Speaking Truth to Power

Jared's enjoyed his free ride for way too long. [Via Consumerist.]

Ah ha, Hush That Fuss/Everybody Get to the Back of the Bus...

A few years ago, Sarah Vowell of This American Life fame noted that peculiar habit some wronged blowhards have of comparing themselves to Rosa Parks (pictured) everytime they take a stand at their book-club meeting or refuse to let a car merge in front of them. What inspired her were these words, from the mouth of some low-grade country singer: "In France it was Joan of Arc; in the Crimea it was Florence Nightingale; in the deep south there was Rosa Parks; in India there was Mother Teresa, and in Florida there was Katherine Harris." Now, the insanity that inheres in such puffery need not be expounded on here--Vowell, a mighty genius, does it much better than I could anyway--but I wonder if there is a new and even stranger rhetorical-metaphorical trend blossoming right before our eyes. I swear this is the last I will say of the Duke non-rapists, but could it be that they are the symbol de rigueur for the injustices that celebrity idiots (or their counsel) think they've suffered?

• Consider the lawyer for gun-toting Coney Island legend and soon to be fired Celtic Sebastian Telfair: "It always bothers me when you punish a guy so severely before there's been a finding of fact. I think that's wrong whether it happens in Durham (N.C) or in Boston."
• Consider Tom DeLay, who really wants you to know that the shitstorm he set into motion is happening in Texas: "I’m presently under indictment for laws that don’t exist in Texas by a Nifong [disgraced prosecutor in the Duke case] of Texas called Ronnie Earle, undermining our justice system here in Texas."
• And consider the lawyer for Paul Wolfowitz: "I am very worried about the rush to judgment. We just had a wonderful example of that in the Duke lacrosse case. I have reviewed the essential documents, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Mr. Wolfowitz exercised good faith and that everything he did was in the best interests of the bank."

Bringing it all full-circle, I will leave you with this. Prince of the blowhards Tucker Carlson wants you to know that just because the NAACP got involved in her case, " [t]hat doesn't make the accuser [in the Duke rape case] Rosa Parks."