BUT IS IT AS GOOD AS THE PERFECT COUNTRY WESTERN SONG?

There has been a debate raging the last couple days in the blogosphere as to whether Molly Ivins has written the worst column ever. Someone calling himself the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller has a compendium of writing on the subject.

In all honesty, I’ve read Ivins’s piece and think she has some decent counter-points to the French bashing that many, including this blogger, have engaged in. (Not that I plan to stop, as much of it is on point; the French are pretty damned annoying. And their government did indeed surrender to the Germans rather than fight them, although there was indeed a valiant Resistance movement. And, they do, famously, eat cheese. And I really like monkeys.) Ivins’ column is rather choppily written, hyperbolic, anecdotal, and in a couple of cases, simply wrong on the facts. But it’s far from the worst piece I’ve read in the last couple of days, let alone ever. Indeed, I’ve read worse columns by Ann Coulter–and I’m much closer to her ideologically than I am to Ivins.

FILED UNDER: Iraq War, Media,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.