Topic: Social and Cultural Issues
Elitist Stephen King exposed by Noel Sheppard Elitist Stephen King exposed by Noel Sheppardby E.A. Blayre III
(libertarian)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Stephen King, the writer of important books like Thinner and The Stand, (worse books remain unwritten), challenged blogger Noel Sheppard's assertion that he essentially ‘hates the troops.'
Just what did the ‘cookie-cutter of horror' author say to start this controversy:
''I don't want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's not as bright,'' King said at the April 4 event in which he was accompanied by his wife Tabitha and son Owen.
Blogger Noel Sheppard hit the all-powerful one with a zinger worthy of David vs. Goliath, ''Nice sentiment when the nation is at war, Stephen."
Then King (acting much like his alleged rival King George in the White House) fired back in a inside-the-beltway fashion on Monday.
''That a right-wing-blog would impugn my patriotism because I said children should learn to read, and could get better jobs by doing so, is beneath contempt,'' he said in a statement posted on his Web site.
As part of his first salvo, Sir Stephen King criticizes the blog with an ad-hominen attack then he twists the argument from 'equating illiteracy to military service' to merely 'advising children to read'. After spin-master King bends apart the argument, he shamelessly calls out Noel Sheppard for being ‘beneath contempt', another ad-hominem distortion with the intent to degrade Noel Sheppard's character as a person who would spread malicious lies when in fact Noel Sheppard's guilt is merely speaking truth to power.
Next, Stephen King continues his vitriol against the troops referring to them as ‘a waste of natural resources, ‘cannon fodder' and obviously, illiterate. Perhaps, Noel Sheppard was being too kind and under-stated Stephen King's contempt for the troops who are dying as you read this.
The final and most despicable of Stephen King's increasingly reprehensible conduct involves his personal vendetta against uppity peasant Noel Sheppard. Powerful, megalomaniac Stephen King instructs his minions to endlessly e-mail Noel Sheppard with the sedentary, utterly mundane phrase, "Hi, Noel—Stephen King says to shut up and I agree."
Somehow I expected a more eloquent e-mail from the literary genius.
Noel Sheppard made one mistake, however, when he compared Stephen King to John Kerry. At least John Kerry served in Vietnam. Stephen King was too busy reading his way out.
The views expressed in this
article are those of E.A. Blayre III only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. E.A. Blayre III is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Well let's see. By all appearances, if it was up to King our troops would not be dying in King George's illegal and needless war, whereas Noel is a cheerleader for more fine Americans dying for nothing.
I know you would rather beat up on writers like King, but if you could take a moment I have a question - when will you "support the troops" instead of cheering on George Bush's needless and illegal war?
I agree with Mr. King. I work for a school district in PA, and it's common knowledge among students & faculty..... If your grades are low, there's always the army. Too many of our young men & women are going off to war simply because they have a poor education.
I think that we can all agree there is absolutely nothing wrong with a desire to defend our country and that that there is also nothing wrong with going into the military for the opportunities that it can provide.
What I object to is seeing Americans sent off die in a needless and illegal war. Invading and occupying a country that never attacked us and was never any threat to us, has nothing whatsoever to do with defending America. And war-mongers like Noel Sheppard who serve as cheerleaders for getting our kids killed for nothing are, in my opinion anyway, beneath contempt.
It's pretty obvious that both of these writers, Blayre and Sheppard, have some need for disgracing another great American. Tolkien denounced war in all its forms, even going as far as saying that England's anti-German sentiment around WWII was just as unwarranted as the anit-Semitism displayed by the Nazis. He wasn't made a fool for this or his other war-halting comments.
Are these people condoning, then, that we should drop our books, take up arms and go away from our homes and into someone elses and fight a war? No, probably not. King made a literate comment and these small timers had to distort the true meaning of King's sentiment -- read, read, and read. If more people read and understood history, namely the Roman Empire, maybe we wouldn't even be in this war. Take up a book, not a gun. Then, and only then, can you save lives.
I don't see this Noel or E.A. over there anyways so I don't know why they get to pretend to know what's going on.
You people's ignorance is absolutely astounding! Mr. Bowman, I definitly have to disagree that King is a "great Americam." The only thing he's done is write some horror books. Hell, most of them aren't even that good.. And no one care's if he denounces the war, that's not the issue. The issue is him bashing the troops, which is uncalled for. No ones saying to stop reading and go fight. Just stop passing judgements on us by what we do. Is that so difficult? No, it really isn't.
And wow Mr. Hines! "Wait until the troops are hauling you off to a FEMA internment camp. They do what their told. Isn't that nice?" You literally had me rolling on the floor with that one. We don't get much liberal rant here in Iraq like we do back in the states, so thank you, I needed the good laugh.
And another good one by Mr. Dance! "Sounds to me like King was just stating a fact to today's young men: if you don't get into college, you're going to be cannon fodder." Oh thats a fact is it? I know a lot of enlisted in the military who joined after couple years of college or after B.A. degrees and so and so forth. I turned down college offers to join the military, and all the officers in the military have a college degree. Less than 1% of the nations population joins the military and you have to have at least a high school diploma or GED to join. So that knocks high school drop outs out of the picture, what about them? They're far less likely to be able to read and get into college than military. Not to mention you can go to college while you're in the military. But hey, ignorance is bliss I guess. Y'all would know better than me!
I don't know what hole y'all are pulling out Noel being a warmonger and all this other bs, because all I see is him calling out King on his ridiculously stupid comments.
Anyways, I say good job Noel. Don't mind these rambling idiots, they're blind to their own ignorance.
I don't know how I managed to repond to this post because I am, afterall, illiterate or else I wouldn't be in the military.. Not all soldiers are stupid and illiterate as you all would like to believe. Hell, my IQ is higher than the average American, yet what am I? I'm a proud U.S. Army grunt. Few of us agree with the war. We want more than you to be out of Iraq. We joined the military not because we love war or we can't get a better job, we joined because someones got to be there to fight for our great country and the freedoms and the life style we enjoy. Bash the war all you want, leave us out of it.
Regards from Iraq.
Sincerely,
a soldier willing to fight and die for your freedom to talk shit about him.
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