Help Liberty & Prosperity at Stockton University

Here is a message from Seth Grossman, former Atlantic County Freeholder and one of the state's most outspoken and indefatigable libertarians.  Seth and his organization, Liberty & Prosperity, are taking the battle to Stockton University and signing up the next generation of conservative leaders.

Please help us at Stockton!

Tomorrow and Wednesday, Sep 19 and 20.

Any time between 10 am and 4pm.  Meet us at Table #24 at F Wing Atrium (outside library).

We need to talk to students about LibertyAndProsperity.org at Stockton's "Get Involved Fair".

Stockton University spends lots of time and money for students to “get involved”  with off-campus “community service agencies”.

Tomorrow, September 19,  and Wednesday, September 20, we and 30 other off-campus groups will be at tables set up in the F Wing Atrium (outside library) of the Stockton campus to meet students.    We will be there from 10 am to 4pm.   We need your help to hand out postcards, bring students to our table, and persuade them to sign up for our email updates and meetings on campus.

Stockton University is by Jimmie Leeds Road in Galloway Township between Exits 41 and 44 of Garden State Parkway.

More than half of the other 30 groups directly or indirectly promote the “democratic socialist”, Obama/Clinton Democrat political agenda.

Some falsely blame “capitalism” and “racism” for poverty and “income inequality” in America.   They suggest that those who work hard to live a comfortable, middle-class life should feel guilty about their “white privilege”.

Some demand “safe spaces”, special funding and all sorts of special privileges for certain “politically correct” groups of “victims” who they falsely claim are unfairly treated by a hateful, intolerant, and unjust America.

Other groups falsely blame America for “climate change” and even hurricanes!   They promote “green” energy projects that do little or nothing to affect climate, but do a whole lot to kill jobs, triple electric bills, jack-up heating bills,  and make Americans miserable and poor.

  Although Stockton claims to embrace “diversity”, we are the only group on campus that openly offers students different points of view.

We alone explain how America was “conceived in liberty” on July 4, 1776 when our Declaration of Independence held these truths to be “self-evident”:

“We are all created equal.  We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.  Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  To secure these rights, governments are instituted among us, exercising their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

We alone explain that although Stockton University displays a giant mural of that Declaration of Independence outside the Campus Center, that mural is designed so that it is nearly impossible to read those self-evident truths.

We agree that America is not perfect.  However, we remind Stockton students that when Americans understood and respected our Constitution and those founding principles of liberty, America brought more wealth, opportunity, and justice to more people than any other nation in history.   We explain that this is the meaning of New Jersey’s motto “Liberty and Prosperity” since 1776.

We alone point out that earth’s climate has constantly been changing for billions of years.  We remind students that half of New Jersey was covered with giant ice sheets until “global warming” began more than 10,000 years ago.

Our goal tomorrow and Wednesday is to persuade 10 Stockton students to sign our Liberty and Prosperity Club roster.    If we succeed,  we will be recognized as an official Stockton student club.   This will give us funding and access to Stockton’s meeting rooms, bulletin boards, and TV monitors.

If you can join us on campus tomorrow or Wednesday, please contact Seth Grossman at info@libertyandprosperity.org or (609) 927-7333.

For more information, please also visit LibertyAndProsperity.org, Liberty and Prosperity Facebook page, and RepudiateNJ.com

If you cannot be with us on campus this week, please forward this email to any Stockton student you know -- or the family of any student.   If you know a student who may be interested, please let us know so we can contact that student.

We also have scholarship and stipend money for students who help us deliver our message on campus.

Thank you for your support.

Seth Grossman

LibertyAndProsperity.org

453 Shore Road

Somers Point, NJ08244

(609) 927-7333

On the "morality" of Phil Murphy

The Record's Dustin Racioppi has actually taken to tracking the gubernatorial candidates on where they stand on what they, the candidates, believe are "moral" issues.  What is fascinating about this is just what goes for morality these days. 

Basically, it comes down to symbols.  In Phil Murphy's shallow world, for a man to be moral he need not control his appetites, and he need not be "spiritual" in any traditional way.  For Phil Murphy, morality consists of reading "fault" into what others do, pointing to it, and then condemning it to demonstrate your superior "virtue." 

To place Phil Murphy's take on morality in context, we have to turn to the Bible, which warns:   “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Murphy's new morality allows its acolytes to see themselves as superior.  Looking for signs of "sin" in others or interpreting their actions as "sinful" kills mercy and destroys the possibility of collaboration, of progress.  Instead of sharing in the human condition of sin, in the brotherhood of imperfection, some are apportioned as "good" and others as "evil" -- and so no commonality is possible between the two.  By keeping the focus on the perceived faults of others, it allows those who embrace this new morality to forget their own faults.  Of course, the resulting moral reflection one gets from all this is as distorted as that from a circus mirror.

Steve Lonegan, the father of the modern conservative movement in New Jersey, ticked off the areas of morality apparently not covered by Phil Murphy's moral compass.  He started with life itself.

Science recognizes that the fetus or unborn child feels pain in the womb at 20 weeks.  This is a matter of science, not faith.  Most of the world's governments recognize this, and in all but seven countries they base their laws regulating abortion on this science.  Communist China, North Korea, Vietnam... and the United States are among those seven nations that don't. 

Phil Murphy believes that abortion is a kind of sacrament -- one to be practiced up to the moment of birth.  He and his allies use the term "sacrosanct" -- a religious word meaning "most sacred or holy."  What can we say about a moral code that claims that ending a life, or even, a potential life, is a "sacred or holy" act? 

Of course, Phil Murphy, along with his party, holds that the taking of the life of a serial murderer; or someone who rapes and murders children; or someone who rapes, murders, dismembers, and eats children; or indeed your garden variety terrorist who kills a few thousand innocents -- they should not get the same sanction as Murphy and his allies serve up to "inconvenient" life.  In the new morality embraced by Phil Murphy, the death penalty is wrong.  But only when it is part of an extensive judicial process.  When the President he served extra-judicially imposed the death penalty on American citizens and foreign nationals, that was okay.  Their lives became as meaningless as those "inconvenient" lives.

Phil Murphy inhabits a moral shallowland, in which symbols are used as garments to clothe the decadent flesh of those wishing to appear "virtuous."

Phil Murphy also has a curious "morality" when it comes to elected officials accepting gifts -- or the company of young women -- from rich "benefactors".  Of course, Phil Murphy is a "man of the world" and such men accept such things, normalize them, and incorporate them into their "morality."  They do this, much as they accept the presence of slave labor and the profits from slave labor in the global economy.  Phil Murphy is a very rich man, and rich men do not grow richer by concerning themselves with the 45 million in slavery today.  Far better to pocket the profits from slavery that globalism offers and to content oneself with symbols like, the band banner used by Hank Williams Jr. (or even the logo from the group KISS).  It is better to condemn and distract than to own up and go without the profits from modern slavery.

And when confronted with legislation like the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act, Phil Murphy and his moral allies ask:  "What do the corporate giants think and how will it affect their profits?"  What are the loss of a few thousand children each year to sexual slavery when profits are at stake?  Stick to condemning symbols and be assured that you are "moral" and "good" and that the other man is "bad."  And pocket those profits.

The harm done by Phil Murphy, in his most capitalist incarnation, while a Wall Street banker would lead a more introspective man to become a recluse -- or a monk.  But these are shameless times and the new morality-- and the lubricant of money -- injects a narcotic lethargy into the former keepers of what was, the public morality.  So a few million were made destitute, had their lives ruined, families displaced, dreams destroyed, and the death penalty of economic circumstance called suicide imposed -- so what?  There is nothing to see here, move on say the Record, and the Ledger, and the Times, and the Press.  Move on.  The dead will be buried and their pain forgotten.  Move on.

It's time for symbols.

Pastor Brad Winship: Liberalism's suppression of truth

Pastor Brad Winship of God & Country Radio delivers a weekly message from his Monmouth County church.  This week, Pastor Winship discusses liberalism's suppression of truth:

"All of the foundational ideology of modern liberalism is found in the story of Cain and Abel.  Cain, as the progenitor of the ungodly line, was the archetype of all those who live in opposition to God and His law.  Today we would call this crowd the secular left or modern liberals; and let’s not forget there is also the ungodly secular right.  On a sliding scale, some people are closer or farther from Cain’s ideology; but basically, elements of the way of Cain are found in the all the unsaved, natural man. 
  
This week’s program discusses a second principle: Cain distances himself from God and God’s people by going out from the presence of the Lord and building a city for himself. He wanted freedom from true religion, not freedom of religion.  
  
The most obvious application of this is the jettisoning of the Bible and prayer in public schools, but there are many more subtle ways the ungodly work to suppress truth.  For example, in racial identity politics, the traditional Biblical America values are discredited as being white.  Since in secularism there is no God and no moral absolutes, one’s values must flow out of one’s experiences and biology.  Therefore, I can ignore your truth because you are of a certain race and you can’t possibly understand my truth.  In reality, all of these modern liberal theories are justifications for overturning and suppressing God’s truth.  Cain didn’t just build for himself a city of physical buildings – he built for himself an ideology to wall off God. 

  Scripture References: Ephesians 5:11 ; 2 Timothy 4:2 ; Psalm 2:2-3 ; Genesis 4:16 ; Deuteronomy 1:43 ; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 ; Luke 20:13 ; Acts 7:57 ; Acts 19 & 22 ; 1 John 4:6 ; John 3:19-21 "

New play on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson

Is America overly-policed?  Some conservative and libertarian thinkers have said so, and so have some liberals -- but many on both the Left and Right disagree.  In his famous article on the subject, conservative columnist George Will argued that "overcriminalization" was responsible for the death of Eric Garner, a sidewalk merchant who was killed in a confrontation with police trying to crack down on sales tax scofflaws. 

Will raises the question of how many new laws are created by state legislatures and by Congress in the rush to be seen to be "doing something"?  Will's brilliant column is a must read for legislators thinking about proposing their next round of ideas that will end up being enforced by men with guns.  An excerpt is printed below:
 

America might at long last be ready to stare into the abyss of its criminal-justice system. 

By history’s frequently brutal dialectic, the good that we call progress often comes spasmodically, in lurches propelled by tragedies caused by callousness, folly, or ignorance. With the grand jury’s as yet inexplicable and probably inexcusable refusal to find criminal culpability in Eric Garner’s death on a Staten Island sidewalk, the nation might have experienced sufficient affronts to its sense of decency. It might at long last be ready to stare into the abyss of its criminal-justice system. 

It will stare back, balefully. Furthermore, the radiating ripples from the nation’s overdue reconsideration of present practices may reach beyond matters of crime and punishment, to basic truths about governance. 

Garner died at the dangerous intersection of something wise, known as “broken windows” policing, and something worse than foolish: decades of overcriminalization. The policing applies the wisdom that when signs of disorder, such as broken windows, proliferate and persist, there is a general diminution of restraint and good comportment. So, because minor infractions are, cumulatively, not minor, police should not be lackadaisical about offenses such as jumping over subway turnstiles.

Overcriminalization has become a national plague. And when more and more behaviors are criminalized, there are more and more occasions for police, who embody the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence, and who fully participate in humanity’s flaws, to make mistakes.

Harvey Silverglate, a civil-liberties attorney, titled his 2009 book Three Felonies a Day to indicate how easily we can fall afoul of America’s metastasizing body of criminal laws. Professor Douglas Husak of Rutgers University says that approximately 70 percent of American adults have, usually unwittingly, committed a crime for which they could be imprisoned. In his 2008 book, Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law, Husak says that more than half of the 3,000 federal crimes — itself a dismaying number — are found not in the Federal Criminal Code but in numerous other statutes. And, by one estimate, at least 300,000 federal regulations can be enforced by agencies wielding criminal punishments. Citing Husak, Professor Stephen L. Carter of the Yale Law School, like a hammer driving a nail head flush to a board, forcefully underscores the moral of this story: 

Society needs laws; therefore it needs law enforcement. But “overcriminalization matters” because “making an offense criminal also means that the police will go armed to enforce it.” The job of the police “is to carry out the legislative will.” But today’s political system takes “bizarre delight in creating new crimes” for enforcement. And “every act of enforcement includes the possibility of violence.”

Carter continues: 

It’s unlikely that the New York Legislature, in creating the crime of selling untaxed cigarettes, imagined that anyone would die for violating it. But a wise legislator would give the matter some thought before creating a crime. Officials who fail to take into account the obvious fact that the laws they’re so eager to pass will be enforced at the point of a gun cannot fairly be described as public servants. 

Garner lived in part by illegally selling single cigarettes untaxed by New York jurisdictions. He lived in a progressive state and city that, being ravenous for revenues and determined to save smokers from themselves, have raised to $5.85 the combined taxes on a pack of cigarettes. To the surprise of no sentient being, this has created a black market in cigarettes that are bought in states that tax them much less. Garner died in a state that has a Cigarette Strike Force.

To continue reading... http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394392/plague-overcriminalization-george-will

George Will is a Pulitzer Prize–winning syndicated columnist at The Washington Post.  The above column was published on December 10, 2014.

A reader asked us to post some information regarding an off-Broadway play that he is involved with.  We are always willing to do so, in the interest of open public discussion about issues of the day. 

This play has been called "riveting" and "incendiary" and "controversial."  The play is called FERGUSON - THE PLAY and it recreates, on stage, the tragic death of Michael Brown by gleaning details read from the Grand Jury testimony.  The play is written by NY Times best-selling author Phelim McAleer and is directed by Jerry Dixon.  It previews at New York's 30th Street Theatre October 19th through the 22nd and runs October 26th through November 5th.

For more information, go to this Indiegogo page:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ferguson-the-play-world-premiere-in-nyc#/

Here is a short video from the author:

The author has taken the play "on the road" to New York City.  Those interested in attending should visit:  https://www.fergusontix.com/

The 30th Street Theatre is located at 259 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Aves) in New York City.

We invite alternative opinions and we will publish them here.  Thank you.

Economist Walter Block at Ramapo College on October 5

Long time Austrian School economist and libertarian theoretician Walter Block will deliver the Raciti Memorial Lecture on October 5, 2017.  His lecture is titled:  "The Next Business Frontier."  To attend the event, please register in advance.  Professor Block's lecture is hosted by Ramapo's Sabrin Center for Free Enterprise. 

To register, see the advertisement below or click this link to Professor Murray Sabrin's blog:

http://www.murraysabrin.com/uncategorized/walter-block-at-ramapo-college-on-october-5/

Hope to see you next month.

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NJ Film Festival Features Pro-Second Amendment Film

New Brunswick, NJ.   When Oregon man Jeremy Bryant learned that his grandfather had passed, he decided to make a bold move.  An avid gun enthusiast, Jeremy would make a statement in support of 2nd Amendment rights.  He would hitchhike to and from his grandfather’s funeral, all while openly carrying a .357 Magnum on his side.  And he would film the reactions of the kind Oregonians who offered him a ride.

Jeremy’s goal?  To show that everyday Oregonians support open carry. So much so, that they are perfectly willing to pick up a stranger carrying a gun.

Jeremy’s documentary short,  "Hitchhiking w/ a .357 Magnum,"   has been featured at the Utah Arts Festival, the Let's All Be Free Festival, the Toronto Smartphone Film Festival, and onSeptember 15 it will open the  New Jersey Film Festival .

Shot in Oregon, "Hitchhiking w/ a .357" was put together here in the Garden State by producers Thomas Francine and Dori Goikhman. Thomas, an Edison resident with a special interest in producing content which highlights the "greater good" of humanity, found that Jeremy's project fit his theme in a peculiar way.

With regards to the unusual content of this film, Thomas states , " Partisan negativity in the U.S. has reached a record high . Hitchhiking w/ a .357 Magnum puts a human face on a controversial subject, and I hope this fosters understanding and encourages positive dialogue." Thomas also says – "What's most shocking about this film is not that there is a gun involved – it's how incredibly kind and trusting the people of the United States – from all walks of life – can be."

Interestingly, Thomas met Jeremy in 2010, while hitchhiking around the US (sans gun). Jeremy, who states, "I've picked up every hitchhiker I've ever seen," kindly offered Thomas a ride.

Back in Oregon, Jeremy was helped by an unlikely assortment of people:  a rocker, a pregnant beauty student, a miner, and even a female security officer from the airport. Amazingly, not a single person who initially pulled over changed their mind once Jeremy disclosed that he was armed. In fact, most expressed excitement and support for Jeremy’s act.

“I carry a firearm to keep the peace good and dignity of my country and the welfare of its people,” Jeremy repeats throughout the trip. And most of his new friends seem to welcome this line of thought.

The moral of the story? According to Jeremy, “People help each other, because they don’t want to hurt each other.”

The trailer for "Hitchhiking w/ a .357 Magnum," can be seen at Thomas Francine's website,   gogreatergood.com/hitchhiking-with-a-gun/ 

The full schedule for the New Jersey Film Festival can be seen at  njfilmfest.com .

Star Ledger editorials reinforce its anti-worker bias

We have all learned to expect Facebook-level writing from the Star-Ledger's editorial writers.  The snarky style, the gross exaggeration, the stereotyping, have driven away many readers, while reinforcing the worst prejudices of others.  Two recent editorials are especially noteworthy.

First, we have an editorial written by a climate change true-believer.  There is nothing wrong in this, there is much scientific evidence in favor of this theory, but it rings kind of hollow when the people demanding that we "pay attention to science" turn around and ignore the science of genetics.  The role of X and Y chromosomes in determining gender is much more established than is "climate change" and yet the same folks who say that we must believe in the science behind climate change theory decry genetic science as "bigotry." 

Is some science more politically correct and therefore more supported and promoted than other science?  Apparently so, at least as far as the Star-Ledger is concerned.

But the hypocrisy of the Ledger's editorial board is only part of the problem.  The Star-Ledger follows the editorial direction of its owners -- the Newhouse brothers -- two of the richest billionaires in America.  How rich?  They made a documentary about their kids called Born Rich.  These two are up there with the Koch brothers and they hate unions and working people just as much. 

One would think that with having so many billions you could pay the people who print your newspapers, the warehouse workers, and the distribution drivers a decent livable wage.  But no, they screwed all those union brothers and sisters in order to add to their profits.  It's like George Carlin said:  "They want more for themselves and less for everyone else."  They even screwed the hard news writers, turning them into little more than stringers.  The only group saved were the Newhouse brothers' hit men -- the editorial writers who spew the billionaires' line as directed.

On climate change the line is simple:  Get America to sign international agreements to combat climate change because it will accelerate the movement of American jobs overseas and that will increase corporate profits for big investors like... the Newhouse brothers.  And that is why the Star-Ledger's editorial writer dutifully trashed congressional candidate Steve Lonegan.  Lonegan doesn't want to lose a million American jobs to overseas sweatshops and outright slavery.  The Newhouse brothers' mouthpiece thinks less opportunities for Americans is good for their bottom line.

George Carlin was right when he said that people like this "...they don't care about you, at all, at all, at all."  The Star-Ledger's editorial writers are just facilitators to what Carlin called "these rich c*cksuckers."

Over the weekend, another attack on the working class appeared.  This one on a country rock and roll singer named Hank Williams Jr.  His band, which is thoroughly integrated by-the-way, issued a banner that incorporates the rebel flag, the singer's face, and the lyrics from one of his songs.  A local legislator and his wife, while attending a tailgate party in advance of the concert, had their picture taken in front of the banner, which they posted to Facebook -- along with what they thought was an artful comment.

Of course, this got the American flag-burners up in arms.  That's a "treasonous flag" they said in mock seriousness (to go with their mock patriotism).  The editorial writer noted that a majority of African-Americans found the Confederate flag (though not the Hank Williams Jr. band banner) offensive, ignoring the fact that in the face of consistent majorities of Americans opposing the burning of the American flag, the Star-Ledger and its cohorts have used their editorial pages to argue that it is a protected right to burn the flag, wipe your feet on it, and so on.

The Star-Ledger even defended the likes Annie Sprinkle who not only put the American flag to some rather "exotic" uses but wanted the American taxpayer to pay for her to perform her fetishes on stage.  Shucks, the legislator and his wife just wanted to have a beer before a Hank Williams Jr. concert.  They didn't ask anyone to pay for it.

If we may quote from the Star-Ledger's own editorial on desecrating the American flag:  "In a democratic society, the rights of free expression and political dissent have a fundamental constitutional primacy; they should not be diminished, even in such regrettable instances where extreme protests are patently offensive to most Americans."  Evidently this doesn't apply to country music, because the editorial writer went so far as to call Hank Williams Jr. a "racist" for criticizing Barack Obama.  Evidently, it is okay for the Star-Ledger to call President Trump a "Hitler" but not for Hank Williams Jr. to say the same of President Obama. 

And as for Confederate flags, where was the outrage when the Obama campaign issued Confederate flag pins with his name on them -- or when Hillary Clinton did or the Clinton-Gore ticket?  Oh, they were corporate globalist Democrats and the Newhouse boys are down with that.  Got it.

Back to George Carlin:  "They own all the big media companies, so they control all the news and information you get to hear.  They got you by the balls... they beat you over the head all day long, when they tell you what to believe, all day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think, and what to buy."

Now what can we expect from an editorial writer who services the owners of such elitist snob titles as Conde Nast, Bon Appetit, Golf Digest, Architectural Digest, Golf World, Conde Nast Traveler, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, The World of Interiors, Style.com, TheScene.com, and Epicurious.com?  Of course she thinks that all listeners to country music are racist working class scum.  In her world, all listeners to rap music are sexists.  She loathes the working class in the manner that her billionaire bosses prescribe.  They can't wait to have us all replaced by robots.  Our flaws will be their pretext for killing us.

Thinking of those editorial writers, a friend of ours has a real easy way to separate working Americans from those inhabitants of the elitists' "bubble world."  Ask them how they take their coffee.  Working Americans will ask for it in a mug -- doesn't matter the race of the drinker or the color of the coffee, it will be a mug.  That's not the way with people in bubble world.  In their neck-of-the-woods they're into something called coffee enemas -- so theirs isn't going into a mug, its heading on down a tube.  And that is about as good an indicator as there is.

Matteson & Trish ignore modern slavery, human trafficking

In today's New Jersey Herald, Democrat candidates Matteson & Trish made one of their most foolish arguments to date, claiming that the Hank Williams Jr. band logo was the "most symbolic visual of slavery."  Once again, these argumentative and nit-picky schoolmarms demonstrated their complete lack of understanding and common sense.

Are they really so dense that they do not understand that there are more people in slavery today than at any time in human history?  According to the United Nations and other international agencies, there are upwards of 45 million or more people enslaved today across the world and millions within the United States.

Recently, the Democrats attended a campaign rally at which they displayed a banner with a symbol of that enslavement -- the Islamic crescent -- along with the wiccan symbol signifying the triumph of evil.  Islamists continue to believe in the enslavement of non-Muslims and Islamic countries are among the biggest offenders at turning a blind-eye or even officially condoning slavery.

Legislators like Senator Steve Oroho and Assemblyman Parker Space are leading the fight against modern slavery.  They have proposed the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Act (S-2928/ A-4503).  Senator Oroho is considered a national leader -- up there with Ashton Kutcher -- in the fight against modern slavery.

The most "symbolic visual of slavery" today -- in 2017 -- is probably the flip-flops some appear to like so much, made with slave labor and sold with an enormous mark-up to willing American consumers.  There are a host of products and services that Americans use that depend on enslaved victims.  Then there is the sex trade -- including Internet porn -- that some Americans can't seem to live without.  Look there for slavery today.

Again and again, Matteson and Trish have demonstrated their insensitivity to the real problems of today.  They appear to live exclusively in the bubble of the one-percent and that is a big problem for average working people in Sussex, Warren, and Morris counties.

Now ANTIFA wants to ban Kid Rock too

The Leftwing fascists of ANTIFA just don't quit. 

Civil rights group wants Kid Rock Detroit concerts canceled

The Associated Press

Posted: Sep. 6, 2017 8:00 am Updated: Sep. 6, 2017 2:33 pm

DETROIT (AP) — A civil rights organization is demanding the cancellation of concerts by Kid Rock at a new sports arena in Detroit, saying his criticism of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was a "dog whistle" to white supremacist groups.

National Action Network Detroit chapter president Charles Williams II said Wednesday that his group will protest the concerts that start Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena.

Kaepernick, who is black, spurred controversy in 2016 when as a member of the San Francisco 49ers he knelt during the national anthem. Kid Rock is white. His real name is Robert Ritchie. He used an expletive about Kaepernick during a concert last month.

Ilitch Holdings President Christopher Ilitch says he can't control "what any artist does or says." Ilitch Holdings owns the company that operates the arena.

Kid Rock's publicist, Kirt Webster, didn't immediately reply to messages seeking comment.

Should we tell them that Assemblyman Parker Space attends Kid Rock concerts too???  Too late.  A thousand poor souls just lost their ass.

Matteson & Trish get their head stuck up Max's bum

On Wednesday, Republican Senator Steve Oroho issued a statement that politely asked Democrat gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy to let voters know where he stands on the corruption case against United States Senator Bob Menendez (Democrat/NJ).  Senator Oroho made his request after an Observer.com report that Murphy was remaining silent on the corruption trial of Senator Menendez, the Observer's Christian Hetrick quoting Murphy that "he hasn't thought about whether a convicted Senator should leave office."

Max Pizarro, formerly of the Observer group but now quarter-backing his own InsiderNJ blog, proceeded to take that story and insert Assemblyman Parker Space into it.  Even though his name doesn't appear anywhere in Senator Oroho's statement.

But it gets weirder. 

The two ANITFA twins -- "Dishonest Kate" Matteson and Gina "pussycat hat" Trish -- jumped at the chance to (in Pizarro's words) put a hook up someone's ass (like they did at Gettysburg or some shit like that).  While acknowledging that their opponent, Parker Space, has done nothing illegal, they still want him to face the same penalties as if he had committed some heinous crime.  Do the ANTIFA twins constitute their own lynch mob?  Good thing these two aren't using their ad-hoc judicial process to hand out death penalties  "We feel you've done something wrong, therefore you must suffer."

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And speaking of suffering, check out the ANTIFA-inspired effort that their campaign is conducting against Space Farms and the Space family.  The Democrats are attempting to destroy a 90-year-old Sussex County institution with bad on-line reviews. harassing telephone calls, threats, liable, slander, and an organized boycott.  As is usual for the Democrats, instead of creating jobs they are trying to destroy them.

Now the kicker is that ANTIFA twin #1 and ANTIFA twin #2 puffed themselves up enough to call on Senator Oroho to "do something about corruption" in New Jersey.  Where have they been, you ask?  Well, you have to take into account that ANTIFA twin #1 only started voting in 2016 and ANTIFA twin #2 ain't much better. 

So we'll excuse them for not knowing that it is their party -- the Democrat Party -- that has held up reform in New Jersey.  That's why their running mate -- Jennifer Hamilton -- doesn't join them when they go ANTIFA.  Hamilton is the thinking Democrat.  The twins... not so much.

Take just this one example.  There are dozens more.  This year, on three separate occasions, the Democrats have blocked efforts by Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) to force a vote on legislation (S-1557) to forfeit the pensions of corrupt public officials.  “Time and again, Senate Democrats have voted to protect the pensions of corrupt public officials,” said Beck. “It’s inexplicable that they would continue to choose convicted officials over the taxpayers they represent.”

An investigation by the Asbury Park Press last year found at least 40 convicted criminals collecting state pension checks of up to $83,000 per year.

“The APP found a million dollars of taxpayer money going to corrupt public employees, including some found guilty on federal corruption charges,” added Beck. “Those are just the people they found, there are probably dozens more. If you violate the public trust, you don’t deserve a cushy retirement at taxpayer expense. Why is that so hard for Democrats to understand?”

Why indeed?

Democrats rally with wiccan symbol on flag

The flag carried by Sussex County Democrat at a recent rally in Newton Green suggests that these seven religious entities have equal standing and should be recognized as cultural equals in America.  Taken together, it is a stunning vision of what some believe the "new" America should be:

First, comes the Islamic crescent, on the ascent. 

Second, is the eastern symbol of peace.

Third, represents gender equality.

Fourth, is the Star of David.

Fifth, is the Wiccan symbol.  The pagan worship of Satan.

Sixth, is the Ying and Yang of Chinese Philosophy.

Seventh, is the Christian Cross.

Curiously, with all the debate going on about flags and "evil" it is interesting to note that the 12th principle of the 13 principles of Wicca deals with the rejection of "the concept of absolute evil."

Gannett's Al Doblin fails the test of true liberalism

Writing in today's Bergen Record, Editor Al Doblin presumes to reach into a man's soul -- to determine whether he be good or evil. 

The man is a working-class farmer from rural northwest New Jersey.  It is a station-in-life that Mr. Doblin knows very little about.  Mr. Doblin is a confirmed one-percenter, a recognized member of the establishment and of the economic elite.  Residing in a kind of bubble world.

What a great opportunity then, this could have been, for Mr. Doblin to get out a little -- to stretch his legs, so to say, and make his way to a place, amongst people, he knows little about. 

Mr. Doblin's opinion piece concerned the logo of a rock band.  No, it wasn't the Nazi double-lightning bolts in the "KISS" logo.  The logo he objected to belongs to Hank Williams Jr. and his band.  It consists of the old rebel flag with Mr. Williams' face on it and lyrics from one of his songs.  Now those lyrics are not edgy in the way that most rap is, but you could certainly make the argument that they are edgy.

Mr. Doblin's objections appear to be confined to the Hank Williams Jr. logo.  Whether the logo is printed on a piece of cloth or paper or etched in metal shouldn't affect Mr. Doblin's emotions. 

Mr. Doblin objects to the farmer, and the farmer's wife, standing in front of the logo at a Hank Williams Jr. concert.  At a tailgate party.  Then they shared a photograph of it on Facebook.  And added a funny line. 

Yes, we're serious.  This was the subject of a lengthy editorial by Al Doblin.

Now Mr. Doblin would argue that we're leaving out something very important here:  The farmer was elected by his community to serve in the Legislature.  But that is a matter of identity, isn't it?   Because most people elected to the Legislature soon identify with that elite institution and with the establishment it represents.  That's why, in America, most people feel left out by the political process. 

The problem with the farmer is this:  He isn't behaving "as he should" according to the rigid "code" set by the establishment and economic elites.  He still identifies as "a farmer" and continues to behave that way.

It is not enough that just 3 percent of the legislators in America are blue-collar -- that's 3 percent to represent the 60 percent of Americans who are working class -- but economic elites like Al Doblin want to be able to set the agenda for that 3 percent too.  Instead of reflecting the values and folkways of the people they come from, Al Doblin wants them to reflect his values, his agenda.

In Al Doblin's opinion, the farmer's responses to those who object to the Hank Williams Jr. logo were "deflections" -- although he fails to explain how.  What Editor Doblin does is to engage in the sort of embellishment that would make the Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists cringe. 

Again and again, Doblin reaches into the farmer's mind to tell us what he was thinking, into his heart -- to tell us what his feelings and motivations are.  Al Doblin doesn't know this man, in any way, and yet -- as in a novel -- Doblin speaks to us from within the farmer's soul, as though he were inside, looking out.  This is a style of fiction, not of journalism.

You have to wonder about people who bathe in what they imagine to be the "faults" of others -- in order to signal the "virtue" that they possess.  It is not unlike what Joseph Conrad called "the stench of the repentant sinner."  And you have to wonder what are the sins that Mr. Doblin feels he needs to atone for, that makes him so earnest to demonstrate his very public "virtue"?

What small depravities, sins mortal and venial, dishonesties and behaviors unethical, are in Mr. Doblin's catalog?  Is he remembering all those union workers let go from well-paid, blue-collar jobs?  All those working class newspaper families made to find a new way to live?  Or the writers -- all those writers -- who went from earning a livable wage to a sub-standard one?  All detritus shrugged off by Al Doblin, who went on and on.  Save yourself, be a survivor, there is just one skin that is important.

Or is Mr. Doblin considering all those "political" accommodations he has had to make with the establishment over the years.  To develop "access." 

Suppressing a story about the number of employed lobbyists openly serving in the Legislature, for instance, or the corruption that has allowed convicted criminals to openly serve.  The number of mistresses quite openly on legislative payrolls.  The visits to sex clubs by legislators -- and all the rest he's been handed over the years. Would Doblin say:  Look, being convicted of a federal crime is one thing, but a Hank Williams Jr. logo?  Now you really have gone too far?

We will not do to Al Doblin, what he has done to others.  We will not step into his head and claim to know him.  We won't even qualify his acts of suppression as acts of common cause.  We will chastise him a little though, for missing a great opportunity to be a human being.

Once upon a time, old-fashioned liberals were pretty nice people.  Too nice, some said, but an old-fashioned liberal -- upon hearing or reading about the farmer -- would have reached out to him.  "Can I come over for a cup of coffee," he would have said.  And the old-fashioned liberal would have explained to the farmer why he thought his ways were in error. 

Now maybe they would agree or maybe they wouldn't, but they would come away, each with the measure of the other man.  The old-fashioned liberal would either understand that the farmer meant no harm -- or if he did mean harm, then the old-fashioned liberal would have cause to act.

 But people like Al Doblin don't do that today.  They rely on the media, forgetting that what they see is filtered, and then they re-filter it some more.  They filter out the human factor. 

Perhaps Mr. Doblin forgets that those living outside the bubble world of the economic elite have lives every bit as nuanced as his own.  Their lives matter too, so before you paint the stain of racism on someone -- and on everyone else who would have done the same thing without giving it a second thought -- take a moment to reach out.  Human to human.  Doesn't the Code of Ethics of your own profession demand as much?

A good old-fashion liberal once wrote: 

“It is his millions of relationships that will give man his humanity… It is not our ideological rights that are important but the quality of our relationships with each other, with all men, with knowledge and art and God that count..."

Mrs. Lillian Smith was a Southern writer and a pioneer in the battle to end segregation.  We don't know if she ever listened to Hank Williams Jr., but we're sure there were a few dear to her who did.

Mr. Doblin, you could have been a human being about this.  You could have been what used to be called "a liberal."  Instead, you chose to make it about you.  You chose to call someone else a sinner to deflect from your own sins and the sins of the establishment and economic elites that you serve.

Next time, try to act like a human being.

Democrat Wimberly: We do not serve the Working Class

Breaking news from InsiderNJ.  Democrat  Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D- 35), a career white-collar public employee, issued a press release stating:  "The New Jersey Legislature does not serve the ‘forgotten people.'"  The Democrat was referring to the Working Class, as referenced by Assemblyman Parker Space in a statement the Republican released on Tuesday.

We suspect that without knowing it, Assemblyman Wimberly was acknowledging one of the great under-reported facts of American political life.  In White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making,  Duke  University Professor Nick Carnes cites studies showing that while a majority of Americans work in blue-collar employment, only 2 percent of Congress were blue-collar workers before being elected and only 3 percent of State Legislators are employed as blue-collar workers.  Carnes and others hold that this disparity reflects the economic decisions and priorities of legislative bodies in America.

This lack of blue-collar perspective shouldn't surprise anyone looking at the Legislature's agenda.  And it shows why Democrat political leaders in Trenton don't give a damn about New Jersey having the highest property taxes in America.

As for Assemblyman Wimberly, he holds three white-collar taxpayer-funded jobs, one of which are subsidized (through the inequitable Abbott funding formula) by rural and suburban taxpayers residing in Northwest New Jersey.  He has a total of four taxpayer-funded jobs in his household.  No wonder he wants the "forgotten" Working Class to shut-up and just pay their taxes.

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Assemblyman Wimberly tries to make a point that the Legislature should serve "all the people."  That's a nice sentiment, but as a recent Princeton University study reported, "The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."

It's not about identity.  It's about Class.

And yes, it is humiliating that a group representing more than 60 percent of the population has just 3 percent of the representation.

Murphy should denounce ANTIFA tactics against Space family

Democrat State Committee member Ben Silva is using ANTIFA tactics in an attempt to damage the Space family farm and business.  Silva, who identifies himself as the campaign manager for Democrat candidates Kate Matteson & Gina Trish, has been part of an effort to give Space Farms negative reviews on Facebook. 

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There have also been harassing calls made to family members and people who work there.  These have included threats of violence. 

Even the animals have been threatened... over their names.

One Matteson-Trish activist who admitted to calling and harassing employees actually compared Assemblyman Parker Space to Charles Manson. 

All this over a photograph from a tailgate party at a Hank Williams Jr. concert, in which a photograph was taken of the Assemblyman and his wife in front of a Hank Williams Jr. band banner called "The Hank Williams Jr. Rebel Flag."

What is happening to the Space family is happening all over America right now.  It's the most recent face of the old anarchist-communist movement -- now calling itself ANTIFA.  As the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, " Antifa activists also search for and publicize damaging information on their targets or opponents, or launch campaigns pressuring their bosses or companies to fire those opponents."

What Democrat Party officials like Ben Silva are doing to the Space Family and their farm business is right out of the ANTIFA playbook.  Here is more from Monday's Wall Street Journal report:

Antifa activists believe in censorship and don’t rule out violence, as they showed again Sunday. 

...They’re mostly anarchists and anarcho-communists, and they often refer to fellow protesters as “comrades.” Adherents typically despise the government and corporate America alike, seeing police as defenders of both and thus also legitimate targets.

The anti-fascist anarchist website CrimethInc.com recently summarized its philosophy: “In this state of affairs, there is no such thing as nonviolence—the closest we can hope to come is to negate the harm or threat posed by the proponents of top-down violence . . . so instead of asking whether an action is violent, we might do better to ask simply: does it counteract power disparities, or reinforce them?”

Antifa’s activists use the Orwellian-sounding notion of “anticipatory self-defense” to justify direct confrontation. That can include violence, vandalism and other unlawful tactics. Many draw a false moral distinction between damaging private property and “corporate” property.

Antifa activists have also developed their own moral justification for suppressing free speech and assembly. As anarchists, they don’t want state censorship. But they do believe it’s the role of a healthy civil society to make sure some ideas don’t gain currency.

So they heartily approve of the heckler’s veto, seeking to shut down speeches and rallies that they see as abhorrent. Antifa activists also search for and publicize damaging information on their targets or opponents, or launch campaigns pressuring their bosses or companies to fire those opponents.

Words don’t constitute violence, despite what Antifa activists believe. But there are dangerous ideas and practices, and the radical left has embraced several of them. Democracies solve conflict through debate, not fisticuffs. But Antifa’s protesters believe that some ideas are better fought with force, and that some people are incapable of reason.

Implicit in this view is that Antifa alone has the right to define who is racist, fascist or Nazi. It’s a guerilla twist on the culture wars, when a microaggression must be met with a macroaggression.

To read the entire Wall Street Journal report and view an interesting video on the subject, visit: 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-the-bedlam-in-berkeley-1503961537?mod=e2fb

CNN has an excellent report called "Unmasking ANTIFA".  You can access it here:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/us/unmasking-antifa-anti-fascists-hard-left/index.html

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy should distance himself from these tactics.  His failure to do so counts as an endorsement of them.

Where was Nia Gill's outrage on Neil Cohen?

Some people -- like Democrat  Senator Nia Gill -- think that slavery is something that happened long, long ago.  In fact, slavery is with us today... and it's bigger than ever.  According to world agencies, 45.8 million people are enslaved and a big part of that enslavement is through the exploitation of children in the child sex trade.

Which brings us to former Democrat Assemblyman Neil Cohen, Senator Nia Gill's onetime "BFF".  Democrat Cohen got caught using State computers to access child porn, an aspect of modern slavery.  As Wikipedia notes:

Cohen was indicted for official misconduct (2nd degree), reproduction of child pornography (2nd degree), distribution of child pornography (2nd degree), and possession of child pornography (4th degree).  In a plea agreement, the state dropped the official misconduct charge and three of four child pornography counts, and on April 12, 2010, Cohen pleaded guilty to the charge of endangering the welfare of a child by distributing child pornography. Initially facing up to 30 years imprisonment, State Attorney General Paula Dow sought a five-year prison term for Cohen, as well his disbarment.   He was incarcerated from November 4, 2010 until January 4, 2012, when he was released on parole.

But guess what, Democrat Cohen wasn't disbarred.

No, the New Jersey Supreme Court failed to do that.  Instead they just suspended his privilege to practice law in New Jersey.  They did say, that attorneys convicted in future child porn cases may be disbarred "in light of society's increasing recognition of the harm done to the victims of those offenses."  Increasing recognition?  WTF!

So where was the outrage from Nia Gill?  Where were those eloquent words... "The Party of Jefferson and Jackson and Wilson has fallen into the hands of human traffickers and child pornographers!"

No outrage. 

In Nia Gill's world there is nothing worse than attending a Hank Williams Jr. concert and having your photo taken in front of the band's flag.  In Nia Gill's world, that is far, far worse than the slavery that goes on today, all around us.

Symbols are what matters.  People don't.

The Democrats and flag-burning

First off, this is not a Confederate flag...

Neither are these...

And if anyone can identify one Confederate regiment that carried the "Hank Williams Jr." flag into battle during the Civil War, we'll write them a $1,000 check.

On Monday, two Democrats channeled their Mrs. Grundy and went off because some GOPer attended a Hank Williams Jr. concert.  Is it as bad as some of the mischief your average elected Democrat gets up to?  The two issued some lame platitude about the American flag:  "The only flag we pledge our allegiance to is the American flag, representing union and equality."  Okay, so they both have no clue about American history.  But don't you love it when people like this go all fake patriotic?

Now we all know that these two had North Vietnamese flags in their college dorms, worshipped at the altar of Jane Fonda, and sported "Free Mumia" tee shirts in college.  They got into the social justice weirdo act early.

Aside from that, did they forget what went on at that Women's March they supported?  Maybe we should remind them...

Well, at least we agree on one thing... somebody should be held accountable.

Josh Gottheimer's Tea Party connections

From our friends at Sussex County Watchdog

Last night, Josh Gottheimer's political campaign sent out an email blast that attacked Scott Garrett and Steve Lonegan.  Gottheimer called Scott Garrett a "Tea Party incumbent" and Steve Lonegan a "Tea Partier" and a "Tea Party darling." 

Gottheimer should know.  He's been wooing the Tea Party since he got elected and a lot of people believe they've consummated their illicit relationship. 

Gottheimer is a public relations professional who worked for Bill "I did not have sex..." Clinton, Ford Motor Corporation (Gottheimer sold the sizzle after Ford screwed 44,000 working men and women out of their jobs) , and was a global spin doctor for some of the biggest scumbags on the planet.  Gottheimer is a "progressive" in the way that Bernie Madoff was a "philanthropist"  -- they put on a good show, but hold on to your wallet!

Josh Gottheimer has been at work schmoozing the GOP in full on straw-up-the-backside mode.  He has sucked up to Republican mayors and Republican activists, insisting that he ain't a "real Democrat" and that he shares their values.  Now that's a joke for a start because Josh ain't got much in the way of "values" to begin with (aside from making dough and getting power and celebrity and attention and being the guy with the cool shoes).  Hey, we get it, there are a lot of sociopaths in politics.

He even sent a nice Democrat lady -- lawyer Jennifer Hamilton -- to help schmooze the Tea Party for him.  And it looks like it worked.  Recently, Tea Partier Nathan Orr (who ran as a kind of alt-right primary candidate in June) posted on Facebook that he wants to vote for Josh Gottheimer. Now how is that for having it both ways?

In Washington, Josh Gottheimer hangs out with Nancy Pelosi and trash-talks the Tea Party and the GOP.  Calls them all Nazis and racists.  But when Gottheimer visits Sussex County (he's not from here, you know) he brings with him some extra heavy duty straws for the schmooze-fest. 

Hey "progressives" -- the joke is on you. 

Asian man loses job because his name is "Robert Lee"

Justice is dead in America and the insanity of wealthy, politically-correct liberals is on the march.  Sports channel ESPN says it has pulled an Asian announcer from a game at the University of Virginia for having the same name as Confederate general Robert E. Lee.  "Lee" is the second most popular last name in Korea (behind "Kim" and ahead of "Park"), so does this move by a top media organization indicate a certain cultural bias in its judgment or just plain stupidity?  Some would argue that it is just another incidence of liberals being racist. 

Journalist Victor Morton , of the Washington Times, wrote:

"Apparently, even being Asian doesn’t mean people won’t take you for being a white nationalist.

ESPN confirmed Tuesday night that it had decided to pull an announcer from calling a University of Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee. This Robert Lee is Asian.

'We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment, it felt right to all parties,' reads the ESPN statement posted at the popular Fox Sports college-football blog Outkick the Coverage.

'Did I mention that Robert Lee is Asian?' wrote disbelieving blogger Clay Travis, who first broke the story, citing 'multiple Outkick fans inside ESPN.'

Mr. Lee had been scheduled to call the Cavaliers Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville against William and Mary.

'It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play by play for a football game has become an issue,' ESPN said in its statement.

That wasn’t the 'shame' Mr. Travis had in mind, ridiculing the sports-network leviathan for political correctness, calling it 'MSESPN.'

'They were concerned that having an ASIAN FOOTBALL ANNOUNCER NAMED ROBERT LEE would be offensive to some viewers,' he wrote.

The fatal violence in Charlottesville earlier this month grew out of a white-nationalist and neo-Nazi march in favor of keeping up a statue of Robert E. Lee — 'the Confederate General who died in 1870 and shares a name with' the ESPN announcer, Mr. Travis helpfully explained.

'Is there anything more pathetic than ESPN believing people would be offended by an Asian guy named Robert Lee sharing a name with Robert E. Lee and calling a football game? Aside from some hysterical photoshops and Internet memes which would make everyone with a functional brain laugh — Robert E. Lee pulling out all the stops to stay in Charlottesville now! — what was the big fear here? Does ESPN really believe people are this dumb or that having an Asian announcer named Robert Lee is too offensive for the average TV viewer to handle?' Mr. Travis asked rhetorically.

'Yes, yes they do,' he answered."

This is just another indication that the Democrat Party is the face of the establishment in America today, just as it was the face of the establishment in pro-slavery America.  It appears that the public relations departments of every major corporation in America are stocked with former Democrat campaign operatives mouthing politically-correct platitudes that often, as in this case, make no sense at all.  So not only do the Democrats control the media, the entertainment industry (aka "the ministry of propaganda"), academia, and the permanent bureaucracy -- the Democrats control most of the big corporations as well.  No wonder the true Left, the real Left, has stopped calling Democrats "leftists" and insist that they are merely "corporate Democrats of the faux Left."

Think of Phil Murphy, Democrat candidate for Governor.  It costs more to remodel his shithouse than it costs to build a working class home in New Jersey.  Or Democrat candidate for Assembly Kate Matteson, who wears a pink pussy cat hat -- oh so "faux revolutionary" -- to accent a $600 pair of high heels.  These people are fake, they are phonies.  We are witnessing what Marxist philosopher Guy Debord called:  "The Society of the Spectacle."

To be continued...

Democrat Cory Booker says Art makes people unhappy

United States Senator Cory Booker, the great celebrity-politician himself -- the man who tweets more than Donald Trump and who counts his accomplishments in Facebook "friends" -- is proposing legislation to combat "dangerous" and "evil" art.  Using the argument that if it makes some people unhappy, then government has a duty to destroy it, the "honorable" is channeling Fahrenheit 451...

Senator Booker, a Democrat, has suggested removing every piece of art connected with the Democrat Party from the period before 1863.  Prior to 1863, slavery was legal in America and the Democrat Party was the slavery establishment's political face.  Indeed, the Democrat Party's platforms supported slavery --while EVERY Republican Party platform explicitly OPPOSED slavery.  So all the Democrats must come down!

Why?  Because we cannot cope with our past and we mustn't have a remembrance of it.  People's feelings could get hurt...

While we are not big fans of the Democrat Party, we do respect art, and we are concerned with government-sponsored pograms aimed at cleansing public spaces of art that has been labeled "degenerate" or "evil" or "inappropriate" or "politically incorrect."  We agree with Diego Rivera, who argued that art is never inappropriate.

Senator Booker's legislation to destroy works of art is particularly chilling, because it provides government sponsorship for what had heretofore been acts of violence by private individuals or mobs -- rather in the way that the Russian Tsars once encouraged pograms against their Jewish minorities.  It also creates a basis on which to further the persecution of other forms of "objectionable" art -- and not just the plastic arts, but literature, music, and theatre. 

Why not burn every copy of books that glorify the Confederacy?  Lee's Lieutenants, by Douglas Southall Freeman, would be a great place for Senator Booker to begin his campaign of book burning... err, pardon us... social cleansing.  From there, he could move on to Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell.  The need of burning is apparent to politicians like Senator Booker and the books to burn will offer endless employment.

Democrat Cory Booker's war against art

So is this how it will be from now on?

Every few years some new fashion -- or new regime -- will dictate that all the art previous to it (or some subset thereof) will be subject to ideological cleansing for the purposes of re-education.  Statuary -- the plastic arts -- should not simply be objects interpreted by philistine politicians and ideological groups for the convenience of their propaganda battles. 

Art exists apart from such concerns.  Art is its own thing -- a communication between the artist and the person experiencing the art.  Often, art is meant to disturb, to engage the mind with many considerations.

But instead of erecting new art -- in proximity to the old -- to show what was and what is (which will also be, soon enough, what was), as a kind of progression, the fashion now is to rip it down, hide it, or destroy it.  This formula has been notably  practiced by ideological groups like the Taliban and ISIS:

And here is the Islamic justification for destroying art:

This is the direction our nation is heading?  This is what we are choosing?  This is who we are now?  Are you proud?

The artist who conceived the statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his horse, Traveler, was a New York City native by the name of Henry Shrady.  As a sculptor, he is best known for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.  As the few of us remaining who read American history know, General Grant was the Union General who defeated General Lee and concluded the war against the Confederacy.  He later became President of the United States.  So does anyone really believe that the artist was trying to "celebrate" the ideology of the Confederacy when he designed the statute of General Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia?

The statue of General Lee had not been completed at the time of Henry Shrady's death, and so a second artist was employed, Leo Lentelli, who brought his own ideas to the project, altering the work somewhat.  Lentelli was a sculptor and teacher of sculpture at the Art Students League and Cooper Union, in New York, and the California School of Fine Arts, in San Francisco.  He had studied art in Bologna and Rome, and had emigrated to the United States at the age of 24.  Some of his best-known work is in Rockefeller Center, Steinway Hall, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, in New York.  One wonders what of his other work will be persecuted.

There is an artist behind every piece of work targeted, for ideological reasons, and slated for destruction or suppression.  How can we expect a shallow, celebrity-seeking politician like Senator Cory Booker to understand the connection between an artist and his work?

Could Booker -- who has existed his whole life in the corrupting avarice of Wall Street, followed by the venal corruption of municipal politics, followed by the high arrogance of the United States Senate -- how can we expect him to understand?  Has Senator Booker the imagination in his mind and the craft in his hands to fashion even a single, beautiful object? 

Ah, but he does have the cunning to know how to gain political advantage by destroying it.  And that appears to be enough these days.

"Round and round and round we go... in a dance to the music of time... endlessly repeating the past's errors... in bliss, ignorant, forgetfulness."