Posted on 01/24/2006 3:30:31 PM PST by Checkers
Joel Stein is a 30-something columnist for the Los Angeles Times, for which he writes weekly.
His offering today, "Warriors and Wusses" provoked a huge outpouring of e-mail to me. I hadn't even read the piece --many, many people who subscribe to the Times don't read much of it-- but e-mail pored in demanding that I post a response.
Upon reading it, I could understand the anger. here are some key graphs:
"I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on."
and
"But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives. I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel."
and
"I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades. Seriously, the traffic is insufferable."
Instead of posting a response, I booked an interview, just concluded, which will play on my show at 3:06 Pacific.
As I suspected, Mr. Stein really doesn't know anyone on active duty, hasn't been to any bases or any of the service academies, hasn't met with wounded or returning troops, and generally admits to being blissfully ignorant of the military. He could not recount a single book he has read about the military, and doesn't even know how big it is. He thinks the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have died in the GWOT have died in vain. He does not feel grateful for their service.
These are not illegal opinions, of course, but they are deeply repulsive ones, and I don't believe the Los Angeles Times ought to have run this column. At a minimum, Stein's editor, Andres Martinez, who worked with Stein on the piece last night should have expressed some demands for reporting or distinction or at a minimum cautions about what Stein wrote. I questioned Stein closely on this point, and Martinez expressed no substantive views on the column at all.
I also asked Stein if a reader would be justified in cancelling his or her subscription to the Los Angeles Times on the basis of the column. He admitted that while he hoped that a single column on the op-ed page wouldn't rigger such a reaction that he could certainly understand people doing so.
Some comments on the column posted at LATimes.com:
"Joel Stein is an ivory tower dwelling Marxist punk. His use of the word "Imperialism" with a straight face alone shows his lack of any connection with reality. He should just go get a pedicure with Zsa Zsa and leave politics to the adults. Submitted by: Matt Dedinas 3rd ID ('96-'99) 2:25 PM PST, Jan 24, 2006"
"RE: Joel Stein. Tell me again why the written opinions of an overeducated, underexperienced, snotty little prick are vital to the image and mission of a major US daily newspaper? Glenn Perry Colonel, US Air Force (Ret) Submitted by: Glenn M. Perry 2:14 PM PST, Jan 24, 2006:"
More reaction from around the blogopshere located here( http://www.memeorandum.com/ )
A transcript of the interview will be up at Radioblogger.com shortly. I will also replay it in hour three.
To cancel your subscription, call: 1-888-565-2323. (Back-up cancellation number: 310-608-0111.)
Joel Stein doesn't support the troops. Don't support Joel Stein.
Stein isn't an aberration. He's an archetype of and from the left.
As I suspected, Mr. Stein really doesn't know anyone on active duty, hasn't been to any bases or any of the service academies, hasn't met with wounded or returning troops, and generally admits to being blissfully ignorant of the military.
With this attitude throughout his community, it is no wonder Israel keeps giving up land.
F*** you, Stein.
This guy dares to compare our troops combat experience to his 'experience' with pop-up ads on his laptop?
Then he says he doesn't want parades for our troops because of the traffic jams they might cause?
What a punk!
Stein's mother should have aborted this P.O.S. writer for the LA Times. Shame on her for allowing this jerk to even breathe our free air.
Well that didn't take long.
He is also blissfully ignorant about what war means...what duty means...what honor means.
Actually, I respect Stein's honesty. He says outloud what most of the left really thinks but is afraid to admit. His opinions may be repellent; but at least he isn't trying to get power by hiding them, like the rest of his democrat comrades (Joe Lieberman excepted).
So did Hitler, bin Laden and that Nazi in Iran. The guy is a jerk, like they are.
Exactly, he's saying exactly what all the "I support the troops but don't support the war" crowd actually feel, but don't want to admit. I have more respect for him than I do those people, because at least he's making a honest stand for his position, and hopes to either win or lose the argument based on the merits of his position. The rest of them are trying to get their way through duplicity.
Yep.
Here, here, ModelBraker. The whole 'support' for the troops is such crap. When you really question these people who are against the war, but for the troops, you find that they really hate the troops too. They think the military tortures and kills innocents. Stein is just saying what most on the left think.
Found at: http://www.latimes.com:/news/opinion/commentary/la-bio-stein-b,0,2860970.blurb?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Stein's bio from the LA Times:
"Joel Stein is desperate for attention. He grew up in Edison, N.J., went to Stanford and then worked for Martha Stewart for a year. After two years of fact-checking at various publications, he got hired as a sports editor at Time Out New York. Two years later he lucked into a job as a staff writer for Time magazine, where over seven and a half years he wrote a dozen cover stories on subjects such as Michael Jordan, Las Vegas, the Internet bubble and — it being Time and he being a warm body in the office — low-carb diets.
Being desperate for attention, he has appeared on any TV show that asks him: VH1's "I Love the Decade You Tell Me I Love," HBO's "Phoning It In," Comedy Central's "Reel Comedy" and E! Entertainment's "101 Hottest Hot Hotties' Hotness."
After teaching a class in humor writing at Princeton, he moved to L.A. at the beginning of 2005 to write a column for the Los Angeles Times. He still contributes to Time and whatever magazines allow him to. But his heart belongs to you, L.A. Times reader. Only to you."
Stein and vermin like him are doing America a favor.
Let us know who you are.....
Silly boy.
Well, the LAT just closed one printing plant near me. Maybe they'll close another one someplace else!
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