Stephen King does a partial Kerry
The King of fright decided to pull a partial Kerry on us with the following statement (source link)
“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,”
I call it a partial Kerry because he did not stumble all over himself trying to apologize like Kerry. No, he has no intentions of backing down on what he said, even though his ASSumptions about military personnel are erroneously far from the facts. I know facts are not always important when you are writing fiction, but they matter a lot in the non-fiction world.
Take for example this little tid-bit from the Heritage Foundation’s research on the quality of recruits since the start of the war. See how it looks side to side with King’s statement about troops and literacy:
… in the most recent edition of Population Representation in the Military Services, the Department of Defense reported that the mean reading level of 2004 recruits is a full grade level higher than that of the comparable youth population. Fewer than 2 percent of wartime recruits have no high school credentials. Table 2 shows the breakdown for the educational attainment of the wartime recruit cohorts. The national high school graduation rate taken from the Census 2004 ACS is 79.8 percent.
…
The policy regarding high school graduation status (or the equivalent) remains stringent across all four branches of the military. At least 90 percent of recruits must be high school diploma graduates (which does not include equivalency). Recruit accessions from the first three quarters of fiscal year 2006 are above this guideline in all branches except the Army. As of May 2006, 83.1 percent of accepted Army recruits met this requirement, which is still a greater percentage than the national graduation rate including equivalency. Additionally, for fiscal year 2006, the Army is in step with the other three branches in meeting the overall DOD guideline that more than 60 percent of enlistees should score above the 50th percentile on the AFQT.
Maybe people like Stephen King would like to check their facts before they make blanket statements like this, oh and you’ve gotta love the fact that he says he supports the troops. Yeah, whatever.
Hey King, here’s an idea… why don’t you donate to a worthy organization called “Books for Soldiers.” I have heard rumors that deployed soldiers read a lot. It’s amazing, isn’t it?
About spit when reading the comments yesterday. Perhaps Mr. King should take a moment to read the diverse writings originating from various overseas locations. In my opinion, some are on a par with the King of Fright. Perhaps he should do a little research before issuing such ASSanine statements. Apology required.
While he wonders about issuing an apology, I suggest that readers (ya know, those NOT illiterate!) boycott any and all Stephen King books…Let him feel the love.;)
I am shocked that he did not read Tanker Bros way back when, as I wrote a post absolutely refuting the “troops are illiterate, poor, pathetic etc.etc..”
As you say, the FACTS prove other than King of Kerry have ASSerted..and yes, they ARE ASSinine in their ASSumptions.
I have work to do - got to write a letter to this latest moron…..
I saw this while we were out of town over the weekend…only dial up connection…so I didn’t actually “hear” him say it until we got home. All I could think was that anyone who “supports the troops” and had even a brief conversation with anyone in the military….could never have “misspoken” like this. It’s leftover 60’s rhetoric…and makes me so ashamed of my generation.
Oh, but the best part is then when asked to comment or apologize his oh-so-literate reply was, “shut-up”.
Now doesn’t that beat all?
Not everyone in the world can become a suspense/horror fiction writer. Some people have to do other things like defend our freedom and protect us as private citizens. Must be nice to be sitting at the top of the dung heap, eh? Of course when you are up that high you think that your own dung doesn’t stink.
Mr King, is of course, a flaming liberal.
In fact, he’s contributed almost $50,000 to liberal campaigns over the years, the most to John F’n Kerry.
SOURCE: http://www.politicalbase.com/people/stephen-king/29286/
No wonder there’s no veracity to that which issues from his pie-hole.
Al C.