn't in itself an oxymoron), has gone and done it again in this column my local paper printed today. (Sadly, they apparently do not have web rights for any of their syndicated columnists, so Townhall.com's link will have to do.)
Bad enough that he's joined Republican Congressional types in condemning Pres. Barack Obama's efforts to make sure British Petroleum PLC pays the full freight for cleaning up its mess, both physical and economic, in the Gulf of Mexico; but now he's not only proving Godwin's Law (and not for the first time, either) by comparing the current administration to the Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin régimes, but resorting to childish name-calling. The money quote is in the very last paragraph:
"Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power-- versus the rule of law and the preservation of freedom-- are the 'useful idiots' of our time."
So not only are any of us who disagree with him supporting the destruction of democracy in our time and helping make Obama a dictator, we're idiots to boot. Even if the President did strong-arm BP's honchos somehow into agreeing to set up the escrow fund (which I don't for a picosecond believe), this does not come within light-years of being comparable to the kind of actions Hitler took to arrogate power to himself in 1930s Germany. Now, Sowell has a right to his opinion, odious as it may be, and even the right to express it publicly...but if he's going to use such below-the-belt tactics to advance his agenda, he better damned well expect to be called on it.
And the only thing worse than the column itself is the cheers it's generating from the right-wing noise machine. One GOP Congressional troglodyte (hey, if it's okay for Tom, it's okay for me, right? Right??) actually read the column aloud on the House floor. And Caribou Barbie (AKA Sarah Palin) is also praising Sowell's garbage and urging her supporters to read it. Once again, we see that in any situation where the interests of the consumer, the worker, the environment and/or the nation as a whole conflict with the fiduciary interests of business—even when the situation is a Three Mile Island, a Bhopal or a Deepwater Horizon causing visible and drastic harm to the community—conservatives will invariably side with business against the rest of us.
Bad enough that he's joined Republican Congressional types in condemning Pres. Barack Obama's efforts to make sure British Petroleum PLC pays the full freight for cleaning up its mess, both physical and economic, in the Gulf of Mexico; but now he's not only proving Godwin's Law (and not for the first time, either) by comparing the current administration to the Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin régimes, but resorting to childish name-calling. The money quote is in the very last paragraph:
"Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power-- versus the rule of law and the preservation of freedom-- are the 'useful idiots' of our time."
So not only are any of us who disagree with him supporting the destruction of democracy in our time and helping make Obama a dictator, we're idiots to boot. Even if the President did strong-arm BP's honchos somehow into agreeing to set up the escrow fund (which I don't for a picosecond believe), this does not come within light-years of being comparable to the kind of actions Hitler took to arrogate power to himself in 1930s Germany. Now, Sowell has a right to his opinion, odious as it may be, and even the right to express it publicly...but if he's going to use such below-the-belt tactics to advance his agenda, he better damned well expect to be called on it.
And the only thing worse than the column itself is the cheers it's generating from the right-wing noise machine. One GOP Congressional troglodyte (hey, if it's okay for Tom, it's okay for me, right? Right??) actually read the column aloud on the House floor. And Caribou Barbie (AKA Sarah Palin) is also praising Sowell's garbage and urging her supporters to read it. Once again, we see that in any situation where the interests of the consumer, the worker, the environment and/or the nation as a whole conflict with the fiduciary interests of business—even when the situation is a Three Mile Island, a Bhopal or a Deepwater Horizon causing visible and drastic harm to the community—conservatives will invariably side with business against the rest of us.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-29 10:47 pm (UTC)It can be argued that perhaps Obama should have, say, instructed his AG to go to court and get an injunction against BP... but the upshot should have been the same - All BP's base should belong to us, BP, for the grave crime of ongoing destruction to our southeastern shoreline.
And you are totally and completely dead-on that Sowell's column is so flagrant a violation of Godwin's Law that, were I his editor, I would have pulled the column and docked his pay for the week. (I have room to talk; I have written something nearly that bad, and I damn well didn't get paid for it. 20/20 hindsight, Don Marti was right to lower the hammer on me... and I wrote quite a few more columns for him before our publisher did something unthinkable and we parted ways.)
That's a drum I keep beating. If you're going to commit journalism, you damn well need to do it *right*. Otherwise, I don't care who you are, no one is going to respect you, and they won't be listening when you have something that needs to get heard.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-29 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 04:03 am (UTC)