Monday, January 17, 2011

The Disgusting Thomas E. Ricks

Once upon a time, Thomas E. Ricks was a reporter. And he was actually competent at his job. But somewhere along the line -- probably when he decided that reporting on wars meant he was the same as the enlisted -- the lines blurred, the mind went to mush and the hate and crazy went on full display. He's no longer a reporter and it's really not accurate to call him a journalist unless you also call, for example, Cindy Adams one. He works for the War Industry now, using his formerly good name to sell counterinsurgency (war on a native people -- that's going to be the nightmare next to his name in 100 years when the last of the denial junkies has died out).

His writing now is a non-stop infomercial for war and for CNAS. And of course for sexism and other hatred. Examples? Michael Hastings is a reporter and Fat Boy Tommy didn't agree with Hastings reporting. Instead of confining it to the reporting or Hastings, Tommy had to allow his site to be used for a non-stop trashing of I Lost My Love In Baghdad -- a book about Iraq and his relationship with Andi Parhamovich -- who dies. It took loudly being called out for Thomas E. Ricks to drop that crap. Of course, for future reference, it should be noted that Thomas E. Ricks -- through his own actions -- has declared his own family is not off limits if anyone chooses to go there. Then there's his non-stop sexism.

Kelley B. Vlahos is one of the few women writers who have been mentioned at his site -- but, of course, he only mentions the Antiwar.com columnist to trash her repeatedly. Otherwise women appear because . . . well they posted a dog picture.

To read Thomas E. Ricks these days is to read the mind of a sexist narcissist who is threatened by any woman who won't play Judy (Natalie Wood) in Rebel Without A Cause, standing on the sidelines, waving her scarf for the big race. Which is how the pig whose blog was supposed to be about Iraq -- hard to tell that from all of January -- is forever sending 'shout outs' to his cock-knocking buddies and online love slaves while ignoring every accomplishment by women.

Kimberly Dozier -- who, as people with the Post love to point out, actually went after stories in Iraq unlike Ricks -- has moved from CBS to AP and continued her streak of news breaking. Not that Ricks ever noticed. And, of course, there was the day last year when Ricks was his usual blowhard self but, uh-oh, Ellen Knickmeyer wasn't playing along with Ricks' war lies. Uh-oh, Ricksie. Ellen did real work in Iraq. So did Sabrina Tavernise, Alicia Rubin, Nancy A. Youssef, Tina Susman, Alexandra Zavis, Jane Arraf (who continues to do so), Liz Sly (ibid) and many more. But Thomas E. Ricks is always too busy nuzzling some man's crotch online to give women any credit. Which is how he does his bad list of great books last year and completely ignores Deborah Amos' Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East -- not just in a best-of list (though he does do that) but he never manages to mention the book once.

Thomas E. Ricks' sexism is disgusting and, were he at any other outlet, he'd probably get taken to the woodshed but check out the bloggers at Foreign Policy. No one's supposed to notice that you have to have a tiny, little y after the X to blog at Foreign Policy.

So today the corpulent pig decides it's probably time to remember Iraq again and he gets his pendulous man boobs heaving in what he hopes passes for wit. He's offensive beyond words. He opens with, "For the first time in my life, I find myself wishing that the United States could be more like Iraq. We have too many people in prison."

Oh, that's funny! If you're an idiot. Amnesty International, in the past year, has called out the secret prisons in Iraq, over 30,000 prisoners are held without trial and what appears to be no hope of trial, then there are things like imprisoning police officers without charges . . .

No, it's not funny. What that 'joke' does do is question Thomas E. Ricks' reading comprehension level.

His second point is noting a December bombing -- because he's only had 16 other days in January to note it but those posts about dog pictures won't dictate themselves!

His third point is confusing -- and in conflict with Reuters -- but it is especially offensive to write of a bombing victim: "But, like Monty Python's famous knight, he is down an arm and a leg." How the hell do you type that? How the hell do you pretend to give a damn about the wounded and then type something as ignorant as that? A member of the military might or might not get away with it but Ricks needs to be called out for it -- it's grossly offensive and how dare he make fun of someone losing an arm and leg. It's not cute. This man is disgusting and needs mental help.

Then he wants you to know the Iraq War has lasted longer than the war on Vietnam (no, Thomas E. Ricks didn't serve in it -- sadly, the pose he strikes in his writing these days may lead many to assume otherwise) and he wonders how he could have missed blogging on that. How? Tying bad US TV shows (no longer in production) to Lebanon for a post? Blathering over Tuscon (truly, Thomas E. Ricks, the world was just fine without ever having your 'wisdom')? You missed it because you miss most things.

Then we get the fifth point, his undying love for bad blogger Joel Wing. Apparently, when he thinks of Joel, all the blood rushes out of his big head because he closes with this sixth point:

  • No one seems to notice it when American troops die there. Over the weekend two more U.S. soldiers died -- at the hands of Iraqi soldiers in Mosul.
If I was going to lecture the world -- and who is the target of that because "no one" appears to be more than just the press -- I think I'd try to shore up my facts before writing.

If you missed it, drop back to Saturday's "3 US soldiers killed in Iraq, a fourth wounded" and grasp that, two days later, Thomas E. Ricks hoist his heavy frame onto his high horse and wants to whine that the deaths of US soldiers are not noticed while telling his readers that two US soldiers died over the weekend. It was three, not two. And apparently "Saturday" would require even more research so just pin it on the "weekend." Also, of course, another US soldier died today. But those are pesky facts and Thomas E. Ricks is busy surfing to find more online male crotches to sniff.

Fair Play For Old Men

That's Isaiah's May 31, 2009 comic and, if you're confused, it was Isaiah's response to visiting Thomas E. Ricks' blog at Foreign Policy to discover Thomas was posting nude photos of women to his blog because that's what a 'journalist' does, right? Right? Well a sexist one who doesn't seem to understand that porn filters will prevent anyone posting at Foreign Policy from being read at high schools, etc. across the United States. Way to go, Pork Face.


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