Brendon Miniter suspects the American right is using the left’s playbook against them.
It’s hard to know when this began. But on a variety of fronts conservatives are using arguments and tactics heretofore under patent protection by the left, including pushing for activist judges (with four decades of liberal jurisprudence on the books, the left’s best hope is judges who respect precedent above all), using federal dollars to build political constituencies, filing lawsuits, launching boycotts, and arguing for free speech and “diversity” in education. The last has drawn a surprising amount of attention lately with a debate over evolution and “intelligent design”–the hypothesis that evolution isn’t random but rather the mechanism an intelligent being uses to change the universe.
President Bush pushed this debate well into the public spotlight by remarking that intelligent design should be taught in addition to random evolution. Whatever the merits of this debate, it’s interesting that the “religious right” is co-opting the arguments of the left. With “diversity” a worthy goal in education, why not present students with “both sides”? That way no one is left out and everyone is included.
The question alone has to be infuriating for the left. It’s nice to think that there was once a golden period in education when the pursuit of truth was paramount. But from the elementary curriculum to politics in college classrooms, education has always been determined by cultural and political movements. Many of the elite schools were themselves founded to sidestep one prevailing orthodoxy or another. So for years we’ve had a new god in education and he goes by the name of “diversity.” Not to be confused by the worthy goal of striking barriers to education once placed in the path of minority groups, this form of diversity has been the principal vehicle for a liberal intellectual agenda that wasn’t otherwise up to intellectual speed.
There is much for Canadian conservatives to learn from our more successful neighbors to the south. The process may have begun, though it’s clearly in its infancy – only recently, for example, have Christian groups begun to recognize and object to being cast as a political perjorative.
Before any measurable success can be attained on the broader fronts, however, conservatives must learn to use the leftist architecture of political correctness to their advantage. Put into place by an ideology that has enjoyed “having their cake, and eating it, too” when setting the boundaries of acceptable political debate, it is time to turn the machinery against them and start calling them on their double standard.
The Canadian left and their advocates in the media casually employ words like “redneck”, “bible-thumper”, and “knuckedragger” – often as thinly veiled synonyms for “Albertan” or “western” . Seldom is the tactic exposed for what it is – an attempt to pre-empt legitimate debate by dehumanizing those who hold opposing views.
Astonishingly, the typical response from conservative politicians when greeted with these epithets is to “defend” themselves with a “No, we’re not!” – fulfilling two objectives of the accuser at once, by retreating to the weaker, defensive position and renouncing a core constituancy they had no need to defend or apologize for in the first place!
The time is overdue that conservative politicians and strategists – especially those with a national media audience – get a firm grip on the handle of the pc weaponry. Begin the process by applying a good measure of linguistic intolerance of their own. Loudly condemn the use of any and all slurs against the right, Christians and rural Canadians each and every time they are used, with a demand that those guilty of using them renounce their cultural and intellectual bigotry.
Then, as the collective liberal jaws drop, invite them to explain to those “rednecks” – better known as rural, blue-collar, working Canadians – why they do not deserve a voice in the “diverse cultural mosaic of modern Canada”.
Excecellent point and one I have often wondered about. How is that the left has had this edge of double standard unchallenged for so long?
I read Mike Adams from Townhall ..
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/archive.shtml
who has been challenging the liberal bigots on his South Carolina campus for some time now. His rants are intelligent and absolutely hilarious. Great reading and it demonstrates the “edge” conservatives have in the debate by employing humour amidst the divide between the vehement, frantic, angy left and the confident, much calmer right.
When you have fact and logic in your arsenal, it’s easier to remain more dignified in the debate and arguments agains the inanities of the Left with it’s silly and worn out ideas of moral relativist thinking.
I admist I could use a little more calm and dignity in some of my rants and posts as well…. I shall try harder.
Duke
Amen. Where is the tolerance for my opinions. I don’t like SSM (don’t believe in legislative empowerment) yet my opinion is dismissed as backward thinking, and someone from a non-christian moral tradition is allowed this anachronism. Either you grant tolerance for all or none.
Hear, hear!!!
If one wants to really know the heart of this country, follow the footsteps of a farmer, from spring to winter!
Understand *what* he understands about the cycle of life, what it is to have a harvest of plenty or losing it all, dealing with hardship and refusing to yield to it.
Or giving a hand-up, when a hand-out is seen as only second best.
Understand what he knows about the value of a dollar, the joy of delivering a new calf, teaching his own how to drive the smallest tractor, first, and how to share the workload with respect and enthusiasm.
Need someone to give you a hand, who has a knowledge of heavy-duty mechanics, electrical, plumbing, soil sciences, animal husbandry, carpentry, computer functions, bookkeeping, family and community responsibility, and you only have to go as far as the farmer or blue collar worker down the road from you.
Yes, they wear the color of having known the heat of the sun on their skin.
Yes, they refuse to accept a ‘no’ when they feel a ‘yes’ is in there, somewhere.
Yes, they are independent and want to see the best in the other. and for the other.
Grovelling is not in their playbook.
They play as hard as they work, but play by the rules known to both.
They will not suffer fools gladly; there usually isn’t time for endless debate.
What you see is most often what you get. How refreshing!
“I don’t like SSM (don’t believe in legislative empowerment) yet my opinion is dismissed as backward thinking…”
Yeh, that happens to backward thinking a lot.
:-p~~~~~~
Awesome. Best thing I’ve read all day, Kate.
If one wants to learn more about the left, there’s an excellent, comprehensive site devoted to the study of leftism in the real world.
Here’s the url:
http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/
Thank-you Kate.
(raises a glass to Kate’s good sense and wonders how he and those like him can make their voices louder…)
Cheers Kate!
John “Inimitably Arrogant” Ibbitson of the Globe is probably the single best example of a major media figure who consistently disparages almost everyone and everything in Canada outside “diverse”, “post-national”, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. His loathing of Alberta and of rural, anglophone (dare one even say “English”?) Canada is pathological.
Mark
Ottawa
Wise counsel and fittingly posted to a blog. The MSM in Canada has not been held accountable in the same way as in the US.
But as Hugh Hewitt observes, the blogosphere will eventually expose MSM’s soft under-belly.
Thank you for being an example of good writing filled with wit and penetrating insight.
Your collective hypocrisy scales the dizzying heights with this one.
The Left. Oh, yeah–those moonbats, not suffering from mental illness but from reading incomprehension, in an unholy alliance with fundamentalist Islam, shrill, feral, parasitical…etc., etc., ad nauseam. All we get from you people is namecalling. Now you’re whining about having some of that tossed your way?
Incidentally, I challenge anyone to find phrases over at my place such as those mentioned in the article. I try to keep the conversation civil, and so do most of my ProgBlog friends. This site belongs to Kate and she and her friends can say whatever they like, and do–but then to get all weepy when the same tactics they use on a daily basis get used by those they demonize?
Wow. You do get points for audacity, I’ll give you that.
Dr. Dawg – you, a leftist, have just provided an excellent example of Kate’s analysis of left-style ‘arguments’.
Did you discuss the issue? No. You used the tactic critiqued by Kate; namely, the first thing so many on the left do when confronted with an analysis that they don’t like, is — you move into name-calling, slurs, ad hominem, personal jeers. You refuse to debate the issue; you attack, personally, the individual.
Your post is filled with personal insults and they all derive – from you. Not from Kate’s post. How about moving beyond personal insults and focusing on issues?
What on earth are you talking about? What “personal insults” did I use in my post? I quoted a number that have been flung at the Left in the past few days. I will admit, though, that after reading your post, ET, I considered raising the issue of reading comprehension.
I did refer to “hypocrisy.” That is a solid, neutral description of the article, given its source. Here’s the paragraph that nearly made me splat coffee on my keyboard:
“The Canadian left and their advocates in the media casually employ words like ‘redneck’, ‘bible-thumper’, and ‘knuckedragger’ – often as thinly veiled synonyms for ‘Albertan’ or ‘western’. Seldom is the tactic exposed for what it is – an attempt to pre-empt legitimate debate by dehumanizing those who hold opposing views.”
Good God. Take a trip over to FrontPage Magazine and then read the above aloud with a straight face, and a tone of moral indignation. Or try these snippets from right here:
“Austrailans [sic] worked their way up from what began as a colony of criminals, while Canadians seem content to be governed by one.” (KM)
“Cindy Sheehan is one helluvan annoying asshatty moonbat. That’s all I need to say.” (Stephen McAllister)
“Being a Winnipegger I know all about Ms [Krista] Erickson. Before becoming a ‘journalist’ she was a waitress at Wise Guys, which was the IN place to be in the 90s.From what I’ve heard she was passed around like a joint among bouncers, VIPs and other Winnipeg ‘celebs’.She was a stuck-up arrogant bitch then and I have no reason to believe she’s changed.Apparently in high school she was worse.” [Raskolnikov)
Pecksniff lives, and one of the places he visits regularly is Small Dead Animals.
Dawg, It’s true there have been and still are many harsh adjectives to be used up when discussing the leftist hoards, but we are still getting our sea legs in arguing with the PEE Wee Hermans of the world.
We are simply unused to dealing with the jejune.
We will soon move past the moonbat ID phase and be willing only to discuss the issues which is what most on the right have always been available to do.
So, please forgive those of us who still cannot always resist the urge to hurle an occasional insult. I am surprised you are so taken with insults from knuckle-draggers though. I would have though it would have no effect on a big brain and most sophisticated person as yourself.
Dawg confuses political ideology with the cultures they emerge from. He also misses the point. I’m not talking about the background chatter of average citizens who have no voice outside a vote.
My argument is directed at those who lead the political debate – columnists, politicians, talking heads, everyday media – who throw these cultural perjoratives our way every day. These are the people who set the rules – where “raghead” is verbotten, but “redneck” is the stuff of CBC comedy. Where Republican presidents are derided as “cowboy” – as though “cowboy” is an insult. The cultures that are protected by the umbrella of political correctness are the treasured pets of the left – while those associated with the right continue to be derided and ridiculed without hesitation.
jason it isn’t backward thinking it’s ‘sustainable thinking’ while they have extinctionist thinking.
It’s obvious what is better for the country, no?
This Is Depressing
56 excellent comments all on the wrong bloody topic.
And Albertans have names for Ontario voters like “lemming” etc. Maybe if Albertans showed respect to Ontarians they would return the favor.
Duke: “So, please forgive those of us who still cannot always resist the urge to hurle an occasional insult. I am surprised you are so taken with insults from knuckle-draggers though. I would have though it would have no effect on a big brain and most sophisticated person as yourself.”
You are correct. Such insults do not affect me in the least. They are a hallmark of Right discourse (check out the current obsession with Cindy Sheehan, for example, and try to separate the wheat from that mountain of chaff), and I tend to zone them out. What did have its effect, though, was the sheer effrontery, given how rightists routinely talk of their opponents, of calling for propriety. Breathtaking. Simply breathtaking.
Kate: “Dawg confuses political ideology with the cultures they emerge from.”
How so?
“He also misses the point. I’m not talking about the background chatter of average citizens who have no voice outside a vote.My argument is directed at those who lead the political debate – columnists, politicians, talking heads, everyday media – who throw these cultural perjoratives our way every day.”
A few examples would add heft to this assertion. No national commentators I know of throw around such pejoratives. But this cry of pain, from someone who enjoys the insulting words of individuals like O’Reilly and Malkin? Come on, Kate, give it a rest. You’re on shaky ground here, and you know it.
Dawg,
You just convinced me that you don’t understand a thing Kate says.
Please visit rabble.ca and wallow there.
Duke
Respect is something which is earned. The “lemming” term would refer to the tendency that voters of Ontario have voted with their hearts rather than their heads. The headlines today indicate that Ontario is looking at falling into have-not status with all the gifts that Ontario has – proximity to the large eastern US market, the prevalence of the auto jobs in Canada, and large mineral wealth. I don’t have ANY explanation for the repeat elections of Mel Lastman in TO. Mind you, the continued re-election of Anne Mclellan in Edmonton fits that same category.
Certainly, the left have misused the word ‘hate’ as if the rest of Canada actually hated certain regions of the country in an attempt to covet sympathy. However, without question the terms cowboy, Nazi, KKK member, and troglodyte is quickly used to smear others.
Ahem… Some quotes from the Dawg:
“That cranky organ of the “pro-life” movement, LifeSite News, takes on the environmental movement this week, passing on a bizarre meme rocketing around right-wing brainpans these days”
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2005/08/ddt-and-rights-eco-lies-that-cranky.html
“I raise this here because this is such a classic example of right-wing strategy that it needs to be enshrined. Called on their racism, all these conservatives have to say is, “I know you are, but what am I?” Ditto for all the other forms of bigotry that they wear like brands on their foreheads, which no doubt explains their cheesy baseball caps and their refusal to look you in the eye.”
and, this one’s the best:
“To hear these knuckle-draggers tell it, the Left is anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, homophobic, you name it. We’re probably going to burn crosses on people�s lawns this long weekend, instead of going on Gay Pride marches like “Conservative UAW Guy.” What’s behind this looking-glass world these Flintstone characters live in?”
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2005/07/hypocritical-wind-breaks-from-south_29.html
Methinks it’s time for the little dawgie to slink back to his little house with his tail between his legs…
Dr.Dawg – check these out:
http://tinyurl.com/e3po8
http://tinyurl.com/clevs
http://tinyurl.com/9lw84
http://tinyurl.com/9yu8q
Another example of the lefts illogic is political correctness. I believe it is Voltaire who said “I disagree with everything you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” sic.
A fine, noble, even liberal thesis. PC is the antithesis of this. PC says “I disagree with everything you say, shut the f*** up.”
Regarding ‘legislative empowerment’; let’s supose I, a stature chalenged white male contend that my life is not complete unless I can slam dunk a basketball. I am, I contend a second class citizen, bereft, a vessel half full. Let us suppose enough of my fellows call upon the legislature/judiciary to end my pain. They, in their mumnificent good wisdom agree to lower the net through legislation. Does that mean I can slam dunk a basketball?
The idea that empowerment can come from the legilative pen is absurd. Life is full of disapointments. Get over it. Therein lies the path to empowerment.
“There’s not a lot of room for Red Tories in a party with a lot of red necks.” – Scott Brison, on the evening of the last federal election
As you know, he was punished for this slur by Paul Martin being appointed a cabinet minister, and not a single media pundit questioned his choice of words.
oopsie, almost forgot the most important quotes of all:
“collective hypocrisy scales the dizzying heights with this one.”
and
“Incidentally, I challenge anyone to find phrases over at my place such as those mentioned in the article.”
I love it when moonbats ask for the light of truth to be shined upon them… It makes for some good humor.
The Canadian left (the activist wing which I refer to as protagonists of cultural Marxism) have essentially shut down debate, dissenting opinion, diversity of opinion/ideology, have become intolerant of nonconformity….and, for all intents and purpose, has killed freedom of speech, belief and conscience. They have done this with PC ( political correctness) which is an old soviet Stalinist era tool used to force conformity of thought, speech and behavior. They have engineered public institutions that are similarly single minded and devoid of balance or diversity in opinion and thought�.organs of the single party, single political paradigm state�a political utopia premised on total conformity to dogmatic political fundamentalism.
For the past 20 years it is not so much leftist ideals and policy that has gored the Right of center population, but the fact that BALANCE has all but vanished from opinion, ideas and policy in the media, public debate, government operation and our public institutions.
The institution of parliamentary democracy is premised on balance on diverse opinion in a confrontational exchange of ideas to arrive at a compromise. The degenerated political institution we have now uses closure, and majority rule to stifle debate and avoid compromise….intolerance of diversity of though, dissent and ideology are cornerstones of the conformity demanded by the single party, monocratic state.
Democracy and civil freedom cannot survive a single party, monophilosophic, conformist state.
Centrists and those right of center better realize the playing field has been reconstructed to disallow diversity of opinion in our so called democratic institutions…with a single party state Jurocracy in charge of the final say in “balance” there is little hope for the existent status quo political vehicles to yank the nations politics and institutions back to polyphilosophic tolerance and balance.
Alternate media and civil vehicles are needed to undo the damage of single party state deconstructionism of the past 30 years. Unlike America, Canada is not a populist democracy…we are an over regulated elected dictatorship…an oligarchy which may change a political cartel every decade or two when the old regime wishes to retire.
In this scenario where 30 odd years of centralized restructuring of Confederation has concentrated political power in the hands of the few insulated insiders and subjugated all our institutions to their patronage, it will take nothing less than confederal/constitutional crisis to usher in change. Canada’s political systems and governing system are so grossly monolithic constitutional/democratic change is at a stalemate and only vast political/social upheaval will crack those iron clad strictures.
Well, Kate, since when is Scott Brison an opinion-maker? I thought you were talking about Left and Right discourses; then you said you were talking about MSM people–now it’s politicians? Want me to dredge up Jim Pankiw? Come on.
Evans assiduouly unearths a few old posts of mine. The first example refers to no individual, and uses none of the epithets Kate is waxing furious about. Ditto the second, when Conservative Union Guy and I were having some fun with each other–check out his website and see if I wasn’t being restrained, even decorous, in dealing with a fellow whose stock-in-trade is spewing insults. I gave back what I got, with a little humour, too.
The third, bless me, does use the word “knuckle-dragger” from the same post. But readers here, before racing to accuse me of the very hypocrisy I was going on about, should read the whole exchange on our respective sites. Besides, I wasn’t referring to either Albertans or to Westerners generally.
Finally, check out Evans’ own site for classic examples, far too numerous to mention, of precisely that discourse of invective and namecalling to which I was referring.
Now, I don’t mind the odd slanging-match. But that’s a far cry from claiming piously that it’s only the Left that does the slanging. It’s that claim that continues to amaze me, particularly because examples of this in the mainstream media are so thin on the ground that Kate is reduced to quoting a Liberal politician when called on it.
Candace, I’ve checked out your four references, and I’m not sure what you’re getting at. The first was a Google search for the word “redneck.” I’ve never denied that the word is used, but look at your own findings: many of them are self-consciously ironic (“Redneck Derby,” etc.) The second and third are a search for “knuckle-dragger” and “knuckle-dragging” that kind of prove my point: on the entire Internet, all of three references to the first, and twenty-four to the second, are to be found! The fourth is a search for “Christian fundamentalist.” Is that phrase supposed to be an insult of some kind? Christian fundamentalists don’t think so.
Duke you left out that you can hang at rabble at the governments expense.
How much do they give your knuckledragging blog that I enjoy Kate?
And remember slurs against right wingers you will hear on the MSM’s and the web. Will any MSM’s say how unhealthy homosexuality is.
Christians have been lumped into the fundamentalist category, Dr.Dawg, if you haven’t noticed. Christian-bashing in general is an accepted practice in the MSM. It’s not always the words used as the tone.
And Dr. Dawg, you challenged that those terms were not used in the MSM. Three times or three hundred, what’s the difference? Your statement was incorrect.
I see we’re seeing the host of minions pile-on, as per usual. That’s what Kate loves in her minions – they’re so gallant.
Coming up with bunch of examples of when lefties use potty-mouth doesn’t prove any kind of point. The only point that the Right Wing fails to acknowledge (even though they know it’s true) is that when Michelle Malkin writes an entire book on the joys of interning the Japanese, or when Ann Coulter thinks brown people should be subject to forced conversions, or when former-Christian Pat Roberston calls for the assassination of foreign leaders, people with integrity are quite justified in calling them bad words. Don’t like it? Too bad – so sad.
Here’s a tissue for you. I’ve got more if the crying just won’t stop.
Candace: “And Dr. Dawg, you challenged that those terms were not used in the MSM. Three times or three hundred, what’s the difference? Your statement was incorrect.”
I said nothing of the kind. Anywhere. What are you going on about? This is what I did say: “No national commentators I know of throw around such pejoratives.” Your Googling didn’t turn up national MSM commentators–at least, I didn’t find any.
Incidentally, Ti-Guy, just a minor point, but for me an important one: I don’t do the “potty-mouth” stuff, either at my blog or in the Comments section of other blogs.
Funny….
It must be galling for the Left to take a hard look at itself and note that if you strip away the actaul arguement and postions both left and conservative sides sink to the same level of intolerance of others veiwpoints.
hehehe here’s another quote by the Dawg:
“Called on their racism, all these conservatives have to say is, “I know you are, but what am I?” – taken from one of the above segments.
And then the dawgie goes on to say: “Finally, check out Evans’ own site for classic examples, far too numerous to mention, of precisely that discourse of invective and namecalling to which I was referring.” – also taken from one of the above segments…
I’m sorry but did that just sound like a whole lot of “I know you are but what am I”??? Hmmm?
Now Dawg, we all know that I use the tacticts of the left when I deconstruct them. I make no bones about it. Hell, I enjoy it. I operate in the exact manner Kate’s referencing in this post. In fact, de-constructing your arguments here is a prime example.
To use your own words, you asserted the following:
“Incidentally, I challenge anyone to find phrases over at my place such as those mentioned in the article.”
I did as you requested and proved you wrong. It didn’t take very long either. I didn’t have to do alot of digging.
No, arguing about context won’t help because you didn’t cite “context” within the posts in question.
Come to think of it, based on what you’ve written, you should probably consider renouncing your cultural and intelectual bigotry…
Evans: ” ‘Incidentally, I challenge anyone to find phrases over at my place such as those mentioned in the article.’
“I did as you requested and proved you wrong. It didn’t take very long either. I didn’t have to do alot of digging.
“No, arguing about context won’t help because you didn’t cite ‘context’ within the posts in question.”
You searched my site, found no “red-neck,” no “Bible-basher,” and one instance of “knuckle-dragger” that was not directed at Westerners. I congratulate you on your research. It’s your conclusions that need a little more work.
But do keep reading over at my place. You might learn something.
Let’s test the alleged tolerance of the left by voicing open dissent to:
1) Legitimizing homosexual lifestyles as “normal”
2) The ghettoization and reverse racism of Multi-cult “group” profiling and official discriminating.
3) The injustice of affirmative action catering to racial/ethnic profiling for job placement or to denote “worth”.
4) Open examination of any Lib-left sacrosanct social policy such as civilian disarmament, open immigration, national security, or single tier health care.
We all have experienced the left’s attempt to discuss these openly and honestly by engaging in personal attacks on their opponents and perceived ideological dissenters..it’s a well documented fact…and now this mindset is what drives the “we don’t want to discuss that at all/anymore” single mindedness of the MSM and any politicized public institution…prominent among these are the schools and federal service.
It was not the so-called right that instituted the concept of “zero tolerance” of non-criminal speech, thought or action.
The left has had it’s way with policy for decades because opposition was too engaged in economics rather than social policy…now that the left’s opposition is taking them on in their sacred social engineering policies, they are becoming virulent and shutting down debate.
Here’s the bottom line for the collective left to understand and commit to all your thinking:
A large portion of the population disagree with you, you are not always right, or morally/ethically superior and calling people names who question your policies/ideology will only send more converts to the opposition`….so please, keep up the nasty, arrogant, hubris in your rhetoric, it makes 1000s of converts a day.
Dawg,
I see you last comments here were very defensive. This is a good sign, but you try to defend the undensible as most on the left do daily.
Drag queen transvestites in Toronto … good
Talented modest Miss Universe in Toronto … .bad
This example alone tell me that .. to quote Charleton Heston in Planet of Apes … “this world is upside down”. Courtesay of the Left.
This kind of insanity is indefensible no matter how many Toronto Liberals endorse it.
You are all so angry with the us because, finally, the right has taken it’s nose from the grindstones that fund the lunacy and started to slap you all back down to some level reality. The fight has only just begun …. get ready Dawgie boy. The gruel in the trough should start to thin very soon as I sees it.
The knuckle-dragging angry folk who do the heavy lifting (Dare I say .. mostly white folks with good solid protentant work ethics and real patriotism for the once great Canada) have sore backs and they are getting cranky. It’s the kind of thing that really upset the child when the parent has ‘had it’ and decided to send you to your room. We expect the tantrums and holding your breath untill you turn blue doesn’t bother me a bit. Fel free to hold it until you are blue and COLD!
And by the by … great post WLM your political windex wipes clean!
Again, forgive my typos I don’t have time to edit. I work for a living.
From Fred Reed of FredOnEveryThing.Net:
“Rednecks: The Virtues Thereof (Excerpt)
Cornell As Evolutionary Miscalculation
There is a lot of snot and malice about rednecks on the internet. Most of it comes from such cornflowers and honeysuckles as college professors, other witless suburban nonentities, and assorted twits (I think he means you Ti-guy! – Anon.)in cities. By �redneck,� these bundles of intellectual lingerie seem to mean anyone without a college degree who can hang a door or lube his car.
Tell you about rednecks. They�re probably the only people in the whole country that ain�t unfit. What used to be Davy Crockett�s country today is full mostly of folk who can�t do anything for themselves. They call someone else to fix the plumbing, shoot the burglar, gap their plugs, build their houses, get their kids off drugs. If the cat dies they need a pet-loss grief-management counselor. From a redneck�s point of view, the United States is turning fast into people like those nasty white grubs that nekkid savages in New Guinea eat, only with legs.
…
What happens is, most people grow up helpless in some suburb. It isn�t their fault. They have to wear helmets and life-preservers to walk around the block and probably adult diapers and if they are boys they like as not get estrogen injections so they won�t be. They can�t wrestle or play dodge ball because it�s violent. They can�t play Cowboys and Engines because it�s insensitive. Then they get a job in some office fiddling with forms. And that�s all they do. Ever.
A redneck has a life, lots of times anyway. A buddy of mine grew up in a tough section of a Yankee city, where the deciding factor in a philosophical discussion was a good right hook. He went to Viet Nam for a couple of tours in spec ops, spent ten years in the fishing fleets of Alaska, and retired as a fireman-EMT. He knows motorcycles, scuba, and NASCAR.
A man like that has some depth to him. He knows what life is. He has seen it.”
More examples:
“Bev Desjarlais. NDP MP. Homophobe”
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2005/06/give-bev-desjarlais-heave-bev.html
“Closer to home, inveterate rightwing Bible-thumper Kathy Shaidle, in an article quaintly entitled “The United States is the greatest force for good the world has ever known,”
[Notice how, earlier, Dawg said: “You searched my site, found no “red-neck,” no “Bible-basher,” and one instance of “knuckle-dragger” that was not directed at Westerners. “red-neck,”? Yeah, that was funny in light of the above quote]
and
“Parliament may as well bow to the inevitable: being homosexual doesn’t make you a second-class citizen, whatever assorted bishops, evangelists and neo-Nazis think, if “think” is the right word to use here.”
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2005/06/fangs-and-wags-this-will-be-irregular.html
“What should we expect? Well, no priests or nuns, because they’re not normal by any standard definition of the term. Celibate, given all day to prayer and political activity, wearing the uniforms of their trade, we are not dealing with averages, medians and majorities here.”
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2005/06/normal-ones-touting-sic-red-and-white.html
Perhaps the dawgie should quit while he’s ahead…
The CBC, our beloved national broadcaster and bringer of news stories, speaks of diversity but does not practice it.
Someone please name a prominent newscaster that is “conservative at our beloved taxpayer-funded institution”.
To say that the MSM is unbiased is preposterous. Diversity indeed, unless your a knuckle-dragger (i.e. someone a socialist disagrees with).
Of course, the CBC is but example from many that I could have used.
Good one anonlogue.
I am a machinist, musician, scuba diver, motorcycle rider (former builder), very good cook, dabble with photography, build web sites, have taught computer literacy, work out with weights twice a week still at age 62 .
Have never been on the dole but have been unemployed and homeless in the distant pass .. I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I learned to make better choices. I have been married for 30years to a self reliant conservative woman with a great career.
I do all the cooking and a lot of the housework. I work at home so it’s convenient but she does her share of other house work too. I have been self employed all my life in various areas of music from performer to presently a repair tech for wind instruments. Machinist skills help with this trade. Musical instruments are mechanical devices.
I intimidate most liberal men I meet because they realize immediately how unfulfilled they are with their paper shuffle jobs and a bit of golf on the week-end and not much else to show for their time.
We have become a weakling dumb shit society full of fat useless office workers and union members. This is the result of the feminization of our society and the new found “rights” to everything one can imagine. Liberalism has truly taken a toll on the quality of humans in our society.
If the think veneer of civility ever comes off of this fragile society, rednecks will suddenly become respectful as they are the only ones who know how to do anything including fighting enemies for real.
I didn’t get a formal higher education for which I am thankful. I retained the ability to think for myself. To quote Isaac Asimov “the only real education is self-education” All one really needs is the abililty to read. If you can read you can learn to do anything else.
Okay .. now I really have to get back to work. Good think I am self employed, I am not cheating my employer out of anything.
Yawn. When Alberta finally does separate, and Manitoba, Saskatchewan and BC choose to join them, maybe we should put up a virtual border, the kind the US is planning to do right now, just so we can, you know, keep track of all these dimwits from Ontario east. I’m talking about the ones that keep the Liberals in power.
Oh, and isn’t it funny how Ontario is urging Alberta to “be fair” with all that oil money. I read today where they are worried about increasing costs of energy for Ontario businesses. Perhaps they should think about giving them some tax breaks like Alberta will probably do. With the prospect of no GST or PST, along with lower corporate and personal income taxes that some in Alberta politics are already talking about, I guess I can understand why Ontario is getting the jitters. Ottawa may just have to start taxing all those tax-free foundations based in Ontario that their friends set up under the Liberal government over the last several years.
I’m going out for a hike in the woods. Gotta wear some of these calluses off my knuckles. They’re starting to affect my typing.
I think we need to remember that we are at war with one another. Our goal is to defeat the other side – democratically of course. We Conservatives are going to have to stop thinking that we are just nice folks from mostly non Ontario/Quebec regions and get down in the trenches and take them on with their own methods. Call the liberal politicians and liberal media out on every occasion. Formally demand explanations when they use words like “redneck”, “bible-thumper”, and “knuckedragger”. Make them review their writings in the daylight of their own understanding and standards. It is the responsibility of all conservatives, not just the party leadership, conservative politicians and strategists to do this. Let�s go on the offensive and look for opportunities to call them out and not just accept that “That’s how THEY play politics.” Let�s steal some plays from their playbook and use them ourselves. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We did not use illegal adscam money, we did not implement the gun registry, we did not do the HRDC scam, we did not bend over to the NDP to survive. By contrast, the conservatives of Canada are not thieves, involved in proceeds of crime, dithering, anti-religion, liars, manipulators of the truth, and suck-ups. (read Mr. Dithers �I�m sorry� TV speech)
Hey, It�s time to take the liberals on at every turn, they have got away with this for far to long without being accountable.
I see that Quebec is also bitchin about Alberta. The script for the next election is being written as we speak….Alberta will be the punching bag for the Liberals once again. Braindead Ontario and Tribal Quebec will act out their respective roles.
==============================================
Repatriate oil by creating national industry
professor: Oil companies deny allegations they fix prices
ALEX DOBROTA
The Gazette
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
“Qualifying the latest surge in gas prices as a robbery, a Montreal accounting professor called on the federal government yesterday to nationalize the oil industry.
“We have to repatriate this resource,” said Leo-Paul Lauzon, who holds a chair in social economy at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
“Oil companies are making immoral profits on the back of this society.”
“There’s plenty of oil to be had,” Lauzon said.
“But the companies are voluntarily reducing the offer to increase the price.”
Wearing running shoes, a white shirt and a tie bearing the logo, “Save our planet,” Lauzon spoke loudly at times, animated by his admiration for the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, a coup leader who uses his country’s oil reserves as a political bargaining chip.
“Sometimes, you have to shake things up,” said Lauzon, who already has been touted by the NDP as a potential candidate in the riding of Outremont.
The closest Canada has come to such a measure was in 1980, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau implemented the New Energy Program amid the 1980s oil crisis.
Asked yesterday whether he thought a nationalization program would create a similar backlash in Alberta, Lauzon simply responded: “I don’t give a damn about what Albertans think.”
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id=e64c70d2-a982-4e99-aedc-6dd87f9b2306
Don’t know whether y’all have seen the new Tory ads, but they poke fun at the Librano smear campaign by being excruciatingly transparent: they’re being filmed while reading cue cards, etc. John Ivison, a Scottish lefty as is their wont, mocks them in today’s NP. But there’s no place for the Libs/left to hide after these run. They poke fun at the earnestness/hypocrisy of the Libs/NDP. Any bets on whether there’s a deal between Martin & Layton to force an election pre Gomery with more money going to Layton’s pet causes in return for their co-operation. Being left in Canada means never saying you’re responsible for your own actions, and we are all victims of things conservative.
Decided to take one last peek at this excellent post before heading out the door. Glad I did.
GL. Comments like this idiot is making will be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back for Alberta. Glad he said it. Some of us could hear another National Energy Program coming a couple years ago. Talk like this is really dangerous for Canada. Albertans will never put up with another National Energy Program. Never. Any Alberta politician who even hints at accepting anything remotely resembling the National Energy Program will be tarred and feathered, even before leaving office.
His comment “I don’t give a damn about what Albertans think.” is especially telling.
Like I said, glad he’s getting the press. Keep these stupid comments coming.
I think it’s a myth that Ontario is going to go Liberal again. There is strong broad based support all across Ontario and though I’m aware recent polls indicate otherwise I think it’s absurd to believe that the Liberals are going to get 44.7% of the Ontario vote in an election to be called within 30 days of an inquiry of how they laudered money and stole public funds to cheat in elections, twice.
If you look at it riding by riding at one of the electionprediction.org sites you get a clearer idea of how The Liberals are screwed in Ontario, particularly Eastern Ontario, come next election, despite the ridicuous spin every day in The Globe.
I think The Libs will blow their plurality in a few TO ridings (IF they can get The Ethnic Vote to vote for their gay marriage agenda, and I’m still unconvinced that’s the case). Hopefully when the writ is dropped the CPC will have a comprehensive platform which addresses Alberta’s and Ontario’s beefs and Harper will be hammering Martin all day, every day on the $23 billion Confederation Tax Ontarians pay.
As an Ottawa Senator fan whose head is still asploding from yesterday’s trade I can see how easy it is to mistake patience and discipline for inaction or stupidity; maybe Harper hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt but I believe he’s going to launch a solid platform when the time is right and we as CPC supporters all gotta chill instead of incessantly navel gazing.
My view is that Stevie Harper is Canada’s last best chance, that if the Liberals get re-elected all bets are off. For The West, Ontario is not your full on enemy – yet – but the battleground for the Last Stand for the Canada many of us c(C)onservative folks believe in. Don’t give up on Ontario yet; in only a few more months we’ll know one way or another.
“Maybe if Albertans showed respect to Ontarians they would return the favor.”
Criminals (a.k.a. Ontarians) don’t get start getting respect back until they can demonstrate that they have reformed their behavior over a sufficiently long period of time.
Keep reading, Dick. As I say, you might learn something.
Calling someone who actually runs a far-right religious blogsite a “Bible-thumper” isn’t particularly out of bounds–no stereotypes there. But calling ordinary Westerners “Bible-thumpers,” or indeed any other generic pejorative, is wrong. I don’t do it.
I’m not above being insulting at times, and indeed, reading your posts and those of “Duke. David Duke” I feel more of that coming on. But I don’t dismiss Westerners out of hand as “Bible-thumpers” or “rednecks” or anything else. Which is what I thought this thread was about. The original claim–that MSM commentators call Westerners names–has yet to be proven.
So, how’s about you demonstrate your awesome research skills to back up Kate’s point, hmm? All she’s been able to dig up is one fatuous Liberal politician.
In the meantime, I’ll confess to using pejoratives on occasion. In the context in which I used them, I don’t believe I have anything to apologize for.
Nevertheless, strictly speaking, I was incorrect, and you were not, with respect to my not using insulting terms. I should have been more careful, not in avoiding such terminology on occasion where it is warranted, but in providing context here. Mea culpa.