Hence the emphasis on meaningless demonstrations, rather than the nitty gritty of creating organizations that would actually do the work that the demonstrations advocate.

Me. Me me me me me me me. Did I mention I’m a brain surgeon? I did? Well, I am. Me, me, me…me…me. ME! What about you and your future? ME! Congratulations, you get to hear ME! Me, me, me, me, me, me, me and some more of me. How ’bout a side of me? Would you like some more Bill Frist with that Bill Frist? Hey you college grads, did I tell you about me, the Senator Brain Surgeon? I did? Well, you still have 30 more minutes of ME to sit through!

I never heard a more vain, obnoxious, arrogant person in my life. I live in Middle Tennessee, which is pretty durn Red–but man, people were getting pissed and eyes were rolling. It was an incredible feat of me-ness.

Can’t stand the man after what he put me through on that excruciating day.

Also the basis for the income tax; coveting anything of thy neighbor’s.

O’Rourke also gives a rather tidy Biblical repudiation of populism. He points out the text of the Tenth Commandment…

Never thought about it in a macro-anti-populist way like that, but it makes sense.

Also, I think Jesus’ Parable of the Talents can likewise be seen as a repudiation of socialism in favor of entrepreneurship and reward.

That I live in the same time with P.J. O’Rourke makes it a wonderful, and entertaining, life. His wit and wisdom are incredible. He has the talent to state the obvious, and to ridicule the absurd, in a unique and witty way.

From reading about his European tour, I recall fondly his arguing with the Sweedish president, or PM, about having roughly 389 holidays a year :)

AdrianG, I loved reading your “rant”. Excellent. To add to your assessment, what strikes me as incrdibly hypocritical is the lot of the very rich, Soros, Buffett, Gates, Gore, the Kennedys, the entire billionaires’ row in San Fran, the Gettys foremost, , Huffington, Streisand & Hollywood, the Kerry/Heinzs, the Clintons, the Etc., preaching to us about ‘class’ and ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’. Go give your friggin’ money to anyone you please, and live the simple life, morons. Same for your pontification on ‘global warming’ and energy consumption.

What strikes me the most, having lived half my life in communism, and the other half here, and knowing the difference, and not feeling guilty for my hard-earned success, here, is this – the West has the highest middle class of all the countries in the world.

In commun*sm, and in soc*alism, people are less equal than anywhere else. The elites rule, and eat oranges all year long. The masses are lucky if they get bread, cabbage and potatoes. Ask anyone who’s lived in the communist bloc how the elite exploited all others.

The elites know this, but prefer to fool the masses, so they have lemmings to vote for them, and so they themselves can continue to live the life of kings and emperors. Equality is a Utopian myth, and they know it.

What makes me stinking mad is the American ‘intelligentsia’s’ attempt to model themselves after the European multi-culti, one-world, envious anti-American, PC, bull-s**t, all in the name of ‘fairness’ and ‘progressiveness’, while they are no more/less hypocritical. I observe/engage them here and there on a weekly basis.

please see here for a longer rant!

“Never fight an inanimate object.”

“Humans are the only animals that have children on purpose with the exception of guppies, who like to eat theirs.”

“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”

And if they like pepperoni.

The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to egalitarians, to people obsessed with fairness, to American presidential candidates in the year 2000 — to everyone who believes that wealth should be redistributed. And the message is clear and concise: Go to hell.

Well, think about how important this commandment is to a community, to a nation, to a democracy. If you want a mule, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don’t whine about what the people across the street have. Get rich and get your own.

But how can this be, when envy, perpetual victimhood and identity group warfare are the engines that drive leftist politics?

I’ll have to remember his comments to his daughter about fairness for when my son gets older and lays that on me. :)

Again, excellent.