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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (177702)	9/5/2001 1:34:38 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry: Commie Rat by Brad Edmonds August 8, 2001 The old Andy Griffith Show, one of the most-watched, best-loved sitcoms ever, is lauded as a slice of small-town, apple-pie Americana, hearkening back to a simpler, better time when men were men, women were virtuous, and children occasionally were well-behaved. At the same time, one might ask: When a television program from any era is praised by the mainstream media, could there be some underlying leftist message? The answer is yes. The first and most obvious commie message is Andy’s refusal to carry a gun. Heroically, he captures evildoers every time without a pistol. Notice also that Barney, the one who wants to carry a gun, is a buffoon, and whenever he touches his gun it goes off at random. There is no question what sentiment the producers were expressing. Further, on those rare occasions when there’s a truly violent criminal to pursue, Andy reaches into the rifle rack. And you thought Rosie O’Donnell was the first gun-control hypocrite. Another modern, leftist, anti-everything-traditional message is the complete absence of a nuclear family on the Griffith show. Barney is single and desperate; Andy is widowed and moderately content; Gomer and Goober were single and whatever; Thelma Lou and Helen were single; Bea was a spinster…I can’t remember whether anybody on the show was married with children. The nuclear family was passé even for Mayberry residents of the early 1960’s. Other anti-family messages: A rare married couple portrayed on the show wasn’t happy unless they were having violent domestic disputes; another couple, with the husband played by Jack Nicholson, abandoned their baby at the beginning of an episode. There are other implausible tweaks. On some old episodes, you’ll see Andy, Barney, Thelma Lou, and Helen having dinner at the local greasy spoon after 10 P.M. This almost never happened in real towns like Mayberry, and in fact is not very popular today in the south outside cities the size of Atlanta. You’ll also see occasional mention of cocktails before dinner – a decidedly citified custom that would have been extraordinary in a small southern town in the 1960’s. And there are anti-gender role stereotype messages. Whenever a man from the country walks into town to find a wife, he is a buffoon. Earnest T. Bass and a two-episode character played by Alan Hale represented this anachronism. (Alan Hale played the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island; in Mayberry, he came complete with overalls.) Both considered it the man’s job to pursue the woman and to provide for the family later on. No wonder they were portrayed as buffoons. And for their parts, Andy and Barney endured all sorts of abuse at the hands of Helen and Thelma Lou. On many an occasion, Andy and Barn would (completely innocently) step into a pile of the women’s wrath, and spend most of an episode trying to apologize, explain, and beg their way out of it. Of course, the tables were seldom, perhaps never, turned. There are other messages. The old man who owned the department store was a miser who hated people and cheated his employees. No one ever made a strong moral statement about Otis, the town drunk who had a wife at home but seemed to spend most nights in jail. Helen, the public schoolteacher, knew what was good for children better than their parents did. There are plenty of superficial old-fashioned small-town quirks in the shows, such as the town band and the townspeople’s exaggerated ignorance of anything cosmopolitan. Occasionally the point was made that children need to learn discipline. But these features always floated on the surface. The underlying messages were that the nuclear family is uncommon and perhaps unnecessary; gender-role stereotypical living is mostly without merit; guns are bad; capitalists are evil; teachers are better than parents; and according to one ridiculous episode, killing a bird (by accident, no less) is about the greatest crime imaginable. Maybe you thought the old Andy Griffith shows were wholesome and nourishing. Remind yourself that they came from Hollywood, and watch the next rerun a little more critically (if you must watch at all). lewrockwell.com * * *