True dat, Schmuley

Rabbi Schmuley Boteach has said some things with which I don't agree, but when he's on he's on, and he does a great job here in defending the Tea Party. Excerpt:

The very premise of dignity is something acquired through personal effort. Dignity is the human aura that comes through self-reliance. Its underlying premise is independence. A dependent life is a fundamentally undignified life. Self-respect is earned through the sweat of one's brow. An heir to a great fortune may travel the high seas in a hundred-foot yacht and soar through the air in a Gulfstream V. But he will remain fundamentally bereft of dignity so long as he is living on someone else's dime.

The effort to recapture the dignity that springs from self-reliance is what the tea party, at its core, should be all about.