You might think we’ve got some shady characters and nasty shenanigans going on here in North Carolina, but a CBS News profile of Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen will leave you shaking your head — and laughing a lot. A sampling:
Hiaasen doesn?t believe in writing columns that don?t offend someone, and his weapon of choice is humor, not outrage.
“From my experience, politicians are much more uncomfortable being made fun of than they are being preached at and screeched at — you know, and the soapbox routine,” says Hiaasen. “They’re much more uneasy knowing they’re a target of ridicule. It really ruins their day. They lose their breakfast over it.
“And that’s my mission with the column,” adds Hiaasen. “To make them so ashamed and disgusted of what they’ve done, and to know that when they walk out their door, all their neighbors will be pointing to them, ‘That’s the guy who was in the column today.'”
“The one word that no politician will ever speak, is ‘enough.’ Enough,” says Hiaasen. “This is an economy that’s based on growth — growth for the sake of growth. We don’t manufacture anything. We don’t produce anything except, you know, oranges and handguns. This is all about growth, tourism and growth.”
There’s lots more amusement therein.
