-By Warner Todd Huston
It must have been a slow news day for the Washington Post’s Adrian Higgins. Either that or someone made him upset that day and he wanted to take some anger out on someone and get paid for it at the same time. Catharsis doesn’t come free from a journalist, you know? So, looking for some payback, Higgins decided a petty attack upon Sarah Palin would be cheaper than a visit to his therapist. Besides, Palin is always the Old Media’s favorite target for venomous attack so he obviously didn’t have to think too hard in the effort.
But, since Sarah hadn’t been in the news over the last several days, Higgins must have had a hard time trying to find a rhetorical hook upon which to hang his venomous pen. Then it hit him. Her fence is ugly. Who cares that the fence story is now months old, eh? Who needs topical when one is going after Sarahcuda?
That’s right, the fence is ugly and that makes Palin an evil, oil-loving, war-mongering, racist, anti-feminist, monster, right? Man, that must have made Higgins feel better. And it saved him from kicking his dog this time, too. Smiles all around.
Of course, there was more to it than just saying the fence was ugly. Higgins also proclaims the Palins as “bad neighbors” because of it. Never mind that the only reason that the thing was even put up is to keep the hack-next-door from acting the peeping Joe on Palin’s young children.
So, that fence is “defiantly ugly,” says writer Higgins.
However genuine the motives behind the fence, from a design, horticultural and sheer aesthetic standpoint, it looks like a disaster.
Higgins scolds the Palins for not tearing down the old fence and replacing it with a more costly, professionally made fence.
Seriously? That is his concern here? Let’s review why the fence went up in the first place. The goal for the Palins was to immediately stop the voyeur-jurno next door from peering into their living quarters. The Palins had no plans to carefully tear down an old fence and build a new, permanent fence that was taller before the intruder arrived. Speed was of the essence, not “horticultural aesthetics”!
In fact, it is doubtful that the Palins intend to leave the thing up once the tabloid screedist next door has run out his lease and leaves the neighborhood.
Of course, this is thin gruel for a story. So Higgins goes off on several related tracks. That fence, that ugly, ugly fence, why it wouldn’t even be allowed in some communities, Higgins gravely informs us.
A fence of such towering presence would not be allowed in many communities across the land, including the District and the Virginia and Maryland suburbs.
See, here is the thing, Mr. Higgins. The fact that some communities have rules that restrict the freedom of property owners to do whatever they want with their property is not a reason to scold those communities like Palin’s that respect their citizen’s rights more! In fact, I’d say that those rarefied communities in Maryland are far more un-American by telling people what they should be allowed to do on their own property than Palin’s “ugly fence” is. And I’d also suggest, Mr. Higgins, that you, sir, are un-American if you are in such wild support of government taking away its citizen’s property rights!
In any case, this was a petty and rather pointless attack piece and it makes me wonder how it got past an editor. In the final assessment, Higgins’ op ed was far uglier than Palin’s fence, for sure.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
Huston has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Huston’s work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Bortz, and Michael Savage. He has appeared on the G. Gordon Liddy show, dozens of local shows from coast to coast, and many blogtalk radio shows.
Mr. Huston has appeared on local TV news to discuss his writing, has been a guest of CNN’s blogger lunch, and has appeared on Breitbart TV’s B-Team show.
Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com and has a blog on the Tribune-Owned http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/ChicagoNow.com website. He is a well known writer on Illinois politics.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston