Ralph Reed: Plagirist who hated Mohandas Gandhi

[Ian David]

Plagiarism incident

On April 14, 1983, Reed wrote a column for The Red and Black student newspaper attacking the late Mohandas K. Gandhi of India. Entitled "Gandhi: Ninny of the 20th Century," Reed denounced the 1983 motion picture Gandhi for its favorable treatment of the life of the pacifist leader of the Indian independence movement. A graduate student complained to the editor of The Red and Black that Reed had plagiarized a Commentary article by film reviewer Richard Grenier. After an investigation, Reed was fired from the paper. Reed wrote a final column acknowledging his failure to cite sources but accusing the graduate student who complained of "the most shocking, profane form of personal attack I can imagine." (Nina J. Easton, Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade, page 130-31)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_E._Reed%2C_Jr.#Plagiarism_incident

[catmother]

1. how can anyone hate Gandhi???? n/t

[Midnight Rambler]

2. Probably cause he wasn't a Christian

He stood up to imperialists too. That can't be good to conservatives.

[catmother]

3. Jesus H. Christ. n/t

[greiner3]

5. Yes? n/t

[davidinalameda]

6. it's Ralph Reed

go figure

[PassingFair]

15. Some people HATE pacifists.

My brother despises Gandhi. I don't get it.

When homophobes loathe gays, it's supposed to indicate latent tendencies in themselves.

What the heck does it mean when people hate pacifists? That they are latent pacifists?

My brother is a liberal, and a * HATER, but he thinks Gandhi was a wimp.

A testosterone imbalance is probably involved here, but I don't know the dynamics...

[Ferret Annica]

16. He doesn't understand...

"My brother is a liberal, and a * HATER, but he thinks Gandhi was a wimp."

...that Ghandi was very tough in passion and commitment to fundamental truths and understood the real strength of compassion for and commitment to communication with those you stand eyeball to eyeball with.

If he also thinks Steve Biko was a wimp for responding to a South African Boer cop saying, "Kaffer, I'm going to beat you to death," with, "I wonder how long it will take you," then he is missing the commitment to the supreme self assurance that though people like Mohandas Gandhi and Steven Biko are mere human, their beliefs and principles are enduring and immortal and will never die as long as humans are committed to justice and seeing good prevail over bad.

[alfredo]

19. Gandhi knew not to fight the Brits on their own terms.

The Brits built their empire through military might. Gandhi won by not playing by their rules.

Others have learned this lesson.

Saddam was smart not to face us down in the open where we were the strongest. He sucked us into a urban guerrilla war. Saddam 1, bush 0.

MLK won by not playing the violent game of the southern racist.

[Ferret Annica]

23. Quite true...

Non-violent civil disobedience worked against the Brits, but would have been a foolish tool to use against Nazis. Which means it behooves the U.S. to always remain tolerant of dissent of this sort.

If we had to, we could mount a hell of an awsome insurgency here at home if we had to.

I agree with your take on the current Iraqi invasion score tally. Americans as idiotic as Bush always arrogantly underestimate the intelligence, resolve and pragmatism of their chosen foes.

It would be far easier to laugh at what an idiot this wannabe who fancies himself as Alexander the Great is and looks like if his foolishness wasn't costing us so much in blood, security and capital.

[alfredo]

24. The Brits were after money, the Nazi were driven by ideology.

You can justify killing for ideology easier than for a pocket full of change.


I've always wondered if victory was really the end game? Could chaos be the real objective? Throw the mideast into chaos, let them kill each other then move in and take over.

That's not much different from their domestic policy. Throw the economy, Social Security, and government agencies into a crisis, then move in and apply the Neo Con fix.

[BjohnsonMN]

18. Gandhi a wimp?!?

The man who endured beatings from the police for burning his papers, and still kept throwing them in the fire? The man who nearly died from going on hunger strikes in order to get his message of non-violence out? The man who endured severe violence while never striking back with violence of his own?

Can anyone show me a single right-winger living or dead that had anywhere near the courage of Gandhi?

[PassingFair]

20. Big brother claims....

that Gandhi's tactics could only have worked against the "civilized" British Raj. He says a Hitler would have just gunned him down or gassed him.

I told bro that Gandhi might have used other tactics thwart Hitler, but that he was fighting the British!

[brentspeak]

4. These College Republican types can't seem to stop themselves

from committing plagiarism when they write their conservative diatribes. Both Ann Coulter and Monica Crowley have been caught red-handed ripping off other people's work.

http://www.coulterwatch.com/files/BW2-009-Plagiarism_Trap.pdf

http://slate.msn.com/id/1003470/

[bperci108]

7. Good Lord...

What kind of person could attack a man like Ghandi?

I have no doubt that if Jesus returned preaching the same message of love, non-violence, and resistance to evil (sounds a little like the dude from India, doesn't it?...) as He did in the first century, Ralphie and Co. would waste no time in gathering the rest of the Pharisaical Right to stone Him.

(Or perhaps foment a crucifixion...or maybe a spot in line on Texas' Execution Express Lane.):banghead:

[Ian David]

8. I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are..."

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mohandas Gandhi


What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mohandas Gandhi

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.
Mohandas Gandhi


More:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mohandas_gandhi.html

[bperci108]

14. Just goes to show you...

...That Truth is universal.

Fundygelicals will condemn Ghandi because he was a "pagan" (or some such twaddle...) but real Christians see him as a brother in the same human struggle. :grouphug:

[calimary]

17. That's nicely put. Welcome to DU!

REAL Christians (as opposed to the phony "xtians" who would wrap themselves around the "Buy-Bull" instead of the Holy Bible) understand what Christ's message was. REAL Christians understand that Jesus's teachings included the Beatitudes - about tolerance and peacefulness. "Xtians" cling to the book of Leviticus and other - um - well - what shall we say - rigid, intolerant, hypocritical, UN-Christ-like teachings. I find myself wondering if they think it's okay to own slaves from adjoining countries and to work on Sundays, and slavishly follow or otherwise revere and/or participate in football - because after all, Leviticus dictates that one dare not touch the skin of a dreaded pig.

By the way, I think ralph reed qualifies as "The Ninny of the 20th Century."

[CHIMO]

9. Yea. Spreading Democracy

U.S. religious right enters electoral fray
Bush ex-adviser appeals to faithful to get involved and get the vote out

TORONTO -- The man known to have blazed the trail for the religious-conservative movement in the United States rallied Canadian faith leaders yesterday, urging them to get behind the vote.

Ralph Reed, who led hundreds of thousands of members of the religious right to get the vote out during the era of former U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, told delegates to a Christian conference last night to put on their work boots and tennis shoes and knock on doors.

"Come Jan. 23, there's going to be a new Canada of conservative traditional values," he told a cheering crowd of 400 people who greeted his remarks with a standing ovation.

"History is not static and the making of that history will begin on Jan. 23 when the people of Canada go to the polls," he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051201/ELXNREED01/TPNational/?query=reed

Someone pointed this article out on the Canadian board.

[pretzel4gore]

10. Gandhi stopped the fighting...

when the India/Pakistan states emerged following independence, massive bloodshed erupted as extremists in both India and Pakistan began attacking minority hindus or muslims- a vast exchange of populations began....Gandhi was horrified, as he had been the primary cause for Britain granting 'India' which then comprised entire sub continent, its freedom.....Gandhi attempted to stop the slaughter by politics, but when that didn't work, he began a fast to death unless the killing stopped. Incredibly, Gandhi, who had fasted several times during the self rule campaign against britain, and had mobilized the people in a non violent confrontation that overwhelmed the british, was a skinny guy when he began his fast unto death, and within days, he was obviously failing. Both the muslims and the hindus promised Gandhi that peace would be restored yada yada, but Gandhi said he would know when the people stopped attacking each other, and until then....within a few days, it was clear Gandhi was dying, and vast crowds of both muslims and hindus surrounded his house...word went out and the worst extremists on both sides were isolated and cut off, and the fighting died down until finally it had stopped everywhere. Even churchill, who also held Gandhi in contempt, marvelled that one man could affect hundreds of millions like that, but he did (btw Gandhi was assasinated by HINDU extremists a few months later)

[0007]

11. This statement speaks volumes about Ralph Reed.

"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." Mahatma Gandhi

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Ralph Reed is lower than whale shit

at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. A guy who (1) libels Gandhi and (2) plagiarizes someone else's work in the process is just irredeemable. What a repulsive, loathsome excuse for a human being. I wish I believed in Hell so I could imagine Reed rotting there.

And speaking of Hell... I once got into an argument with a fundie who insisted Mother Teresa would go there because she was a Catholic and not a born-again fundie wack job like him. This is the sort of person who actually thinks Ralph Reed is a Godly man.

:puke:

Marx was right about at least one thing: Religion really is the opiate of the masses.

[xchrom]

13. ralph reed disliking ghandi

kinda speaks for itself.

all conservatives are nut jobs.

[newspeak]

21. big NO NO in college

plagiarism is a big big no no in school. shame, shame--naughty, naughty boy Reed. Of course, with everything else Reed has done, it's no surprise about his feelings for Gandhi nor his plagiarism.

[KakistocracyHater]

22. to them the simple truth is

profane. Reed considered his plagiarism being pointed out totally shocking, mostly because the truth acts like poison on him.