Marvin Olasky underwhelms me. The purveyor of compassionate misery

is on Book TV now talking to the Commonweath Club of California. This is the first time I've ever seen him or heard him speak. I don't really know much about him other than * loves his catchy "compassionate conservativism" jingo and works it into about every speech he can so that he can appear human. Mr. Olasky reminds me of an old boss I had. So enamored with the sounds of his own thoughts and voice that he feels entitled to foist them onto the lives of others. Parading his titles and chairs like medals on his chest, he comes across as someone trying to pad his curriculum vitae rather than get his hands dirty with true poverty. The real life actualizations of his rhetoric has created much more suffering than it has alleviated.

here's more about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Olasky

Career and works

''In the 1980s and 1990s Olasky edited the 16-book Turning Point Christian Worldview series funded by Howard Ahmanson, Jr.'s Fieldstead Institute, which champions and funds the cause of "total integration of Biblical law into our lives."<1><2> Ahmanson has funded four of Olasky's 30 books, and Michelle Goldberg, author of the book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, places Olasky in a crucial role to Christian reconstructionism and dominionism, saying "I’m not sure whether he actually identifies himself as a Christian reconstructionist, but he’s very close to Christian reconstructionism." Olasky, however, calls himself a "Christian libertarian" and criticized Christian reconstructionism in one of his books, Standing for Christ in a Modern Babylon. Goldberg also notes that the phrase now associated with Republicans, "compassionate conservatism," is in the title of one of Olasky’s books, and that Olasky was an advisor on Bush’s first Presidential campaign, influencing not only the thinking of Bush, but the thinking of the Republican Party.<3>.''

that when his previous gods fail him, he becomes a vehement derider of the former and a fanatic follower of the new god. He was raised Jewish, dropped that and became an atheist, fanatic Marxist and when that failed he became a "born-again" and fanatic conservative. Unfortunately he teaches journalism at the University of Texas, so we here in Austin have had him inflicted upon us for years. He wouldn't know the real world if it bit him on the ass.

He is a self-righteous bombastic blowhard of the very worst sort, you should read some of the tripe he passes off as "editorials" in the paper here. Better yet, you shouldn't...

Although usually an apologist and defender of Bush and Repubs, Olasky has been outspoken in condemning Ralph Reed's actions in the Abramoff scandal, so I thought it was brilliant of Bill Moyer in his show last week to show a clip of Olasky criticizing Ralph Reed since the right wingers will only believe one of their own.