Dennis Prager Is Despicable
I don't usually listen to Dennis Prager because I don't wake up early enough, but right now I'm getting up unusually early and put Prager's radio program on. This is a mistake, because I disagree with almost everything he says, but even more than that, I am frequently angered by the way he has of presenting his opinions.
Today's show was about as close to an exemplar as you could get. Prager commented on Kerry's response to Bush's proposal to withdraw troops from Europe and Korea, saying that whenever Bush proposes something, Kerry says the exact opposite, then played a clip from a Kerry interview where Kerry said he favored doing exactly what Bush is now proposing. Fair enough, and if that was all there is to Prager's comments, I wouldn't be moved to comment. However, Prager failed to mention, as he always does in these critiques, that there are prominent Republicans who also criticized Bush's proposal. Yesterday, Senators McCain and Warner were shown during a session of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and McCain was criticizing the idea of removing troops from the 38th parallel and Senator Warner, sitting next to McCain, nodded in agreement. So there can be a valid disagreement with Bush's troop redeployment proposal that is not politically motivated. But you'll never hear Prager ever mention this. Prager was then going to move on to the momentous topic of tattoos, but said that he makes it a policy to refrain from ad hominem attacks on people, but because of the importance of the issue of character in this election, he would make an exception, so he could launch a personal and highly unfair attack on Kerry. Prager said that he doesn't admire men who marry wealthy women and live off them, and said that that is what Kerry has done in his life with both his marriages
John Kerry was a prosecutor and then a senator, and thus has always been able to make his own way in this world quite nicely, even if he had never married or if he married a woman of little means.
Prager should apply his passion for self-sufficiency to his cherished George W. Bush, who never succeeded in anything on his own until he became elected Governor of Texas. Bush was an admitted alcoholic until he was 40, and was arrested for DUI. He could have easily killed or maimed someone else when he was driving drunk. Until becoming governor, Bush relied on his family's wealth and their political and business connections to launch a failed congressional bid and failed business ventures until he used family contacts to invest in a baseball team which made him rich.
Let's just assume for the sake of argument that Kerry is a man who sponged off his wife. If character matters, who is worse, a sponger who had the guts to risk his life for his country in Viertnam and has led a scandal free life, or an alcoholic who endangered others, sponged off his family, hid from the draft and then maybe didn't even fulfill his less than strenuous duties?
Why did I become angry enough to write this and why do I find Prager despicable? Because of the dishonest way he presents his critique of Kerry. First he says he makes it a policy not to engage in ad hominem attacks before doing exactly what he says he refrains from. He did this several years ago with Hillary Clinton, too, when he said that he wasn't interested in personal attacks on the Clintons, but that he received a joke about Hillary via email which he then repeated over and over during a one-hour segment. I'm pretty well plugged-in to politics and buzz via the net, and I didn't receive this email and never heard of this joke. In the guise of tsk-tsking about how awful this joke was, Prager was purposefully broadcasting it for all those, like me, who might have missed it.
I also have to mention Prager's puerile rant that South Koreans should be taught a moral lesson by our withdrawal of forces for the ingratitude shown by student protests against US troops stationed there. The US defended South Korea because Truman, that treasonous liberal, doncha know, believed it was essential to our security to stop the communists from overrunning South Korea. We did it for our self-interest, so gratitude is irrelevant.
And this is a man who promotes himself as a moralist and deep thinker. Ingratitude, Prager says, makes him want to vomit. Well, my mind vomited listening to Dennis Prager
Today's show was about as close to an exemplar as you could get. Prager commented on Kerry's response to Bush's proposal to withdraw troops from Europe and Korea, saying that whenever Bush proposes something, Kerry says the exact opposite, then played a clip from a Kerry interview where Kerry said he favored doing exactly what Bush is now proposing. Fair enough, and if that was all there is to Prager's comments, I wouldn't be moved to comment. However, Prager failed to mention, as he always does in these critiques, that there are prominent Republicans who also criticized Bush's proposal. Yesterday, Senators McCain and Warner were shown during a session of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and McCain was criticizing the idea of removing troops from the 38th parallel and Senator Warner, sitting next to McCain, nodded in agreement. So there can be a valid disagreement with Bush's troop redeployment proposal that is not politically motivated. But you'll never hear Prager ever mention this. Prager was then going to move on to the momentous topic of tattoos, but said that he makes it a policy to refrain from ad hominem attacks on people, but because of the importance of the issue of character in this election, he would make an exception, so he could launch a personal and highly unfair attack on Kerry. Prager said that he doesn't admire men who marry wealthy women and live off them, and said that that is what Kerry has done in his life with both his marriages
John Kerry was a prosecutor and then a senator, and thus has always been able to make his own way in this world quite nicely, even if he had never married or if he married a woman of little means.
Prager should apply his passion for self-sufficiency to his cherished George W. Bush, who never succeeded in anything on his own until he became elected Governor of Texas. Bush was an admitted alcoholic until he was 40, and was arrested for DUI. He could have easily killed or maimed someone else when he was driving drunk. Until becoming governor, Bush relied on his family's wealth and their political and business connections to launch a failed congressional bid and failed business ventures until he used family contacts to invest in a baseball team which made him rich.
Let's just assume for the sake of argument that Kerry is a man who sponged off his wife. If character matters, who is worse, a sponger who had the guts to risk his life for his country in Viertnam and has led a scandal free life, or an alcoholic who endangered others, sponged off his family, hid from the draft and then maybe didn't even fulfill his less than strenuous duties?
Why did I become angry enough to write this and why do I find Prager despicable? Because of the dishonest way he presents his critique of Kerry. First he says he makes it a policy not to engage in ad hominem attacks before doing exactly what he says he refrains from. He did this several years ago with Hillary Clinton, too, when he said that he wasn't interested in personal attacks on the Clintons, but that he received a joke about Hillary via email which he then repeated over and over during a one-hour segment. I'm pretty well plugged-in to politics and buzz via the net, and I didn't receive this email and never heard of this joke. In the guise of tsk-tsking about how awful this joke was, Prager was purposefully broadcasting it for all those, like me, who might have missed it.
I also have to mention Prager's puerile rant that South Koreans should be taught a moral lesson by our withdrawal of forces for the ingratitude shown by student protests against US troops stationed there. The US defended South Korea because Truman, that treasonous liberal, doncha know, believed it was essential to our security to stop the communists from overrunning South Korea. We did it for our self-interest, so gratitude is irrelevant.
And this is a man who promotes himself as a moralist and deep thinker. Ingratitude, Prager says, makes him want to vomit. Well, my mind vomited listening to Dennis Prager
posted by Peter L. Winkler | 4:56 PM
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