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Posted on 07.14.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:29 pm
My office neighborhood is an eccentric place. I discovered the first oddity, the bizarre sculpture art lining the median in front of our building, on Day One. A few weeks later, my colleagues started telling inside jokes about a guy who spins and squawks as he runs down the street. You had to see it to believe it — and eventually I did. Little did I know then that I could have seen it on the Internet. So can you: Yes, Cedric Givens, the crazy jogger, spins, squawks and runs on busy streets in the heart of the nation’s capital — and drivers pay him no mind as they buzz by in all directions (see more videos here). He’s been doing it for years. How is Cedric still alive, and why do the police let him do what he does? If jaywalking is a crime, his dangerous hobby has to be illegal. It just goes to show that if you’re eccentric enough, the nanny state will look the other way when you’re acting as crazy as a loon. Filed under: Human Interest and People and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.12.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:54 pm
Sheer genius. I wish our minivan had a DVD player just so I could play this video repeatedly on our next road trip when one of the kids “breaks wind” and forces us to roll down the windows for fresh air. It’s the only sure-fire way to get me to stop so the culprit can take a bathroom break. Filed under: Entertainment and Family and Just For Laughs and Music and Redneck Humor and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.09.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 7:31 am
Only bits and pieces of this video (and the lyrics) resemble my “Dad Life” — there’s not a laptop, recliner or iPhone to be found — but I like it anyway. I do know this: I’d like to have a yard big enough to justify buying an awesome riding mower like the one in the video. I hate cutting the grass with my puttering push mower, but if I had a sweet, more-power ride like that, I’d be all into manicuring my “man-scape.” Filed under: Entertainment and Just For Laughs and Parenting and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.07.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:22 pm
We want our children to get an education without being subjected to all the stressful and counterproductive pressures of a system created by the government and run by bureaucrats. Watch the trailer for the documentary “Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture” for a glimpse of what formal education has become: To be fair, part of me wonders, after watching the video, whether the bigger problem is that we have reared a generation of whiny kids who cry “Woe is me!” because they have to do homework to get ahead. But I also think this is a valid point:
Teaching done right will make children love to learn, and loving parents focused on educating just a few children can do the job better than most “trained” teachers in today’s schools. (Read previous “Why We Home-School” lessons.) Filed under: Entertainment and News & Politics and Parenting and Video and Why We Home-School Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.01.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:24 pm
The Senate lost its heart and soul this week. Robert Byrd, a constitutional scholar and good ol’ boy from West Virginia coal country, died after serving in the Senate for more than a half-century — longer than anyone in history. He was the epitome of an enlightened redneck. Byrd, who was 92, made one last appearance on the Senate floor today. An honor guard carried his body into the chamber to lie in state. It was the first time since 1959, the year Byrd was first elected to the Senate, that senators had paid tribute to one of their own in such fashion. Politically, I was not a Byrd man. I never voted for him when I lived in the great Mountain State, and I detest to this day the pork-barrel politics he mastered. Money is the most corrupting influence in politics, and pork too often is all about rewarding political allies with taxpayers’ money. But I always respected Byrd for his love of family, his commitment to the Constitution, his eloquent defenses of the legislative branch in general and the Senate in particular, and his passion for the state we both love. Robert C. Byrd was a statesman with an expensive soft spot for West Virginia, and while I wish the practice of earmarking federal funds would die with the “King of Pork,” I forgive him that flaw. Rest in peace, “Big Daddy.” Filed under: Government and History and News & Politics and People and Video and West Virginia Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 06.28.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:05 pm
I’m talking about this Danny Glover, the enlightened redneck, not the actor who made my name famous. The headline is just my cheap attempt at driving more traffic to the site to see the video of the latest television ad for Geico insurance. My wife tells me that it’s a spot-on portrayal of what I would be like had I chosen to become a psychiatrist — and I was never a drill sergeant in the military. Filed under: Advertising and Business and Just For Laughs and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.26.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 6:03 pm
I ride the D.C. Metro trains every weekday, and I can say with confidence that nothing about the rapidly declining service would inspire a man to dance like this (or at all): The dancer, apartment leasing agent Bob Grannan, found his rhythm in the beat of “a song from Hairspray; either ‘Can’t Stop the Beat,’ ‘Without Love’ or ‘Run and Tell That.’” And he plans to stay footloose even though he has now been exposed on YouTube. Filed under: Culture and Human Interest and Just For Laughs and Video Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 06.26.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 12:23 pm
Country musicians have a twisted knack for making violence seem amusing. The latest entry in this niche music genre is the song “Pray For You,” by Jaron and the Long Road to Love. Here are the deadly wishes for a wife scorned from the chorus alone: “I pray your brakes go out runnin’ down a hill. I pray a flowerpot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head like I’d like to. I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls. I pray you’re flyin’ high when your engine stalls. I pray all your dreams never come true. Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you.” I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but smile, especially when I watch the video. I unsuccessfully fought the same urge — being entertained by violent, sometimes deadly fantasies set to catchy music rather than offended by them — when The Dixie Chicks released “Goodbye Earl” and when Carrie Underwood’s tune “Before He Cheats” rose to the top of the charts. The latter is still one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite singers. Enjoy these online encore performances: Filed under: Entertainment and Just For Laughs and Music and Redneck Music and Video Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 05.22.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:51 am
When a public official resorts to crudely threatening an inquisitive reporter with a rifle to make a point about gun control, he’s already lost the debate. So it was with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. At a press conference to defend his city’s handgun ban, Daley said this to a reporter who dared ask how effective the ban has been: “It’s been very effective. If I put this up your butt, you’ll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know.” (Hat tip to Don Surber) Daley later apologized for the comment — sort of. “Sure, I’ll be sorry. I’m not going to sing the [1960 Brenda Lee] song ‘I’m Sorry’ now, but sure, you can write it. But I hope I shocked you that you can write about now the gun manufacturers.” But his apology was about as effective as … the city’s handgun ban. I hereby proclaim Daley the first winner of the “Real Leaders of Genius” award here at The Enlightened Redneck. He’s earned it. Filed under: Government and Hunting & Guns and News & Politics and Real Leaders of Genius and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.20.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:03 pm
This is what what you get when an enlightened redneck gets in front of the camera to make his pitch for becoming agriculture commissioner in the heart of Dixie: Filed under: Culture and Human Interest and Media and News & Politics and People and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.13.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 5:11 pm
This is a political ad for one candidate in Iowa’s June primary, Republican Ben Lange, but change the date and drop the state reference and the message is fitting for the entire country: We elected a Congress that is intent on helping President Obama “fundamentally transform” America in ways that will undermine her founding, and now it’s our responsibility to throw the bums out before it’s too late to stall their “revolution” and undo the damage. Filed under: News & Politics and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.07.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:53 pm
You might be an enlightened redneck … if you appreciate a parody song that meshes the music of country legend Kenny Rogers with the political messaging of the tea party movement. Filed under: Entertainment and News & Politics and Redneck Music and Video Comments: 4 Comments |
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Posted on 04.05.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 7:04 am
American comedian Robin Williams sparked an international redneck incident last week, and BBC called little ol’ me to help set the world straight on all this fuss about rednecks. First the back story: In a March 30 appearance on David Letterman’s show, Williams mocked Australians as “English rednecks.” “You down there, ‘How are ya? Good to see you. Hello.’” he said in his worst Aussie accent. “I realized that if Darwin had landed in Australia, he would have gone: ‘I’m wrong.’” The jab didn’t set well with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who threw the redneck charge back at America. “I think Robin Williams should go and spend a bit of time in Alabama before he frames comments about anyone being particularly redneck,” he said in a radio interview. At that point, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley entered the rhetorical fray. “I’m not sure if Prime Minister Rudd has ever been to Alabama. If he has, he would know that Alabamians are decent, hard-working, creative people.” Here’s where I enter the picture: The back-and-forth over who is and isn’t a redneck caught the attention of BBC, and someone there found this Web site. Last Thursday, Alex Last of “The World Today” sent me this e-mail:
The next day BBC’s Leila Touwen recorded a telephone interview with me, and my “expert” insights into the state of being redneck aired yesterday. You can listen to BBC’s redneck segment here, starting at about the 20-minute, 40-second mark, but here’s what I told the British broadcaster: Filed under: Entertainment and Hatin' On Rednecks and News & Politics and People and Rednecks and Video Comments: 51 Comments |
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Posted on 04.04.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 9:07 pm
I won’t dare say this duo is enlightened because people who use their brains don’t try deadly stunts. But there is no disputing these dudes are rednecks having a great time on high-powered adult toys. Filed under: Sports and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.03.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 7:45 pm
Rednecks are “the wrong kind of white people.” That’s why the “right kind” of white people — the elitists who look down their noses at rednecks — are trying their hardest to marginalize tea partiers as racist, extremist, downright scary people:
Even a congressman who himself was unfairly attacked as a racist on the campaign trail played the race-baiting, tea-party-bashing game this week: Filed under: Culture and Entertainment and Hatin' On Rednecks and Media and News & Politics and People and Video Comments: None |
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