The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Sunday, 8/29/10, Public Square
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The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Filed under The Public Square
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
I have not read or heard anything about the Beck rally yesterday. I work the weekends (I took today off) and I am up on the third floor of an office building by myself. I listen to the radio and they mentioned the Beck rally as it was happening but never commented on it either way.
So, as a person who has not heard or read any of the details of this rally – let me say that I believe Beck and his supporters have the right to say whatever they feel they believe.
On the other side of that freedom of speech coin is that each person has their right to say what they believe back to Beck and his supporters.
So, let’s give this rally some time to sink in and we’ll see exactly how much support these Beckers have in the general election.
I did hear Beck say that he had no idea when he selected this date that it was the same as MLK’s famous speech. Now, I find that hard to believe.
Maybe someone else here knows – did Beck have to get some permit to hold that rally at the Lincoln Memorial? I don’t know the process involved in that undertaking – but wouldn’t someone have thought about the coincidence of the same date of the I Have a Dream speech?
I suspect this feigned not knowing the date falls into the same category as the Pompeo campaign staffer accidentally linking a tweet to a known Obama-hater website and then posting ‘good read’.
Neither could be proven as to exactly what happened but when the factor of motive is thrown into the mix – both Beck and Pompeo looks to be the benefactor of their own supporters love of hatred.
I read one AP article yesterday. There was a comment that read something along the lines of the crowd being predominantly white. There were some readers who took exception to that because there was no similar statement about the much smaller group led by Rev. Al Sharpton commemorating Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I just checked the article in the NY Times and noticed it said the crowd of several hundred was mostly black.
One of Beck’s biggies was “America today begins to turn back to God.” As was mentioned in the NYT article, Beck is a Mormon and not recognized as a Christian by some of those who follow him.
My take on the whole thing? They had money (thank you, Koch brothers), so they used it to spread more hate. It’s working. The comments from conservatives are enough to make Jesus weep.
The Kochs are doing their best to fund stupidity in Arizona too.
I wish they would just get back to suing each other, the scumbags.
Wicked – you know the old saying don’t you?
Money talks and bullshit walks.
The problem I see with Beck’s biggie about America turning back to God is this – which god is he referring to?
Since the founding fathers saw fit to not establish a state-sponsored religion – then exactly whose god is Beck and his followers wanting America to turn back to?
If it is the Christian god – then exactly what demonination of Christian are we talking about? The Evangelical Christians have their own unique perspective on God and obviously that God endorses people to become wealthy at all costs – even if it means the destruction of others.
I am a Christian and my god is a loving god and does not promote wealth at all costs. In fact, my god tells me that it is harder for a rich man to get into Heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
But, then again, these Evangelical Christians are the ones who have taken it upon themselves to rewrite the Bible to their own ‘right’ version.
I wonder how God feels about that?
Since Beck is Mormon, maybe he’s going into the magic underwear business, and Mormon will be the select “Christian” religion.
I’m afraid we’re headed for another religious war started, once again, by Christians. The things I see them post and hear them say is scary and, I hate to say it, blood-thirsty.
We’re in for some rough stuff, my friends. If the Republicans regain Congress, and I suspect they will, I can only guess how bad things will get. These people controling Beck, Palin, and the others are determined to do away with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and people are cheering them on. These crazies scream about socialism, but they’re determined to do away with everyone who doesn’t have the right amount of $$$ in the bank. In this country right now, that’s probably about 80% of the people, and a helluva lot of them don’t realize they’re going to be taken down, along with the liberals they seem to hate so much. They think they’re part of the elite. If it wasn’t so sad, I’d laugh.
It appears Beck promotes that gold selling business. Of course, that gold selling business in under investigation as to it being a scam.
Who would have thought??
LMAO
I could be wrong in the name but I think it was Joseph Smith that started the Mormon faith.
He claimed that Jesus came to him and told him to and that he was a real living apostle.
Most of the edicts of the religion comes more from Smith that the standard Bible.
I watched Beck on Fox news Sunday and he remained me by what he was saying of my youngest Brother-in-law. People with addictive tendencies often when trying to stop one addiction will end up replacing that addiction with another.
Turning to God they often go just as over board with that addiction as they were with drugs or drink.
And will become just as destructive to themselves and their friends and family.
In my Brother-in-laws case he sought out the most extreme church as he could find.
These churches and extremist often hold services in the Preacher’s house.
And they can be more extreme in their beliefs then the Fundamentalist are.
Everything is a sin to them and anyone not of their church is a heathen blasphemer.
But after he moved to Arkansas he once again turned to smoking dope and his religious conversion stopped.
Beck is either having such a religious conversion or playing on the popular myths angle to get more listeners and followers.
I was in the midst of the Evangelical Christian movement in the mid 70’s. And I can tell you from firsthand experience, alot of those church people were good, decent and caring people but they got swept up in the charisma and the sense of ‘belonging’ to the ‘right’ group.
But the leaders of this movement know exactly what they are doing and their main focus is money. After money – it is power.
And when I dared to go outside of my own fundamental evangelical christian group and marry a Southern Baptist preacher – my own preacher told me that I was marrying the devil himself.
So, even when we were all in the Christian circle of faith – there were still people that wanted to divide everyone into one group or the other.
My own family refused to come to my wedding because they said I was marrying the devil.
Only when they left that church and was no longer listening to all that mumbo-jumbo nonsense did my family once again started acting like people that had two working brain cells.
There is a difference between religion and faith. Religion is manmade and man will always find some way to f__k it up.
It saddens me when I see religious people turning to Politics and the influence it is having on them.
The mixing of the two and often it is the Politics that shows the most influence.
It would seem that Oklahoma has turned into a real hot bed of such people.
This evening I went with my wife to her church’s picnic and their is a guest preacher there who is a friend of the church preacher.
Both are from Oklahoma and though I have never heard the local preacher speak of Political matters.
The visiting preacher is the second time I have heard someone visiting the church make a political remark.
The first time a long term couple left the church because of it.
Tonight the comment were simple enough but he remarked on sharing the wealth to him was Socialism and he believed in people standing or falling on their own efforts.
Until they’re the ones falling. When that happens, they’re the first to believe the government should save them. Look at Wall Street.
Exactly.
I wonder how Jesus justified helping the poor and the social outcasts while he was living on this earth?
After all, if true Christians really believe that all people should stand or fall on their own efforts – then why would Jesus help those that needed help?
Maybe Jesus never got the same memo?
Funny. You are free to give all the money you want to to any charity to help people you please. You can even deduct it off your taxes. Obama wants the rich to pay more, yet, prior to seeking office, his charitable giving percentage was pathetic. That is up to him, I certainly don’t give a crap. But it certainly is hypocritical to give the hue and cry all over the nation that the rich have made enough, that the government needs to take from them and “share” with those less fortunate, while not doing so voluntarily yourself. He has, of course, politicized giving, and made it part of his mantra for being in office.
Whatever.
I was just thinking the other day about how Jesus has been commercialized, especially in the past 20 or so years. Somebody is getting rich–a bunch of sombodies–and it ain’t Jesus.
OK, once again I have the same complain about Liberals and how they convey information.
Granny was calling me on that other blog about referring to Beck as a comedian by his own admittance.
I went to youtube to find a video of the incident and found him on the view admitting that he is not a reporter and does not check the facts he sights… He is a commentator he said.
Now the complain, there was not a clean and clear video they all had artsy promotions and commentary.
Intermixed and loudly pronounced. I was needing a clear and straightforward video not a side show or flash and confusing production!
Why is it when the Liberals have all they need to indict or damn a Conservative they can not simply use that and not make it a Broadway production?