Ooh, here's a barrel full of fat, smelly fish to shoot: Ted Rall, the inexplicably ubiquitous 'cartoonist' (irony quotes in honor of whoever it was said Rall's drawings looked as if he had stuck a magic marker in his ass and squatted over the paper -- I think it was either Treacher or Lileks [J.L. sez is wasn't him, see the comments -- heck, maybe I said it first ;/] -- 'twas Juan Gato, I am now sure of it, only he used "pencil") is crying crocodile tears over college tuition costs and student loan debt burdens. And guess what he cites as backup for his whinging: a report by the People's Republic of China. Don't believe me? Here's the quote:
College tuition is free or nominal in most industrialized, and many Third World, countries. The United States' insistence that students assume huge debts to pay for their college education is unusual enough that the Chinese government included it in its 2001 report of American human rights violations. (Bolds mine -- A.H..)The Chinese motherfucking government has the gall to say anything about "American human rights violations" and this piece of offal cites it as respectable evidence. Rall, you Marxist scum. You probably applauded as the tanks rolled into Tienanmen Square.
There's an equally priceless quote early in the article about an "aspiring cartoonist" who owes $70,000 in student debt. Exqueeze me? Seventy-thousand dollars for a career in drawing cartoons? If I were her parents this twit would be so disowned. I can see the college trajectory now: entered as a poly sci major. Switched to psych when poli sci got too hard -- or vice-versa. Then took a year off to live off her parents and/or travel to Europe/spend time hitching and dumpster-diving around the country. Re-entered college as a "liberal studies" major (degree-speak for "undecided going to college in order to avoid getting a job"). Switches to humanities, then to fine arts, then to journalism. Decides to change majors to creative writing when she decides to be a poet, only to be told that she has run out of major-change options. Stuck in journalism, she adds an art minor to keep from being bored. All this time she is going to an expensive private liberal arts school because she wouldn't be caught dead at a déclassé state uni. Finally graduates, with the resultant debt and no talents to be anything other than a doodler and/or gossip columnist for a small-town free weekly. Has to get second job at Wal-Mart to pay off crushing debt. That is the only way I can think of for someone who is "an aspiring cartoonist" to run up a debt that high.
(Via Dave Tepper.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at February 13, 2003 01:03 AMI can't stop laughing long enough to link this! OMG, I'm hurting! Stop! I mean, keep going!
Posted by: Scott at February 13, 2003 at 01:15 AMThe Sharpie-up-the-keister evaluation of Rall's style wasn't mine - sounds more like that shy retiring Treach, to me.
Posted by: Lileks at February 13, 2003 at 01:43 AMChina? Effing China?! What, Saddam wasn't available?
OK, but seriously, let's get some perspective here. Here's this dimwitted idiot pursuing a career of questionable income potential and she's complaining because she got fronted 70 freaking K for an education and they want it back some time in the not too distant future? So, she gets her education and if she can't pay back the loan she gets bad credit. Boo frickin' hoo, welcome to reality.
Posted by: Robin Goodfellow at February 13, 2003 at 05:58 AMI once made the comment that he stuffs a pencil up his ass and does the hustle against a piece of paper, is that the one you're thinking of?
Posted by: Juan Gato at February 13, 2003 at 07:35 AMSee, now I would have sworn that was Michele over at A Small Victory...
Posted by: Dean Esmay at February 13, 2003 at 07:38 AMBy the way, the best retort on student loans is this:
We loan people the money to go to college as an investment in them. You prove to us that you're worth it, that you'll really work, and we assume our investment will be repaid with interest.
I'm gonna have a ton of debt when I get out of college. I'll be 39 years old and finally have a bachelor's degree. Do I resent this? No, I'm grateful. Indeed, I'm a little ashamed that I had to rely on the government for the loan. But you bet I'll repay it.
Posted by: Dean Esmay at February 13, 2003 at 07:40 AMSo, why aren't all these middle class kids that can afford a $40,000 education flocking to these great schools in China? Hmmm?
As to Ted Rall with anything up his butt, maybe its a meme that spontaneously generates itself whenever an anti-idiotarian sees the fruits of his labor.
Posted by: charles austin at February 13, 2003 at 09:05 AMGee, maybe this aspiring cartoonist might be having trouble finding a good job & paying back her loans because she has no talent. That probably didn’t occur to Rall because he’s talent-free himself.
A couple of days ago, some dim bulbs at Hunter College (NY) took over the college President’s office, demanding that she refuse to support the war. They thought that the war was hurting their chances for financial aid, despite the fact that student aid has been cut for years (this was a big problem during the Clinton Administration)
Rall is saying the same thing – that the war is to blame for problems with student aid. The left has been angry about the fact that college students aren’t joining the anti-war effort – maybe this is a not-so subtle effort to convince them to start marching. I guess that sounds paranoid, but it’s hard not to be paranoid about creeps like Rall..
Posted by: mary at February 13, 2003 at 09:23 AMCriticisms of cartoons that offend or baffle people often tend to be couched unfairly in terms of the cartoonist's drawing skill-- for instance, all those letters to the editor that complain about how Bill Griffith of "Zippy the Pinhead" can't draw, when he clearly can (though his writing's been stuck in a rut for the past ten years).
But in Rall's case it's true. He does draw like he's got a Sharpie stuck in his butt.
Posted by: Matt McIrvin at February 13, 2003 at 09:50 AMNope, I said his stuff looks like somebody locked a fatherless 8th-grader in a room with nothing but a black crayon and a copy of The Communist Manifesto. I do recall the honorable Mr. Lileks saying something about Rall placing a magic marker in his armpit and using it thusly as a drawing implement. Up Rall's ass is another entirely feasible location, though.
Anyway. So that's why Rall needs $1.5 million from Danny Hellman!
Posted by: Jim Treacher at February 13, 2003 at 10:14 AMIt wasn't me but I believe it was someone in my comments, probably during one of my many "Bitchslap Tedd Rall Day" celebrations.
Posted by: michele at February 13, 2003 at 10:27 AMRall thinks that American taxpayers should be forced to pay for someone to learn how to draw?? I thought we were funding K-12 for that very reason!
Posted by: ellie at February 13, 2003 at 11:27 AMI still have about 18K worth of student debt to pay off from over 100K I had at the end of my schooling. No tears here.
Debt was something I anticipated and planned for. If she didn't want to go into debt she should have planned her life with a little more wisdom.
Also, I didn't realize he placed his writing instrument up his backside. I thought it came out his backside.
Posted by: Junkyard God at February 13, 2003 at 11:33 AMAspiring cartoonist? Who knew there was such a thing -- not me. I wonder if they have that course at those great Chinese universities?
Posted by: Ith at February 13, 2003 at 12:25 PMWhile on the subject of cartoonists, y'all might want to check out today's Doonesbury for a good, malicious chuckle...
Posted by: Brian Swisher at February 13, 2003 at 01:51 PMYawn. Doonesbury's day has come and gone. Trudeau was funnier when Nixon was in office.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at February 13, 2003 at 02:03 PMTrue enough (though not so much as the inexplicably-still-hanging-on Wizard of Id)...but he occasionally gets off a zinger...
Posted by: Brian Swisher at February 13, 2003 at 02:16 PMFor Matt McIrwin: I don't believe anyone has ever said Bill Griffith couldn't draw. But what he draws is the stupidest and most pointless crap ever put in cartoon form (even Rall has a "point" with his crap)
Posted by: Ken Summers at February 13, 2003 at 02:43 PMI could post some longwinded spiel about why student debt is actually a good thing (although my $100k is pretty painful in the short-term), but why bother? I feel far more inspired to simply say Ted Rall is in serious need of a good beating.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at February 13, 2003 at 03:23 PMI actually find Ted Rall cartoons very funny and inciteful, and the drawing helps! As a contrast, the Mallard Fillmore cartoons by Bruce Tinsley are arguably better drawn, but the writing is so insipid, I can only assume there is an affirmative action program for conservative editorial cartoonists.
Posted by: Horatio at February 13, 2003 at 07:07 PMTed Rall got Anisa Brophy from a NY Times story about young people questioning whether they should incur more college loans. (Of course, the Times thinks they should be able to pursue their dreams at any cost.) Here's the link.
Anisa H. Brophy, 22, is, for example, an aspiring comic book author who took $70,000 in loans to get a bachelor's degree from Wilson College in Pennsylvania. It now takes her 70 hours a week worth of tutoring, freelancing and stacking books just to keep them at bay.
She has almost no idea how to break into the comic book business, no promising leads, no artistic talent to speak of (or so she says) ? and no appreciable fear of failure or inclination to pursue anything else. Formidable though they may be, her loans will not get in her way.
"Spending all that money and not making the most of my degree is not something I'm going to tolerate," said Ms. Brophy, who majored in English, but has loved comics since 13. "I refuse to waste my degree."
It's too bad she didn't question the worth of her degree before taking on those loans. It appears that going to college will be of no help whatsoever in enabling her to be a cartoonist. She didn't learn to draw or learn about the market for cartoonists. The debt will get in her way, if she maintains her honorable desire to pay off the loans. Note that she can't get a decent non-cartooning job with her college education either.
Posted by: Joanne Jacobs at February 13, 2003 at 08:03 PMAndrea- Any bitchslapping of Rall must include the obligatory link to Anne Coughman's "Let's Rall!" on Protein Wisdom.
http://www.proteinwisdom.com/archives/000242.html
Posted by: John Cole at February 13, 2003 at 08:15 PMGee, the only real option for Ms. Brophy is to fake her death. Student loans are immune from bankruptcy, but get canceled if the borrower dies.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at February 13, 2003 at 09:22 PM"I actually find Ted Rall cartoons very funny and inciteful."
Well...I find them "inciteful" as well. They tend to incite me toward banging my head against the wall, trying to get the steady stream of Rall's bullshit out of my head.
Posted by: Damian P. at February 14, 2003 at 07:39 AMAll this talk of Sharpies sticking of the interchangeable ends of Ted Rall brings to mind the calligraphy scene in 'Sex and Zen.' Vastly more watchable than anything Rall has ever done.
Posted by: Eric Pobirs at February 15, 2003 at 06:22 AM"Trudeau was funnier when Nixon was in office."
I'm sorry - I'm a Canadian and this made me giggle in ways that I guess no American would get. (heh heh) Sorry. Sorry.
Posted by: rick mcginnis at February 15, 2003 at 10:19 AMMy experience as an older student gave me some light on the loan subject. I was willing to rent a basement bedroom with kitchen privileges, drive a 15 year old car and get a parttime job while living on a $650 per month (9 months of the year) stipend. In five years I accumulated just under $5000 of debt, and incurred $1500 of that to marry my wife and go for 4 days to Jamaica for a honeymoon. Long paid off. Others, grads and undergrads, were racking up tens of thousands, mostly because (as near as I could tell) they were living at school as if they had never left home -- all the comforts and conveniences, financed by student loans.
In addition, I mentored a German exchange grad student. He said "You'll let anyone into your colleges. We would never do that." I said "Here at Large, Second-tier State U we believe in letting everyone take their shot and seeing if they have what it takes. We don't think we're smart enough tofigure out at age 12-16 who is college material and who isn't."
Rall fails to notice that this free tuition doesn't apply equally to everybody. Check Europe, let alone China. I had Chines grad roommate. They had horror stories about the U, and the (non-)selection process for getting in.
Posted by: JorgXMcKie at February 15, 2003 at 01:40 PMTed Rall is among the funniest, most pointed cartoonists in the world. That some of you old people here lament the good old days of Trudeau's youth does'nt surprise me: America is full of spoiled old people who refuse to do what nature tells them, and just Die. : The laws of life dictate a deference to youth, and this country and its spoiled, pampered, selfish, lab rats are just another beta version of a typical scheme of overgrown societies that espouses its greatness to no end, despite what its truthsayers say.
"By and large, Americans have little wisdom" is the generalized working theory among some of us as to why Americans revile Noam Chomsky and adore Jerry Springer. Calling people "marxists" doesnt do it, by the way - do we call rabid, thieving, capitalists "Kenneth Layists"?
The amazing thing is the fact that the author of this page dare quote Stephen Morrissey in his title, borrowing from "Still Ill" -
"I decree today that life
Is simply taking and not giving
England is mine and it owes me a living..."
Too bad he fails to actually understand it.
Posted by: LordofFlies at February 16, 2003 at 03:07 PMCogently expressed! So is Rall the voice of youth, then?
Posted by: Jim Treacher at February 16, 2003 at 10:31 PM"LordofFlies" picked his Coward Name well. Because Rall's excremental offerings do stink enough to draw lots of flies, and this chump is the biggest one on the dungheap.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at February 16, 2003 at 11:12 PMI was over in China when they printed that diatribe in the China news. Read the whole thing. Really. It just makes you want to scream:
POT! KETTLE! BLACK! McFly?
It's truly amazing stuff. I may have a copy still lying about if anyone wants to see it. Or you could just go here and read it for yourself. The brazenness is astonishing. I actually sat down in one of their internet cafes and emailed the whole thing to Derbyshire. He said it was pretty typical. Dave Kopel responded in NRO later that week.
To gauge just how concerned Chinese citizens are with the human rights situation in the United States, I attempted to engage several citizens in discussion of this. Mostly, the result was a blank stare. They weren't aware of it. Mostly because no one actually reads China Daily. The few who had didn't really consider the report very realistic. Anecdotal, yes. But I was unable to find one person that thought that the paper had painted anything resembling a realistic picture.
I think Rall should perhaps consider changing citizenship so that he can live in one of these paragons of consideration for human rights, instead of trying to foist something on the rest of us that most of us don't want or need.
Posted by: David Perron at February 19, 2003 at 08:28 AMPerhaps this issue has been raised before, but am I the only person amused that Rall is raving about a war for oil and he drives THIS:
http://members.aol.com/cuda66nyc/
Until I learned that, I had been giving the guy the benefit of the doubt.
Posted by: jeff at February 19, 2003 at 08:54 AM