The truth is leftists aren’t always stark raving mad. Once in a blue moon a leftist will have a brief moment of clarity and will say something that is both rational and true.
Recently, Bill Maher had such a moment on the Charlie Rose Show when he said that people who claim Islam is like other religions are naive and plain wrong. And back in 2009, CBS’s Late Night host David Letterman had his brief moment of clarity during an exchange with Bill O’Reilly.
In the back and forth, Letterman quoted from a New York Times feature on Glenn Beck where he had said, “if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.”
With the meekness and charm of a Vogue magazine editor, Letterman then said that O’Reilly was too smart to actually believe those populist, conservative views that he espouses to the folks.
“I think Glenn Beck, and maybe he got caught up in the moment of candor, but I think he speaks to this. I think you guys [O’Reilly, Beck, and Rush Limbaugh] know exactly what you’re doin’. You’ve been very successful at it, but the truth of it is you’re not speaking your conscience,” Letterman said.
“We’re charlatans is what you’re saying?” O’Reilly asked.
“It’s not charlatan; it’s show business,” Letterman said. … “This is why wrestling is popular,” he added.
This brief exchange between Letterman and O’Reilly is telling. Between the lines Letterman is saying that O’Reilly and the others have adopted personas, and that the majority of the people who listen to them do not know that. He also knows that many people have been conditioned by the media to adore these personas and to clap like trained seals when they’re around them.
Letterman is saying that the people who listen to talk show hosts believe that their personas reflect who they truly are in real life. Letterman is saying that when they’re not hosting a show or in the public eye, they may hold opinions and beliefs that actually contradict those they express on their shows.
O’Reilly, Beck, and Limbaugh know their niche audience, and they created personas to reflect the values, beliefs, and ideals of that audience. If they actually held the principles and convictions they espouse on their shows, they’d be working feverously to save this country from destruction instead of lining their pockets.
For the uninitiated, David Letterman exposed the underbelly of the beast, and the beast is show business. Like it or not, talk show hosts are entertainers in the entertainment industry and are not principled patriots whose love of country supersedes their self interest.
The following lyrics are meant to be sung to the tune of The Byrds’ “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man“:
They’re America’s friend, they talk on week days
But they sure do think different from the words that they say.
They’re political commentators who pine for this land
And why they’re successful, I can’t understand
This 17:29 clip is from The Millstone Report web cast that aired April 11, 2014, on the Resistance Radio Network.
RICE’S MISFORTUNE IS THAT HIS “INFRACTION” WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA
Posted in Latest Commentary, tagged Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens The Millstone Diaries, Brandon Marshall, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Dez Bryant, Fox & Friends, Frostee Rucker, Greg Hardy, Miami Dolphins, NFL Commissioner, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL players, Ought to be Headlines, Peck's Bad Boy, Randy Starks, Ray McDonald, Ray Rice, Roger Goodell, San Francisco 49ers, Steve Doocy, Terrell Suggs, The Millstone Report, U-T San Diego on September 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Ray Rice has become “Peck’s Bad Boy” for a deteriorating National Football League. When the first video of him dragging his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator appeared in July, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell slapped Rice’s wrist with a two game suspension.
Goodell went on to revise the league’s disciplinary policy regarding domestic violence to include a minimum six-game suspension or more for the first infraction and up to a lifetime ban for the second, with the prospect of yearly appeals.
But now that a longer version of the video has surfaced showing Rice administering a left jab to the jaw of his future wife, “Jolly Roger” stepped to the mic and said that “domestic violence and sexual assault are wrong … illegal … unacceptable … under any circumstances … [and] have no place in the NFL …” He then suspended the Baltimore Raven indefinitely for the knock punch.
On first blush the zero tolerance policy along with the indefinite suspension of Rice looks like the NFL has taken appropriate measures and is moving in the right direction, but the truth is many abusers of women continue to play football in the league.
For example, Rice’s teammate Terrell Suggs has had two incidents with his then-girlfriend and now wife. In 2009, he allegedly, “threw a soap dispenser at her head, hit her in the chest with his hand, and held a bottle of bleach over her and their 1-year-old son.” In 2012, the All-Pro linebacker “punched her in the neck and dragged her alongside a speeding car with their two children in the vehicle.”
Earlier this summer, Carolina Panthers Pro Bowl defensive end Greg Hardy was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend and threatening her life. Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall has a rap sheet and has been charged twice for domestic violence.
Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Randy Starks hit his fiancée; Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant hit his mother; Arizona Cardinals defensive end Frostee Rucker was twice charged with spousal battery; and San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald was arrested for domestic violence just 72 hours after Goodell announced the league’s revised policy.
And these players rest at the tip of the iceberg. U-T San Diego reviewed hundreds of news reports involving NFL players since 2000 and compiled a list of arrests and citations that were more serious than speeding tickets.
It appears the reason Ray Rice has become the league’s “Peck’s Bad Boy” is that his “infraction” was caught on camera for the world to see. As Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends quipped, “the message is, when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera.”
In other words, as long as players don’t get caught knocking out women on camera for the world to see, they’re cleared to play football in the NFL.
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