The Ultimate Story
Here is a real journalistic triumph -- the story of a multi-party conflict in which I immediately dislike absolutely everyone in the story on all sides of the conflict, up to and including the jury and the third parties quoted. Via Overlawyered.
Update: I failed to make clear that what really makes the article special is that the writer herself is at least as bad as everyone involved. She writes in the first paragraph, "If you are black, you probably call the act of disciplining a child with corporal punishment 'a whupping.'" Really? What's next, is she going to tell us that they all like watermelon too? Is this kind of blanket unsupported supposition about the habits of a particular race really in the the Chicago Sun-Times style manual on how to open a news feature? I grew up in Texas and "getting a whupping" was a term favored right across racial lines. Anyway, I gotta go now and chase some varmints away from my cement pond out back.
Update #2: I just got an email that said "If you are white, you probably trade jars of Grey Poupon out the windows of your Rolls Royce." LOL.
Dr. T:
I agree that the story is atrocious. The writer at one point uses whipping as a synonym for whupping: whipping is being hit with a whip or switch, whupping is a generic term that means any type of hitting. The blatant racial biases of the writer and the black city employee (who made the claim that beating is part of black culture) are astonishing. The idiot woman who started this mess doesn't believe that children should ever be spanked: does anyone think she's a parent?
March 24, 2009, 4:36 pmRick C:
Dr. T: first, congratulations on your degree. Do you pity the fool in a more erudite manner these days?
Second, I wouldn't be surprised if that woman does have kids. They're probably spoiled rotten little brats who don't have the slightest self-control or good behavior.
March 25, 2009, 6:03 ammarkm:
Or she's a master of psychological manipulation, and her kids are going to be in therapy forever...
March 27, 2009, 3:48 am