I don't normally follow Ted Rall's work. But when J.M., a member of our military serving in Iraq, wrote NB about Rall's recent column and cartoon, I had a look. I'd say our soldier was being restrained in describing Rall's work as "particularly offensive."
I'm displaying one panel from his cartoon of October 22nd. You can view the whole of it here. As you'll note, the point is to celebrate the death of our soldiers, since they are "idiots" whose removal from the gene pool causes the average IQ back home to soar.
His column of October 23rd, "HEY, SOLDIERS: QUIT WHINING!", which you can read here, contains these nuggets:
- [H]ey, soldier, you volunteered. If not for you, there wouldn't be a war in the first place.
- Even after soldiers get killed, their parents promote the war so their dead kids won't be lonely in heaven.
And then, this [emphasis added]:
Few Gold Star mothers tell [Pres. Bush] off. Those who do are polite to the man who murdered their children as surely and as viciously as if he'd shot them himself. Why don't they spit at him?
There really are no words, but let me try: Ted Rall is a despicable, unpatriotic, ghoul.
Rall's column is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. According to Rall's website [emphasis added]:
His cartoons now appear in more than 140 publications, including the Philadelphia Daily News, Aspen Times, Hartford Advocate, Newark Star-Ledger, Los Angeles Times, Wilmington News-Journal, San Diego Reader, Village Voice, Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, Las Vegas Review Journal, Washington City Paper, Tucson Weekly, Sacramento News & Review, San Jose Mercury-News, Lexington Herald-Leader and New York Times.
Note: Rall's repulsiveness is of course nothing new. Have a look, for example, at Michelle Malkin's take on a cartoon in which Rall used an N-word about Condi Rice.