At Altitude and Distance from That Other America
By Repair Man Jack Posted in Liberals | Spotlight Blogs — Comments (25) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Promoted by Jeff, with the additional note that Mrs. Edwards also accused Mr. Johnson of purposely "refus[ing] to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres," to which Mr. Johnson responded "I have to budget. I have to live within my means...I don't have millions of dollars to fix the place." Apparently the Edwardses' millions have insulated them from, among other things, the knowledge and understanding that not everybody has the money to spend on lavish residences, or yard boys, or pool boys, or maids, etc., etc., etc. to do their bidding - as well as from the fact that not everybody (in fact, hardly anybody) cares enough about them to do things like "not cleaning up the yard" just to spite them.
John and Elizabeth Edwards have just used up their sympathy offset. In recent weeks, no matter what I may have thought of the up-jumped piece of trash from the personal injury firm, I held my cyber-tongue in check, because his wife had breast cancer. I figured that if this personal tragedy taught Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, Esquire a wee touch of humility, I could take a couple of Tums whenever the two of them caused my digestive tract to produce excess bile.
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, the “if” has been violated twice now, so the logical condition in no way holds. I’m back to treating Playstation™ Johnnie “Silky Pony” Edwards with all the condign respect that he truly merits. That would be none.
Read on . . .
His first grim transgression against basic respectability came when decent people of all backgrounds and persuasions sent his wife a large volume of sympathy mail. That would be both America’s. Two halves whose sum total equals the most decent and charitable nation ever to exist on the surface of a map.
Knowing this to be the case; that other Edwards, the one who runs for President, now that his home state will no longer tolerate him infesting one of its two US Senate seats, showed the people what he really wanted them to donate. The Washington Post describes the type of sympathy John was really after.
“If you sent a note to the Edwardses before the critical March 31 end-of-the-quarter fundraising deadline, you would have received frantic e-mail solicitations from the campaign, such as the one on March 28 from Edwards campaign manager David Bonior titled, "96 hours to show substance works." The solicitation asked for "$25, $50 or any amount you can afford to give."”
One can only imagine how well that substance would work if it were spread over the agricultural acreage. If my wife had terminal cancer, I would at least be willing to give the old career a bit of a rest on this one. I’m not even saying he should drop out of the race. I’m suggesting he not intentionally spam his wife’s well-wishers with fundraising appeals.
Having established what a prince of a guy Playstation Johnnie is, I now move on to Dear, Suffering Elizabeth. I’m sorry she has cancer, but I still reserve the right to criticize the classless and despicable manner in which she treats her new neighbors. The ones that had lived in Orange County North Carolina for decades before Elizabeth and John showed up to save that void between the stones.
”Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the "rabid, rabid Republican" who owns property across the street from her Orange County home -- and she doesn't want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor.
Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.
"I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn't like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me."”
I’m sure Elizabeth’s new neighbor isn’t overjoyed about having this upstart move in next door and erect the ugliest, most over-hackneyed parody of a $5Mil house in US architectural history adjacent to his property. When someone lives on a piece of land for over five decades, they deserve a certain measure of respect. It’s not like he showed up out of the blue and altered Elizabeth Edwards’ peaceful neighborhood.
I would diagnose John and Elizabeth Edwards with a malady even worse than cancer. They suffer from unmitigated hubris. They want to represent the common worker, but they sure don’t want his lifestyle anywhere near their barbican-crowned fortress of tasteless, filthy lucre. They like to represent that other America at altitude and distance.
They’ll represent the common man, assuming he has the standing to sue and the means to remunerate. They won’t shake his hand without the disinfectant handy. It would really hurt Elizabeth’s pride if her children had to actual smell someone from that other America after a hard day in the fields or the brooding, satanic mill.
John and Elizabeth Edwards represent everything to me that is hateful about wealthy American liberals. They claim they are above greed and live a spiritually holy life. Then they send you fundraising letters “just so they can share it with other people.”
They claim “Jesus would be appalled by American greed.” Then they move into the ugliest, most tacky trophy house that the Great State of North Carolina ever had the pleasure of levying a property tax against.
Finally, and most excruciatingly, they claim to look out for “all the little people” who struggle in “that other America.” Then, they make themselves so abrasive and obnoxious that normal people don’t want to live in the same zip code.
What type of evil, menacing woman would take her quarrels with a next door neighbor to a local newspaper and insult the man’s beliefs in public? Most of the neighbors I’ve ever lived near were willing to hear me out, if I needed to voice a disagreement and was willing to work towards a reasonable accommodation. Elizabeth Edwards just thinks she has the right to chase this man off his land and out into that other America where she won’t have to smell him or see his gun collection any more.
Cross-posted at...THE MINORITY REPORT
If recollection serves me, it's even worse. There was not enough money in channeling dead children -- he was willing only to channel the children who survived but were left severely handicapped. Apparently this allowed for more lucrative verdicts.
It's war -- so when can we start shooting back at the enemy Democrats?
of pork and grain producers in Iowa who may not like these remarks.
pretty well describes them; it is also the name of a good Toby Keith album.
In Vino Veritas
"...and each wasted evening is
a gross violation against the
natural course of your only life;"
-Charles Buckowski
in Northern California in September! Country music is getting like NASCAR; they're pround of those tickets.
In Vino Veritas
liberals of the limousine variety.
For your main residence, the chateau of Versailles will do quite nicely, and meet the "global test" of style
And when you want to get away from it all and connect with the peasantry, this hamlet adjacent to the main property is an adventure in Green Living. Not to worry, the palace guard strictly enforces gun ordinances so the peasantry will stay in their place.
Is there no end of the services we perform at RedState for our opponents?
but it doesn't have a giant red barn for Jawn to feel folxy in.
"...and each wasted evening is
a gross violation against the
natural course of your only life;"
-Charles Buckowski
With the choice of architectural comparison, but not the spirit of your post. The "chateau of Versailles" is still a butt-ugly building, but it has the great virtue at least of being symmetrically ugly. You can read my capsule critique of Edwards' estate here.
But the single most visually jarring and incongruent thing about this property is the mishmash of additions that look like they were just tacked onto the side of the main house every time John thought of something else he wanted -- with absolutely no forethought to how they look when they're all strung together. It looks like someone just said:
"There's no plan here. Just keep tacking stuff on to the right side of the house until it gets to the Barn and greenhouse." It tilts, it sways, none of the construction facades or rooflines match, it just is all askew.
My God, just when I thought someone couldn't get more pretentious, vapid and existentially insulting than Teresa Heinz Kerry, Elizabeth Edwards comes along to prove me wrong and demonstrate that this cast of mind is, in fact, rampant and infectuous among the wives of rich liberals who are running for President.
What is this, some kind of secret contest between the Old Money and New Money libs. to figure out who can be more abrasive, patronizing and insulting? Pass the popcorn...
that some handler felt while stage-managing those two clothes horsies during the 2004 campaign.
"...and each wasted evening is
a gross violation against the
natural course of your only life;"
-Charles Buckowski
about John Edwards when the cancer came back. It was an emotional for me, can I take it back now?
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
John Paul Jones (letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont,16 Nov.1778)
I have watched these people with wonder for the past years of
their politial life. They continue to amaze me. First, John
Edwards wins a North Carolina Senate seat. He shortly begins
to run for President and rarely is present for any of the votes. (According to him, he was present for "those that mattered")
When a debate with Dick Cheney was aired, Mrs. Edwards reached
out and grabbed Dick Cheney's sport coat he was walking off
stage. Does this woman not understand how to respect an
opponent?? Is this how she would handle opponents if she were
first lady??
Then there is this "two americas" theme. Is this a Miss America contest? How simplistic and shallow is this theme for
someone running for President of the most powerful nation in
the World. Is this the BEST he can do?
Recently we were privy to the most disingenuous press conference I have seen in awhile - Mrs. Edwards cancer had returned. From the buildup the evening before until the end
of the announcement, my jaw was on the floor. I still can't
put my finger on why it gave me such a feeling of being
"inappropriate", but this opinion came across very strong as
I watched them make this announcement. All I could think of
was "who do these people think they are"?
Now with the sympathy fundraising to the unbelievable statements from Elizbeth Edwards regading her "Republican"
neighbor, the saga continues.
Are these people just out of touch, or are they simpy lacking
in intelligence and they just don't know any better??
How stupid must the North Carolina insurance defense bar be for John Edwards to have made millions? As for the "press conference," I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until I thought about how unseemly it was to simultaneously announce the horrible return of the cancer with John's plans to continue his campaign. There could have been a decent interval of one day between these two things.
They are hypocrites, period, and I have learned one thing from these two--never, ever give them the benefit of the doubt. If something seems wrong, it is worse than you realize.
that they should appeal to the fever-swamp loons on the farthest end of the left. Dean in '04 is the precedent for doing far-left whacko moves and then garnering loads of cash on the internet from people who hate religion and guns.
as I used to call him in FreeRepublic.com days, met with a condign demise. It's hard to get away from Jane Hamsher, once she becomes voice (scream?) of your campaign.
"...and each wasted evening is
a gross violation against the
natural course of your only life;"
-Charles Buckowski
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO COMMON SENSE? I have never been able to understand why religious people are so enamored with guns.
I'm sure the Dahli Lama has a whole basement full of tank-rippers and grease-guns.
"...and each wasted evening is
a gross violation against the
natural course of your only life;"
-Charles Buckowski
Many people religious or not are enamored with firearms. I have observed that people who like life tend to like firearms, because firearms are an effective means of preserving one's life in a variety of difficult situations.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
hopes to play De Medici games and now, with her recurrence of cancer, get an exemption card from criticism. How soon do you think Crazy Jane and her Amazons will shriek about attacking a victim of a terminal disease? It's Oprahfication time and the Edwards Grifting operation knows how to play far-left pity cards. He didn't sway juries because his skull was as empty as his hair makes it look!
His numbers were plummeting in his native state of SC when he pulled the illness card out of the deck. Now the downward spiral has ceased and they're Baaaack!!!
-------------
When taunted by a Liberal in Parliament that he was going to die "on the gallows or of a vicious social disease," Disraeli replied "That depends on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
Now that could be a double play for the Edwards camp. Eliminate opponents and sue the doctors that treat them. It doesn't get any better than that!
This Democrat primary thing will be interesting. Lady Hillary McBeth doesn't like rivals. Soon candidates will be dropping faster than estate owners in British murder mysteries who get whacked by covetous aristocratic wannabees. Except who would want Edwards' pile of junk?
He's sucking money and votes away from the Obama campaign and allowing Hillary to get the nomination with nothing more than name recognition and arch-feminist support.
Let Edwards suck as much money as he can. I can't wait for Hillary to get the nomination and watch the bottom drop out two days later.
All the campaigns have built in voter suppression. No matter what they do they offend part of their coalition of the oppressed.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Lets face it he made his money channeling dead children in front of juries and driving obgyns out of business.
I am certain he cost Kerry the Healthcare industry vote in 04.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777