A banner at a coal industry sponsored golf outing in Prestonburg Kentucky took a nasty swipe at actress and Kentucky native Ashley Judd. The banner had a picture of Ms. Judd without a top, but with her hands over her breasts, and said “Ashley makes a living removing her top. Why can’t coal miners?” It was, apparently, directed at Judd’s criticism of mountaintop removal in eastern Kentucky.
The story was in the Lexington Herald Leader, and is available at:
Banner mocks topless Judd for Coal Comments
It was a particularly personal, nasty attack. Nearly 2500 years ago the Greek philosopher Aristotle said that when you have no other argument, attack the man: or in this case the woman. Aristotle knew if for what it was, a punk move, a cheap shot.
The issue of mountaintop removal is complex, and certainly many of the opponents engage in simplistic logic and reasoning. But that doesn’t justify an ugly, nasty, personal attack.
There is really no other way to say it. People (and organizations) that engage in nasty attacks are nasty people.