Firebrands or Loudmouths?

A firebrand is an ember that is picked up in the windstorm that has been caused by a wildfire. Sometimes the firebrand gets cast far ahead of the fire, and starts a new wildfire that can give the old fire new direction. People can be like that, and that is why they become known as firebrands, they cast their ideas before them and change the direction of people’s thoughts. I like to analyze the things that firebrands say, and check them for the positive contents. As you know a firebrand can also be destructive.

How we process what other people say determines who we are. I have a difficult time separating the good from the evil person, so I look for the good in everyone. There is and old saying that;
“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves all of us, to find fault in the rest of us”.

So I’ve selected a few well known people that I found to be interesting, and pointed out a few of their good deeds. If you have your personal hero’s, add them to the list. Try to avoid pointing out any negative things, and only point out the good. If you find that difficult to do, it say’s something about you. Which may not be bad, but it should be thought provoking on your part.

The print in italics has been shamelessly swiped from the Internet.


Rush Limbaugh:
I’ll bet you thought that I would have a hard time finding something good about Ol’ Rush didn’t you? These are just a few of his good deeds.
Leukemia and lymphoma telethon
Limbaugh holds an annual fundraising telethon called the "EIB Cure-a-Thon" for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2006 the EIB Cure-a-Thon conducted its 16th annual telethon, raising $1.7 million; totaling over $15 million since the first cure-a-thon. According to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society annual reports, Limbaugh personally contributed between $100,000 and $499,999 from 2000 - 2005, and Limbaugh claims to have contributed around $250,000 in 2003, 2004 and 2005. NewsMax reported Limbaugh donated $250,000 in 2006. Limbaugh donated $320,000 during the 2007 Cure-a-Thon which reportedly raised $3 million.

Rush 24/7 Adopt-A-Soldier Program
Limbaugh's website maintains a page where U.S. troops can register for a free 24/7 membership through memberships purchased by donors who buy a subscription (at a reduced price) as a gift.

Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation
Limbaugh conducts an annual drive to help the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation collect contributions to provide scholarships for children of Marines and law enforcement officers/agents who have died in the line of duty.

Charity golf tournaments
Rush attends charity golf tournaments from time to time for various causes.



Shawn Hannity:
Freedom Concerts
Hannity has hosted country music-themed Freedom Concerts since 2003, billed to help benefit the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, a charity created by Oliver North to provide college scholarships to children with a parent severely disabled or killed in military action. Appearing artists have included Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Lee Greenwood, LeAnn Rimes, Montgomery Gentry, Darryl Worley, Charlie Daniels, Larry the Cable Guy, and Michael W. Smith.
The Freedom Concerts were held annually in the Northern Star Arena at the Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park in Jackson, New Jersey through 2006. In 2007, the annual concert was expanded to a summer series held at locations across the United States, culminating with the September 11 event at Great Adventure marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.[34]
Speakers at the Sept 11, 2007 concert included Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and several conservative talk show hosts from WABC Radio.

Hannidate
Hannity's internet dating service, called "Hannidate," matches conservative or Republican-leaning singles, straight and gay. Begun in 2005, it is described as a "place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet."

Alan Colmes;
Alan Colmes has what I like to refer to as “Character”. Although some would disagree with him, he knows who he is.
While Colmes describes himself as a liberal and his Fox News biography describes him as "a hard-hitting liberal," he has sometimes been referred to disparagingly as a "Democrat In Name Only" or a "Fox News liberal". Al Franken printed Colmes' name in smaller font than the other text in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. However, Colmes has also drawn praise from progressive political bloggers for his questioning of conservative guests.
Bob Garfield, interviewing Colmes for On the Media, asked him if he were "the human straw man" and a "foil" rather than an equal of Hannity. Colmes replied that if the conservative members of the audience saw him that way, that was "their problem," and said "It's more fun for me to be in a situation like this [where much of the audience disagrees with him] than to preach to the choir."



Ann Coulter:
She looks good as an accessory to a white Corvette!

Al Franken:
Although it was difficult to find anything that Al Franken stood for, because if you look at his career he has stood for very little, most everything that he say’s or does is based on being critical of things that other people stand for, I think that it is important for him to be included as a firebrand for his impact on making people think. But, there was this positive tidbit. “Franken favors transitioning to a universal health care system, with the proviso that every child in America should receive health care coverage immediately. He believes that private pensions and Social Security should be protected. He wants to cut tax breaks for oil companies, increase money available for college students and cut interest rates on student loans”


Jim Hightower;
The "Doug Jones Average," a concept created by Jim Hightower, is the proposal that in order to check the true health of the American economy, it is less useful to look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average than it is to check up on how Doug Jones (i.e., the American working class and below) down the street is doing. If Doug Jones is on welfare, cannot feed his family, and is three weeks behind on his bills the Doug Jones average is "down." If Doug just got a raise, can pay his bills, and Doug and his family are looking into owning a nice but not too expensive house, the Doug Jones average is "up."


Bill O’Riley;
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, O'Reilly devoted substantial time on his television show and wrote pieces on the subject of how the United Way of America and American Red Cross failed to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks. O'Reilly claimed that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims. Congressional hearings were called on the matter and an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took place. Bernadette Healey, the president of the Red Cross, resigned shortly thereafter. In sworn testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee in November 2001, Congressman J.D. Hayworth asserted that media pressure, most notably from O'Reilly, helped cause the Red Cross to increase payments to affected people and helped cause other charities to participate in an oversight database established by Spitzer.