Most people recognize retired U.S. Marine Corps drill instructor R. Lee Ermey from his iconic turn as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietnam film “Full Metal Jacket.” Ever since he’s been a familiar, welcome, and energetic character actor popping up regularly in a number of films ranging from “Mississippi Burning” to the horribly underrated “Saving Silverman.” Currently he can be seen as the host of Lock N’ Load with R. Lee Ermey on the History Channel and in a hilarious Geico commerical.
According to YouTube, the video below is from an appearance earlier this month in Indianapolis to benefit the USO and Toys for Tots, one of my personal favorite charities started by Marine reservists in 1947 to collect Christmas toys for needy children in Los Angeles. Over the last 60 years it’s grown into one of the most respected charities in the world, delivering hundreds of millions of toys to tens of millions of kids.
Enjoy the video. Ermey obviously knows his audience for they ate up every word of it. The good stuff starts at right around the 1:30 mark and there’s a transcript below the fold.
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R. Lee Ermey: I got to tell you folks, we’re having a big problem this year. The economy really sucks. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. And the way I see it, they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees; so I think we should all rise up and we should stop this administration from what they’re doing because they’re destroying this country.
They’re driving us into bankruptcy so they can impose socialism on us. That’s exactly what they’re doing, and I’m sick and damn tired of it and I know you are too.
But I know the Marine Corps will be here forever. This administration won’t. Semper Fi. God bless you all.
Let’s see if we can predict the likely reaction from The Vast Left-Wing Blacklist Machine sure to rise up over this clip.
1. Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times will write something that attempts to diminish Ermey and his resume into nothing more than a disgruntled has-been/never-was with an ax to grind:
Some right-wing actor who once did voice work on a failed cartoon series….
2. Most film sites will declare Ermey crazy, unglued, addled, unhinged… You get the idea. We’ve seen it all before.
3. MSNBC will run the clip and paint Ermey’s call to “rise up” as a Tea Party-ish call for violence.
4. Mediate will run the clip and still find a way to turn it into an anti-Palin story.
The good news is that with Ermey and Adam Baldwin we now have two of the stars of “Full Metal Jacket” on our side. Though I suggest you don’t hold your breath for Matthew Modine or Vincent D’onofrio.
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