Posted on 06/07/2004 5:50:22 PM PDT by quidnunc
Well said. I, like PJ, was once a left wing hippie who thought drugs were fun. But, of course, I think life is fun, and I've seen some of my former compatriots in hippiedom become major space cadets.
A devoted Dittohead. :) I drive to work during the first half-hour of his show. It's my favorite part, like that first cup of coffee in the morning. Today as he was talking about the Gipper, I was saying, "exactly" over and over, out loud.
My favorite is:
"letting lawyers make laws is like giving whiskey and the car keys to teenage boys".
I'll never forget Clinton raising taxes to 85% on the rich Social Security recipients, ie couples making more than $32,000 yearly.
Hmmmm, I have lots of friends who disagree with me politically, and have good-natured discussions with them. Maybe it's just the way I was raised. Nonetheless, I agree with O'Rourke that civil debate is sadly out of fashion.
No kidding. I always love the way the Left say that Rush "yells," "spews," etc. etc. Rush speaks conversationally, and uses massive doses of very genteel humor to make his points
More importantly, he offers up FACTS and points out incosistencies and downright lies. I assemble these and use them to fry my few Liberal family (I have NO liberal friends) members.
P.S. Dumped boyfriend, kept the dial on Rush.
The P.J. line I use regularly is from his trip to the hideous slums in the Philippines, or some such place: "I could throw up, but how would that help?"
It's flip, but there's a serious conservative point. Feeling sickened by squalor isn't a virtue; it's just natural. It's a whole lot harder, if not impossible, to find real solutions for misery. Liberals think that just feeling bad about it is enough ... plus throwing tax money into a "program."
I suggest you read some of his other works. Start with Holidays in Hell.
PJ was once funny. Sad, this is not his finest work. In fact he may as well be a dem.
They do? Then, why is Big Stupid Government so much bigger, dumber and more expensive? Why is the deficit at record levels? What about "limited government" - whatever happened to that?
Conservative radio talk shows - specifically Rush Limbaugh - woke me up and turned me from a mindless parrot liberal into an informed activist conservative. Yes - Rush Limbaugh changed my mind despite what the big-nosed, bitter guy with the lampshade on his head has to say.
When I first listened to Rush I was angry. "How could someone say crap like that and get away with it!?" was my initial reaction. I set out to prove him wrong - he had to be wrong - because if he was right that would mean that I'd been lied to for years and that I'd been a fool - a useful idiot.
I started reading - actually reading something more than just bumper stickers and liberal-dominated media trash (Time, Newsweek, etc.) I found that Rush was right about a number of things - a large number of things. And that would mean...yes, I'd been lied to.
I used Rush Limbaugh as a crutch for a couple of years. There was so much catching up to do and he was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction. Thank you, Rush. I know I'm not the only one that you've awakened to the awful truth around them. Now I can find my own sources of information and I rarely listen to Rush anymore. He set me in the right direction - he changed my mind as he changed so many others.
For all his wit and biting humor, I really wonder how many minds P.J. O'Rourke has changed. Sure, he's a side-splitting read. But, truthfully, he's more of an entertainer than Limbaugh. He offers far less substance than Rush. Maybe he's jealous. Or just drunk. But, for whatever reason, he's just plain wrong on this one.
I've often wondered what one would get if he did a mind-meld between O'Rourke and Hitchens.
P.J. is right. I don't think Rush is effective overall in changing minds. Well, maybe I should revise and extend that remark. Rush might make conservatives out of the apolitical.
One of those super brains that can function after years of chemical abuse.
Miss Marple wrote, "I do't listen to talk radio for arguing. I look for different takes and tidbits about the news, plus some humor."
I do't either. This series. Real series and I do my own thimking.
(p.s. do't take this personal.)
Dennis
To my mind Michael Medved is significantly more interesting, and more intelligent and knowledgable to boot.
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