In yet another sickening demonization of the American Armed Forces, Ted Rall portrays our troops as thugs and indiscriminate killers.
Well, despite what Rall states on his blog, I do not believe he loves our country, and I don’t think he gives a rat’s ass one way or another about what happens to our troops who are fighting the War on Terrorism. I certainly don’t think he is a patriot in any sense of the word. Patriots sacrifice something of themselves in defense of their country and it’s ideals. All Rall does is profit from vilifying those Americans who are risking their lives to defend the freedom which he enjoys on a daily basis. Here is Rall’s explanation of what he does:
Whether or not I am a patriot is for others to judge. I do love this country, however, and I’m fighting my damnedest to remind my fellow Americans of our core values, those we all learned as children, and to stop the Hard Right from revolutionizing us into a neofascist nightmare. (By the way, I don’t recall labeling myself. And another by the way: since when are socialists anti-patriotic?)
Okay, since I am not you, I can therefore classify myself as part of the group “others.” You, sir, are no patriot. I don’t know what perverted core values you wish to remind Americans about, but they aren’t the ones I remember learning when I was young. Debate is a healthy thing in an American-style democracy, but said debates should be held within the United States and not abroad among groups who despise us. You and your ilk think nothing of ranting about how horrible it is in America to foreign audiences, whether in print or in person. You call American servicemen murderers and killers, and use them as the butt of your jokes, and then turn around and try to sell yourself as a “patriot.”
So, what does Rall think about the terrorists who are killing innocent Muslims in Jordan and Iraq?
And I might think better of you when you stopped using loaded rhetoric like refering to resistance fighters (a clearer and more neutral term) as “terrorists.” Unless, of course, you also consider George Washington to have been a terrorist, in which case we’ll let it go.
He equates people like Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to George Washington. I guess it’s easy to “forget” that Washington didn’t kill innocent women and children in furtherance of his goals, and it certainly makes it easier to make a moral equivalence between them. However, as inconvenient as they may be, facts are stubborn things and they don’t change just because they contradict your argument.
For the record: I don’t share the vision of radical Islamism that some of the anti-US resistance in Iraq apparently wants to impose on Iraq and the Middle East. I wish nothing more than to see the people of the world rise up, overthrow their dictators and autocrats, and create just, peaceful, representative political and economic systems that reward people for their hard work and provide security in their everyday lives. Taliban-like theocracies are obviously antiethical to that goal.
But ultimately it’s up to the citizens of each nation to decide for themselves, sometimes via civil war and acts of violence, to determine how they want to live. Who is to say that my vision, that our vision of democracy, is best for every country? Besides, we still have too much work to do here in the United States of America before we can hold ourselves up as a shining beacon of hope to the rest of the world. We have an unelected dictator for a a”president,” a nation that denies tens of millions of people access to basic healthcare, kids throwing their unwanted babies into Dumpsters, young adults plunged into student loan poverty, systemic racism that divides our cities and suburbs into haves and have-nots, a wildly inadequate retirement system that the ruling party is trying to get rid of–like I said, we have a lot of work to do.
The choice between radical Islam and American-style pseudodemocracy is a false one presented by the Hard Right. There is 0.0% danger that Islamists will take over the United States. And it is 0.0% our business whether it takes over other countries.
In his world, no nation should free the enslaved masses of another nation until such time as their system of government is perfect and their citizens are content. In Rall’s world, it is 0.0% our business if hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children are murdered by a ruthless dictator and his sons, whose favorite method of execution was to throw people into massive plastic shredders while they were still alive. Nope, we have no business there. In Rall’s world, it’s okay to murder thousands of innocent people because they aren’t Americans.
Oh, if you have a question about a statistic or “fact” cited i one of his writings, don’t bother to ask him to provide the source of his information. This is from his “Email Guidelines“:
3. I will not respond to requests for citations, links to news articles, quotes or other information that is widely available on the Internet, television or your local library. Please do your own research.
I guess it’s hard to cite a source for something if you made it up.
Of course, Rall’s world is far removed from reality. You need look no further than his statement above that “We have an unelected dictator for a ‘president’” to figure where he is coming from. In truth, Rall is nothing more than one of the mental deficients on the left who is a slave to his hatred of George W. Bush and who would do or say anything to remove him from office. Unfortunately, in a nation which has freedom of speech as one of it’s foundations, such bile has to be tolerated. The only good thing which comes from tolerance of such filth is that it allows the vast majority of people to see Rall for what he is, and the more he spews, the weaker his position.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly feel the need to take a shower.
UPDATE: Welcome Michelle Malkin readers. I hope you’ll take a look around and come back often.
November 28th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
Thank you for braving the sewers of depraved lefty thought. I appreciate your courage and fortitude. This guy is truly deranged, doesn’t he know there’s a place called Canada that welcomes and celebrates him and his ilk?
Thanks again,
Jake
November 28th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
Why would you answer to someone as Rall? There are elements of dementia that are not treatable and Rall merely presents more symptoms than others of the tragic liberal left.
There is an epidemic in this country that may soon have a code in the psychiatric statistics manual, DMSO I think it is called. It is one thing to be liberal and in a very true sense of the term it is not quite so distorted as the perpetrators of mayhem or radical/liberal left demonstrate. Think of Joe Lieberman, for example. Lieberman is a liberal but surely does not comport himself as mentally insufficient, not to the standards of say the fellow from Tennessee. Even Al Gore, excessive as he can be, is not a genuine mentally ill MoveOn.org fool or as frivolous as this fellow Rall.
Giving attention to the miscreants is mistaken by them as giving recognition or acknowledgment. I do NOT recognize Rall and certainly will not acknowledge him as a factor of other than an untreated, delusional or deranged idiot seeking attention.
That’s just me
November 28th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Also, Ralls comment about the president being a “dictator” reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of our system of government. Laws are made by the legislature, implemented and enforced by the executive, and refined and adjudicated by the judicial. Separation of powers ensures that no one can rule as a “dictator”. The left is oblivious to the course of history, economy and civics. Perhaps that also explains why Ralls has drawn something resembling a F4 that fell out of vogue 40 years ago but tagged it as being an instrument of the Iraq war.
November 28th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
Most excellent post. I followed the link here from Michelle Malkin’s site and have already cited you at my web log here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2005/11/re-ted-ralls-idea-of-patriotism.html
November 28th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
Interesting what Mr. Rall thinks of Social Security “a wildly inadequate retirement system that the ruling party is trying to get rid of…” So. it is badly broken, but any thought of revamping it is not allowed. Typical liberal socialist or whatever he labels himself — this is our program and we will continue to support it regardless of how poorly it performs or how terrible a system it is. It buys us votes, so leave it alone.
November 28th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Mister Rall’s perverse “SEX LIFE OF IRAQI VETS” reveals far more about his ideas of what a sex life comprises, and how little he knows about veterans (do you suppose he’s ever actually met one of us?) than it does about veterans themselves.
November 28th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Excellent post, Nick. I can’t imagine how even the liberal MSM can tolerate the repugnant views he espouses.
November 28th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Excellent post, Nick. First time here (via Michelle Malkin), and I’m impressed.
And it is 0.0% our business whether it takes over other countries.
Substitute “Nazis” or “Communists” or “fascists” for “Islamists” and Ted Rall’s view of the world becomes clear. It’s amazing to think that Bush Republicans are the incarnation of evil in Rall’s world, while he wouldn’t dream of offering a moral critique people who engage in mass murder. Amazing.
November 28th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
Thank you for exposing this fraud for precisely what he is. My husband and many of our friends are military members. My husband was anything but a thug or an indiscriminate killer. You’re exactly right when you say that he won’t disclose a source for the simple reason that there IS no source. You are right again when you say that he is anything but a patriot. When someone constantly takes potshots at military members who did not ask to head to the middle east, yet still want to defend their country to the death….they are traitors, not patriots. In my opinion, that is precisely what Ted Rall is…a traitor.
November 28th, 2005 at 6:14 pm
I think you’re giving him just what he wants, which is attention.
If a retarded person farts loudly in church, the polite thing to do is to pretend you didn’t hear it and just go on. Same with Rall, who is a disturbed and bitter person who craves attention and gets it by trying to be outrageous. He seems to be stuck at a junior high level of emotional development. (And draws like a junior high kid too, actually.)
November 28th, 2005 at 6:30 pm
"Sure, I love the troops. But it's a tough love…"
Like a genital Herpes virus that lies dormant for a spell before reasserting itself at awkward moments in an outbreak of ragged penile lesions or vaginal discharge, cartoonist Ted Rall manages to crash univited into the parlor of civilized cultural dis…
November 28th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
My hope is that Ted Rall is dropped ( by parachute…..I’m feeling generous ) over Iran, and given instructions to publish Anti-Iranian cartoons, with the same disdain he uses in his America-hating rubbish.
Wonder how long it would take for Mr Rall to have a 0.0% chance of maintaining a connection between his head and shoulders?
November 28th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
“And another by the way: since when are socialists anti-patriotic?”
Hes got a point. I know of some great patriotic socialists. Might even call ‘em National Socialists. Whats that Auf Deutch?
November 28th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
Thank you for speaking up, (even if it is your job to do so.). Rall is another example of human trash that decent Americans have to put up with. Is there any place that I may email my displeasure of him that might hurt him in the wallet?
Dana Mullen
Rockledge, Fl.
November 28th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
I think your article really nails Rall. I saw the “cartoon” of his you refer and I wanted to retch. It is elitism at its worst.
His day will come and it will not be pretty when it does. I hope.
November 28th, 2005 at 7:09 pm
If this nation was as far off the beaten path as Rall suggests (having “an unelected dictator for a “president”), then Rall wouldn’t exist today. He’d be rotting in a pit with other folks who would dare speak against “the dictator.” The fact is Bush is far more tolerant towards his detractors than Bill Clinton ever was.
(Speaking of our most previous president, did not all of the problems that Rall suggests that we get a handle on before we tackle everyone else’s exist long before Bush took office? For all of the “national emergencies� we encountered during Slick Willie’s reign, you’d think that he would have done something about making this the socialist utopia that TR opines for to take shape.)
Ted Rall no doubt sees himself as a patriot, in the same way that the Rosenburgs and Alger Hiss thought that they were. He’s a patriot to the core values that HE grew up with: 1) The United States is the source of all evil in the world, and 2) the enemy of my enemy is my friend. With these two tenets in hand, he fights against what he sees as the evil in the world (US), and makes a bond with those who wish to destroy our nation (at least as we know and knew it).
Fortunately for us, Ted Rall’s nonsensical rantings only have a following with the extreme moonbats, and these extreme views are not carried on by the rest of the MSM. His big lie propagandizing would be terribly dangerous if it were more wide-spread, not to say that big lie propagandizing in and of itself isn’t dangerous. We’re just fortunate that there are enough people out there to counter it.
November 28th, 2005 at 7:33 pm
Words Fail Me
I don’t know how to introduce something this awful, so I’ll just post it:
Look, I’ve come to expect very little from the left. On almost every level, they disappoint me. Nevertheless, every once in a while, one of them still
November 28th, 2005 at 8:08 pm
May I rant a bit? *pause* Thank you.
Hey Ted, here is some research. Though I doubt you will internalize it in an appropriate manner since it fails to align with your distorted world view. But I figure all those people who want to do research, I will help them along by providing this link.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10208906/
November 28th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
I’m going to have to fix that one, aren’t I?
November 28th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
Well I just hope some Iraq vets see this. Rall better hope they arent what he portrays them to be. Either way I wouldn’t want to be him after saying some shit like that.
Props for stomaching this douchebags blog, Nick.
November 28th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
I do understand, that, as an American, you have the right to say even the most idiotic things — but we must understand the following:
1> Words do mean things … not only do your ideas, if implemented, have consequences — but even the expression of your ideas can have profound consequences in the conduct of public policy, by influencing others to both doubt their own position and adopt yours. Speak wisely.
2> The rest of us have not only the right, but the responsibility to publically declare your viewpoint idiotic, if the facts support that conclusion. You may be protected from government sanction, but not from public disdain.
Looks like Mr. Rall is a textbook example for the exercise of that responsibility.
In this highly-interconnected world, we can no longer afford to wait for wealthy, powerful, yet dysfunctional nations to figure out what free nations have already learned … because they may very well not find “their” democracy before thousands die at the hands of its predecessor.
This is where Mr. Rall, and those who think like him, stumble.
November 28th, 2005 at 9:40 pm
The Vile Life Of Ted Rall
I have finally found something on the web that is too sickening to post. I am so mad about it that I considered passing on it all together, but Dr. Laura would tell me that bottling up anger will m…
November 28th, 2005 at 10:09 pm
So Rall believes that the right of self-determination of nation-states trumps all other rights?
Doesn’t that make him a Fascist, in the original sense?
November 29th, 2005 at 12:40 am
Would love to sit down to tea with Mr. Rall.
Anyone front me some bail money?
SOTG
November 29th, 2005 at 4:04 am
Something that will be overlooked in that cartoon is the tie into Vietnam.
Any guesses on your part?
In pane 4 of the cartoon it shows an F-4 Phantom jet on a bombing run.
That is a Vietnam era fighter jet. I wonder how many folks will notice
that? This was not done by chance. It’s intentional on the cartoonist part to imply that Iraqi Freedom is going the same way as Vietnam did.
Take a look at this F-4 phantom website and notice that the outline of
the plane used in the cartoon matches the one in real life exactly.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4
November 29th, 2005 at 7:24 am
If Rall had titled his work, “Sex life South of Market St., SF,” it would be a non-fictional depiction of the everyday S&M scene in one of Andrew Sullivan’s favorite gay bathhouses.
-Steve
November 29th, 2005 at 8:21 am
Got here via Michelle Malkin; Rall says he loves America? Lie! He loves a socialistic vision of America which he and his ilk are trying to create. His altered version of this country would make it unrecognizable as the America TRULY patriotic citizens know and love. Why does this type of disgusting,traitorous piece of crap get to go on breathing? I’d love his evil, slanderous lies to be silenced. Forever.
November 29th, 2005 at 10:08 am
Rall is the same guy who thinks Wellstone was assassinated and predicted in his column that there would be a “bloodbath” of hand-to-hand urban combat as the US entered the capital that April.
November 29th, 2005 at 11:08 am
Found this via Protein Wisdom and glad I did.
I think the most insidious thing about this is the inference from the more radical members of the left that the United States is no better than any other country out there. It’s as if we attempt to say anything good about ourselves, we are immediately deemed neo-colonialists/-fascists and whatnot. Rall takes that even one step further and begins to equate any bad thing our country has done to be exactly on par with any bad thing any other country has done.
When you’re seeking to compare foreign insurgent terrorists in Iraq (you know, the ones who will kill anyone they can find for the sake of striking fear in the general populace) with George Washington, you’ve officially resigned your right to join the general civil discourse.
November 29th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
Bloody hell.
Ted Rall disgusts me. If he is a patriot, then I’m satan.
Defining patriotism is rather simple, at least to me: I think it is (for Americans, as a fine example) when one upholds, adheres to, and appreciates the mores of those who founded the nation in question – in our case, gladly supporting the principles of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the documents and wisdom of the great thinkers who helped shape it. Continually slinging feces at those who not only uphold such beliefs, but are willing to die in an effort to bring them to others is far from patriotism. Ted Rall…there’s a crisper waiting for you somewhere.
Argh. I need a shower now, too. Thanks a lot.
November 29th, 2005 at 10:13 pm
Man ,I’ve got to quit eating so much dinner.Right after I had to go to the bathroom and take a Rall.
Trully words fail to describe this insignificant talentless little impotent piece of crap.May he gag on some brie at his next Moveon soiree.What a waste of protoplasm.
November 30th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
“Of course, Rall’s world is far removed from reality. You need look no further than his statement above that “We have an unelected dictator for a ‘president’â€? to figure where he is coming from. In truth, Rall is nothing more than one of the mental deficients on the left who is a slave to his hatred of George W. Bush and who would do or say anything to remove him from office.”
And what happens to the rest of us if and when “the mental deficients on the left” sieze power (like in 2008) and “Rall’s World” becomes THE Reality? (“Ees Party Line, Comrades.”)
November 30th, 2005 at 3:36 pm
Ted Rall does make positive contributions to the world!!!
My bird considers his cartoon to be the ultimate in Cage Liners.
My new puppy poops with confidence knowing I have papered the basement with Mr Rall’s works.
I’ve started many a fire using Mr rall’s art.
Pinata stuffing? Nothhing beats slamming a pinata full of Ted Tall and tootsie Rolls.
Yes, Ted Rall is very important in my life