I actually don't think King meant to insult the troops. He made a mistake of trotting out an outdated draft-era notion about the military to prove a totally different point. But he compounded his error by lashing out at those who pointed out his mistake. Now it's a "thing" in the media, and he's not looking very good, or smart.

And he seemingly confused the outdated notion, too. I don't think the military has ever made a practice of drafting illiterate people, have they? I always thought it was more if you flunked out of high school / college, then you had to report to the local recruiting office.

what's involved in a military career and the motivation for joining. Early on in life he decided he wanted to sit on his ass all day and write cheesy monster stories for a living. If he spent some of his time in the real world he might realize that one of the greatest benefits of military service is the opportunity to get an education. I got the equivalent of a BA in electronics engineering, the chance for after hours education at a local college, extension courses while I was in Vietnam, and of course the opportunity to use the GI bill to further my education when I got out. Coming from a low income family and with mediocre grades I would never have had that chance without military service and the opportunities it offered.

I'm not knocking Kings basic premise. The ability to read improves ones opportunities in any endeavor, including the military. However, to intimate that somehow military members are somehow less literate than the general population is both untrue and odious.

Is that a photo of King or one of the characters from his horror novels?

I really don't care about King or Kerry or any others who believe those in the military are there because they can't do anything else -- I could give them a thousand reasons from personal experience why they are wrong -- but I can't stop looking at your photo of King. Doesn't his upper lip and the whole mouth area look like it came from a chimp?

He wasn't on my radar before this.  I don't read his genre, so I had nothing to like or dislike.

Now I do. 

The point he thought he was making is that without being able to read you have limited job opportunities....  I guess he thought there wasn't a requirement that Military members be able to read to join today's Forces. 

Much to his ignorance, if he knew anything about the basic requirements for enlistment, he'd know that illiteracy is a disqualifiy factor. 

So while being unable to read may make it possible for someone to be a Liberal, it doesn't mean they can join the Army or any other Service of our Armed Forces.

It is easy to fall into the trap of under- or over-estimating the person of interest.

King is an educated man with intact mental faculties.  He also does not live in a vacuum or on Mars.  King is aware of current events.  He has a website, friends and associates he socializes with, and has money and/or opportunity to hear, view or read the news on a frequent basis.  He also has weaknesses in his character/psyche as do we all.

Since we are all speculating, these are my thoughts:

1. King knows the Military is volunteer and literate.  He knows it is not the same as Vietnam days.

2. He knew his audience - young adults/teens. 

3. He wanted to connect with the audience and be accepted by them, so he used the trite reference about illiteracy and the military.  Note in the video that not all the audience cheered, but most did.  Good speakers find ways to connect with their audiences so that the message is accepted and considered more easily.  A proper speaker, though, does it without cheap shots and false/inflammatory rhetoric.

4. It was quite possibly an off the cuff, unplanned remark.  I would find it highly unlikely King was not aware that John Kerry had used the same infamous remark.  In fact, knowing Kerry had used it previously helped to bring those words into King's consciousness at the spur of the moment.

5. It may be that King planned to use those words all along if the moment presented itself.  As the derivative shock writer he has become, so too did he "borrow" Kerry's words and used them for the shock value they would bring.

6. King may have meant only that illiteracy leaves fewer opportunities for the individual.  But his choice of words betrays deeper issues such as his true feelings about the military, US geopolitical affairs, insecurities about acceptance by others, inability to filter thoughts deemed innapropriate in public setting, etc.

7. This was not some grand scheme to lure in Conservatives like Noel in order to build publicity or chart a new novel.  He stands to loose a sizable number of paying customers in the Pro-Military and Conservative populations.  Then again, he's had so much smoke blown up his chute for so long concerning his work that he just may feel he is aristocratic enough as to not need "those kind of people".

IMO, King was pandering to the children of the corn in his audience and it backfired on him.  His own delusions of grandeur led him to the ridiculous "e-mail Noel" scheme which also backfired.  Now King is getting blowback from fans, some who are in the military, and the Army itself.  Being the pantywaist he truly is, he closes his website to comments and goes underground.

King is precisely the kind of guy you don't want watching your six when things go sideways. 

RRAM Tough! 

Stephen King is a small man
Petty and ignorant

Ignorance is the condition of being uninformed or uneducated, lacking knowledge or information

I think Fred Barnes was being kind of tongue in cheek last night in talking about the definition of the "working class" but at least I appreciate stupid people saying, "yeah, I said it and that's what I meant".

I wish Stephen King would just say that he looks down upon people who are in the military and he thinks they are in the military because they are not intellectually incapable of being in a more lucrative field.  Fine, that's his opinion.  He is an elitist idiot.  (That's my opinion).  But at least be honest.  He doesn't support the troops.  Be honest about it. 

I think this view is very common in the liberal elite "intelligensia" - those liberals who went to college in the Vietnam era and still, in the back of their minds, think it's still the Sixties. I've heard my liberal brother say much the same thing - right before I unloaded on him. My brother thinks he's being sympathetic to "the poor under-educated boys" who join the military. He just doesn't get it. Personally, I think there's a lot of guilt left over in the people who, for whatever reason, didn't go to Vietnam with the rest of their generation.

Why is this such a surprise, another Northeast Liberal Elite?  My guess is that, were you to go to Hollywood, San Francisco, and just about anywhere in the Northeast, you would find this same attitude. Wherever liberals gather, elitism can't be too far behind.

Democrats: Stuck on Stupid since 2000.

Here's an article about Stephen King, and you post a picture of Janet Reno.

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The guys over at shutupnoelsheppard.com aren't very good at debate.

Something like the "You can't argue for free" skit from Monty Python.

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