Friday, January 31, 2014

Race Crimes and the People Who Encourage Them

Race Crimes and the People Who Encourage Them

 

I may be wrong on this but isn’t one of the principal responsibilities of every police department and their counterparts on university security police departments to prevent crime and apprehend criminals?
Apparently the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) doesn’t think so anymore than do black activists at the University of Minnesota.

In an article in their magazine, SPJ redundantly warned their membership that when reporting racial violence, mentioning race in their stories is a journalistic no-no, in their politically correct opinion and regardless of the obvious fact that identifying the race of an assailant, a rapist, a mugger, etc. is critical to catching and prosecuting them and is usually among the first questions asked by 911 dispatchers and among the first detail dispatchers transmit to patrol cars.

According to WND.com, the article reflected “what dozens of chapters around the country tell its members in regular seminars: Unless someone is considerate enough to wave around a sign saying, ‘Kill Honky,’ or issue a press release or utter racial expletives in front of lots of witnesses, the fact that the suspects just happen to be black has no bearing on the story.”

The oldest and largest organization of journalists in America unprofessionally added that anyone doubting their no-no policy, was probably a “racist and hater.”

Oddly coincidental with the SPJ’s major breach of journalistic ethics, members of UM’s African American and African Studies, Black Faculty and Staff Association, Black Graduate and Professional Student Association, Black Men’s Forum, Black Student Union and Huntley House for African American Males jointly directed a letter to UM president and a vp.

The letter, sent over a month after the campus locked down because of an attempted robbery and after university police had wrongfully identified a black student as the suspect, made no mention of the school’s 25 robberies, an increase of 27% percent over the last few years, but it did register a slew of black complaints.

While initially professing deep concern over campus safety, the letter-writers clearly felt that racial profiling was their overriding interest since it could be absolutely devastating for black male students.

An excerpt: “[We] unanimously agree that campus safety should be of the UMPD’s utmost importance; however, efforts to reduce crime should never be at the expense of our Black men, or any specific group of people likely to be targeted. In addition to causing Black men to feel unsafe and distrusted, racial profiling is proven to inflict negative psychological effects on its victims.”

At a forum on the profiling issue, Ian Taylor Jr., president of the Black Men’s Forum, said members of his organization feel threatened when racial description [sic] of suspects are provided in university crime alerts. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35462.)

Thursday, January 30, 2014

What the Hell Is Going On in Obama's FEMA?

What the Hell Is Going On in Obama's FEMA?

 

As often noted, even paranoiacs have enemies; with the Obama administration, their paranoia verges on reasonable concern.  (See the disclaimer at the end of this article.)

For more than five years, President Barack Hussein Obama and his lackeys have been caught in more than enough lies, misrepresentations, and subterfuges to fill the Super Bowl’s MetLife Stadium to overflowing with enough left over to carpet New York City’s Bowl Boulevard, more than sufficient lies, misrepresentations, and subterfuges to give pause to any self-respecting paranoiaic’s worst visions of what lies ahead for us.

Last year, they wondered where the two billion .40 caliber, 9mm and hollow point bullets purchased by our Department of Homeland Security went and why.

They wondered where the 2,700 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles, (MRAPs–retrofitted fighting vehicles, designed to survive improvised explosive devices, ambushes, and land mines), went and why.

They wondered where the drones, which Attorney General Eric Holder said “could conceivably. . . [be used by the military] if necessary to protect the homeland” before he retracted that outrage by denying Obama would ever “use drone strikes against American citizens on American soil,” went and why.

They wondered where the 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles, the supplies of body armor, and the riot gear requisitioned by the DHS over the past two years went and why.
 
(See “Where Have All the Bullets Gone?” http://tinyurl.com/lqyrs9s.)   

Now, those nutty paranoiacs are in a dither over reports that the president’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is setting up internment camps and has bought loads of coffin liners. 

According to BeforeIt’sNews.com, Obama referenced the FEMA camps and explained their purposes.  He couldn’t very well describe them as concentration camps and instead opted for the somewhat less intimidating term, “Prolonged Detention” camps.

An aficionado of executive orders, our commander in chief has issued a number of such orders supposedly in the interests of protecting America in the event of a national security emergency.  They would effectively authorize seizure and control of all communications networks ”including cell phones and internet and all sources of utilities/energy including gasoline, water, and electricity,” amid reports of the establishment of those FEMA camps and leaked news from the DHS that Martial Law is on the way.  

If absolutely necessary, of course.

Since drone attacks against Americans have already been ruled out by Mr. Holder, there’s no need yet for us to head for bomb shelters, especially since bomb shelters are virtually non-existent in America anyway, except for critical government employees.

It’s been theorized that our most critically-critical government employee, Obama, wants the concentration/internment camps just in case Americans rise up against his unconstitutionally authoritarian rule and he has to quell a mass rebellion.

The paranoid fear is that, after disarming the populace and rendering them defenseless,  Obama would require somewhere to house survivors and coffins to bury the murdered before their rotting corpses stank up the country.   Hence, the absolute necessity of the FEMA camps and expending upwards of a billion dollars for disposable coffin liners to bury the dead. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35439.)

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Obama Lauds Communist, Pete Seeger


Obama Lauds Communist, Pete Seeger

 

Pete Seeger finally went to his eternal reward, or final punishment, on Tuesday at the ripe old age of 94 years, again proving the truism that only the good die young.  May he rest in the Communist hell he  very richly deserves.
Wait!  Pete who?
For the younguns out there, Seeger, born to a comfortable, activist, Calvinist yet musical family with roots stretching back as far as the American Revolution, was a popular folk singer in the fifties and sixties.
Inventor of the Long Neck or Seeger banjo, introducer of the Steel Pan to American music, co-founding star of the ”progressive” singing groups, the Almanac Singers and the Weavers, Seeger was also a professed Communist. 
A proud pacifist, Seeger argued against America’s entry into World War Two while the Nazis were allies of the Soviet Union and changed his mind after they weren’t.  A great admirer of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War who, following his visit during the height of that conflict, “came away ecstatic about the beautiful country and the peace-loving people there” according to historian Ron Radosh.
Most tellingly, the inventor of the Long Neck banjo opposed American military action against the Taliban after 9/11.  May Allah forbid that we seek retribution for the wanton Islamic murder of 2,996 defenseless human beings!
Just as he had changed his view on the merits of entering WWII when it looked like we wouldn’t be fighting the U.S.S.R., Seeger flipped on his Communist leanings but in a 2000 interview with Mother Jones admitted, “I’m still a Communist, in the sense that I don’t believe the world will survive with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.” . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35419.)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Glitzy, Glamorous, Gay Grammys

Glitzy, Glamorous, Gay Grammys

 

When the “Popular Christian gospel singer Natalie Grant walked out on the Grammys after witnessing a series of performances that even the mainstream entertainment media admitted were occult in nature” (Prof. Paul Joseph Watson), Ms. Grant made an unequivocable statement concerning her opinion of the awards show.
Despite being nominated for two Grammys, she later obliquely tweeted on the cause of her early departure from the festivities yet made it vividly obvious that what she had witnessed stood in gross conflict with her Christian beliefs.

Professor Watson believes she “was probably referring to Katy Perry, [a daughter of Pentecostal pastors] who was surrounded by demons as she danced around an upside down broomstick before being encircled by fire during a performance of her song ‘Dark Horse’ ” while costumed in a bizarre get-up featuring an illuminated Knights Templar cross.

I don’t know precisely when Ms. Grant took her leave but I’m guessing she hadn’t seen nothing yet!

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards Show, telecast Sunday on CBS starting at 8pm on both coasts and 7pm central time to insure that America’s families and teenagers were tuning in to Katie Perry’s sexually-suggestive performance of ”Dark Horse” in which she first appeared inside a crystal ball and ended with her standing in front of a hellish fire.

Perry had followed the opening spectacle of Beyoncé’s amazingly explicit act.  Semi-dressed in a see-through black thong bodysuit over fishnet tights, Beyoncé sang “Drunk In Love” alongside her husband Jay Z and left no doubt as to their favorite indoor sport. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35395.)

Monday, January 27, 2014

Obama's Persecution of Dinesh D'Souza

Obama's Persecution of Dinesh D'Souza

 

Dinesh D’Souza fits most of the criteria of Barack Hussein Obama’s favored and favorite people: an immigrant, a minority, a person of color.  However, D’Souza lacks a few essential elements for inclusion in the president’s exclusive club: He’s a Christian conservative and, worse, he’s not especially fond of Obama or what he is doing to our country.

In fact, D’Souza, a best-selling author and filmmaker, is even farther from being a liberal than most members of the small band of Hollywood conservatives so it was only a matter of time before Obama’s intolerant henchmen in Eric Holder’s Department of Justice went after him.

And, go after him they did, with a vengeance, by indicting him for alleged violations of campaign finance laws.

D’Souza’s alleged crime?  Donating $20,000 to the 2012 senatorial campaign of an old Dartmouth College friend, conservative Republican Wendy Long, who was challenging liberal Democrat New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.  He was charged with one count of making illegal campaign contributions, carrying a maximum sentence of two years in prison and one count of causing false statements to be made to the FEC, carrying a maximum of five years and released on $500,000 bond.

TheBlaze.com illustrated the exorbitance of that half-million dollar figure by posting a list of nine hardened criminals who had bail set for lesser amounts.

The list includes ex-convict Darnell Richmond who was charged with robbing or attempting to rob four people and raping one victim three months after he got out of prison, Barry Eltman charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child after he allegedly attacked a 15-year-old family member, and Jon Michael Jones who was being held on a charge of intentional child abuse and inflicting serious injury on his newborn infant. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35368.)

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Maria Alonso and Sarah Silverman--Stark Contrasts

Maria Alonso and Sarah Silverman--Stark Contrasts

 
Cuban-Venezuelan actress Maria Concheta Alonso was set to perform next month at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco’s Mission District in a Spanish-language version of “The Vagina Monologues,” a show produced by Eliana Lopez, the once-estranged, now-loving wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

A little background on the principals is in order here.

Two years ago, the sheriff, co-founder of the Green Party of California, was charged with domestic violence battery, child endangerment, and intimidating a witness relating to a fight he had had with Ms. Lopez.  Mirkarimi was generously allowed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count of false imprisonment, was suspended by Mayor Ed Lee, barred from contacting Lopez, and nine months later was reinstated by minority vote of an empathetic San Francisco Board of Supervisors. 

Mirkarimi and his wife share a lack of class.

Months after emigrating to the United States, Venezuelan telenova star Eliana Lopez waxed eloquent on her blog about her dreams for a simpler life as a wife and mother living in the “beautiful and avant-garde city [Frisco] where millions of interesting people make things happen every day.”  She subsequently wrote that she always tries “to be conscious of my life whenever possible, of what scares me, of what I love and what moves me.”

Two years after that, apparently viscerally scared of Maria Concheta Alonso and what the conservative actress believes, Lopez essentially forced Alonso off her production of “The Vagina Monologues” for hispanics which is scheduled for a 3-day run in February.

Lopez hypocritically stated, “We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately” while contending Alonso had abruptly  resigned from the cast due to a Latino backlash.  The scared producer added, “Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants.  But we’re in the middle of the Mission.  Doing what she is doing is against what we believe.”

What awful Maria did to so terrify loving Eliana and throw Latinos into paroxysms of terror was to simply exercise her constitutional right to free speech by supporting a conservative candidate for governor of California.

She had the unmitigated gall to appear in a campaign ad for Tea Party favorite Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County who is on record as making such outrageous and verifiably true statements as, “Politicians and big government are killing our prosperity, pushing welfare costs through the roof and driving our schools into the ground.” 

Bi-sexual, feminist, pro-abortion actress Sarah Silverman has never demonstrated any compunctions against vilifying everything and everyone associated with conservatism or common decency, nor with anyone and everything other than herself. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35353.)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Dire State of the American Union

The Dire State of the American Union

 
Regardless of what pap President Barack Hussein Obama serves up to the American people when he delivers his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, most if not all of it will be meaningless.

His expected appeal to end America’s “income inequality” by hiking the national minimum wage and extending federal unemployment benefits, his assurances that Obamacare is a rousing success, his pleas to fix our broken immigration policies, his dire warnings about global warming, his misrepresentations of our sputtering economy, his rosy descriptions of his foreign policy achievements? 

All are meaningless since Obama has effectively declared he doesn’t give a damn about anything anyone thinks.

His only real concern is the November 4th midterm elections which promise to either make or break the final two years of his presidency.

The SOTU is delivered annually to a joint session of Congress in accordance with the Constitution’s mandate under Article II, Section 3 that the president “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

Obama’s recommendations to Congress in 2014 have never been more “necessary and expedient” at the same time they have never been more useless and irrelevant since he has already indicated his intent to bypass our legislators to get his way.  As he arrogantly, petulantly told his Cabinet recently, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone–and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball.”

Obama’s liberal-leftist “balls” have largely been thwarted by ballsy Republican conservatives in the House of Representatives so our reputed constitutional scholar-president has decided he will simply ignore the Constitution and Congress by “legislating” via executive fiat in order to advance his extremist agenda.

Adolph Hitler and Joe Stalin must be Barack Obama’s unacknowleged heroes, in addition to his known heroes Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers, all of whom would gleefully approve his unprecedented, authoritarian power grab.

When Obama struts to the podium next Tuesday, the most important issues facing our country will not be troubling him at all. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35273.)

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Abortion Barbie Wendy Davis, aka Bitch Barbie

Abortion Barbie Wendy Davis, aka Bitch Barbie

 
Anyone who follows the dirty world of politics knows that most politicians will do almost anything to be elected but sometimes they and their supporters do and say things that go so far beyond the pale of decency and civilized behavior that it’s impossible to distinguish them from excrement.

Two-term Texas State Senator Wendy Jean Russell Davis along with her rabid, leftist backers have now moved to the top of the excremental heap.

Granted, we’ve become accustomed to the vile, disgraceful invective that regularly emanates from leftist maws but even the disgusting filth of Bill Maher or George Schultz or Kathy Griffin or Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t compare with Sen. Davis.

Acclaimed as the savior of womankind for her 11-hour filibuster on behalf of abortionists, Rhode Island native Davis who has been caught in lie after lie about her background and her divorce, papers for which she filed a day after her second husband had made the last payment on her student loans and after he had accused her of adultery, is now running for the office of governor of the state of Texas.

But, hey, all politicians lie, right?  However, do they all ridicule paraplegics?

Davis is too smart to do that personally although her supporters, who support her for what she deeply believes in, obviously aren’t. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35304.)

Andrew Cuomo, Man of the Leftist People

Andrew Cuomo, Man of the Leftist People

 
Okay, now listen up: I want all liberals, plus anyone else who is a Rino or a homosexual or pro-abortion or pro-guntrol control to get the hell out of New York–and don’t come back!

In somewhat less strident tones, the esteemed Democrat governor of the Empire State pretty much said that last Friday on the public radio show “Capitol Press Room” with Susan Arbetter–although he was not directing his intolerant venom against his fellow liberals, or Rinos or homosexuals, or pro-abortion or pro-gun control types.  He was spewing against conservatives, pro-traditional marriage, pro-lifers, and pro-Second Amendment supporters in New York State.

Well, to be more precise, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Democrat hopeful for the presidency in 2016, said to Ms. Arbetter: “I think what you’re seeing is, you have a schism within the Republican Party.  You have, the Republican Party is searching for an identity. They’re searching  to define their soul.”

Cuomo clarified his unsolicited, moralistic analysis of the GOP by asking, “Is the Republican party in this state a moderate party or is it an extreme conservative party?  That’s what they’re trying to figure out. . . The gridlock in Washington is less about Democrats and Republicans.  It’s more about extreme Republicans versus moderate Republicans. . . and the moderate Republicans are afraid of  the extreme conservative Republicans in Washington, in my opinion.”

(And, in my opinion, and in the opinion of countless others, Andrew Cuomo is as much an ass as his father, the former governor of NYS and twice front-running candidate for the presidency Mario Cuomo, aka the hesitant “Hamlet on the Hudson,” who was twice forced to withdraw from the running due to his family’s Mafia connections.)

Mario’s eldest son Andrew went on to elaborate on his amateur psychoanalysis of the Republican Party: ”Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is  themselves. Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are?” before he frothily pulled out his Get Out of Dodge/New York Card: ”Because if that’s who they are and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the State of New York–because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” 

(And, in my opinion, the one-term, divorced governor who lives in the Executive Mansion and in Westchester County with his girlfriend, foodie Sandra Lee, is hardly in any position to pass moral judgments on anyone, least of all New Yorkers who cherish life and marital normality and the right to protect themselves and their families with legal weapons.) 

Luckily for the Cuomo scion, . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35291.)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Rotten Core of the Common Core: Part Seven


The Rotten Core of the Common Core: Part Seven

 

John Dewey, the undisputed “Father of Progressive Education” who began publishing his theories on politically-oriented  educational reform in various  works such as The School and Society and Democracy and Education over a century ago, may have finally achieved the ultimate consequence of his philosophy: supposedly student-centered schools in which education takes a back seat to social reform with government dictating what must be taught, how it will be taught, and determining if it’s worthwhile teaching.
The disaster that is the test-fixated Common Core State Standards Initiative is rapidly evolving into the vehicle through which Dewey’s “progressive” principles are being implemented in America’s troubled schools.

The many flaws and misrepresentations in the mislabeled, pernicious Common Core State Standards Initiative, actually a federal initiative disguised as a state idea, have already been detailed in this space in six parts but news on those flaws and misrepresentations keeps pouring in:

–Ethan Young, a well-dressed, articulate senior at Farragut High School in Knox County, TN., is one student fighting back.  Young pleaded at a school board meeting that the national Common Core education guidelines, which he called “a mistrust of teachers,” be dropped because, “If everything I learned in high school was a measurable objective: I haven’t learned anything.”  (American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten might just agree with the Tennessee teen.  An avid supporter of Common  Core, Weingarten has nevertheless characterized its rollout as even more disastrous than Obamacare.)

–North Dakota’s Superintendent of Public Schools claimed that, “after meticulous review” and “local leaders always have and always will determine the textbooks being used to teach your child.”  However, the fact the sex-filled, Common Core-recommended novel Dreaming in Cuban is being taught to North Dakota 10th graders calls into question who is really making the education decisions in the Roughrider State.  (One of the novel’s less-explicit excerpts: “Hugo and Felicia stripped in their room, dissolving easily into one another, and made love against the whitewashed walls. Hugo bit Felicia’s breast and left purplish bands of bruises on her upper thighs.”) 

–TownHall.com reports that ”New Common Core teaching materials instruct second graders that land owners are intrinsically evil, that business owners are inherently greedy, and Saul Alinsky radicals are the saviors of the everyman.”  The article explains, “In addition to reading a glowing biography of the Marxist labor leader [Cesar Chavez], students will be asked to evaluate the “scales of fairness” between wealthy landowners, and lowly [non-union] workers.”  The teachers’ guide directs teachers to say, “Fairness and equality exist when the scales are balanced” and ask students whether both sides, as presented in the plan, are equal.  (The correct answer is “no” according to the guide.)

–A mother of a New York kindergarten student found offensive materials on the Student Services Page of the Engage NY Common Core materials site and reported it to NYSED. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35213.)

Monday, January 20, 2014

The Loneliness of "Lone Survivor"

The Loneliness of "Lone Survivor"

At the Broadcast Film Critics Association 19th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards last week, Mark Wahlberg, surprising winner of the CCMA’s 2013 award for best Actor in an Action Movie, courageously, patriotically, and humbly thanked the military and the real heroes of ”Lone Survivor” saying, “I wanna thank my wife and my kids for allowing me to pretend to be as important as a soldier fighting in Afghanistan.”

It was a courageous act amid an audience of America-hating, military-hating Hollywood types epitomized recently by Tom Cruise (who stupidly compared the brutality of his extended absence from daughter Suri so he could shoot a movie to soldiers fighting in Afghanistan) and Kanye West (who ignorantly said that being on stage “is like being a police officer, or like war or something” because of his “contributions to society”).

Wahlberg was lucky he wasn’t hounded off the CCMA stage for speaking with such courage, patriotism, and humility, all traits antithetical to Cruise, West, and their fellow multi-millionaire entertainers who regularly badmouth the same military that protects their lives and income despite deadly risks to their own lives.

Also surprising, the Broadcast Film Critics Association awarded “Lone Survivor” the prize for best “Action Movie.”  Both Wahlberg’s and the movie’s awards are especially noteworthy in view of the fact they have been publicly snubbed for recognition by the granddaddy of all award presentations, the Academy Award of Merit, the Oscars. 

The folks at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences typically disregard any film that depicts American bravery or success or victory as unworthy of their consideration.

And, “Lone Survivor” is a perfect example of such a film and Hollywood reacted as it usually does by panning it.  (Think “Act of Valor,” “Zero Dark 30,” “Blackhawk Down,” et al.)

The Golden Globes ignored it altogether while giving Ben Afleck, Emma Thompson, and Jacqueline Bissett plenty of drunken screen time; the Screen Actors Guild praised its stuntmen as if their amazing stunts were performed on a backyard trampoline; the Academy condescended to nominate “Lone” for its “sound editing” and “sound mixing.”

Universal’s movie was roundly criticized by leftists as just another “flyover country,” pro-war film appealing to jingoistic rednecks and militarists obsessed with racist war propaganda.

It was dissed and ridiculed by the likes of Time’s Richard Corliss as a film “pinned down by its military and political dilemma: between gung  ho and F—, no;” by David Edelstein as a celebration of sacrifice that sanctifies agony which is ”crudely written, rife with clichés, [that] leaves out anything that would transform a piece of propaganda into a work of art;” and by Canada’s Katerine Monk as a flick that “kept me on the edge of my seat, but I can’t be sure if it was the result of some buffed and beautiful performances from the brawny cast, or a latent sense of sympathetic jock itch” that requires you to “dab a tear and relieve some manly itch at the same time.”

Putting aside Ms. Monk’s odd familiarity with jockstraps and manly itches, ”Lone Survivor” beat out all the competition after its release with near-record box office receipts of  $38.5 million at North American theaters and now stands as the first smash hit of 2014.

It could be argued that “Lone Survivor” concludes neither successfully nor victoriously . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35249.)

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Vogue Revisions Lena Dunham

Vogue Revisions Lena Dunham

 
As a proud feminist, twenty-seven year old Lena Dunham should know better.

The fairly frumpy star of the HBO flop ”Girls” is clearly no shrinking violet and thinks nothing of exhibiting her far-less-than-perfect body as if she were an alternate Miley Cyrus but absent the twerker’s, the wrecking ball girl’s, admittedly controversial panache.

Nevertheless, Dunham, described by Wikipedia as a product of a Protestant father, Carroll Dunham, who paints “overtly sexualized pop art” and a Jewish  mother, Laurie Simmons, who photographs artistic domestic scenes with dolls, is now being portrayed by Vogue as a classic beauty, thanks to a ton of photoshopping and what seems to be Vogue’s odd commitment to magically and un-femistically converting an average girl into a gorgeous Hollywood starlet.

That effort won’t work except with starry-eyed Lena fans but much more relevant is the question of why Vogue would so twist the reality that Dunham is what used to be called a “plain jane” and manufacture her into something she isn’t?

Billed as “the world’s most influential fashion magazine,” with a print circulation of more than eleven million, Vogue seems to be editorially saying that plain girls and young women must have their physignomy altered to conform with contemporary, societal expectations of beauty rather than depicting them for who and what they are even if they’re far from classic beauties.

“Girls” pretends to be a comedy/drama allegedly based on Dunham’s “life experiences” whereas it actually serves more as a televised vehicle for her father’s “over sexualized pop art” and her own desperate cravings for attention which must be exacerbated by Vogue’s presentation of her as someone that isn’t really real.

In her defense, . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35218.)

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Martin Luther King, Jr.--The Man, The Legend, The Fraud

Martin Luther King, Jr.--The Man, the Legend, the Fraud

 (With minor revisions, the following was originally posted in this space on January 15th, 2011 under the title, “Reflections on the Greatest Individual Who Ever Lived in America.")

It’s only a matter of time before politicians and sculptors figure out a way to squeeze in Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s visage somewhere between Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore or to chisel away one of those presidents and substitute Dr. King’s face in his stead. 

And, why not?  Dr. King is the greatest individual who has ever graced America’s history, right? 

After all, no other American has a national holiday solely dedicated in his name and he has more streets, avenues, highways, by-ways, cul-de-sacs, lanes, alleyways, and dead-ends named after him than any other personage who has ever lived in America. 

We were indeed blessed by his presence among us.

No one else has ever accomplished so much in so little time in America except, perhaps, Barack Hussein Obama, next in the PC line to have a day if not a month named in his honor with, perhaps, his face emblazoned on Mount Rushmore, Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, Mount Kenya, or all three.

King exemplified Winston Churchill’s accolade that, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few,” in the sense that Britain’s Royal Air Force was incomparable but King’s accomplishments were even more profound.  Never was so much attention paid and so little owed, except to blacks, in America. 

Nevertheless, Dr. King is honored annually with a prestigious holiday denied to every president in our history who are rewarded for their contributions to the nation by a generic “Presidents’ Day.”

MLK Day 2014 is indeed a time for great celebration and fondest remembrance, although certain facets of King’s life won’t be remembered or made public until 2027 since his wife, Coretta Scott King, persuaded a federal court in 1977 to seal 845 pages of his FBI record for 50 years “because its release would destroy his reputation.” 

For now, and for the next 13 years, one can only imagine the damaging content of that file . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35225.)

Friday, January 17, 2014

Nuns: Not What They Used To Be

Nuns: Not What They Used To Be

 
Atheist, lesbian, abortionist, ”progressive” Valerie Tarico, member of Planned Parenthood’s Board of Advocates, recently predicted on Salon.com that  “religious fundamentalism [i.e., orthodox Christianity] is going down.” 

Based on the current state of Catholic nuns in America, Ms. Tarico may have a point.

Back in the good old days when I sometimes studied under the tutelage of the Sisters of Charity at Saints Peter and Paul’s Elementary School in the South Bronx, nuns were a different breed altogether from what they are today.  Mostly tough, old teachers, with a smattering of sweet, younger women, they all shared common religious convictions and dedication to their Church and to educating the young, sometimes with the help of a yardstick.

Not so much, today. 

Freed of the religious habit and the convent, most American nuns have turned in their yardsticks and now live out in the real world dressed in everyday clothing and many have adopted that world’s liberal-leftist attitudes and mores to the detriment of their vocations, a radical change that plays right into the hands of liberal-leftist politicians.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, religion–principally the Christian religion and particularly the Roman Catholic religion–has been under unrelenting attack by our president and his acolytes in the state-run media who are committed to secularizing America at the same time they undermine religious foundations.

Aiding and abetting that secularization and undermining is Sister Joan Chittister, member and former prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, a typical example of today’s new nuns. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35194.)

Thursday, January 16, 2014

If You Like Your Leftists You Can Keep Your Leftists, But Why Would You Want To?

If You Like Your Leftists You Can Keep Your Leftists, But Why Would You Want To?
 
As the incredible number of our leftist president’s lies grows into even more incredible numbers, as his favorable ratings plunge beneath Nixonian depths, as his fellow leftists spew and spin more and more incredulities, as America’s police departments continue to provide him cover with reciprocal lies, for some inexplicable reason, Barack Hussein Obama is still in office!
Those current situations sadly reinforce the truth in the grossly cynical view of H.L. Mencken that “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” 

Just consider:

After winning Politifacts.com’s “Lie of the Year” award for his broken pledge that, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” Obama had the audacity to nominate a proud defender of a proud cop-killer to run Eric Holder’s Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division as an assistant attorney general and chose a leftist, major campaign donor to investigate the IRS’ scandal involving his administration’s perversion of justice by targeting conservatives.

Both picks make Caligula’s choice of his favorite horse, Incitatus, to be a Roman Consul seem sane.

If confirmed, black NAACP Legal Defense Official Debo P. Adegbile, who has worked for years to free  convicted murderer Abu-Jamal from prison and will assist AG Holder in investigating and prosecuting only white civil rights violators since Holder is already on record as saying minorities will not be targeted by his DoJ.  

Adding brazen insult to brazen misrepresentations, Justice Department trial lawyer, Barbara Kay Bosserman, who contributed over $6,000 to Obama’s two presidential campaigns, will be in charge of the long-awaited  investigation into the IRS-Tea Party scandal.

In closely related news, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said recently that its investigators found no IRS political bias or “enemy hunting” that would amount to a violation of criminal law.  This, of course, is now the Obama-Holder FBI, not the FBI of old which was noted for its honesty and integrity. 

Not unexpectedly, Obama’s leftist co-conspirators, his mainstream media, his lackeys, have demonstrated their allegiance to their Master by . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35160.)

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

"I Can't Believe We Made It!"

"I Can't Believe We Made It!"

As we seniors, we seasoned citizens, we ‘ol folk, we old farts prepare for our “end of life consultations,” you know, those Obamacare-required late-life, chitchats with our physicians and/or government bureaucrats who will determine whether we deserve to live or die, (Don’t call them death panels!), it’s good to reflect that we’ve had a pretty good run.

At least that’s the premise behind Vimeo.com’s video titled, “I Can’t Believe We Made It.”
Introduced by the statement, “If you grew up in the 1950′s through the 1980′s this is a tribute to you making it to adulthood,” the video begins with pictures of a bunch of happy swingers, not the modern version of that term but kids enjoying swings in a park, biking, swimming, ball playing, even fighting.
  
We cavorted sans benefit of helmets or parental overseers and without fearing sugary drinks, fattening foods, the Great Outdoors, or falling out of trees and breaking an arm or leg.
 
We didn’t blame or sue someone if we did get hurt and grudgingly accepted the unfortunate facts of life that some of us weren’t as athletic or as smart or as lucky as others.
 
We weren’t immune from all fears, however. . .  (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35168.)

Monday, January 13, 2014

Thug Babies and Their Parental Units


Thug Babies and Their Parental Units

 
“The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”

“No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit.”

“Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.”

“We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

“[We should] apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.”

No, those aren’t the deranged rambings of some Chinese functionary intent on enforcing Red China’s “one-child” policy.  Nor were they written by some sick racist KKK Grand Kliegel committed to the suppression, if not eradication, of all African-Americans.  

Rather, they are the deranged ramblings of the racist eugenicist, Margaret Higgins Sanger, founder of what would later become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Aside from what Sanger’s beliefs say about the busiest abortion mills in America, Planned Parenthood  “clinics,” and what they say about African-American extremists such as Al Sharpton who enthusiastically support an organization founded on the white racist principle of sterilizing and exterminating blacks, what do Sanger’s beliefs say about the “thug babies” video?

To explain, last Tuesday, the Omaha Police Officers Association posted a brief, horrific video of a black 2-year-old in a diaper spewing the vilest obscenities and flipping the bird to the laughing videographer and his associate who are apparently the child’s unidentified parents. 

Headlined, “Heartbreaking Video Shows ‘The Thug Cycle’ “, the video was soon re-posted on Facebook, went viral, and understandably infuriated Omaha’s African-American community.
The video features the two-year-old calling the videographer a “b—- a– n—–“ and repeated “suck my d—“ to a woman who asked him to use the phrase and responding to her, “You a ho, b—-!” (Fill in the blanks.)

It was a consolation to all but the parents that Omaha police removed the child and three other kids from their residence and placed them in protective custody out of concern for their safety.  Yet, the Omaha city prosecutor’s office determined that no crimes had been committed.

Regrettably, teaching one’s offspring gutter language and gestures and filming that base education does not constitute criminal activity either in Nebraska or in any other state in the Union.

On OmahaPOA.com, police characterized the video as “sickening, heartbreaking footage, . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35132.)

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Islam, the Religion of Peace, on a Murderous Rampage

Islam, the Religion of Peace, on a Murderous Roll

 

There is no question that the Roman Catholic Church must have an enormous number of dead people on its collective conscience, including the estimated 200,000 Christians and Muslims who died in the nine Crusades launched by the Church to reclaim Jerusalem from Islamic control between the 7th and 10th centuries and the various Inquisitions conducted to preserve Catholic orthodoxy between the 12th and 16th centuries accounting for, perhaps, tens of thousands killed.

Do note those dates, however, all centuries past.

Over the course of the past 500 years, the Catholic Church has grudgingly admitted its grievous and bloody mistakes in the Crusades and the Inquisitions and has attempted to render abject apologies for its crimes against humanity. 

On the other hand, especially over the past few decades but dating back hundreds of years, Islam, the purported “religion of peace,” has proven, first, that Muslims never forgive and never forget and, secondly, are maniacally obsessed with seeking to exact irrational vengeance over Christians and others for evils they never committed.

Further verifying disturbances in Muslim psyches, some of them consider popsicles a creation of the devil since they look like penises and therefore believe popsicles should be banned in all Islamic nations.  Back in December, Egyptian Muslims attacked Christian families, burned their homes, and injured a number of infidels including a Christian teenage girl who was thrown from a 3 story window because she was  suspected of involvement with a Christian man. 

For years now, so-called mainstream Muslims have denied responsibility for the murderous actions of their fellow Muslims and sought to dismiss repeated Islamic atrocities as the work of small bands of disaffected radicals.  If true, there must be thousands of such “disaffected radicals” roaming and terrorizing our planet.

The Munich Olympics massacre of 1972, the 1983 US Embassy and military barracks bombings in Beirut, the World Trade Center attacks of 1993 and 2001, the 2006 Mumbai train bombing, Benghazi in 2012, not to mention the near-countless other successful and foiled attacks?  All attributable to those rascally radicals and certainly not to the warlike teachings of the Holy Prophet Mohammad or to the Qu’ran or to Islam!
Baloney! . . . (Read more at ht,tp://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35112.)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

"Top 10's" You Have Missed

"Top 10's" You May Missed

 
It's now almost two weeks into 2014 and we’ve all had enough of what someone thinks were the top ten somethings either of 2013 or of something else.

However, here are some “Top 10′s” and plain old “tops” you may have missed beginning with the only-somewhat exaggerated views of the writers on the “Late Show with Dave Letterman” regarding Obamacare followed by a more serious “Ten People, Groups, and Countries Thrown Under Obama’s Bus in 2013,” “The Dumbest Criminals of 2013,” and the “Top 10 Media Hate-Crime Hoaxes of 2013.” 

“Top Ten Indicators Your Employer Has Changed To The Obamacare Health Care Plan”
 
(10) Your annual breast exam is done at Hooters.
(9) Directions to your doctor’s office include “Take a left when you enter the trailer park.”
(8) The tongue depressors taste faintly of Fudgesicles.
(7) The only proctologist in the plan is “Gus” from Roto-Rooter.
(6) The only item listed under Preventative Care Coverage is “an apple a day.”
(5) Your primary care physician is wearing the pants you gave to Goodwill last month.
(4) “The patient is responsible for 200% of out-of-network charges,” is not a typographical error.
(3) The only expense covered 100% is…”Embalming.”
(2) Your Prozac comes in different colors with little M’s on them.
(1) You ask for Viagra and they give you a Popsicle stick and duct tape.  


“Ten People, Groups, and Countries Thrown Under Obama’s Bus in 2013.”  Breitbart.com’s Kerry Pickett had a challenging task narrowing that list to a mere ten but nails it with Obama blaming the Secret Service for cancelling White House tours in March, screwing Egypt’s President Morsi and America in July, and blocking access to the Veterans Memorial during the government shutdown in October.  

“The Dumbest Criminals of 2013.” . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35096.)M

Friday, January 10, 2014

AG Eric Holder Explains Discriminatiom

AG Eric Holder Explains Discrimination

 
That President Barack Hussein Obama and his administration are racists has been apparent to all but terminally-devoted Obamaphiles since Day One–and even before Obama took office–yet he and his underlings continue to amaze with their brazen black racist actions and statements. 

It’s fortunate for America that African-Americans have less than three years left goal to accomplish their ultimate goal.

No slouch himself when it comes to racism, (remember Cambridge police Sgt. Joe Crowley and his defense of the son he never had, Trayvon Martin?), Obama now mostly relies on fellow black racists to serve as his watercarriers.

Perhaps the most viscerally racist member of the administration, Eric Holder arrogantly displayed his sentiments even before his confirmation as A.G., the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, when he referred to white people as “a nation of cowards” and subsequently refused to prosecute New Black Panthers in a cut-and-dried, 2008 white-voter intimidation case in Philadelphia.

Holder and his Department further revealed themselves as black racists when it was announced the DoJ would only prosecute white civil rights violators and would not make federal cases of non-white school bullies.  

His civil rights division was irrefutably exposed for what they are by the highly-reputable former DoJ attorney J. Christian Adams who was never refuted  . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35083.)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Time to Quit the Boy Scouts AND the Girl Scouts?

Time to Quit the Boy Scouts AND the Girl Scouts?

 
There are alternatives to joining the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA) and now is a perfect time for our young people to consider those options.

Following the resolution passed last May by the BSA National Council to break with its century-old, Christian moral tradition of prohibiting membership by “open or avowed” homosexual boys and the implementation of that resolution as of January 1st, 2014, the Boy Scouts of America are no longer your father’s or grandfather’s Scouts and your sons just may be forced to bunk with an “open or avowed” homosexual kid on their next overnight scouting adventure.

Likewise, the GSUSA, which has long promoted itself as ”the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls” but which, due to the adoption of “progressivism,” is now plagued by declining membership, revenues, and volunteers, disagreements among its leadership and its grassroots, and upheavals over plans by various local councils to sell their summer camps, incredibly chose abortion advocate Wendy Davis, an unknown Texas state senator, as a woman deserving of inclusion on the Girl Scouts’ list of 2013′s “incredible women of the year.” 

In addition, the GSUSA caved to unrelenting pressure from the LGBT lobby in 2012 by admitting a 7-year old “transgendered” Colorado boy into its ranks, provoking a nationwide boycott of (vastly overpriced) Girl Scout cookies.  That politically-correct decision calls into question their boast that they are “the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls.” 

Suellen Nelles, head of a local Scout council based in Fairbanks, Alaska Scout contends, “We have a leadership at the top who are toxic to this organization and need to go” and believes the source of that toxicity is emanating from the national CEO, Anna Maria Chavez.

The BSA will still exclude atheists, agnostics from membership and, interestingly for what it suggests, they will still exclude adult homosexuals from participating in the organization and interacting with the kids.  The GSUSA has tried to backtrack on Davis’ inclusion after incredibly characterizing her on the official Girl Scouts Twitter account as “incredible” simply because Davis had filibustered against prohibiting abortions of pre-born Texan infants after 20 weeks gestation. 

The purpose of this post, however, is not to castigate the BSA for abdicating its responsibilities by admitting young homosexuals into the Boy Scout ranks, (while judiciously prohibiting adult homosexuals.)  Nor is the intent here to demean the GSUSA . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35039.)

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Quickie Liberal Updates: Eliot Spitzer and Bill de Blasio

Quickie Liberal Updates:  Eliot Spitzer and Bill de Blasio

 
Two prime exemplars of the liberal-left, aka “progressives”, in action:

Eliot Spitzer: Some people never learn from their trials, tribulations, and indiscretions.
The disgraced New York State governor who was forced to resign his office after he was exposed as a philanderer with a yen for expensive, young hookers has moved on up to somewhat older women.

According to the New York Post, “Sleazy Eliot Spitzer turned a resort hot tub into a steamy love cauldron over the weekend–kissing and sucking the toes of his topless mistress, [37 year old] Lis Smith, in front of families with children.”

Smith, you may recall, is the former Director of Rapid Response, Obama for America and former spokeswoman for New York City’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio.  She was canned by de Blasio after she and Spitzer were caught apparently spending the night together in December at her apartment.

Now, toe kissing and sucking may be kinky but aren’t morally offensive activities except when the exhibition happens at a family resort such as the Half Moon in Montego Bay and the suckee is topless and highly visible. 

One 10 year old boy noticed–as boys are wont to do–and created an audience by yelling to his mother, “Mom there’s an old guy in the Jacuzzi with this girl and she’s topless and she’s got her legs wrapped around him.”

As expected, the old guy’s camp denied everything as “totally untrue,” just as they had denied the story published by another Spitzer hooker, Rebecca Woodard in “Call Girl Confidential.”  Woodard claimed the Love Gov liked to choke her just for his jollies during their illicit assignations, fun and games we trust he didn’t play with his wife Silda Wall Spitzer who has finally dumped his sorry ass.

Bill de Blasio.  Most liberal heads aren’t screwed on too tight.
Mayor de Blasio hasn’t been caught playing with hookers or publicly sucking on topless associates’ toes in hot tubs but he is a proud “progressive” like Eliot Spitzer and, as such, sucks up to “progressive” rights movements.

Even before he ascended on New Years Day to the mayoralty of the Big Apple, described by one speaker at his inaugural as a “plantation,” de Blasio announced, “It’s over.  We are going to quickly and aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape in New York City. They are not humane. They are not appropriate to the year 2014.” . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35037.)

Monday, January 6, 2014

Guns, Love 'Em or Hate 'Em

Guns, Love 'Em or Hate 'Em

 
No matter what Americans think of them, guns, although inanimate objects, by their nature and construction are fearsome things capable of sending projectiles of various sorts into military targets, into animals, and into people. 

Likewise, no matter what Americans think of them, efforts at passing gun control regulations aimed at restricting the possession, shipment, or sale of firearms, by their nature and construction are fearsome things capable of inflicting what could be irreparable damage to our freedoms and our Constitution.

No one in his right mind would be opposed to restricting gun possession by mentally ill individuals, precisely the public rationale used by President Barack Hussein Obama in his recent proposals to bypass Congress through executive actions issued by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.  Intentionally key in both proposals is state sharing of all information gathered with the federal database, effectively an administration end-run toward national gun registration.

Foiled repeatedly by the Republican House of Representatives in accomplishing that goal and other sweeping gun controls, our firearm-fixated president is committed to imposing his will on the American people out of allegedly deep concern over protecting innocent victims from such massacres as Sandy Hook, regardless of the reality that his planned measures will have no real effect in preventing future, similar tragedies.

A new study–the latest of many ignored by liberal-leftists intent on controlling everything in our lives, especially guns–once again essentially confirms that strict gun control laws actually lead to higher murder rates and that regulating so-called “assault weapons” has little impact on murder rates.

The study, conducted by Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius and published in the journal “Applied Economics Letters,” is titled, “An Examination of the Effects of Concealed Weapons Laws and Assault Weapons Bans on State-level Murder Rates.” 

Based on data accumulated from 1980 to 2009, the controlled study also clearly indicates that states with laws governing concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states.

See the complete study, which will have absolutely no influence on the un-thinking lib-left, here http://tinyurl.com/kgjm2mf . Gun control fanatics refuse to be intimidated by contradictory facts or differing points of view.

For example, amid all the administration-staged, anti-gun propaganda on Sandy Hook–the congressional testimony by grieving parents, the photo-ops featuring fearful children, the emotional declarations condemning firearms–little attention was paid to the words spoken by the father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School child last January 28th. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=35017.)

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Melissa Harris-Perry Should Be Fired by MSNBC

MSNBC Should Fire Melissa Harris-Perry

 

Melissa Harris-Perry who clearly has more Caucasian dna in her genetic makeup than Mariah Carey or Beyonce’ has a nasty habit of letting her racist views intentionally and unintentionally creep into her “news” commentary on MSNBC.

For those and for her latest exhibition of black racism, she should be sent packing.

Long recognized as a racist by objective observers, the thirty seven year old Harris-Perry has caught quite a bit of well-deserved flak for ridiculing the family of former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 GOP nominee for president Mitt Romney solely because his son and daughter-in-law adopted an African-American child.

Specifically, on her program last Sunday, MH-P featured a Romney family photo which included the newest member of the clan, Kieran Romney, the adopted African-American baby son of Ben and Andee Romney, seated front and center on Grandpa Mitt’s lap.

Any rational individual would have regarded the picture as simply one showing a wholesome, happy group.  However, MH-P irrationally seized the opportunity to steer her guests on the eponymous “Melissa Harris-Perry” show toward shamefully mocking the photo, the Romney family, and therefore little Kieran himself.

To black supremacists like Harris-Perry, curiously a product of a diverse Mormon family, such adoptions must apparently pollute pure, black blood and are probably perceived as worse than black rapists attacking and impregnating innocent white girls.

Black actress panelist Pia Glenn launched into parody: “One of these things [the thing being Kieran] is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same.”  Arab-American comedian Dean Obeidallah followed by sarcastically joking, “I think this picture is great. It really sums up the diversity of the Republican party, the RNC. At the convention, they find the one black person” (i.e., as a showpiece.)

Harris-Perry then added her own witticism when she laughingly speculated on a future marriage between Romney’s grandson and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s mixed-race daughter, North West.

For his part, Romney graciously forgave MH-P the day after her apology saying to Fox News’ Chris Wallace, “Let me first note, Chris, we love this little guy a great deal.  He was an answer to prayer, and we love that he is a part of our family. He is a part of our family.  That being said, I recognize that people make mistakes and the folks at MSNBC made a big mistake. They’ve apologized for it. That’s all can you ask for.”

Except that, for Harris-Perry, such “mistakes” are more the rule than the exception. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=34997.)

Friday, January 3, 2014

The "Progressive" Future of Mayor de Blasio's NYC

The "Progressive" Future of Mayor de Blasio's NYC

 
Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Bill deBlasio, formerly Warren Wilhelm, Jr., as New York City’s 109th mayor marked a number of firsts in the history of the Big Apple.

Those firsts include but were not limited to the fact he is the first Democrat to hold that office in 20 years, the first city Public Advocate (ombudsman) to become mayor, the first mayor to be sworn in by an impeached American president, the first mayor to be introduced by a cleric who compared the city to a slave plantation, the first mayor who admitted to being a Communist sympathizer, and the first mayor who fathered a confessed drug addict.

And de Blasio and his wife, activist and reputed poetess Chirlane McCray, are also the first interracial couple to ever live in the official mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion.

Mayor de Blasio touted himself and his candidacy as “progressive” in the mold of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the popular, dimunitive Republican who was more a Democrat than a Republican half a century ago, and he repeated that ”progressive” mantra in his inaugural address in which he pledged to make NYC  “a fairer, more just, more progressive place” after 12 years of Michael Bloomberg’s administration.

It’s hard to imagine a more “progressive” town than New York City unless we compare the city with Democrat-run, “progressive” towns like Detroit, Chicago, and San Francisco where politicians are so “progressive” they have driven their municipalities to historic levels of corruption and bankruptcy, to murderous mayhem in the streets, and to blind tolerance of virtually every depravity known to man.

Loosely defined as “moving forward,” when applied to politicians the term “progressive” takes on whole other complexities and nuances involving everything from civil rights and justice, border security and war, health care and education, wealth and poverty, and labor unions and even religion.

Ironically, the man de Blasio has replaced at City Hall, the man repeatedly smeared at his inaugural, the 12-year mayor, Mike Bloomberg, was almost as progressive as the new mayor. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=34940.)

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Eliot Spitzer--The Man, the Politician, the Snake

Eliot Spitzer--the Man, the Politician, the Snake

 

Eliot Laurence Spitzer, the 54 year old New Yorker born to privilege in the exclusive Riverdale section of the Bronx, the son of Anne (née Goldhaber), an English literature professor, and Bernard Spitzer, a wealthy real estate mogul, and the grandson of Galician Jews and Jewish Palestinian immigrants, may have made the greatest mistake of his life by never having his Bar Mitzvah, according to which 13 year old Jewish boys, future Jewish men, become accountable for their actions. \
Poor Eliot clearly never quite learned the specifics of that accountability.

Prior to becoming a bar mitzvah, a Jewish boy’s parents are held responsible for whatever he does but afterwards he is supposed to bear total  responsibility for his actions according Jewish law, tradition, and ethics.  Understanding and accepting those responsibilities could have greatly benefited the over-achieving Spitzer in his various careers as well as in his personal life.  They could also have saved him from the disgrace that followed.

Spitzer gained his greatest notoriety after working for two years as an assistant D.A. in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and then launching two bids for the position of NYS Attorney General.  Thanks to an admittedly huge infusion of family money, he finally, barely, won that highly-coveted position in 1998 by a miniscule margin of 0.6% and, as an incumbent, was re-elected handily four years later.

It was during his 8-year tenure as AG that Spitzer showed his true, overreaching colors when he effectively usurped federal government  prerogatives of investigating and prosecuting corporate white-collar crime, securities fraud, Internet fraud, environmental violations, and subpoenaing witnesses and corporate records. 

He succeeded in gaining national recognition and a reputation as a political Mr. Clean and was even considered as Democrat Party vice presidential material in 2004, all in spite of questions concerning earlier illegal campaign financing.

Financed again by that same family money, Spitzer, and his wealthy father, virtually bought the New York governorship in 2006 and soon after, the ignominious downfall of Eliot L. Spitzer began.

Spitzer ultimately admitted he had regularly engaged the services of high-priced prostitution service, Emperors Club VIP, and paid for sex with $1,000-an-hour call girls, (his favorite hooker was 22 year old Ashley Dupré), despite being married for 25 years to Silda Wall, a successful Southern Baptist attorney in her own right.

Reports show he spent as much as $80,000 for prostitutes during his years as Attorney General and Governor yet Spitzer is alleged to have misused campaign funds to pay for rooms in Washington’s Mayflower Hotel to carry on his illicit assignations.

The “reform governor” resigned the governorship . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=34885.)