Every night at 8 p.m. on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann awards his daily pick for "Worst Person in the World." Some contenders are lucky — or unlucky —enough to be nominated more than once.
The bronze goes to an unnamed female suspect in Largo, Florida, who pulled a 10-inch knife on a Wal-Mart clerk, when the employee tried to stop the suspect from shoplifting two boxing of LEGOs. The suspect is 7 or 8 years old, and escaped the scene on a late-model bicycle.
Our runner-up tonight only acts 7 or 8 years old. Rich Lowry of “National Review Online,” has written a column quoting a “New York Times” poll that suggested 55 percent of Americans favor sending more troops to Iraq. In fact, the poll indicated only 16 percent of Americans favor sending more troops to Iraq. That 55 percent figure Mr. Lowry tried to slip past the gullible represented those in the poll who would support more troops "if that meant the U.S. would finally gain control over Baghdad and stabilize the country.”
The title of Mr. Lowry's column, “Be Careful What You Believe”—good advice for anybody who reads what he writes.
But our winner, Mark Nord, chief author of the report in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture appears to have eliminated hunger in this country. Nobody goes to bed hungry in America any more? Hallelujah. Would that that were true.
The Ag Department did not eliminate the condition we know as hunger, just the word. The 35 million Americans who could not put food on the table all or part of last year are now described by Mr. Nord as experiencing "very low food security.”
Mr. Nord would appear to be experiencing very low honesty security.
Mark Nord of your U.S. Department of Agriculture, Thursday's "Worst Person in the World."