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Stephen King fires back after blogger attacks remarks
Bangor Daily Snooze ^ | Wednesday, May 07, 2008 | NA

Posted on 05/07/2008 4:31:52 AM PDT by metesky

BANGOR, Maine — Stephen King has fired back at conservative critics who attacked him over a remark he made a month ago at a writers symposium for high school students.

A blogger jumped on King´s statement at the Library of Congress about the importance of reading in which he suggested poor readers have limited prospects, including service in the Army.

"I don´t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don´t, then you´ve got the Army, Iraq, I don´t know, something like that. It´s not as bright," King said at the April 4 event in which he was accompanied by his wife Tabitha and son Owen.

Blogger Noel Sheppard likened the comment to former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry´s remarks that if you don´t get a good education, "you get stuck in Iraq."

"Nice sentiment when the nation is at war, Stephen," Sheppard wrote.

King fired back Monday.

"That a right-wing-blog would impugn my patriotism because I said children should learn to read, and could get better jobs by doing so, is beneath contempt," he said in a statement posted on his Web site.

King said he supports the troops but believes the war in Iraq is a "waste of national resources ... and that includes the youth and blood of the 4,000 American troops who have lost their lives there and for the tens of thousands who have been wounded."

"I live in a National Guard town, and I support our troops, but I don´t support either the war or educational policies that limit the options of young men and women to any one career — military or otherwise," King said.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: antiamericanism; antimilitary; deepthinker; kingcommie; limousineliberal; stephenking
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To: avacado
Piss off fool. My reply was appropriate for the level of King's comment.

So you want to be at King's level? One thing I've enjoyed about FR is that the level of discourse here isn't at the Jr. High level. Sorry to see that's not true anymore.

61 posted on 05/07/2008 7:00:42 AM PDT by ConfusedAndLovingIt
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To: metesky; Titan Magroyne
King tries to fire back, but his gun jams. (Well, it would have if he believed in the 2nd Amendment and really had a gun.)


Actually, the hypocritical Mr. King does own a handgun. A story several years ago in the Portland News told of a "stalker" who parked in King's driveway in Bangor. In an interview King said he went out to confront the man and became so rattled that he went back inside and loaded his gun after the "stalker" left. All traces of the story have since disappeared from the Internet (unless I've missed some obscure link), but enough FReepers saw it at the time to verify that Mr. King:
1) owns a handgun,
2) confonts "stalkers" unarmed and
3) loads his gun only after the danger is passed.
Mr. King may indeed fire back, but for the most part his gun is not loaded.
62 posted on 05/07/2008 7:06:32 AM PDT by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Jubal Harshaw (Robert A. Heinlein))
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To: 70th Division
Did we actually have boots on the ground? I thought it was all air support.

The United States participated in the NATO airstrikes, and then put boots on the ground following the Yugoslav withdrawal.

63 posted on 05/07/2008 7:07:55 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: metesky

I’ve yet to understand this concept “I support the troops but I don’t support the war”. If you are supporting the troops then you are supporting their effort and as a result supporting the war effort. That statement is a lib’s way of not having the courage to say what that actually think and trying to sugar-coat their true feelings.

I’ve called several on that statement.

Heck, I don’t know of a single conservative who likes war but OTOH if you’re in one you’d better be supporting it.


64 posted on 05/07/2008 7:26:44 AM PDT by OSTATE
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To: AnAmericanMother

Thank you for raising a fine young man who wants to serve his country. Has either of you even spoken with a recruitor? I ask because I’m pretty sure the USMC won’t accept him at all without a diploma or GED. They’ll welcome him at the age of 17 into the Delayed Entry Program so he has time to prepare for bootcamp beforehand, but that’s not an automatic “in.”

If he wants to have a say in his choice of MOS - no guarantee there but they DO try to at least get you into your chosen field - he’d better his negotiating platform by staying in high school or, if he’s especially motivated, passing extra credit courses at a CC so as to graduate earlier than his peers.


65 posted on 05/07/2008 8:10:23 AM PDT by Titan Magroyne ("Shorn, dumb and bleating is no way to go through life, son." Yeah, close enough.)
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To: Drumbo
Actually, the hypocritical Mr. King does own a handgun. A story several years ago in the Portland News told of a "stalker" who parked in King's driveway in Bangor. In an interview King said he went out to confront the man and became so rattled that he went back inside and loaded his gun after the "stalker" left. All traces of the story have since disappeared from the Internet (unless I've missed some obscure link), but enough FReepers saw it at the time to verify that Mr. King:

1) owns a handgun,
2) confonts "stalkers" unarmed and
3) loads his gun only after the danger is passed.
Mr. King may indeed fire back, but for the most part his gun is not loaded.
I recall that. And I'll bet it all made sense to him at the time. You know, just as with the current situation. ;o)

I don't wanna be unkind to his wife Tabitha, but also if some idiot slipped inside my home threatening to blow it up with me in it, I'm not the one who's gonna be headed out the window. You claim your ground and are its first line of defense. Unless of course you're a um uh wussy or a liberal. But I repeat myself.
66 posted on 05/07/2008 8:30:04 AM PDT by Titan Magroyne ("Shorn, dumb and bleating is no way to go through life, son." Yeah, close enough.)
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To: ConfusedAndLovingIt
"So you want to be at King's level? One thing I've enjoyed about FR is that the level of discourse here isn't at the Jr. High level. Sorry to see that's not true anymore."

Oh good grief... go find some other chew bone.

67 posted on 05/07/2008 8:34:10 AM PDT by avacado
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
At least he’s not claiming it was a “botched joke.”

Not yet, anyway.

68 posted on 05/07/2008 8:36:05 AM PDT by Allegra (Tehran delenda est)
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To: metesky

No, Stephen, we don’t question your patiotism. That’s because we KNOW you’re not patriotic.


69 posted on 05/07/2008 8:38:01 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople
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To: EarthBound

Glenn was funny when, after discussing the Steven King remarks, he left a message on the phone of a soldier friend of his.

“Now, just dial 1-888 — that’s right, three 8’s — no, there’s not a 3 in that — just listen and do as I say — 8-8-8, then a 7 — that’s next to the 8...”


70 posted on 05/07/2008 8:47:46 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (To the liberal, there's no sacrifice too big for somebody else to make. --FReeper popdonnelly)
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To: AnAmericanMother

OCS takes a minimum of 90 credit hours, IIRC. I don’t know all of the particulars, but college is very necessary for officers. It teaches you to be self-reliant and self-driving to get work done. It also helps you sharpen your Powerpoint skills...


71 posted on 05/07/2008 9:28:04 AM PDT by Future Snake Eater (From "hooah!" to "meh..." in only three weeks' time...)
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To: metesky
""I don´t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don´t, then you´ve got the Army, Iraq, I don´t know, something like that......"

If you can even think that, let alone say it in public you have fundamental disrespect for the armed services and any denial is self serving bullshit.

72 posted on 05/07/2008 10:43:35 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: metesky

USMC MOS: Data/Communications Maintenance, Public Affairs, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical, Music, etc.

Some Navy Ratings: Aviation, Nuclear Field, Navy Corpsman, Gas Turbine Systems, Legalman, etc.

Army MOS: Communications Intelligence, Psychological Operations, Finance, etc.

Air Force MOS: Missile and Space Systems Maintenance, Communications and Computer Systems, Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory, etc.

Point being...King is an arrogant and ignorant liberal. Our military personnel are not only literate...they are well steeped in the fields of mathematics and science.

Our young military men/women are brighter than King!


73 posted on 05/07/2008 11:10:18 AM PDT by Goldie Lurks (professional moonbat catcher)
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To: Tribune7

No one ever said Stephen King was intelligent. He just writes scary books. Hasn’t he always been regarded as a dull-witted dufus?


74 posted on 05/07/2008 11:44:02 AM PDT by Republicus2001
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To: bcsco
Oh, I like novels with a light touch of the supernatural, nothing as heavy-handed, obvious, or deliberately evil as King's stuff.

Good examples: Kipling's ghost stories like "The Wish House" or "Friendly Brook", and Donn Byrne's novels, especially Destiny Bay and Hangman's House. In all of those evil is evil, and good is good, and there's no mistaking the two. Good as a general rule overcomes. As one of Byrne's characters says, "Tom, you're forgetting just one element: the ultimate vast justice of God."

I haven't read many contemporary novels. The most recent thing I've read is A Prayer for Owen Meany, and I hated it. Thought it was contrived, mean-spirited, and way too liberal for me.

I love history, I learned to read on back issues of American Heritage magazine and wound up majoring in history in college. I still read all sorts, latest was the big book of George Catlin's Indian portraits with his notes on his various travels. Now that I'm doing cowboy action shooting, I'll have to get current on the West (my thesis concentration was on the American and British Civil Wars. Quite a contrast.)

75 posted on 05/07/2008 7:24:23 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Titan Magroyne
My son is practically on a first name basis with 'his' recruiter. I think between us we have talked him into finishing school - he will be better qualified in every way to serve his country with a high school diploma.

He just is impatient and wants to go NOW. He's in the Naval Sea Cadets and going to summer camp. Last summer he did Master at Arms (high point pistol marksman with a perfect 240 score) and Port Security training, this summer he's going to be an Assistant Instructor for Recruit Training.

He wants to serve a hitch and then go to college either in ROTC or the GI Bill, or some other plan, then go back in as a career officer.

And this is a kid who has never planned 10 minutes ahead in his life.

It's all good.

76 posted on 05/07/2008 7:30:27 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

Oh wow. He’s not your average teenager slouching his way through high school!

He will indeed go far. Pat yourself on the back, proud Mama. :o)


77 posted on 05/07/2008 11:16:17 PM PDT by Titan Magroyne ("Shorn, dumb and bleating is no way to go through life, son." Yeah, close enough.)
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To: 70th Division; All
You might be interested in the poll our local talk radio is running. King is getting his stubby little fanny kicked all over the lot in the poll and on the air.
78 posted on 05/08/2008 4:09:58 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: metesky
Question of the Day
 
Should Stephen King apologize for his comment about reading and the military?
Yes

70.59 %
No

29.41 %

79 posted on 05/08/2008 4:12:45 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: ottbmare

Very rarely will you see any junior grade officers that have not obtained a bachelor degree. When I was in OCS, there was one candidate in my platoon, but he had two years of college, and was an outstanding Marine in order to get accepted into the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Program (MECEP). I actually enlisted after college, but was accepted to OCS because of my degree. If your son wishes to become a Marine Officer, he has a few choices: US Naval Academy, NROTC scholarship Marine Option to a participating school, Platoon Leader’s Course, which is either two 6 week sessions in between semesters in the summer, or a 10 week session after junior year, Officer Candidate’s Course is offered after graduating. If he chooses to hold off until after graduating, the best advice I can give is for him to enlist in the Reserves after his freshman year of college. That way he’ll have 4 years as a Marine under his belt, will draw more pay than a fresh 2nd LT, and will understand how to respect and value the NCO’s and SNCO’s.


80 posted on 05/09/2008 12:49:23 PM PDT by Seamus Mc Gillicuddy (Great minds discuss ideas, medium minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.)
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