Fraters Libertas

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Editorial Pages

Over the years there have been a number of poorly written, meaningless, and pointless editorials published in the pages of the Star Tribune (including some not written by Syl Jones). There are days when I read the editorial page dumbfounded, unable to grasp how a particular piece ever saw the light of day and wondering what the editors were thinking or if they even reviewed the work before publishing it. I don't really mind reading editorials whose opinions that I happen to disagree with (around 85% of what the paper publishes) but I can't stand reading sloppy, shoddy work that wouldn't pass muster in a high school composition class.

This piece by Karin Winegar, who claims to be a writer, was published in yesterday's paper and it is the worst piece of garbage I've come across in some time. It's a whiny diatribe about greed or "pathological greed" as Winegar calls it. And it's the root cause of just about everything wrong with the world:

This is the insatiable appetite that turned the once-forested and green Mediterranean into rocks and semi desert, that killed all but the last handful of plains buffalo, that consumed the carrier pigeon and the dodo and thousands of other species, that plundered the Georges Bank fishing grounds, that wanted to and still insists that it needs to harvest all the whales, the last of the redwoods and old-growth pines, and lift wilderness designation on land to get at the minerals.

I'm going to spare you from having to read much more of her dreck. Every one of her sentences could easily be Fisked and her arguments gutted. But it's just painful to suffer through in it's entirety. Often the advice "read the whole thing" is offered. In this case I say the opposite, "don't read the whole thing". In fact read as little of it as possible.

Suffice it say that she's against people having "too much" and believes that greed is an addiction. She confesses to suffering from a bit of "toxic excess" herself by owning too many pairs of shoes and boots including a pair of beaded moccasins and mukluks. Why she felt the need to mention this is beyond my abilities of comprehension. She does manage to separate herself from the "greedaholics" though by admitting that she is embarrassed about the size of her shoe collection. Earth to loony lady; NO ONE CARES.

While she doesn't come right out and say it you get the feeling that she's looking for the heavy hand of government to step in and correct this "problem" through confiscatory taxation or limits on wealth:

I propose we look at salaries -- perhaps starting with MBNA's Alfred Lerner ($194.9 million) -- and consider intervention and treatment using the Twelve Step addiction recovery model. Minnesota is, after all, home of Hazelden Foundation. We know how to help those who cannot help themselves, even at the upper-bracket end of society.

This is not socialism; it is treating a disease that imperils the stock market, the integrity of the financial system, our faith in our leaders, the health of the planet.

The words "we know how to help those who can't help themselves" is quite revealing and frightening. We know what's good for you. And yes she is talking about socialism no matter how she want to couch it as "treating a disease".

Up to this point the piece was crap. But it wasn't worthy of the crap hall of fame. It needed a big crappy finish to push it over the top. And Lordy did Winegar deliver one.

Too much of a good thing, be it bathrooms, furnaces, shoes or liquor or even salary, is not wonderful. It's a symptom of a disorder as widespread as AIDS, as communicable as SARS.

When I first read this yesterday I was rendered speechless. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What the hell was going through her mind when she wrote that last sentence? Did she think it a clever, powerful closing statement?

Consider for a moment how utterly silly it really is. She's trying to compare people's desire to acquire material wealth to deadly diseases. According to recent stats about .3% of the US population has AIDS/HIV so to claim that "pathological greed" is as widespread as AIDS tends to diminish, not strengthen her contention. And how, pray tell is the "greed disorder" in any possible way, shape, or form communicable like SARS? HOW? My God! If a ten year old tried to make that comparison I maybe would understand (and would also feel the need to correct them) but we're talking about an adult woman here. And an alleged writer as well!

I realized that the standards of the Strib editorial page had been compromised when I started seeing pieces appear by unprofessional hacks who run blogs but I had no idea the quality of writing had sunk to such depths.