Radio Rage (Seething Conservatives update)

Salon ^ | May 13, 2009 | Camille Paglia

[MuttTheHoople]

May 13, 2009 | In John Frankenheimer's taut 1964 film, "Seven Days in May," the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appalled at a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, plot a coup d'état to remove the president whom they regard as too soft and naive about the evil of America's enemies. The screenplay by Rod Serling (based on a 1962 novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II) is filled with passionate lines that seem right out of today's talk radio -- "intellectual dilettantes" versus patriotism; America's loss of "greatness"; the superiority of military experience to civilian judgment and governance.

[tgusa]

see post 24.

[a fool in paradise]

There was resistence in talk radio land about the Harriet Meyers nomination, the Dubai ports deal (although Rush took the contrary position, and I wondered where the outrage was when we first outsourced our port security to foreign powers under Bill Clinton), and the horrible bailout deal of 2008.

[tgusa]

Good, I applaud you! Too many people are content to just sit around and carp incessantly.

[Captain Kirk]

Paglia to her credit is pretty consistent. In fact, over the years she has more often criticized Democrats. She is wrong to criticize talk radio for its criticism of Obama but she is right to smell a rat. Talk radio was totally asleep at the watch from 2001 to 2009 when Bush and the GOP pushed through the most rapid increase in big government in decades.

[Wallace T.]

You may be a little unfair to Neal Boortz, as he opposed much of the Bush agenda except for the WOT.

[ExpatGator]

The radio talking heads have their place in this battle, and I think that they serve their purpose beautifully. I don’t listen to them because I am quite educated on the issues and involved already, plus I run my own business and am too busy.

As far as electing conservatives, I’m working locally.

[Captain Kirk]

The Dubai ports deal was a small blip on the screen. The outrage over Harriet Meyers was more substantial but it was pretty much the exception that proved the rule. Interestingly, neither of these had too much to do with the big government record of the GOP. Talk radio did nothing at all about the prescription drugs boondogle, the White House’s endorsement of affirmative action in college admissions (courtesy of Gonzalez), No Child Left Behind, and Bill of Rights issues (as they did with Clinton) such as NSA snooping on the phone sex calls of American soldiers. Now....that a Democrat is in the White they suddenly care about civil liberties again.....but their credibility is pretty much shot for their past record.

[Captain Kirk]

We must have been listening at different times. Every time I tuned him in it was “the Democrats did that” and “the Democrats are doing that.” Now...you are right that occasionally did slam the GOP but it was trivial IMHO. Strangely, though he is less “libertarian” than Boortz, I thought that Rush was actually somewhat better.

[JoJo Gunn]

Liberals are rootless internationalists who cravenly appease those who want to kill us.

The moron apparently leads a very insulated life. For years it's felt like the 1930's all over again, and it's not due to the Right.

[tgusa]

Good, I applaud your involvement! 2010 isn’t that far away. Maybe it’s just old pharts like me who are getting turned off by talk radio - and a strong case might be made that talk radio is just preaching to the choir anyway to those of us who have been around more than a few years. I guess they are aware of what they’re doing, or they wouldn’t still be on the air.

[a fool in paradise]

The NSA snooping that I was aware of was wiretaping of international phone calls with at least one member of Al Qaeda (even if the other person was stateside).

Ugly truth is that members of the media were in communication with Al Qaeda, Time Magazine had such a journalist. I’m sure that played a part in the media not wanting such calls tapped.

And going back to WWII, those serving in the military had their letters run by the censor to restrict the information they were sending out.

[TheBigIf]

The NSA wiretapping program did not violate anyone’s civil liberties. You do not have a right to privacy when talking to our enemies oversea..

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

She must have gotten some bad weed.
Wrong Frankenheimer film for this presidency.

There has been a general, overall trend of decline in public discourse.
MSNBC and liberals are just as guilty.

Talk radio is a symptom of the liberal attempts to castrate the male in modern
American culture. It's a reaction. You can't view it in a vacuum.
Liberal rage and hysteria are just as shrill. If not more so.

There should be some attempts to elevate the national discourse in general.
They might want to start with education and look at how logic and rhetoric are
not taught in the American educational system. For quite some time it was
only conservatives who were preserving any trace of the Aristotelian-Ciceronian
tradition and elevated historical allusions in the national discourse. While liberals
primarily whined about adolescent genital issues which most normal people have
adjusted to by the time they graduate from high school. If not earlier.

Meanwhile, they could bring back the Firing Line style of debates to dissect
and break down the De Sophisticis Elenchis of liberalism. Beyond the shrill
pathos and messianic hysteria, reminiscent of teenage girls at Elvis Presley
concerts, there is a disturbing Rousseau element in Obammunism that should be
brought to light and subjected to sober analysis and logical refutation. The only
way to get to that level of discourse is through conservative philosophy which
you will not get from the MSM or most educational institutions. She brings to
the fore some of the dilemmas of modern culture. If there is a way to get there, without Aristotle, Cicero, and all those Dead White Western Males who can't
dance, let's hear the explanation. The F-bomb culture of the schools and jokes
about failing kidneys won't get us there. How will we ever have an elevated
national discourse if the Western tradition is banned in the schools?

γνῶθι σεαυτόν

[tgusa]

Didn’t I just read somewhere that NSA kept a lot more records than they had admitted? Do you have inside information that NSA ONLY taped calls overseas, where at least one correspondent was suspect? Ever heard of CARNIVORE? Prudence would dictate that we proceed as though every one of our phone calls and emails were monitored or at least recorded for future analysis.

[TheBigIf]

The burden of proof is on those that claim that they did violate our rights and not the other way around as you suggest.

[tgusa]

OK, you trust in who has the burden of proof, I’ll trust in the ‘silence is golden’ rule.

[TheBigIf]

It has nothing to do with trust. If you want to make an accusation against people (serving in government or elsewhere) then it is up to you to prove your accusations against them.

[tgusa]

Sure. Prove something against the NSA. I’ll just file a FOIA request. I’m outta here.

[TheBigIf]

Oh so ok we should all just take your word for it then. Just find people guilty without any proof provided at all. Just the word of Captain Kirk that they are guilty should be good enough in your mind.

[Balding_Eagle]

Don’t be foolish. Ever heard of ECHELON?