Patriots And Moonbat Dissonance

Moonbattery: Massive Turnout for Restoring Honor Rally: "It was a great crowd. The folks in my little expedition party guesstimated it at 400,000 to 700,000. This was the most subdued, polite crowd I've seen. The police were standing around with nothing to do; there wasn't even a candy wrapper laying on the mall at the end of this thing. The crowd seemed more cross-sectional of America than the Tea Party-flavored 9/12 event, as though a lot of middle-of-the-road, less political types had climbed on the bandwagon since 9/12. As Beck requested, nobody brought signs; there was not one to be seen in the probably 1/2 million strong crowd. The only people with signage were the handful of folks protesting Beck. They stood around in small groups here and there, trying to join up confrontation in front of their and the media's video cameras, but the massive conservative crowd just swept around and by them like a powerful river going around an inconsequential pile of rocks. Everyone seemed happy to have protesters exercising their rights as Americans and speaking their minds, which seemed to surprise the hippies, who were apparently waiting for baton-wielding Nazis to descend on them at any moment. The hippie's cognitive dissonance, as it slowly sunk in that nobody minded them being there and people welcomed their participation, was interesting to observe."

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In Which George Will Becomes Glenn Beck

George Will starts by sounding suspiciously like Glenn Beck:

WASHINGTON -- Only two things are infinite -- the expanding universe and Democrats' hostility to the District of Columbia's school choice program. Killing this small program, which currently benefits 1,300 mostly poor and minority children, is odious and indicative. It is a small piece of something large -- the Democrats' dependency agenda, which aims to multiply the ways Americans are dependent on government.

And ends by nearly making Glenn look tame:

Many Democrats, opposing the Supreme Court, advocate new campaign finance "reforms" that will further empower government to regulate the quantity, timing and content of speech about government. Otherwise voters will hear more such speech than government considers good for them. Such paternalism is American progressivism's oldest tradition.

A century ago, Herbert Croly published "The Promise of American Life," a book -- still in print -- that was prophetic about today's progressives. Contemplating with distaste America's "unregenerate citizens," he said "the average American individual is morally and intellectually inadequate to a serious and consistent conception of his responsibilities." Therefore, Croly said, national life should be a "school" taught by the government: "The exigencies of such schooling frequently demand severe coercive measures, but what schooling does not?" Unregenerate Americans would be "saved many costly perversions" if "the official schoolmasters are wise, and the pupils neither truant nor insubordinate."

Subordination is dependency seen from above. Today, it is seen approvingly by progressives imposing, from above, their dependency agenda.

There is no school choice here; no voucher will enable Americans to escape from enveloping dependency on this "government as school." The dependency agenda is progressive education for children of all ages, meaning all ages treated as children.

Wow. It's a RTWT. Run, don't walk.

UPDATE: And here's the CPAC edition:

WTWT. Part 2 Part 3 And his trademark dry wit is on full display. What happened? It's almost like we don't need Glenn Beck anymore to keep things honest.

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An Open Letter to Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity

Dear Mr. Beck and Mr. Hannity,

Let me start by saying “Thank You!” for being the great Americans that you are. You are getting the word out about all of the horrible and truly un-Constitutional things that this current administration and our Congress are doing to We The People. You have been instrumental in exposing the corruption in our government and the questionable character of the people our current President has surrounded himself with. I think you two have spearheaded some very profound pro-liberty initiatives that have made a difference in waking us up and getting us mobilized in the important cause of freedom.

Glenn: Your 9.12 Project is probably one of the single biggest reasons why many of us have finally woken up and have started pounding on the doors of our representation, filling up their email in-boxes by writing them letters, burning up their phone lines by calling them, and adamantly opposing these enormous and destructive health care, cap & trade, and other bills. Not that they are listening to us. Like many in the 9.12 Project and the Tea Parties, I have never done this kind of thing before – but I’m doing it now! My wife and I have both been heavily involved in our local 9.12 group – and we are so thankful, because we have met so many new and wonderful friends who feel just as we do; we are all fed-up, tired, and outraged by government shenanigans. My wife and I have your books and have embraced your common sense way of explaining what is “really” going on in our country. Arguing with idiots is no longer a challenge – we have been armed with some good information.

Sean: Your Freedom Concerts are just one example of how you are making a huge, positive difference in the lives of those who serve our country. Your great, great, great American Panel has been instrumental in illustrating the ranting of liberal, misinformed progressives who only want to destroy our country. I listen to you on our local Fox radio affiliate every day on the way home from work. You have given me many ideas for my blog articles and activities. Your logic has given me so much fuel for my arguments against those who just don’t get it.

Now for the hard part: I am a federal employee, which is primarily why I am writing this letter to you guys. It seems that recently, you have been making statements on your shows alluding to the notion that ALL of us in the federal government are over-paid tax cheats. I will not deny that there are certainly those in the federal government who are guilty of those things – and probably worse! But I have to be honest: In recent weeks, I have listened to your radio programs and watched your shows on Fox (as I always do) and I have come away feeling very hurt sometimes.

To give you a sense of why blanket statements painting ALL federal employees as over-paid tax cheats hurts me so deeply, let me tell you a little about myself and the people I work with in my particular agency:

• After serving a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy, I went on to become a teacher in the State of South Dakota – the state that ranks dead last in teacher pay, then accepted a job back in my home state of Colorado in a federal agency. I did so because I saw this as another opportunity to serve my country. My entire life, I have known nothing but service to others, as evidenced by my employment choices over the past 33 years.

• I believe in small government, waaaay smaller government spending, free enterprise, and the U.S. Constitution. I believe deeply in every single one the 9 principles and 12 values on which the 9.12 Project is based. My wife and I believe in God, and he is the center of our lives (sound familiar?). My spouse and I believe that America is great, that the American people are the true source of innovation in this country, and that the government does NOT create wealth, provide jobs, or has any business doing the things they are doing to us right now.

• As a federal employee, I took the same oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I did when I served in the military. This is an oath I have never taken lightly. Even when I left the military, and before entering federal service, I continued to believe that my obligation to that oath never expired.

• I carry around a copy of the U.S. Constitution in my back pocket. My worn, torn, and faded copy is a testament to how many times I have taken it out to look something up or to explain to someone why I think something this current administration is doing is unconstitutional. I have even been ridiculed for carrying it around, but I stand firm in my resolve to stand by that sacred document.

• On one hand, my President refers to me as a “bitter clinger” who clings to my Bible and my guns, and a ”tea bagger” for my participation in tea parties. Our Secretary of Homeland Security calls me a terrorist because I am former military, a gun owner, and a tea party participant. Then the House Speaker calls me a “tea bagger” and “astro-turf” because of my participation in the same. But on the other hand, I am an over-paid, tax cheat in the minds of the very people whom I support simply because I am a federal employee.

• There are many (many, many…) of my co-workers who come to work every day, do their best, and openly speak their mind about their feelings against an administration that is out of control. These people do everything in their power to spend tax payer money wisely, and we speak up when we see waste.

• My agency employs veterinarians, biologists, and scientists of all types, all of whom could probably be earning more money in private practice. But they chose their current federal employment, in many cases, because they felt called to a higher purpose of servicing our country.

• The employees in my building participate in annual charity drives, help out in our local schools, and give our time and talents to non-profit organizations that help others. Our current “boss” didn’t mandate that we do those things. We have been doing them since long before the anointed one came along, and will continue to do them long after he and his freedom-hating Congress has been booted out of office.

Sirs: I would think that rather than painting all of us who are federal employees as over-paid tax cheats, that maybe you would look for the good inside the walls of our federal government wherever you can find it, and do your best to illustrate instances of good employees who do the right thing. After all, we even have people in Congress who are true patriots, and are fighting from within to further the cause of liberty. Michele Bachman, Dr. Ron Paul, John Thune, John Boehner, and many others are on the inside, and are indeed on our side. Believe it or not, there are great numbers of federal employees who are on our side as well. The American people, I would hope, should thank the Lord that there are indeed people on the inside of our government who do the right thing, actively campaign against an out of control administration, and are active members of Tea Parties and 9.12 projects to bring about the true change that we need in 2010 and beyond.

All I am saying is that I just want, for myself, my coworkers, and my fellow patriots who are on the inside, a little consideration for the fact that many of us do the right thing, we are adamantly passionate about the values and principles that our forefathers used to found this great country, we oppose the current administration’s tactics, and we know full well that by doing so our very jobs could be in danger. And unless your listeners hear different, we will be in physical danger from the over-zealous (yes – the over-zealous are part of BOTH sides) who hang on your every word, and decide to take matters into their own hands and get revenge on more of us. I think back and tremble at a story from the not so distantly past news where a federal employee was attacked and killed. The word “FED” was written across his chest. I would hate to think that blanket statements about federal employees all being bad people was responsible for this type of brutality. Instead, I would prefer that all of our fellow Americans know the truth: That there are good patriots among the ranks of federal employees, and we are standing shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in private life in their fight for liberty and freedom.

I will continue to support you guys, listen to your radio programs, and watch your shows on Fox. I and my wife patronize your sponsors, and will continue to do so. My spouse and I will continue to be actively involved in our 9.12 Project and the tea parties. Please don’t hate all federal employees, and please even maybe make some mention of the fact that there are indeed those on the “inside” of the federal government who are good people and will continue to fight for the causes of liberty and freedom.

Thank you for listening to this regular guy who, like Glenn, just loves his country and fears for it. God bless you both for getting the word out and waking us up. I pray for you and thank God for you every day. Just as you have done, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor to the fight for liberty and freedom.

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Dialectical Disaster: Inside Blowback

Mark Steyn is one of my favorite authors and I haven't been featuring his work nearly enough. In fact, it's inexcusable that I haven't quoted him at all on this blog.

So let me overcompensate by stealing in its entirety a concise home run on Van Jones he just posted:

Powerline notices the evolution of Van the Truther's views. On September 13th 2001, as the towers still burned and the lampposts of lower Manhattan were plastered with flyers for missing loved ones, Van Jones spoke at a rally "against racism and war":

A recurring theme of the speakers was the brutal violence committed by or supported by the United States government on a daily basis. "The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City," said Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who also warned against forthcoming violence by the Bush Administration. "The US cannot bomb its way out of this one. Safety at home requires justice abroad."

Gotcha. Blowback. America had it coming.

That was Van Jones in the fall of 2001. A couple of years later and suddenly it's the 9/11-was-an-inside-job routine.

Traveling through the Middle East about six months after 9/11, I was struck by the number of Arabs, from Egypt to the Gulf, who simultaneously believed (a) the Mossad were behind the attacks and (b) it was a great victory for the Muslim world. Van Jones would seem to be an American variant of the same phenomenon: a man who believes 9/11 was (a) blowback for the actions of the US government's war machine and (b) an inside job by the US government's war machine.

No wonder the left derides those boorish enough to bring this stuff up: Why, surely all sophisticated persons know these positions are little more than lifestyle accessories or fashion hemlines. One season, everyone on the catwalk is agreed 9/11 was blowback by Jihadists for Social Justice. The next, everyone is equally agreed that Bush called up the White House Steel Melting Czar and buried the whole thing under "miscellaneous" in the budget.

This is just a beautiful portrait of why lefty loons and Islamic nutjobs are soulmates, no? Their logical faculties are so deficient that they routinely believe entirely irreconcilable things simultaneously.

Good Marxists are the very embodiment of dialectical disaster.

And in general they are nuttier than A.D.D. riddled Cuckoo Clocks.

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Pathetic With A Capital Priceless

Congrats to everyone on the parties! I went to the one in Loveland which was a little different as we lined the sides of the busiest intersection in town. I think it had a lot more impact than standing in a park although there was too much horn honking to have any speakers. I can live with that.

It was also amazing the number of folks who drove by not only honking but waving flags. It was a good way for them to join in without feeling quite as silly as the rest of us. But I even started to warm up to it after a while. I decided to use a sign that was to the point: "ATTN: Washington, You have run out of our money." The favorite sign I saw on the web though was this one on Instapundit: "Why teach reading and math? Congress uses neither!". Hoo Haw.

But the reaction from Congresscritters was pathetic with a capital priceless:

PATHETIC: “Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted ‘tea party’ protests yesterday, labeling the activities ‘despicable’ and ’shameful.’”

Ironic: “The husband of an Illinois congresswoman pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee. Robert Creamer, a political consultant married to four-term U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, could face four years in prison on the two felony counts when he is sentenced Dec. 21.”

Tax hypocrisy abounds in Washington, but they’re angry that people are protesting. . . .

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Glenn And Thomas Paine

Here's some relevant commentary by a Tom that was his friend that's tailor made to our current calamity:

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” - Thomas Jefferson

And in case you're wondering what's driving those that drive for our calamity, maybe you haven't read this one?:

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation" - V.I. Lenin

Oh my. And I forgot to add this Lenin quote to the last post:

"Democracy is indispensable to socialism."

In fact, just go read Neo's entire post for a bit of an education -- while the Russian politicians have nothing to teach us except to understand their evil such as Lenin, we ignore Doestoevsky's "Grand Inquisitor" and Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" at our dire peril. In fact, Ogabe may have already signed Directive 10-289 for all I can tell...

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