An Up and Coming Hack

Speaking of Bugs Malkin, she's really hit her stride as an irrational hack.

In her July 18th column (which seems a whole lot like this Reason column of almost one year ago), Malkin bashes the New York Times Corporation for purchasing land obtained by New York State under the state's power of eminent domain. But if the owners of the property did not receive just compensation for the property seized, it's the State of New York and not the the Times Corporation she should be bashing. The Times Corp. can't condemn or seize anything, nor can it set the compensation paid to the original owners.

And Malkin barely mentions the City of Arlington's use of eminent domain to give Bush Jnr and his pals land for the Texas Rangers' stadium (and extra land to resell). In fact, she only mentions that deal to bash the NYT for a running a Kristof column condemning it.

Either both Geo. Bush and the Times Corp. are "evil," "greedy leech[es]" "conspir[ing]" to commit "legalized theft" and screw private landowners for personal gain, or neither one is. But you can't have it both ways, Malkin.

And, in another promising bit of hackery, Malkin blasts the Secret Service for seeking to question wing-nut cartoonist Michael Ramirez, who drew a panel featuring a character pointing a gun to Bush's head. After all, Malkin says, it's not like Mikey "was some left-wing homeless crackpot who had sent President Bush an anthrax-laced death threat." In Malkin's vacant skull, the only death threats worth investigating are those from "left-wing ... crackpots." I guess that's because left-wingers are so smart that even the homeless, mentally-ill ones are capable of manufacturing anthrax from the baskets of their shopping carts.