The Occupiers: Pathetic Becomes Perilous

The Occupiers: Pathetic Becomes Perilous

Choose your variation: There’s nothing surer: The rich get richer and the poor get—poorer/children/laid off. Whatever you pick, the line may be considered one of the slogans of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

When those protests against everything began a month ago, most outside observers viewed them with a mixture of bemusement and bewilderment. They have rapidly devolved into a source of disenchantment, disgust, and now fear.

At first, what little focus they had seem centered on the people President Barack Hussein Obama called the Wall Street “fat cats.” They’ve widened their scope beyond greed.

A LaLa Land demonstrator revealed that new vista when he announced at an Occupy Los Angeles rally that violence and bloodshed will become necessary components of the Left Coast occupation.

Rejecting Gandhian non-violence, the unidentified, heavily-accented speaker lectured his excited audience on his revolutionary model, the French Reign of Terror. He concluded, “So, ultimately, the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class. Long live revolution! Long live socialism!”

See and hear his call for insurrection here: http://bit.ly/nH1wBA.

The failure of the Occupiers to recognize that Washington, not bankers, was the primary cause of the sub-prime mortgage crisis which precipitated our Great Recession and most of the Occupiers’ grievances could be dismissed as merely pathetic. This new wrinkle is disturbing. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5712.)

The Tribulations of Martin Luther King's Memorial and Memory

The Tribulations of Martin Luther King's Memorial and Memory

The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial just can’t catch a break.

Twenty-five years in the making, the $120 million, 30 foot statue set on 4 acres near the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin may have its official, opening day ceremonies spoiled by Hurricane Irene but if that were the only element to tarnish the festivities it would be a blessing to King’s memory and his admirers.

The fact the representation of King, eleven feet taller than the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, was incongruously placed on the National Mall as the only monument not memorializing an American president or our fallen soldiers wouldn’t dismay those admirers who would think that all very fitting and proper but other facts could and should dismay them.

For example, the sculpture makes him look more like a ticked-off, giant Buddha than a black revolutionary, which is understandable in view of another fact, that the 16 ton statue was carved out of Chinese granite by Lei Yixin, a master sculptor from China’s Yunan province who includes on his resume’ two renderings of the late Chinese dictator, Chairman Mao Zedong.

One would have thought that King’s family would have insisted on an African-American sculptor to reflect his heritage and labors on behalf of blacks in America but one would then be wrong. His son, Martin Luther King III, is very supportive and claims, ”This particular artist: he has done a good job.”

Some non-family members have disagreed and protested that he would be “turning over in his grave” if he knew the truth. (http://tgr.ph/qAzu0P)

Of course, the King family has a vested interest, in addition to the obvious, in the memorial.

Financing for the project came principally from fundraisers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument Foundation which has paid over $832,000 to the King family . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5275)

America, the Money Tree

America, the Money Tree

Advertisers know that certain key words attract attention. One of those words is “FREE!” since everyone loves a freebie.

Under the auspices of President Gotrocks, who shovels money out of the United States Treasury as if it were worth nothing, which it soon may be, Uncle Sam has become the very generous old uncle who used to throw quarters or a dollar bill our way when we were kids. The primary difference between Obama and that old unc is that Obama doesn’t toss his own bucks around, he dispenses the taxpayers’ bucks.

Barack Hussein Obama, having now joined the heady ranks of the newly rich himself thanks to his book sales, like others in that nouveau riche classless class such as the Clintons, has no respect for hard-earned money, especially when it’s not his.

Bailouts on top of bailouts, stimuli on top of stimuli, with government bureaucrats handing out stimulus funds as if it were candy, as if it were Marie Antoinette doling out cake to the bourgeosie and hoi polloi, as if it is a useful tool to purchase votes, have caused an unprecedented explosion of American greed.

Where’s my cut of all those trillions, people are thinking and saying, when do we get our share? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1843)