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That Is What We Do
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Israel in the Tank for Obama
March 21, 2013 | 112 comments
Another Perspective
Civil Rites
Civility is the last refuge of an aggressor.
Civil service jobs have gone federal, we hear. Henceforth the only allowable difference between two parties is the color of party hats. Old rivalries must be put on ice for the arrival of a nice new era. The state of this new union was modeled during the State of the Union address, when opposing members of Congress (Motto: You do the work and we send you a bill) sat alongside each other with no man being an aisle unto himself.
This reminds me of a story from 1990, when I was living in Jerusalem. At the time I was serving as an adviser on ethics and public relations to the Jewish Student Information Center. This organization provided then, and continues to provide now, a spectacular service where tourists and college students from any religious background can join a Jewish family for a free Sabbath meal. Every Friday night and Saturday morning a large cluster of such visitors, generally about a hundred people, gather near the walkway to the Western Wall. Each one is given a placement card with the address of their host family, somewhere within a mile radius from that spot.
Because thousands flock to the Wall for prayers at those times, this process is highly visible, giving a lot of free publicity to JSIC which other charities covet. Back then, another group hired a new CEO who decided to compete, setting up a parallel operation. Now there were two conspicuous lineups within feet of each other. After a month or two of this, the encroaching organization approached the head of JSIC and proposed a rotation. Each outfit would run the program every second week. There would again be only one cluster, managed by a different crew each week.
The argument the new guy used to make his case for this alternating system was straightforward: “The current competitiveness creates an unseemly appearance of incivility.”
As the counselor for JSIC the last word would be mine. “Absolutely not,” I said. “Indeed there is incivility here but they are the ones who brought it about. We were here first and there is no reason for us to change.” When that CEO could not get his way, he decided he was not benefiting from running a redundant operation, so he pulled out and things went back to their original format.
I see the same thing happening again before my eyes, but this time in Washington D.C. The Democrats are right to say there has lately been a flavor of incivility, but it was they who brought it about. I don’t mean they are responsible because they started earlier and nastier, arguably true in itself. My point is that they institutionalized the incivility by passing a transformative law using only the clout of their Congressional majorities. That was the ultimate in uncivil acts.
There has been an unspoken compact in our legislative affairs since time the Democrats found immemorial. One-party majorities may pass small-to-middling bills without cooperation from the other side. As long as they stick with the medium people are not jarred from their tedium. But if they want to change the balance of life in this country with gargantuan juggernaut legislation, they had better be sure to have cooperation from the centrists in the other party. This is civility, respect for the will of the people.
It was the Democrats who chose to impose unilaterally a massive game-changing upheaval in the delivery of medical care in this country. Not only did they disregard the massed forces of the opposition, they disregarded the opposition of the masses. They chose to impose their vision upon the country. This vision was afflicted by astigmatism, which is why they are now being stigmatized.
They did it not only with disregard, they did it with disdain. Nancy Pelosi marched her cohorts defiantly down the street, wielding her gavel. It was an ugly moment of raw power-grabbing, a hubristic dismissal of the public weal. Not surprising that the whipping-boys have turned around to raise a weal or two with their own whips. She was the general who cussed her last stand and now her bull is sitting where it belongs.
The Party of Lincoln should be civil, I say, but they must still win the war. Beat ‘em up without drubbing them the wrong way. Don’t throw out the injury with the insult. We can hold a tea party without teasing the other party. Forgo the last laugh if you will, but be sure to get the last word.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Tina B| 1.28.11 @ 6:51AM
What a nasty memory. Nancy Pelosi. eeeuuuww!
Darin| 1.28.11 @ 7:13AM
When Democrats/liberals bring up the subject of civility, tell them we'll be as civil to them as they were to President Bush.
Bob Miller| 1.28.11 @ 8:16AM
Civility in political discourse:
It's as if you throw a punch to the gut while your buddies hold the victim so he can't hit back.
Booger | 1.28.11 @ 8:18AM
Democrats consider "civility" for Sarah Palin
(To the tune of "Maria")
She runs for office and wins sometimes
her kids are everywhere
She acts like the peasant hick class
And her legs make us stare
And underneath her glasses
She's so hot without compare
I even hear Olbermann loves to watch her run
She's always great on t.v.
But her character is real
She's really great at everything
Her charm our hearts could steal
I still love to hate her though
For I very surely know
Sarah's not an asset to the country
I'd like to cut her down to size right now
By Calling her a cow
How do you solve the problem Sarah Palin?
How do you stop a movement in its tracks?
How do find a word for Sarah Palin?
A terrorist! A seditionist! A b*****!
Many things we have told about her
Many things you ought to understand
But people listen to her lies
And ignore our warning cries
How can we stop her endless talking
Oh how do solve the problem Sarah Palin?
How do you catch a monster with your hand?
When I see her I'm confused
By her thighs I am bemused
And I don't know exactly why I am
She has me all in a lather
My words begin to blather
She's a fascist! She's a racist! She's a tart!
She'll outargue any rant
That Chris Matthews can chant
She could win a presidential primary
She is crazy! She is sick!
She's a wiccan on a stick!
She's a menace! She's a threat!
She's no girl!
How do you solve the problem Sarah Palin?
How do you stop a movement in its tracks?
How do find a word for Sarah Palin?
A terrorist! A seditionist! A b*****!
Many a thing you know we'd like to call her
Many a thing we'll make her understand
But she'll never hear us say
Anything to get our way
How do you keep a redneck in Alaska?
Oh how do you solve the problem Sarah Palin?
How do you catch a monster with your hand?
http://beautifulletters-bls.blogspot.com/
Curly Smith| 1.28.11 @ 8:20AM
I also recall the 1990's. I remember Bill Clinton campaigning by calling Republicans names, claiming that they'd starve widows, close schools, kill orphans, slaughter the homeless for food (and where are the homeless stories now BTW?), take money from the poor so the rich could buy another yacht, and engage in all manner of unspeakable acts against the helpless. Then, after a litany of gratuitous insults he say "but I call for an end to the Politics of Personal Destruction". And the Republicans went along, they let the lies stand unchallenged and, in doing so, abetted the Democrats' attack on the helpless.
This "new" call for civility is no different. It's intended to let the Democrats have the first, last and only word on any matter. Any rebuttal is deemed uncivil and immediately disqualifies a candidate from Presidential consideration. But many of the rubes wised up during the Bush years, they learned that candidates who won't defend themselves won't defend us, our positions, our liberty, our freedoms, or the very institutions that make our country exceptional either.
Let me say this civilly... No More Bushes!
Mr ED| 1.28.11 @ 8:29AM
More specifically in reference to the tag line, "Accusations of Incivility are the last refuge of of an aggressor".
None of the cheap, mud-slinging silliness of the Leftists coordinated attacks after the Tuscon shooting amount to more than this: Intimidation pure and simple. It is a textbook case of why we have RINOs at all. RINO politicians seek to be loved and the Leftist media plays them like a fiddle over and over. The real threat as the RINOs see it isn't their media masters with whom they have come to an agreement (we will do as you want but during elections we will appear to talk the conservative talk to fool the voters into believing they have a real choice) but those upstart Tea Party types who threaten to overturn the whole corrupt apple cart by doing what the Leftist press does - Hold the feet of the politicians to the fire and never let up. That is the reason the Tea Party and Sarah Palin are so relentlessly and viciously attacked by the Leftist media - They represent a mortal threat to the RINO way of life and to the legitimacy of a press corps that is itself viciously uncivil and nakedly biased towards the Left.
Liberals/Leftists/DemocRATs/Socialists - there are no fundamental differences between them that are worth discussing nor do they have much to offer the average citizen. All they really have in their arsenal is to bang their shoes on the public table like the children they are and demand we all aquiesce to their every demand, ala Tuscon. What they really need is to be taken to the puiblic woodshed for their humilliating public spanking, and along with them their feckless enablers, the RINOs.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.28.11 @ 8:59AM
Mr. Ed,
Well spoken, Sir! Welcome to the conversations here.
Booger,
Some more delightful work!
Jay,
you do have a way with words. Heh...and I caught every single allusion.
Louis Jenkins| 1.28.11 @ 9:08AM
Mr. Ed:
I will have to agree with you. And the RINOs, there's a special place in Hades reserved for them. They are luke warm, neither hot nor cold, and almost tasteless. And yet they keep popping up with a win. We are asked to be civil-how about the left's incivility? Bush was killed, maimed, flayed, drawn, and crucified many times over. The best way to cure the leftist's civility to get a Republican elected as president.
Radioman777| 1.28.11 @ 9:46AM
J.S. Mill actually addressed this very thing in "On Liberty".
Too Many Tims| 1.28.11 @ 10:39AM
"THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. "
-Crazy man from Poe's "Cask of Amontillado"
Occam's Tool| 1.28.11 @ 6:45PM
Montresor was a psychopath, but he was not crazy. One thing to remember---the story was being written 50 years after the event took place.
Francis W. Porretto | 1.28.11 @ 11:35AM
Well put, generally, but let's not allow any nonsensical notions to tie our tongues. Civility begins and ends with eschewing slander and libel. Hang on to that definition with both hands, because the Left's rhetorical focus in our next two years will be in ripping it away and replacing it with one more congenial to its aims.
Seek| 1.28.11 @ 12:30PM
Those who routinely demand "civility" from others really mean servility. There are plenty of rednecks as well as Leftists, regrettably, who answer to that description.
richard ryan| 1.28.11 @ 12:42PM
What do you mean by "redneck", and how does this group fit the description you cite?
Seek| 1.28.11 @ 4:59PM
Personal experience.
Akaky | 1.28.11 @ 2:26PM
I didn’t watch the State of the Union speech, although I suppose I should have—it’s part of my civic obligation as an American citizen, after all, just like jury duty or betting on the Lotto and so doing my part to educate the uneducable little wretches that daily infest school buildings from one end of this our Great Republic to the other—but if I want to watch someone spout non sequiturs I’ll watch Chico Marx; he’s funnier than the former junior senator from Illinois and his non sequiturs don’t cost as much. The real reason I didn’t watch the State of the Union, however, is that Miss Nancy is no longer the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Boehner may be a very emotional guy with tear ducts that could sink the Titanic in twenty minutes and the Andrea Doria in half an hour, but he’s not going to jump to his feet every ten seconds the way Miss Nancy did. Watching Miss Nancy doing her imitation of a Jack LaLanne in the Box was always the highlight of the State of the Union speech, because when she leapt up to applaud the former senator’s vapid blatherings, and she would leap up at the drop of a semicolon, all the other Democrats in the chamber had to get to their feet as well, and watching some of those guys trying to get to their feet was morbidly fascinating, in much the same way as waiting for cars to crash at the Daytona 500 is morbidly fascinating.
And no Democratic member of the House could refuse to get up or even hand in a letter from their mother saying they couldn’t stand up because the family doctor said so; no, indeed, Miss Nancy stood watching the members with her chemically enhanced Gorgon glare for any sign of weakness, compromise, second thoughts or, horrors of horrors, moderation and bipartisanship. There would be none of that in Miss Nancy’s House, no sirreee, not if some old-timer wanted to keep his committee chairmanship and thus his personal fiefdom over some small portion of the federal bureaucracy. So the Democratic bulls got up every time Miss Nancy did, whether they wanted to or not, and the viewer at home sat and watched and maybe even took bets on whether or not some of these guys would keel over from all the unexpected exercise or, pushed to the edge at last, join the Republicans in order to stay in their seats.
Of course, had these Democrats crossed the aisle and joined the Republicans they would still have seats to stay in, and now that they are gone and Miss Nancy isn’t Speaker anymore she can use all her newly acquired spare time to step in and take over the late Jack LaLanne’s role as America’s dean of exercise gurus. I’d bet someone as enthusiastic as she is could sell a lot of Jack LaLanne’s juicers on the cable channels; maybe she can even get everyone in this our Great Republic a juicer as part of the former junior senator’s health care reform, that and a DVD giving the recipient instructions on the proper way to do a jumping jack. I know that I wouldn’t mind getting a free juicer at taxpayer’s expense, except that I am one of those taxpayers and I don’t want a juicer and I really don’t want to do jumping jacks. I’m not really a big juice person; juice usually doesn’t have caffeine in it and I more or less insist on there being caffeine in what I drink. And bubbles; I like carbonation a lot too.
Occam's Tool| 1.28.11 @ 6:46PM
Akaky, when the Democrats talk, do you get the idea you're being "Tutsi-frootsied?"
Bob Madden | 1.28.11 @ 2:40PM
The democrats literally locked themselves in a room, and negotiated among themselves. My suggestion is that we put a padlock on the outside of the door, and let them enjoy their private room a while longer.
Osamas Pajamas| 1.28.11 @ 3:38PM
Quite the opposite, Jay. Dropping a piano on the bad guys makes perfect sense. Adding ridicule into the bargain maximizes the effect.
Marc Jeric| 1.28.11 @ 4:39PM
Civility in relations with communists and eco-nazis? No way - they have to be beaten to a pulp! Don't you know that they want to kill you?
Occam's Tool| 1.28.11 @ 7:03PM
I always thought Rocky Marciano did competition right. Totally mellow outside the ring in public, with no bad-mouthing of opponents. Unbeatable inside the ring, and only 6 of his 49 fights were NOT won by KO.
We just need to hammer on the fact that the Dems are spendthrifts who will destroy our economy; that taxation should never be used for anything except raising money for governmental functions; that tax rates between 20-30% provide optimal revenues; and that America is a great country worth defending. Keep it simple like that, and the Dems will be destroyed. Always circle back to these principles whenever the Dems start bloviating.
CLAUDIA MONTEVERDI| 1.29.11 @ 12:31AM
Sir,
Be advised that you had best keep a civil tongue in your wherever...ASTIGMATEE ASTIGMITA (as they say in Napoli) She was the general who cussed her last stand and now her bull is sitting where it belongs.
Look, I was prepared to toss out the article as a yowling yawner...a real pith lacker...lettum yell, lettum scream, whiskey foxtrot tango I say..... and that's pretty civil, no? and then, you slugged me right in the tendrest of bodily areas (I am far too civil to identify it further) whammo slam sock omg--there it was..THE INTERNATIONAL HALL OF FAMER best line in any article I have ever seen......Are you ready? My fingers tremble and my head is awhirl (or maybe it.s the other way around, I always forget) here it comes.........:
" She was the general who cussed her last stand and now her bull is sitting where it belongs."
Holy Ravioli!!! that is easily the cleverest and most inventive play on words ever--I dare the readers to identify all of the sinister twists and turns and oh so many hidden, uncivil (discivil?) nuances and meanings....
Jay, you are preeminent in the galaxy of superb writers..If I had a hat I'd tip it to you, so I'll just bow humbly and say....Jay you are the Greatest!
Love and Kisses,
Claudia
She was the general who cussed her last stand and now her bull is sitting where it belongs.
Jack Bauer| 1.29.11 @ 6:36AM
Assorted leftists calling for civility, is a hilarious concept in itself.
One cannot spell leftist without FIST -- which is the default position for these collectivists. Usually in any conservatives' face, all the time.
This is common knowledge to any conservative attending a liberal arts college.
The best analogy for leftists DEMANDING civility in political discourse is the child who murders his parents and demands sympathy because he is an orphan.
In other words, bogus dude.
Jack Bauer| 1.29.11 @ 6:40AM
Leftists and Democrats demanding civility in the "political discourse" have the same mindset as the crazy Muslims who threaten to kill anyone who claims Islam is not a religion of "peace."
james wilson| 1.29.11 @ 12:52PM
The motives and intentions of the left are so insidious that it is impossible to address them aloud, honestly, and fully in any tone and appear civil. It is like talking to a pederast, which I have. They will tell you with the utmost sincerity that they love children. They feel free to make such statements because people are in truth so accustomed to being "civil". Our astonishment ends in silence, and our silence shows we agree.
I will not submit to any calibration of my response to the forces of darkness. You play that game, you will lose. The proof is, we already have.
Mike| 1.29.11 @ 10:51PM
Does anyone remember the initial hostile uncivil act? It weas Hillary Clinton claiming that her husband's troubles were the result of a vast right wing conspiracy". Following that charge many people were subjected to an unrelenting personal attack that attempted to eviserate their careers and reputations all orchestrated from the White House.
It is the height of hypocricy for the Democrats to now condemn the behavior that they invented over 20 years ago.
Adidas | 8.11.11 @ 4:35AM
is good
العاب | 4.11.12 @ 3:22PM
The democrats literally locked themselves in a room, and negotiated among themselves