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Gifts for all occasions in the Galleria! Subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list. The "What is the Deal?" Deal-of-the-Week: Movielink(TM)−Download Movies Now June 13, 2004 What is the Deal with Ted Rall? By Jan A. Larson If my assumption is correct, very few, if any of the readers of this commentary have every heard of Ted Rall. If you're not one of those few, count yourselves among the fortunate. Rall is a political cartoonist and columnist. His cartoons are filled with inflammatory, left wing propaganda and his columns more of the same. To use a term coined by Fox News analyst, Bill O'Reilly, he's a bomb thrower. I had not heard of Rall until recently. He made news shortly after former NFL football player Pat Tillman was killed in action in Afghanistan. His political cartoon of May 3 didn't refer to Tillman as a hero, as most clear thinking Americans considered Tillman to be, but rather as an idiot or sap. Now, showing absolutely no respect for an American President or the dead, Rall penned a venomous screed filled with hate for former President Reagan. I hesitate to give Rall any publicity, which is obviously his goal in writing his toxic missives and scribbling his unfunny funnies. If Rall is really as insensitive and just plain dense as he demonstrates in his anti-Reagan rant, it simply proves that one man's narcissistic ambitions can outweigh even the most basic quality of human compassion. As is generally the custom in America whenever one criticizes the expressions of another, I must defend Rall's right to make a fool of himself with his words and stick figure drawings. It is apparent that he is quite good at it. I don't know anything of Ted Rall's background, but he offers a possible glimpse in his lament blaming Reagan for his 18-year old friends having their "hopes and dreams" shattered and being forced into the "low-wage workforce." Maybe the expenditure of a little more elbow grease while in that low-wage workforce would have been sufficient to get that Ivy League education Rall seems to think all are entitled. He writes that Reagan "regulated the airlines." Sorry, Ted, Reagan did no such thing. Did you mean, "deregulate?" I guess you didn't have time to learn to proofread without that scholarship, huh? Rall really takes a leap by not only failing to give Reagan credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union, but by actually linking the fall to the attacks of September 11. Maybe Ted has an old hammer and sickle flag hanging in the closet that he wishes he could fly on national holidays. Rall does give credit where credit is due when he notes that Reagan began disassembling FDR's New Deal. The New Deal was (and is) one of the worst deals Americans have ever been dealt. Of course people like Ted Rall see nothing wrong with those who won't help themselves (or those without a scholarship) kicking back and living off the backs of working Americans. Not to be content to merely vilify a great American before his body is cold, Rall reveals his true motivation by using his anti-Reagan tirade to segue into an attack on President George W. Bush and Christianity. Ted Rall has some sort of motivation for writing such tripe. Maybe he's hoping Michael Moore will turn it into a movie. -- Send feedback to the author. The "What is the Deal?" column will appears weekly on the Pie of Knowledge website. Guest submissions are welcome and encouraged. To submit an article to "What is the Deal?" click here. To subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list and receive early notification when a new column is available, click here. The Pie of Knowledge will never, ever divulge email addresses to any third party for any reason unless so ordered by a court of law. Contributions to the Pie of Knowledge are greatly appreciated. 
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