J. Randolph Evans Column No. 954 (3/06/09)

So, remember the farmer and ox?

True Conservatism has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not allowed to fulfill its mission.

Once there was a farmer whose ox and wagon got stuck in a ditch. Now how that ox and wagon got in the ditch was a topic of much dispute. Some blamed the wagon driver; others blamed the wagon maker; and some even blamed the ox. But the fact that the ox and the wagon were in the ditch was clear and something had to be done. And so, the government decided to take over getting the ox and the wagon out of the ditch. This effort started a massive public works project to dig the wagon out. After all, it was the perfect excuse to do something about that ditch. Dig, dig, dig. Now since the government was spending so much money on this project, political leaders decided that the wagon was also the solution for a variety of transportation problems. So, it invited passersby to hop on board the wagon as they waited for the farmer and ox to get the wagon out of the ditch. Of course, it did not stop there. Every other project that needed an ox to pull it along got hitched to the poor ox.

WAIT … THERE’S MORE!

Rush Limbaugh is a leader. Period. J. Peter Freire - American Spectator

Since 1991, Limbaugh has had the most-listened-to radio show in the United States, with over 14 million listeners a week as of December 2008.

Speaking as an unabashedly Pro-Rush self-styled cocktail-party attending intellectualoid wannabe, or whatever you want to call it, I’m bewildered at the number of people misunderstanding of Rush’s role. Yes, he is an entertainer — you have to be to keep an audience for 3 hours every day — but he is also a leader in thought. This may make the more nuanced among the right uncomfortable, primarily because he doesn’t confer with anyone before making his thoughts known. He’s unpredictable. It is because Rush does not confer with others that he is a leader. It is because Rush is independent that he sets himself apart. In setting himself apart he also makes fun of those he disagrees with on radio, while maintaining distance from the process. And that last is both the cosmetic and the substantive charge against him. That it’s easy for the man behind the mic to rile people. Especially when he gets paid a lot of money to do it.

I’m not what you call a Dittohead, but I don’t disagree with Peter’s following assessment:

You may not want to designate him as your leader. But it is the pinnacle of ignorance to think that the most-listened to radio host in America is not a leader. He does play an important part in the movement, and denying that is placing him in the category of a crazy uncle. If we assess leaders by influence, Rush wins out over Steele any day.

If I was going to pick somebody to carry the Conservative banner … Rush would certainly be in the top half dozen.

Run for the hills!

OBAMA: The Anti-Reagan

Barack Obama allegedly intends to be a transformational president like Ronald Reagan. But now President Obama is raising taxes on businesses and retirees, socializing the largest sectors of America’s economy, and decimating state sovereignty and creativity. This is the polar opposite of what President Reagan did in the 1980s, and reveals Barack Obama as the Anti-Reagan. So the Obama cheerleading squad (the mainstream media) can compare him to Ronald Reagan all day long, but the truth is the President Obama is the anti-Reagan, and his policies will bring us the same unemployment and stagnant economies that exist in the European countries that try these failed socialist policies, rather than the prosperity the real Ronald Reagan brought to America.

So some of you Obama voters out there tell me exactly “why” you voted for this guy again??

CLOSE TO HOME IN GEORGIA: County gun permit apps surge Gwinnett Daily Post - Lawrenceville, GA

LAWRENCEVILLE – To call Benjamin Olsen “armed” is a colossal understatement. He’s more like a walking arsenal. At any given moment, the 25-year-old Suwanee contractor is strapped with a Kel-Tec 9 mm in his cargo pocket, a Springfield XD .45 caliber in a hip holster and, nearby in his truck, a loaded shotgun. Another 13 guns await Olsen at home. All this from a hulking guy who stands 6-foot-3, weights 285 pounds and projects the no-nonsense scowl of a courtroom bailiff. So why all the firepower? “When seconds count, the police are minutes away,” says Olsen, grinning. “If the bad guy’s got a gun, (the guns) are necessary. The only way to minimize force is to meet it with equal or greater force.”

AMEN, brother!