Why Does Andy Griffith Hate America?

Comments

[NoStar]

Boy, does that take me back...

Back, when Civics teachers taught that police had to obey the same laws they enforced.

Back, when we were taught that we were superior to the Soviet Union because we could travel or apply for a job without having to show our papers.

Back, when Ron Howard was still cute and still had hair.

[c]

I wish it were more pedantic. Maybe back in the day people already knew what due process of law meant. Today, I'm sure that they don't.

[jp]

Radley, that's pure poetry.

[untitled]

Barney Fife and the Preamble to the Constitution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBuPQgV8yBM

[taktix]

I kind want to smack that little facist in the face...

[jhupp]

No one was making fun of Andy Griffith. I can't emphasize that enough.

[Mad Scientist]

Andy Griffith for president!

[Jeff P]

If anyone can find an online clip of Lonesome Rhodes' overheard rant from the end of A Face in the Crowd, please link to it. I can't find it anywhere.

[KoWT]

We've lost our way.

From President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Cross of Iron" speech (1953):

the soldiers of the Western Allies met the soldiers of Russia in the center of Europe. They were triumphant comrades in arms. Their peoples shared the joyous prospect of building, in honor of their dead, the only fitting monument-an age of just peace. All these war-weary peoples shared too this concrete, decent purpose: to guard vigilantly against the domination ever again of any part of the world by a single, unbridled aggressive power.

This common purpose lasted an instant and perished. The nations of the world divided to follow two distinct roads.

The United States and our valued friends, the other free nations, chose one road.

The leaders of the Soviet Union chose another.

The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a few clear precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs.

First: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.

Second: No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations.

Third: Any nation's right to a form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.

Fourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.

And fifth: A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations.

[Eric the .5b]

That's a virtuous and well-done little bit of TV, there.

[torrentprime]

How nice for once to be the people on the side of, "Remember the good ol' days..."

[Ken Shultz]

Back, when we were taught that we were superior to the Soviet Union because we could travel or apply for a job without having to show our papers.

I think the Soviet Union had a lot to do with that.

...not that I'm nostalgic for the evil empire, but it was easy to define ourselves as being the opposite of that. I shudder to think that some people somewhere would define themselves as the opposite of us.

Anyway, I liked Bonanza better. At the end of the civics lesson, just to bring the point home, somebody always got shot.

[KD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZFojOY-hYc&mode=related&search=
Barney Fife and Rule #1 for a police officer...

[matthew hogan]

Wait til the local grocer flies a Cessna full of locals into Mayberry Towers. He and Barney will have Aunt Bee rubbing her breasts on the grocer's cousin's Koran.

[norbizness]

I think that a 21st century Floyd the Barber would have been on a few registries.

[Pi Guy]

I know that the Prez is on the tube right now but I sure wish that he would see this.

[BlueStateStereotype]

Stupid Red State redneck. What do they know?

[James Kabala]

That was great.

[Egon]

Back, when Ron Howard was still cute and still had hair.

Ron Howard still has hair. Just not on top.

[sam_h]

"Boy, does that take me back...

Back, when Civics teachers taught that police had to obey the same laws they enforced.

Back, when we were taught that we were superior to the Soviet Union because we could travel or apply for a job without having to show our papers."

Back when blacks had there own area of the bus. Back when we all prayed from the same protestant bible in school. Back when 10's of thousands of men were conscripted each year. Back when the marginal tax rate was over 50%. Back when you had to be 21 to vote. Back when interracial marriage was illegal. Back when undesirable people were sterilized.

Some things suck now and other things used to suck. Let's stop pretending that everything used to be great.

That doesn't change that Andy G. is right in this case.

[shecky]

If anyone can find an online clip of Lonesome Rhodes' overheard rant from the end of A Face in the Crowd, please link to it. I can't find it anywhere.

I'd oblige if I could, as I just checked that movie out of the local library and saw it last night. Unfortunately, my bare bones computer doesn't know how to rip video from DVDs.

[H-dawg]

sam,

Lighten up. Whose pretending anything?

Or are you suggesting that we can't bemoan the loss of decency in law enforcement without necessarily also lamenting the reduction of racism, taxes, etc.?

Or...do you just hate America?

[strange]

Andy Griffith runs for sheriff

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=80956

[Les]

H-dawg,

I think you're assuming that law enforcement was more decent than it is now.

[The Real Bill]

Back when you had to be 21 to vote.

I don't know what's wrong with this one (other than the fact that you could get drafted at 18, which is big, but tangential). The country would probably be a much better place if voting was restricted to 35-55 years of age. Earlier, you're too immature and ignorant; later, you're too near retirement and have a failing body which fills you with fear and the desire for free money and health care.

Then again, I don't trust anyone but myself (barely) and a few others (even less) to vote well.

[The Real Bill]

That clip was excellent! Oh, how I wish real cops were like that!

[andy]

"The country would probably be a much better place if voting was restricted to 35-55 years of age. Earlier, you're too immature and ignorant; later, you're too near retirement and have a failing body which fills you with fear and the desire for free money and health care."

It's a good thing you're not the voting czar then. Thanks for playing and don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.

[Mo]

"I don't know what's wrong with this one (other than the fact that you could get drafted at 18, which is big, but tangential). The country would probably be a much better place if voting was restricted to 35-55 years of age. Earlier, you're too immature and ignorant; later, you're too near retirement and have a failing body which fills you with fear and the desire for free money and health care."

Except that's generally the time people are raising their families and are more suceptible to statist "for the children" argumets. Looks like there's no good agwe to let people vote.

[Eric]

"Some things suck now and other things used to suck. Let's stop pretending that everything used to be great. "

Seriously, so let's drop the charade that anything good ever happened in this country and face the reality that unless something takes place in the context of absolute moral purity, it doesn't count.

Sure, Sheriff Andy made a fine point about the right to privacy, but until he makes it somewhere outside of our Iraq-invadin', A-bomb droppin', Black-lynchin', Indian-killin', Buffalo-rapin' country, he should just keep it to himself.

[edna]

hey, i like rapin' buffalo! that's why i'm a libertarian, to preserve my right to rape any buffalo that is my property. as long as i leave my neighbors' buffaloes alone, what business is it of the state?

ok, while we're talking about voting, i'd have no problem with requiring literacy, property, and paid taxes. i could even go with heinlein's idea of requiring service as a prerequisite (that would disqualify me). there has to be an investment or something at stake. much of our problem is the votes for bread and circuses (circi?) by the recipients who aren't paying for it. let's all vote that bill gates has to divvy up his money to all the rest of us.

[Seamus]

i could even go with heinlein's idea of requiring service as a prerequisite (that would disqualify me).

I would tend to agree, except that this would result in veterans, as the only special interest group allowed to vote, enacting sweet benefits for themselves using the tax dollars paid by the rest of us. Maybe the solution would be limiting the franchise to those who *have* served (but aren't getting either a paycheck or veterans' benefits) and who currently pay taxes.

(I'm open to proposals to deny the franchise to government employees, too, but I understand that if we made it impossible for politicians to use tax dollars to bribe government employees, they'd just outsource government functions, so they could use tax dollars to bribe government contractors instead. It wouldn't be practical to disenfranchise every employee of every business that sells a few pencil sharpeners to the government, but I'm still trying to think of a solution. Other than the obvious one, which is limit the franchise to me.)

[Baylen Linnekin]

I'm more of a Matlock guy, but that sent shivers down my spine.

[Garth]

Great Clip.

As to voting: why not make it so that only those who vote get any social services, but at the same time they will be the only ones who will pay for them.....

Anarchy in one year!

[sheldon leonardo]

these shows ( andy, dick van dyke thru archie bunker, mary tyler moore, etc ) were the peak of our civilzation. the combination of writing quality, depth of talent and humanitarian intent has been lost.
we're too hostile and cynical to live up to Mayberry's promise any more, not to mention resistant to education and culture for its own sake.

[Anonymous]

Too bad we can't unleash Barney and his one bullet on Bush.

[Voter]

Voting is a Right, not a privilege. Driving is a privilege. We do not have the right to exclude anyone from voting ever.

Maybe there is a video clip of Andy Griffith expressing this important civic lesson too.

[Seamus]

Voting is a Right, not a privilege. Driving is a privilege. We do not have the right to exclude anyone from voting ever.

Not even felons, the insane, aliens, children?

Voting is only a right because the law makes it one. Like "intellectual property," it is entirely a creation of the law, and properly exists only because it serves certain goals; like intellectual property, it should be limited to the extent it either fails to serve those goals or serves them at the expense of other goals of greater value. It's not a fundamental right, like those to life, liberty, and property (I'm speaking of real property here, not government-created property). In some cases, an expanded franchise is likely to work against the rights to life, liberty, and property. I'd rather live in a benevolent despotism (like Hong Kong before 1985, where *no one* had the vote) than in a democracy where voting amounts to a discussion between two wolves and a sheep over what to have for dinner.

[DL]

This is great! But you need to change the title! Andy Griffith does NOT hate America!!!! He LOVES this great country, America. What he hates is those leaders who violate and desecrate our revered Constitution. This title implies that those who hate what Bush is doing hate this country! That's absurd!

[Deus ex Machina]

Congrats DL, for winning tonight's "Over his Head" award.

[Jim Walsh]

Re: KoWT...Eisenhower, as we all know, was a dirty little Red sympathizer. Hell, the way people gush over the guy, you'd think he was a war hero or something...

[highnumber]

Penn Jillette played the audio from this clip on the radio and made Andy's speech the subject of his show yesterday after seeing this entry. He explicitly mentioned H&R.

Full Disclosure:
I introduced Penn to H&R. One of the rare times that I was able to listen to his show on the radio rather than via podcast, He was talking about where he gets his news. Among other sources he mentioned his subscription to Reason and a couple of libertarian blogs that he read (Hammer of Truth and something else, not H&R). I wrote an email scolding him for reading Reason, but not H&R. He then mentioned on the air that someone told him to check out Reason's blog. Now he mentions it fairly frequently. Reason, you owe me one.

[tas]

"jhupp | January 23, 2007, 6:04pm | #
No one was making fun of Andy Griffith. I can't emphasize that enough."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
great arrested development reference (assumeing that is what you were trying to reference)

but anyway that is a great video

[James G.]

I wish this were a documentary and not a TV show.

[RppPolyp]

The country would probably be a much better place if voting was restricted to 35-55 years of age.

Yeah and if you fought the wars too... why do I have a feeling there would be a touch less.

Coming here from Penn Radio as well...

[Ron]

Yes, change the title. It's Sheriff Andy TAYLOR.

[karl]

Even Bush would agree with Andy, since I cannot recall that Bush has advocated violation of the Atty Client privilage in situations where said atty and client had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

[kesh]

http://www.keshcash.com - This site r.....n the USA.