Chavez' Penn, or how Santa Monica High should hang its Penn in shame

By Warner Todd Huston

Someone needs to sue Santa Monica High School for education malpractice on behalf of the ill-educated Sean Penn. I mean, the man is nearly illiterate and he certainly has no grasp on history, philosophy, or statecraft. But his wacko left-wing inanities aside, it is his illiteracy that seems the most lamentable. Oh, it isn't Rosie O'Donnell illiterate, hers is a special class of insensibility all by itself, but Penn's brand is proof of the lowest quality of education. I mean the man can barely put two words together sensibly much less exhibit a grasp of grammar and syntax. It really is a crime how badly he's been educated.

Take for instance his latest Huffington Post blathering where he seems to be saying that all we need to win the day in international relations is to give a "smile." Aside from being childishly simplistic in concept, it has some of the worst word usage and syntax I've seen for a long time in what is supposed to be a leader of opinion (again, Rosie aside).

Now, I don't claim to be the king of grammar, myself. But, if I had millions of dollars as he does I'd at least be smart enough to hire an editor so that I don't end up looking like a complete moron. Unfortunately, I am one of the po'folk, so I have to muddle through as best as I can.

His wind up is amusing for its utter lack of introspection.

Once again the simple-minded media and its pundits are confused about the nature of Americanism and language.

Coming from one such as he, THAT right there is some funny stuff.

From there Penn launched into some odd attack on president Ford that has little to do with the rest of his topic and is an illogical point, in any case. He recalls how Obama is being accused of not "looking forward" as he promised he would but has failed to uphold when recently stating that Bush administration officials could be sent to show trials and "truth" commissions over the torture issue. He then says that Ford wasn't "forward looking" enough by pardoning Nixon. But, that is precisely what Ford was doing. Unlike Obama, Ford knew that show trials whipped up against Nixon would hurt the country and would prevent moving forward from Watergate. If Obama was as clear thinking as Ford, we'd all be better off.

Unfortunately, Penn is insensible to this truth. He wants to indulge in McCarthyesque witch-hunts. Wonderfully "forward looking" of him, isn't it?

Now catch this muddled sentence:

Further, the criticisms of President Obama's warm greeting toward President Chavez of Venezuela have been the posturing of our nation's most bitter and humanly impotent voices.

Uh, what the heck is a "humanly impotent voice"? What other kind of voice is there? Maybe it was a fishly impotent voice, or a birdly impotent one? And let us not even mention how clumsy that sentence is otherwise.

And then we get foolish hyperbole...

Why is anyone listening to former Vice President Cheney? He's the one person alive proven wrong on virtually every topic.

Yeah, "every topic." Not too over-the-top, eh?

Then we get a sentence that looks as if it were written by a 12-year-old.

Then there's Newt Gingrich, who commented on the Chavez greeting as being approached wrong.

Amateurish, at best.

And it keeps getting worse.

He suggested that the meeting itself may not be improper, but that it should have been handled with a cold demeanor.

A garbled mess, that.

But, guess what, guys. All we need are smiles.

This is a pattern of bad acting advice from bad actors. (All wimps think playing a tough guy is done in one-note coldness.) With a friend, or an enemy, our president will gain greater strategic position with a smile.

Yes, I remember the smile of Neville Chamberlain proudly proclaiming "peace in our times." I also remember Stalin smiling as he signed that famous non-aggression pact with Chamberlain's buddy just before the Germans came crashing into Russia. Those are some really famous smiles that were oh, so advantageous for world peace, eh?

One wonders if Penn — both historically and grammatically illiterate — knows of those aforementioned smiles? It would appear not.

Now, what follows is the same sort of looking away, the same sort of apologia that leftists in the U.S. employed from the 1930s until the 1990s. Then, for all those many decades, these lefties constantly supported communism while pretending not to know of the many millions of human beings that Stalin and the U.S.S.R. were murdering on a yearly basis. It is the sort of blinkered thinking, the sort of blinder-wearing, illogical, unthinking, inhumane, self-loathing sort of stupidity that the left is famous for. It's ends-justify-the-means at its worst.

And it's exactly what Penn is recreating:

I know President Chavez well. Whether or not one agrees with all his policies, what is certainly true of Chavez is that he is a warm and friendly man with a robust sense of humor (who daily risks his own life for his country in ways Dick Cheney could never imagine). To treat such a man coldly is akin to spitting on him. As a country we've done enough of that. Say what you will, but it has only resulted in the self-celebration of our smirking spitters, while costing us international respect, American lives, and left wounds in the hands of our children's future. The Cheneys, down to the O'Reillys and Hannitys and Limbaughs, effectively hate the principles upon which we were founded. They are among the greatest cowards in all of American history. I applaud an American President who's tough enough...to smile.

...not to mention that it again seems to have been written by an unschooled 12-year-old.

So what about those "cold men"? You mean, cold like Chavez who so threatened the leader of an opposing Venezuelan political party that said leader had to flee the country? How many opposition leaders did George W. Bush try to jail or chase out of the country these last 8 years?

Put simply — because simply is all he can understand — Sean should hang up his Penn. He is truly making himself look the fool.

But, gosh darn it ... he likes himself. And he's sure there will be peace in our times if we all just "smile."

© Warner Todd Huston