Over on the squat board, there was a thread inspired by Ted Rall’s Terror Widows. He justifiably caught a little flak for that strip, although Mr. Rall insists it was only directed at the half-dozen or so “Terror Widows” who have become media whores.
Now, I will admit that the word “hero” is thrown around loosely these days, but if that is Mr. Rall’s point, he has a pretty tasteless way of making it (and don’t get me wrong, I love tasteless humor, but come on).
Widows & dead soldiers… what’s up for next Monday’s strip? School bus accidents? Kittens in a blender?
Here’s a “cartoon” of Ted Rall on O’Reilly- I don’t care for O’Reilly but the text balloons are a fairly accurate representation of Rall trying to defend his cartoon and appearing like an utter arsehole in the process. If you follow the links at the end of the story, you can read up on the sordid Legal Comics/Danny Hellman/Ted Rall’s Balls controversy, where Rall has wasted thousands of dollars threatening Hellman with lawsuits over an e-mail prank (also note that he is seeking 1.5 million in damages over the e-mail).
If I wasn’t 100% convinced that he was an arsehole before, I sure am now.
The cheapening of the term hero is disgusting. What’s next, a purple heart for Bush because a pretzel forced him to “hit the deck” just like a real soldier being strafed by the japanese on some atoll Mcarthur couldn’t be bothered to defend ?
The national dialog has become bloated with jingoistic bullshit. Rall is performing a valuable service in pointing that out. Not, surprisingly, those who think they have the most to gain by exhorting patriotic hysteria are the first to clamor for his censure.
Squink’s right; and not only does Ted Rall have every right in the world to put what he wants to in his strip, he is obligated to satirize the situation at hand as he sees it i.e. that’s his job. (At least the guy is making fun, not lying outright like so many figures in the right-wing media.)
I thought the terror widows strip was actually rather amusing and appropriate. I was sorry to see the NY Times pull it from their website. As far as the postmodern heroes strip goes, Rall quite astutely points out that helicopter accidents and crashes cost many more soldiers’ lives than the sort of combat we are engaging in. Does it not cheapen the term hero somewhat, to apply it to someone who does nothing except die in a copter crash? Does one become a hero just by enlisting in the services at all? It’s a feel-good thing, to say yes to such questions.
Hmm… his “service” becomes much less valuable when he FORCES his audience to ignore his rants.
Mr. Rall used to be an amusingly cynical social critic, though politically wrong IMO just about 99% of the time. Now he seems to be driven by a rabid hate of Bush and anything that Bush seems to endorse or even tolerate. We saw this from the other side during the Clinton years, and most thinking people either ignored or ridiculed it.
If he keeps it up, he will become as irrelevant as the borderline psychotic standing on the street corner ranting about the great conspiracy between the Jews, the House of Windsor, the Rothchilds, and Colonel Sanders.
Oh, and RTA, of course he has the right to be an offensive jackass. Likewise, I have the right to let the world know what I think of him. Both of us had better abide by the rules and wishes of those who own our respective media (NYT & other papers for Rall, the Chicago Reader’s SDMB for me) or we will end up talking to ourselves.
Ted Rall is an asshole, pure and simple. Do I think the term hero has been overused and diluted? Yes. Do I think that there are some “terror widows” who have acted dishonorably? Yes. Do I think its possible to illustrate this in a tasteful manner? yes, but that’s not what Rall did. “Of course its a bummer that they slashed my husband’s throat- but the worst was having to watch the olympics alone!” How was THAT in any way representative of Mrs. Pearl’s behavior? RTA, how was that not “lying outright like so many figures in the right-wing media”?
I have the same problem with The Boondocks that I have with Rall’s cartoons- They’ve got a point and the cartoon might be funny if their humor didn’t have all the subtlety and tastefulness of a Superbowl halftime show.
There you go again, exaggerating things to play up your own virtue. How is Mr. Rall FORCING you to ignore his rants ? Has he put a GUN to your HEAD ? Do you suspect he might have connections to Al Qaeda ? Does it make you a HERO to risk NOT looking at his cartoons ? Are you now a real FREEDOM FIGHTER for having stood up to the Tyranny of Mr. Rall ?
If you wish to restrict the people you disagree with to “tasteful dissent” you have a responsibility to behave tastefully yourself. As it is, you resemble the man who would complain about the emission of a small stinky fart in a substandard hog rendering plant.
Simple… his moronic and distasteful “rants” has put him (in my mind, at least) on my crank/crackpot list. Any positive contribution to the public discourse he is attempting to make is completely overshadowed by the way he attempts to make it.
BTW, he’s there on the crank/crackpot list along with the “Clinton death list”, the “New World Order” people, and the like. These types aren’t a “small stinky fart in a substandard hog rendering plant,” they are more like turds in the punchbowl.
Here’s Ted Rall spewing again, this time in a Yahoo op-ed (from the New Yorker to Yahoo News, at this rate by next month his only outlet will be webpage guestbooks). From the article:
“Theoretically, the First Amendment permits us to talk about anything we want, but God help you if you actually try to use the thing… Both newspapers caved in to the pressure, adding victims compensation to the list of things we’re no longer supposed to question.”
No Ted, you can question it, you just can’t be an arse about it. In fact, I agree with some of the “Problems with the Fund” paragraph in that article. IMHO, Ted’s upset that other people are invoking THEIR 1st Amendment rights (and consumer rights to boot) to disagree with him. “Gee, if I say something unpopular, lots of people disagree with me!”
Hmm, rjung, I guess you’ve never been to Austin. We don’t have that “conservative-liberal” dichotomy here. BTW, I do drive an import (but it is a 4x4 pickup)
