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Conservatives - Altering the rules when convenient
The Miami Herald ^ | October 23, 2003 | JOY-ANN REID joyannreid@hotmail.com

Posted on 10/23/2003 2:09:35 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

The right wing operates its own code -- a kind of moral Talibanism where the punishment for sin is death (as in the death penalty) or if the crime is noncriminal, ridicule, ouster or impeachment. The right applies the code to politicians, ordinary citizens and celebrities with equal dispassion. And no one gets away unjudged -- except, of course, for the right-wingers themselves.

The loophole in the code applies when conservatives -- or more accurately, Republicans (I'm not sure ''conservative'' means anything anymore) -- break one of the moral laws. Then, of course, the rules are amended to create what you might call ``exceptions.''

Here's how it works:

Rule: If a small-time drug user gets caught with a couple of joints or a few rocks of crack cocaine and is sentenced to a long prison term under New York's Draconian, Rockefeller-era drug laws, that's justice to the Rush Limbaughs of the world. In fact, Rush would have such a person thrown under the jail and then deported, as he has said many times.

Exception: If Limbaugh himself gets caught copping thousands of mother's-little-helpers in a Denny's parking lot,this self-admitted three-time loser gets 30 days in club rehab and a free pass from the press and the public, who are supposed to be seized with Christian understanding. This exception would not apply to Al Franken. Nor would it apply to one of those black folk Rush has admonished to ''take the bone out of their nose'' before calling his show.

Rule: Gambling is a sin, and the myriad debaucheries of the entertainment industry, including wild and woolly Las Vegas, are to be frowned upon.

Exception: If Bill Bennett bets the college money at the Tropicana, he gets a free pass (and probably a couple of free nights in the boom-boom suite). He remains the official morality czar of Fox News, where he is free to comment on the ''death of outrage'' --including the complex universal logic by which Bill Clinton is to blame for Arnold Schwarzenegger's sins.

Rule: The media is unhelpful to the war effort.

Exception: Geraldo was just trying to help those nice soldiers find their unit's form letter-writing tent.

Rule: The media is biased.

Exception: Fox News has to be biased -- in a fair and balanced way, of course -- because as the company's executives recently said in response to criticism from that evil Christiane Amanpour, the alternative to being foot soldiers for the Bush administration is to be foot soldiers for bin Laden.

Rule: Celebrities should stay out of politics.

Exception: Unless the celebrity is Gopher, Frasier, Sonny, Bruce, that annoying comedian from Saturday Night Live who flopped as an NFL commentator or Schwarzenegger.

It's called the Ronald Reagan exception.

If the Governator were a Democrat, he would have been tarred as a moral relativist, Hollywood elitist, family values-killing lout who had no right to speak about politics, let alone stand for public office. But because he is a Republican, he's free to feel away on whatever suits his fancy, unfettered by the pooh-poohing of so-called conservatives (with the refreshing exception of George Will).

So which is it? Is it right or wrong to take illegal drugs? Right or wrong to disrespect women? Right or wrong to gamble, to cheat on your wife, to drive drunk (the sin a certain commander in chief got a pass on during the 2000 election), or for that matter, to lie . . . ?

That, of course, depends on your political party.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: liberalwhine
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Take responsibilty is what this columnist can't fathom. Loving America, is something this columnist can't fathom.

Bring on Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn and Martin Sheen.

What is an offense to this columnist, is that we're not driving our party members out for them.


1 posted on 10/23/2003 2:09:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
#1. Enjoyable Cartoons, Cincinatus' Wife!!!! Your addendum is well said!!!!
2 posted on 10/23/2003 2:11:46 AM PDT by Defender2 (Defending Our Bill of Rights, Our Constitution, Our Country and Our Freedom!!!!)
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To: Defender2
Bump!
3 posted on 10/23/2003 2:23:05 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Well said.The cartoon is great.{The New York laws should be fixed in NY.)
4 posted on 10/23/2003 2:24:46 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I am more tolerant of faults in my friends and family then people I dislike or don't know. I think it's human nature. And for this author to portend this tendency applies only to conservatives is nonsense.
5 posted on 10/23/2003 2:36:26 AM PDT by Flyer (You get more with a smile, a kind word and a gun than with a smile and a kind word)
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To: Flyer
The LIBERAL media and democrat leaders work on the principle that they don't have to play by the rules. In their minds, rules are only for those conservative leaders who strive for and promote morals.
6 posted on 10/23/2003 2:48:05 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Rule: Celebrities should stay out of politics.

Exception: Unless the celebrity is Gopher, Frasier, Sonny, Bruce, that annoying comedian from Saturday Night Live who flopped as an NFL commentator or Schwarzenegger.

It's called the Ronald Reagan exception.

She cannot think straight. Even if someone mentions this "rule," it means, "Don't meddle." It does not apply to anyone's past if that person commits himself to politics as a full-time, or comparable, occupation. That is the difference between Reagan and Seas Penn. The latter has not yet committed even to speaking in complete sentences.

7 posted on 10/23/2003 3:14:43 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Thanks for posting this article and that delightful cartoon! Amazing that someone with the name "Joy" would spew such bile, but it is a measure of how enraged and deranged the left becomes in the face of the more conservative landscape when the right starts fighting back against the erosion from the left.

Please tell me how to get hold of the paper where this was published. There are freepers who can politely, dispassionately, and intellectually send this woman (?) back to her sandbox to pout.
8 posted on 10/23/2003 3:27:36 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (The madder the left gets, the more they reveal themselves)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"Laissez Faire" means "leave me alone."

Conservatives aren't perfect...but what the left wants is what?
9 posted on 10/23/2003 3:38:34 AM PDT by The Raven
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To: TopQuark
Yes, if LIBERALS have the facts to back up their argument, not just those unrepressed feelings, then let's debate. But if I might be so bold, I believe you're either ill-informed or a party hack if you subscribe to the progressive agenda.
10 posted on 10/23/2003 3:41:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: alwaysconservative
Please tell me how to get hold of the paper where this was published. There are freepers who can politely, dispassionately, and intellectually send this woman (?) back to her sandbox to pout.

Click on the site LINK above.

11 posted on 10/23/2003 3:42:26 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: The Raven
Conservatives aren't perfect...but what the left wants is what?

They want to call us hypocrites. The problem there is, we've never claimed to be perfect.

12 posted on 10/23/2003 3:44:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Thanks! Apparently, I'm not very observant this morning yet!
13 posted on 10/23/2003 3:45:30 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (The madder the left gets, the more they reveal themselves)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Where are the normally vocal if not shrill FreeRepublic drug warriors on this Limbaugh situation?

Regards

J.R.
14 posted on 10/23/2003 3:56:49 AM PDT by NMC EXP (Choose one: [a] party [b] principle.)
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To: NMC EXP
Actually, they're laughing at the libertarian efforts to use Limbaugh as their poster child somehow.
15 posted on 10/23/2003 4:08:02 AM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"Inasmuch as liberals have no morals, they can sit back and criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce." - Ann Coulter
16 posted on 10/23/2003 4:10:44 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: NMC EXP
And no one gets away unjudged -- except, of course, for the right-wingers themselves.

Poor LIBERALS just can't stand judgment. That's why they love the self-esteem, anti-American curriculum in public education that champions the idea of no class valedictorians. You see, all must win and all must have prizes. They lie to the students the same as they lie to everyone.

BTW, isn't "right-winger" a judgment on her part?

17 posted on 10/23/2003 4:16:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Tailgunner Joe
As usual, Ann cuts through the crap.
18 posted on 10/23/2003 4:17:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

19 posted on 10/23/2003 4:30:25 AM PDT by Jaxter ("When they come for your guns, give 'em your ammo first.")
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
This one made my blood boil -- to the extent that I fired off an email response to the author. In it, I challenged her to two things:

1) To honestly -- yeah, right -- tell readers in her next column how much/often she has listened to Limbaugh's radio program, and

2) Call him on-air when he returns to host the show. I'm sure she'll get bumped to the top of the call list. And I'm equally sure that she lacks the guts and intellectual honesty to put words into his mouth in that forum.

20 posted on 10/23/2003 4:30:27 AM PDT by DJ Frisat
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