Neal Gabler has an editorial in the L.A. Times. It's called "America The Stony-Hearted", and it shows how we've gone from a nation that meekly goes along with whatever ridiculous spending boondoggles the Democrats propose, to a cold-hearted group of selfish bastards. The closing tag (which Mr. Gabler didn't write) is one of the funniest accidental juxtapositions I've ever read.
It made me spew Coca-Cola and donuts all over a Firestone Auto Repair center waiting lounge.
But before we get to the money quote, here's a typical paragraph:
One can see this division in something as simple as the denigration of the term "liberal," the "L" word, with its attendant idea that to be compassionate, caring and tolerant — virtues that had been celebrated, if only via lip service, by most Americans — is really to be mush-minded, weak and, more concretely, willing to give taxpayer largesse to the undeserving and lazy. (This was essentially the argument that some Republicans, such as former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), used when they sought to deny an extension of unemployment benefits.
The conservatives and libertarians that I know are, as a general rule, generous people. It's just that the Department Of Health And Human Services, HUD, ACORN and such aren't their charities of choice. The statists (as a very general rule) that I know? They seem to think that lobbying to tax the rich is enough to exempt them from charitable giving.
Folks, lobbying to take money from one person to give it to another, after taking a cut for yourself off the top, doesn't make you virtuous. I'm a moral leper, but I've got that much figured out.
Anyway, back to Mr. Gabler's editorial, and the side-splitting tag from the L.A. Times. Here's the last paragraph.
But it is to say that this moral reconfiguration has not only changed our politics and our perception of morality; it has changed us. If compassion is seen as softness, tolerance as a kind of promiscuity, community as a leech on individuals and fairness as another word for scheming, we are a harder nation than we used to be, and arguably a less moral one as well. In undergoing a revolution for the nation's soul, we may have found ourselves losing it.
Yeah, blah blah blah. We should all get out of the way of those who best know how to spend our money.
And here's the glorious tag line at the end of the editorial, courtesy of the L.A. Times....
Neal Gabler is at work on a biography of Edward M. Kennedy.
Go here to read how much Ted Kennedy gave to charity.
Go here to read about the Kennedy tax avoidance strategy.
It made me spew Coca-Cola and donuts all over a Firestone Auto Repair center waiting lounge.
But before we get to the money quote, here's a typical paragraph:
One can see this division in something as simple as the denigration of the term "liberal," the "L" word, with its attendant idea that to be compassionate, caring and tolerant — virtues that had been celebrated, if only via lip service, by most Americans — is really to be mush-minded, weak and, more concretely, willing to give taxpayer largesse to the undeserving and lazy. (This was essentially the argument that some Republicans, such as former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), used when they sought to deny an extension of unemployment benefits.
The conservatives and libertarians that I know are, as a general rule, generous people. It's just that the Department Of Health And Human Services, HUD, ACORN and such aren't their charities of choice. The statists (as a very general rule) that I know? They seem to think that lobbying to tax the rich is enough to exempt them from charitable giving.
Folks, lobbying to take money from one person to give it to another, after taking a cut for yourself off the top, doesn't make you virtuous. I'm a moral leper, but I've got that much figured out.
Anyway, back to Mr. Gabler's editorial, and the side-splitting tag from the L.A. Times. Here's the last paragraph.
But it is to say that this moral reconfiguration has not only changed our politics and our perception of morality; it has changed us. If compassion is seen as softness, tolerance as a kind of promiscuity, community as a leech on individuals and fairness as another word for scheming, we are a harder nation than we used to be, and arguably a less moral one as well. In undergoing a revolution for the nation's soul, we may have found ourselves losing it.
Yeah, blah blah blah. We should all get out of the way of those who best know how to spend our money.
And here's the glorious tag line at the end of the editorial, courtesy of the L.A. Times....
Neal Gabler is at work on a biography of Edward M. Kennedy.
Go here to read how much Ted Kennedy gave to charity.
Go here to read about the Kennedy tax avoidance strategy.
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