Saturday, September 3, 2011

Quotes of the Week & Cetera

It's been a fun week here at Western Hero.  The highlight was perhaps when Jersey accused a college professor with a PhD of being anti-intellectual.  Good one man!

I do agree with Jersey that it is tiresome to see an Ivy League alum like Bill O'Reilly try to act like an anti-intellectual working class mug living in a two-bedroom bungalow on the south side.  Like Jersey, I don't know any working class multimillionaires.

Conservativesonfire had a trenchant comment on intellectuals:
Intellectuals should be locked in rooms and only allowed to pass their written ideas under the doors. Smart people with good common sense would then read and discard most of them while implementing the good ideas far better than the intellectual ever could.
I would be more charitable and put them on an island paradise somewhere out of harm's way where they couldn't screw up society by trying to run it.

Here's a quote on women from FreeThinke:
There's a powerful charm -- and a great deal of quiet power -- inherent in old fashioned ladylike behavior. I regret its passing. Women don't have to take on the worst characteristic of male behavior in order to compete successfully with males.
A quote like that could only have come from a wise gentleman with more than a few years behind him...

Rush is Right

I rarely have the opportunity to listen to the radio at the jobsite, but I really, really like Rush Limbaugh, most of all because he lives in the left's head rent-free 24/7.  They pay more attention to him than tea partiers do.  Rush is also right.  He's got talk radio down to a science.  My only complaint is that he is so good as to be mechanistic, and he doesn't debate liberal callers well.  But you can't have it all.  The only reason I don't mention him very often is because it invites the inevitable stoopid leftwing ding-dong comments about getting my talking points from Rush.

Here's what FreeThinke thinks of Rush:
You can practically hear the twinkle in his eye as he speaks. Of course he only appeals to truly bright people.

Rush functions like an Intelligence Test. If you don't like him, you're either a dodo or a Marxist.

Rush is the
prime mover in the Conservative Radio Talk Show phenomenon. He got there first, has the strongest, most charismatic personality, and the most facile wit. And he's proved himself to be incredibly durable. He's withstood the test of time. If it weren't for Rush there would be no such thing as Conservative Talk Radio.

Of course naturally I love him, because I write all his material, and he delivers my lines perfectly -- just as though he were making it up on his own. He and I have had a great partnership going for a very long time. I SO enjoy being the silent, unseen, unknown guiding genius behind the scenes.

And just who am I?  The Great No-Longer-Silent Majority that's who I am.
Still, Michael Savage is my favorite...

Popping a beer in the evening and listening to Michael Savage on internet radio is like inviting an interesting old raconteur uncle into my home.  I like Rush, but I love Doc Savage.  He talks about nutrition, music and anything under the sun, and he unleashes some righteous angry rants. He's a conservative who hates the GOP establishment, and an unreligious man who extolls the wonders of God and reads the Bible.  Last night he had a friendly conversation with uber progressive former NY Governor David Paterson.

Savage has a lot of wisdom behind him and he's full of common sense.  Pictures are now out of boxing great Oscar de la Hoya wearing women's undergarments.  He paid millions to keep them hidden lest they damage his macho image, but somehow they got out anyway.  Now he is engaging in long confessions as part of his rehab from drug and alcohol addiction.  His wife, God bless her, is staying by his side.

Uncle Mike's take?  He admires de la Hoya, and he said he should not have let anyone blackmail him.  If anyone tried to make fun of him over the pictures he should have said, "Oh yeah?  Get in the ring with me.  I'll beat your ass while wearing pantyhose!"  That's wisdom and common sense.

FreeThinke again puts in words what I am thinking:
The only other talk show host worth his salt is Michael Savage. He really tells it like it is, and pulls no punches. Of course he's an awful braggart, and unlike Rush he means it, but he's an honest, authentic Noo Yawk type -- like a lot of the men I grew up around -- so his crassness and utter lack of diplomacy and finesse don't bother me a bit. In fact it's refreshing.
I try to listen to liberal talk radio but I just can't stomach it.  Randy Rhodes is a hateful shrike, the Molloy guy sounds terminally depressed, and the rest of them are so unremarkable I can't even remember any names.  Thom Hartmann is about the only liberal talker I like, and I highly recommend his book, The Edison Gene.

Who are your favorite talkers?

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams had their own talk shows. I would never grow tired of the common sense that they could share with the world.

Ducky's here said...

I've listened to Savage on occasion, a real prize.

I remember one show after a huge earthquake in Iran when he suggested we should send then smallpox infested blankets. Tongue in cheek of course but the spirit was there.

Probably deeply reflective of a gutter Protestant bigotry adrift in the land.

Ducky's here said...

Funny you should mention Hartmann.

He had a Libertarian on yesterday and absolutely punched the guys lights out.

Guy was on the ropes, tried to use the talking point quips an Hartmann just kept at him.

That is why you never get these idiots like Rush or Savage or Hannity in open debate. They just preach to the choir.

Freethinker must think they are a pinnacle of achievement like art deco.

Princess Natasha said...

"November 2012 can NOT get here soon enough"

Silverfiddle said...

Ducky: No one, absolutely no one, is without their issues.

Savage often shoots first and asks questions later, making his original comments look foolish, but that's part of his charm, so to speak.

Although I heartily agree with Hartmann' Edison Gene theory and he supports it well, he has floated some weirdo ideas as well, and I heard Michael Medved clean his clock a time or two in debates on the radio.

Hannity also does a good job in talk show format debates. Fox actually has real conservatives and real liberals kicking it back and forth, which probably explains why they're #1.

Anonymous said...

FreeThinke does not believe in staged shouting matches where opponents play games of GOTCHA! while stepping on each other's lines at every available opportunity. FreeThinke does not like bullies or the use of sarcastic jibes and willful misunderstanding of points others try to make. FreeThinke doesn't like political posturing for "effect" from any sector either.

That's why FreeThinke dislikes Bill O'Reilly and most of his Smart Alec regulars like Dennis Miller. And why he hated Crossfire and James Carville, Paul Begala, Loony Davis, etc. And why he grew to dislike The McLaughlin Group soon after the novelty wore off.

On the other hand FT loves to listen to prepared remarks uninterrupted by rude, boorish tactics designed solely to try to get a rise out of the speaker and get him to lose his train of thought or fluff his lines.

FT dislikes persistent use of sarcasm and ridicule, and is militantly anti-heckling, and anti-badgering, and would gladly support any policy that advocates the forcible removal of hecklers and "demonstrators" from the room -- or the park -- or the stadium -- wherever they appear to try to mar the decorum of an event.

FT would cheerfully have had Alinsky and his followers strung up by the balls, ridden out of town in a paddy wagon and given a one-way ticket to hell where they belong.

Let 'em preach to the Damned -- i.e. their base.


I wholeheartedly support freedom of expression -- but not when it interferes with someone else's freedom of expression. That's not proper exercise of freedom, it's ABUSE of freedom, and if it remains unchecked it will soon lead to the LOSS of freedom.

Go hire your own hall at your own expense and spew all the venom you like -- but not on MY turf

Buy your own radio station and flood the airwaves with bile. Thats your right and privilege as long as you can pay for it -- and don't reach into the pockets of taxpayers the way PBS and NPR do. I just thank God that no one has to listen to you -- just as no one has to listen to Rush or Michael Savage or Ed Schultz and Randi Rhoades -- or the POTUS when he breaks wind before the microphones for that matter.

The internet is different. Since no one is forced to read or respond to any of the sometimes-objectionable tripe posted, such tripe should be welcomed. People who cannot tolerate the presence of others for no reason other than irrational feelings of annoyance or personal distaste ought not to participate in the blogosphere.

Persistent trolls, who make a career out of trying to disrupt websites for the sole purpose of drawing attention to themselves, should be ignored. If they thrive on attention, DON'T GIVE 'EM ANY. They are like the small children, who before the Age of Caller ID, used to make silly anonymous phone calls just for the hell of it.

C-SPAN is probably the best model for serious political discourse. Every earnest soul and every self-styled expert, every government official, every representative of every "think tank," every author, every professor, and random samplings of mostly moronic criticism and complaint from John Q. and Jane Publick gets an opportunity to strut their stuff in a blandly respectful determinedly non-partisan atmosphere.

Three cheers for C-SPAN -- and a flamboyant Thumbing of the Nose to Public Television, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC. ABC, NYT, LAT, WaPo, BoGlo, et al.

~ FreeThinke

Divine Theatre said...

You forget Larry Elder and Neal Boortz!
Peter Schiff is brilliant as well...

Thersites said...

Ron Smith has the best local coverage of Maryland politics.

Mike aka Proof said...

Tom Sullivan is also a good radio talker. As fate would have it, he got his big radio break at the same station Rush Limbaugh did. He and Limbaugh are good friends. Tom is the "Sullivan" behind the "Sullivan Group" that gives Rush his "accuracy ratings" (I think they do the audits over an adult beverage or two!)

Tom is a conservative with a financial background, though in his far distant past he was a highway patrolman for a while.

He's very even handed with his callers. No rants, no raves, just solid steady conservatism, and a pretty nice guy.

He's syndicated nationwide and on Sirius. I hear him at noon PST.

I think he also has a TV show on Fox on the weekends.

Dave Miller said...

Dan Patrick...

And of course, Terri Gross from NPR... she asks really good questions in her hour long interviews...

When i was on LA, I loved Warren Olney from KCRW....

And yes, for the most part, left leaning radio sucks... like right leaning television...

BB-Idaho said...

Rush who?

Anonymous said...

Rush to Judgment, of course, BB. Who else?

~ FT

Bd said...

Wow, all the hate radio lovers in one place!

Anonymous said...

>hate radio

Liberty, personal responsibility, integrity, adherence to the rule of law, support of the Constitution, self-discipline, rational thought and common sense rather than emotions and political correctness...yeah, lotsa hate there, pup.

Anonymous said...

>Jersey accused a college professor with a PhD of being anti-intellectual.

That did give me a bit of a chuckle.

I wonder if he ever gets tired of coming here, spewing out emotional blabber and bumper-sticker quotes, then getting it summarily crushed by somebody's pinkie finger? Some people just don't know their limitations, I guess.

I guess we should be grateful that he's willing to throw some easy batting practice for us on a daily basis.

Anonymous said...

"And yes, for the most part, left leaning radio sucks... like right leaning television..."

But there is no right-leaning television.

THAT is why TV stinks to high heaven. Every bit of it -- even the most trivial, supposedly "light" entertainment is shot through and permeated with political correctness, environmentalist cant and rhetoric, flippant contempt for the Church and an almost comically overt bias against, handsome, successful, noticeably intelligent white males -- especially of the blond, blue-eyed, crew-cut variety who look as though they might have served honorably and with distinction in the military.

Hundreds and hundreds of examples of this have been occurring for more than forty years.

Anyone who can't spot The Agenda is either a moron -- or a Marxist.

What purports to be a policy of "Inclusion" fostering "Diversity" is blatantly designed to defame, denigrate and disempower white males who have all but disappeared as good role models in Show Business.

It's all part of the nefarious chemes that originated with The Frankfurt School.

~ FreeThinke

Ducky's here said...

Who's this professor?

Anonymous said...

Moriarty, Ducky.

He has you in his sights.

I'd advise you to watch your back.

Regards,

Uncle Sherlock aka Freethinke

Z said...

Dave, glad you brought that up. You like NPR; would you still like NPR if they had a Sean Hannity on, for example? You wouldn't mind paying his salary like some of us mind having to support your left leaning NPR or Bill Moyers on PBS? Truly?
How about Meet the Press? Rachel Maddow's there from time to time....would you consider them more fair handed if they had Hannity on? (just throwing Hannity's name out there because he is one of FOX's editorialists)........until Meet the Mess does have someone who's a true Conservative on regularly (pLEASE don't mention David Brooks, because that means you haven't been watching or you're so ideological that it's not worth talking) how can it be taken seriously?
Just curious here.

Anonymous said...

Z,

I'm glad you asked Dave those questions, but do you honestly expect him to give an honest answer?

I'm sure we can all take the Liberal Media Establishment's profound bias for granted by now. As I keep saying, only a moron-- or a Marxist -- could fail to see it and admit it.

However, you must realize that in the mind of a leftist bias exists only from Caucasians towards Negroes, Hispanics and Asians, from Jews towards Arabs, from Capitalists towards advocates of Social Justice [they will not all themselves Marxists or even Socialists, which is what they are, of course], from Christians towards secular humanists, of majorities towards minorities, of male chauvinist pigs towards women, of Westerners towards Orientals, etc.

The hatred and violence that comes from all these designated "victim" groups is considered "righteous indignation" by the left.

Anyone who opposes the Leftist Agenda is, therefore, defined categorically as a bigoted racist, majoritarian, nativist, Christo-fascist, xenophobe, Philistine, misogynist -- you name it.

The LEFT, you see, is RIGHT. They have defined themselves as just, pure, righteous and forward thinking. That means all the rest of us are Enemies of Fairness, Equity, Decency, Tolerance, Generosity, etc.

With that mindset firmly in place after nearly a century of leftist indoctrination through the Academy is it any wonder they believe it is righteous to lie, cheat, steal and kill to oppose and defeat evil people like you and me?

~ FreeThinke

Jersey McJones said...

Ya' know, Silver (thanks for mench! Though I think you misunderstood my point about Sowell) and all, I lived in the NYC area most of my life.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh in that market 20 years ago - regularly. I enjoyed his show. It was unique.

Rush was the creator of a neuvo-Buckley brand of "conservative," "calm," "adult," "intelligent," radio. A departure from the old, loud, angry curmudgeon that was the staple of AM talk for decades.

He was brilliant at it. He still is, I can only assume. But, like any niche act, it gets old after a while, so no, I haven't listened to him nearly as much as years have gone by.

I find Limbaugh's mixture of small-c conservative thought and Republican rhetoric politically brilliant - tragically, insecurely wrong, but definitely brilliant.

Oh yeah, and Rush Limbaugh is the Southern Strategy PERSONIFIED.

So, yeah. He's an interesting guy.

Rush Limbaugh is the Grand Master of the Conservative Circus.

No doubt about it.

If someone wants to understand modern American conservative thought, negating Limbaugh, they may as well throw a penny down a well.

Rush Limbaugh is the heart and soul of modern American conservatism. And he's nuts.

Whenever a conservative says, "Eh, I don't listen to Limbaugh," they are wrong. Whether they know it or not, he is the well-spring from which their ideology eminates.

JMJ

Silverfiddle said...

Jersey: I admire your gift of the simultaneous forehand and backhand compliment.

I appreciate that you're honest enough to give the devil his due. Rush has indeed synthesized conservative thought and is perhaps the primary font of it today.

Silverfiddle said...

And when I say I rarely listen to Rush, it's not by choice. I simply can't during the day.

I get to listen to Bill Bennett or Peter Boyles (local Denver icon) on the way to work, and Medved, Hannity, Hugh Hewett or Caplis and Silverman (local Denver show) on the way home, depending on when I get off work.

Ducky's here said...

Ever listen to Amy Goodwin on Democracy Now! Very good reporter.

Kinda sad that so much rabies radio invaded Boston. Not that long ago we had the best radio in the world (I'm not exaggerating) but it's much closer to the standard fare of twenty classes of lousy rock, shock jocks and over produced country (anyone seen Hank?)

Used to encourage thought. Still does to some extent but not on the rabies talk shows.

Anonymous said...

>Who's this professor?

I'll admit to it. And, yes, that will be on the final.

Anonymous said...

>Amy Goodwin on Democracy Now! Very good reporter.

Unless, of course, you want facts, reason, and anything other than Marxist slogans wrapped in pseudo-journalist emoting. (And it's "Goodman," by the way.)

Silverfiddle said...

Bd: Thank you for the link! Here are a few snippets:

"Even a representative of the Missouri AFL-CIO supports the plan..."

But the Democratic governor has now changed his position. Last week, Nixon said he could support ending the tax credit

So I guess that's the crux of the stinking labor unions and the stinking democrats.

Thanks for demonstrating what unprincipled bastards your heroes are!

Bd said...

Wrong, he says he will support the change if an equivalent amount of money is used to create a fund earmarked for senior citizen programs.

Silverfiddle said...

No Bd, you are wrong. In black and white. The democrat governor now supports this plan. His little fig leaf doesn't change that fact, printed in black and white.

So again, that's the crux of the stinking labor unions and the stinking democrats.

Thanks again for demonstrating what unprincipled bastards your heroes are!

You also seem to have difficulty processing simple facts, which explains your liberalism and Obama hero worship.