Seriously Clue-Free and Offensive

The Big Item on the right side of the blogosphere today is the unbelievably offensive column by Joel Stein (titled Warriors and Wusses) in the LA Times. Joel Stein is a serious tool:

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

When you get this much reaction from the blogosphere, you can be sure you’ve stepped on your most sensitive body parts. Here are links to just some of the people kicking Stein’s ass:

Media Blog on National …, Hugh Hewitt, The Glittering Eye, Captain's Quarters, Patterico's Pontifications, Power Line, Gina Cobb, RedState, Dean's World, One Hand Clapping, Mark in Mexico, Flopping Aces, Michelle Malkin, Argghhh!, JunkYardBlog, Sister Toldjah, aaron, AMERICAN FUTURE, The Middle Ground, The Sundries Shack, WILLisms.com, BLACKFIVE, euphoricreality.net, Myopic Zeal, The Officers' Club, tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com, The Corner on National …, TigerHawk, the evangelical outpost, The RCP Blog, Brainster's Blog and Iowa Voice

The milbloggers are particularly entertaining reads. Even the Left is upset. According to Editor and Publisher, Atrios at the liberal blog, Eschaton, dubbed Stein "Wanker of the Day." Radioblogger has the transcript of Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Klein on Hewitt's radio show, and an mp3 file of the interview so you can listen.

Apparently Mr. Stein’s mom never told him “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Or if she did, he didn’t listen, further evidence Stein is seriously clue-impaired. It’s one thing to hold an offensive opinion, it’s quite another thing to publish said opinion in a major newspaper and have the whole United States read it. The other cliché that comes to mind is Mark Twain’s famous quote: “It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” Truer words were never spoken.

And before I leave this topic: Just what the HELL were the editors of the LA times thinking when they published this offensive drivel? Their circulation is in free-fall at the moment; it’s gonna get worse. A LOT worse.

Update, 1/29/2006: Changed everything"Klein" to "Stein." Some days you just can't get it right. I apologize.