Caution: Contains snark! Children, as well as adults who act like children, should proceed with caution.
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When Wayne LaPierre became executive vice-president of the NRA he shed his bookish ways and made himself into the out-front, out-there, inflammatory voice of the gun manufacturers’ lobby. His misleading assertions and fabrications of “facts” and his only partial view of the Constitution (interested in only the last 13 words of the Second Amendment and abandoning the rest) show us that he is just another of America’s pretenders to reality, our public delusionals. It isn’t that Wayne and I disagree; it’s that we are working toward vastly different goals, as he is all about Wayne and I am not.
When Keith Olbermann had his program on MSNBC he would periodically quote Sarah Palin, catching her in yet another Palin otherworldly moment. His disgust for her would erupt by concluding his piece, saying, “That woman is an idiot!”
I have the utmost regard for Olbermann’s intelligence, but he is wrong about Palin. She is no idiot. In fact, it is arguable that she is a genius.
Olbermann reacted to her blatantly false statements, her inflammatory rhetoric and dingbat mistakes as though she were all about being a reality based politician, but that is not what Sarah Palin was or is about. Sarah is all about promoting Sarah and she will say and do anything that advances her. That is where her genius lies. And lies and lies. She is very good at that. It isn’t that she and I disagree. It’s that Sarah is all about Sarah and I am not.
In a television interview five years ago, Rush Limbaugh gave himself up as being all about himself, exactly as Sarah Palin is all about herself, when he confessed, “I am doing my show for ratings. I want the largest audience I can get because that’s how I can charge the highest advertising ratings – rates. Which means what else do I want? Money.”
Silly you, you probably thought Limbaugh believes the drivel that comes out of his mouth. Not so. What he believes is that if he can tweak enough people, if he can draw out the worst that is in some of us, his ratings will go up and he will get more money. So, it isn’t that Rush and I disagree. It’s that he is all about Rush and I am not.
The same goes for Ted Cruz (Mr. “Green Eggs and Ham”), Michele Bachmann (Ms. “The Civil War started in New Hampshire”, the John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy oops and the rest), Rience Pribus (who can’t tell the difference between the scandal that is the George Washington Bridge fiasco and the sad but non-scandal Benghazi incident). They are all about themselves and I am not at all about them.
I’m all about America and Americans. I know that we can be way better than the quagmire of today’s America and the only thing standing in our way is the swarm of self-serving people with big megaphones.
It isn’t that we disagree with Palin and the rest. It’s that they are all about them and we most certainly are not. And we have far more voices than those public delusionals and can drown out their nonsense. We just need to holler all together.
“The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.” Harlan Ellison.
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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue. Please help by passing this along and encouraging others to do the same. Thanks. JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
