This felt sooooooo good!!!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is Glenn Beck handing snide mocking back to the snobs on a silver platter.

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I am going to go out on a limb a bit and make a claim. I believe one of the biggest evils in the threat to individual rights is the attitude by the elites, that they are inherently better than other people.

You find these people in all areas of all political philosophies. But they all reach for the same power brass ring and run on the same vanity--that they belong to a privileged club of similar superior beings inaccessible to outsiders just by virtue of their existing.

Even when they mouth the slogans of individual rights, look at their private lives. They want to sound cool and virtuous, but in action, they don't really believe Joe Sixpack should have anywhere near the same individual rights as they do. It's great to say it, but not live it. After all, who could possibly take Joe Sixpack seriously? And who wants him living next door?

Egad!

I, myself, was raised as a hillbilly, but I educated--and still educate--myself in many areas. I have run with the snobs and I have run with the Joe Sixpacks. I can identify with both, but I found no real long-term resonance with either. So now I am on another path.

But man! What Beck did felt good!

Michael

[George H. Smith]

Michael,

Nice job.

Did Beck deliberately mispronounce "opprobrium"? I assume this was part of his shtick, but I'm not positive.

The following video, though totally off-topic, is perhaps the funniest Onion News video ever made. I am posting it here because it doesn't merit a separate thread.

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Ghs

[George H. Smith]

I'm surprised Beck didn't show this clip where Obama twice mispronounces "Corpsman" as "Corpse Man":

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GWB would have gotten skewered in the mainstream media for making an error like this.

Ghs

[Jonathan]

GWB would have gotten skewered in the mainstream media for making an error like this.

I wonder how the mainstream media would have reacted if Bush had mistaken a White House window for a door.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01249/obamadoor_1249434a.jpg

J

[George H. Smith]

I wonder how the mainstream media would have reacted if Bush had mistaken a White House window for a door.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01249/obamadoor_1249434a.jpg

Maybe Obama is just admiring his reflection in the window. 8-)

Ghs

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

George,

LOLOLOLOLOL...

That Onion video had to be the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

And the newscaster's sign-off, "It never ends, this shit!..."

LOL...

Michael

[jeffrey smith]

Michael:

I am going to go out on a limb a bit and make a claim. I believe one of the biggest evils in the threat to individual rights is the attitude by the elites, that they are inherently better than other people.

But one has to watch out for the opposite tendency, which appears among a lot of Beck's fans (not, as far as I know, Beck himself)--that to be educated or intelligent makes one inherently worse.

I, myself, was raised as a hillbilly, but I educated--and still educate--myself in many areas.

In fact, the best thinkers--that is, the people who best put their brainpower to work on a consistent basis--I've met have been, in general, hillbillies who took education seriously.

Jeffrey S.

[George H. Smith]

George,

LOLOLOLOLOL...

That Onion video had to be the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

And the newscaster's sign-off, "It never ends, this shit!..."

LOL...

Michael

Michael,

The following is one of my all-time favorite YouTube videos. It has already gotten over 3 million hits, so you may have already seen it. Hilarious.

Hitler Finds Out Scott Brown Won Massachusetts Senate Seat

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Ghs

[Christopher]

Damn,

I was looking for a great clip (by Jon Stewart) on Glenn Beck's contradictions. GB has a lot of contradictions, and although I like what he says, he is not an exemplar of the positions he speaks. Having said that (and I think it's important to note hypocrisy when you see it)...

Sure, I totally agree that the "elite" are a large threat to human rights. The government started out pretty damn good in the United States, but power centers have a lot of influence on government policies. Since there seems to be a strong self-serving bias (as opposed to an idealism-serving bias) among many people (think pork-barreling for example), I can absolutely believe that the "elite" (i.e. most powerful) are also one of the most threatening groups to human rights.

Chris

[Steve Gagne]

Chris --

While I agree with you, you should check into the history of Shays' Rebellion, as well as of the resulting Alien & Sedition Acts. The power elites pre-existed & co-opted the revolution.

The farmers of New England believed they were promised a Jubilee Year (legal cancellation of all debts -- biblical reference) as a reward for their supporting the Revolution. Without their involvement, the Revolution never would have gotten off the ground. This had been started with the American Continental Congress' "Tory Act" of January 2, 1776 (pre-dating the Declaration of Independence), requiring "education" of the people to support the Revolution, and imprisonment or expulsion of those who did not or would not support it (especially famous people). Following the war, this was reinforced by a popular interpretation of the act of the Continental Congress' "Grand Committee" of February 28, 1783, in which the United States government agreed to accept all the states' costs born of the revolutionary period, especially those of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But once the Revolution was complete, the lawyers, banksters, mercantile interests, and their bought-and-paid-for governmental officials barred any such Jubilee event from occurring, confiscating hundreds of farms and homesteads from the debt-stricken farmers, under force of arms. When the farmers objected, and attempted to seek redress of their grievances, they were jailed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They, of course, responded by forcing closure of the debrtor's courts, which resulted in their being attacked, killed, or driven out of the state.

These farmers were then depicted as having committed sedition -- rebellion against "rightful" authority -- which resulted in the "Alien and Sedition Acts," the equivalent of our first "Patriot Act," with all its anti-liberty implications.

Wiki page about it

Page selling a DVD about it

Another View

steve

p.s. Michael -- I had a bear of a time getting to see the video you posted. The link does not show as being embedded, just a plaintext rendition of all the html. Everyone else'e embedded youtube media links are ok though. Also, as another technical issue, the edit function on here requires me to select it twice before letting me actually edit the first time, i.e., I click on "edit", the screen says "Loading" at the top, then nothing happens. Then I click "edit" a second time, and THEN the edit screen comes up. It's been like this for a while.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Steve Gagne

[Christopher]

Steve,

Very interesting post. I can empathize with the stuggle back then to find ways to allow freedom while also continuing an attempt to maintain a stable governmental system. I especially appreciated the approach that suggested the Founding Fathers were against having a large standing army due to costs and preference (my how times change).

You provide an interesting analysis that was not reflected in the links clearly, namely that the farmers were crushed by debt that they should not have been held accountable for. In fact, one of the links did get me thinking that those farmers who were in debt were also relatively unpaid for their service during the war. Therefore, the government structure here is actually acting in contradiction.

On one hand, people are being asked to sacrifice their time and risk their lives in order to support the system of government; yet the government can only offer a token "thank you" for such service. On the other hand, there are business entities who then depend on government law to gather debt owed to them by these people. It's as if the people fought to uphold a system that then crushes them. Some people sacrificed (and were punished for it), while others didn't sacrifice and sought to punish. That's at least one way to see it.