Two Responses to that Hack Katherine Kersten

The Star and Tribune employs a right-wing hack named Katherine Kersten to write columns under the pretext of providing "balance" to their oh-so-far-left views.

Kersten has made Critical Mass, the monthly bike protest, one of her favorite punching bags, trying to whip up hysteria so that police will crack down on it. The Star Tribune has happily participated in this debacle, even posting an "informal poll" on their website asking if CM should be "cracked down on"!

So far, I've sent three letters presenting the bicyclists' perspective, instead they publish letters from loudmouths in Edina who threaten bikers and make stupid comments about bikers' self-righteousness (how can some idiot who feels justified to drive a big dumb truck like it's a weapon even begin to talk about being self-righteous?). Anyway, here's her latest installment.

1)
I'd like to thank Katherine Kersten for pointing out that people who participate in Critical Mass have psychological problems. There's so many people who are sick and need our help! I propose that we "crack down" (to use the Star Tribune's own words) on those obviously very ill pedestrians on Nicollet Mall. And then on those children that illegally ride their bikes on sidewalks. Then on people who don't put their grocery carts back. To misquote Eugene Debs: while there is a soul not in prison, I am not free.

2)
Far-right ideologues like Kersten like to give lip-service to less government at the same time as they justify any and all governmental oppression. People like her, who are so quick to whip up hysteria about dissenters of any stripe, are to blame for our slow slip to authoritarianism in the United States under the Bush administration. The fact that her unrelentingly prejudiced attacks have not received any response from other columnists shows the danger her authoritarian ideas pose to free expression and dialog in a democratic society.