0 comment Saturday, September 13, 2014 | admin
I didn't watch it. It took some doing to avoid it, considering that apparently the Weather Channel and the shopping channels even covered the circus in D.C. today, which seems to have been the longest and most elaborate such ceremony in any of our lifetimes.
I'm glad I did not watch, especially when I read transcripts or other accounts of what happened. This one for example, from WVWN:
European Americans insulted in Inaugural 'benediction' Rev. Joseph Lowery prays for the day when whites will "embrace what is right" Joseph Lowery, an elderly veteran of the "civil rights movement" and an ordained preacher put a kink in the media narrative of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the "first black President" with a cheap shot at European Americans in his "prayer" ending the ceremony.
Implying that white people that have not yet acknowledged their supposed oppression of nonwhites, Lowery engaged in a call and response routine joined in by the crowd, estimated by National Public Radio to be 98% black.
Lowery's words were improvised from the lyrics of a blues song from the 1940s, and called to "work for that day... when white will embrace what is right."
[...] Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around...
(LAUGHTER)
... when yellow will be mellow...
(LAUGHTER)
LOWERY: ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
LOWERY: Say Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
LOWERY: And Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen. (APPLAUSE)''
So we are being accused and condemned even in the 'benediction.' I wonder if Lowery even knows what 'benediction' means; it means 'blessing.' Who was being blessed in that little outburst? It was more of an imprecation.
And this administration claims to stand for 'transcending race.' If 'transcend' means 'dwell on', 'harp on,' 'exploit' or 'milk for all it's worth', then I guess they are 'transcending' race. If 'transcending race' means re-opening old wounds and inflicting new ones, then I guess they are transcending race.
Then there was this example:
"Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all."
Thus prayed the hireling Rick Warren today at the inauguration of a base stranger to the office of President of the United States of America. Surely more than a few Americans realized that this blasphemous plea directly contradicted what John Jay wrote in Federalist No. 2, that he counted it a blessing that America possessed "one united people�a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion"? Surely more than a few of us honestly and unashamedly despised Warren for what he was saying and what he was doing?
Warren had barely finished speaking when the electronic enemy began analyzing what he�d said and done. His self-professed "friend," Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Columbia University, snapped, "I don't think he acquitted himself very well. To lead the nation in saying the Lord's Prayer, which is so particularly Christian, was a mistake."
A professor. Of American religious history.''
I prefer the much better prayer which is at the end of the linked blog entry.
Finally, Melanie Phillips at the UK's Daily Mail gives us this rather mixed bag, which starts out fairly soundly, but then veers off to bow at the politically correct altar en route to the conclusion:
Sorry to be a party pooper, but I can't share this swooning Obama hysteria Has everyone lost their marbles? The inauguration of President Obama is being treated like the Second Coming. The coverage is so gushing we might all drown.
Of course it�s a great thing that America, with its history of slavery and segregation still a shockingly recent memory, now has a black President; the palpable joy of African-Americans is entirely understandable and deeply touching. And there�s no doubt that Obama is a highly charismatic and attractive personality.
But what�s more than a wee bit troubling is that the swooning hysteria reflects the fact that people appear to believe that as of today the world will be saved. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares, peace will be brought to the Middle East, Iran will be pacified, every American will have health insurance, poverty will be eliminated and utopia will have arrived.''
The obligatory PC disclaimer, which is there to announce that ''I'm not a racist, honestly I'm not", sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb, but check out the FReepers' response, which is not to disagree with Philliips's condemnation of America's ''history of slavery and segregation", but to petulantly mention that Britain was just as guilty in those bad old days of our bad old racist forefathers.
Over at the Forum, I posted a link to Justin Raimondo's piece, in which he contrasts Jefferson's inauguration to today's grotesque extravaganza:
When Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated, he sought to dismantle the evolving Federalist tradition of pomp and circumstance. In a ceremonial sense, royalism seemed to have been restored, or so it appeared to him. As this blogger put it, "Dressed in simple attire, Jefferson walked over to the Capitol with a phalanx of riflemen, friends, and fellow citizens from his home state of Virginia."
In these last days of the American Empire, such austere republicanism would be considered impossibly quaint. Having long ago morphed into Jefferson's worst nightmare, the closer we get to the end, the more glamorous our inaugurals become. The poorer we are, the more millions we'll throw at a ceremony that is really the crowning of a monarch � and not just any old king, but an emperor bestriding the globe.''
Today's bizarre display should make us stop and reflect on how we've gone from the Republic founded by our forefathers, led by men like Washington and Jefferson, to today's surreal spectacle.
''How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism." - James Monroe, 1778
I'm glad I did not watch, especially when I read transcripts or other accounts of what happened. This one for example, from WVWN:
European Americans insulted in Inaugural 'benediction' Rev. Joseph Lowery prays for the day when whites will "embrace what is right" Joseph Lowery, an elderly veteran of the "civil rights movement" and an ordained preacher put a kink in the media narrative of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the "first black President" with a cheap shot at European Americans in his "prayer" ending the ceremony.
Implying that white people that have not yet acknowledged their supposed oppression of nonwhites, Lowery engaged in a call and response routine joined in by the crowd, estimated by National Public Radio to be 98% black.
Lowery's words were improvised from the lyrics of a blues song from the 1940s, and called to "work for that day... when white will embrace what is right."
[...] Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around...
(LAUGHTER)
... when yellow will be mellow...
(LAUGHTER)
LOWERY: ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
LOWERY: Say Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
LOWERY: And Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen. (APPLAUSE)''
So we are being accused and condemned even in the 'benediction.' I wonder if Lowery even knows what 'benediction' means; it means 'blessing.' Who was being blessed in that little outburst? It was more of an imprecation.
And this administration claims to stand for 'transcending race.' If 'transcend' means 'dwell on', 'harp on,' 'exploit' or 'milk for all it's worth', then I guess they are 'transcending' race. If 'transcending race' means re-opening old wounds and inflicting new ones, then I guess they are transcending race.
Then there was this example:
"Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all."
Thus prayed the hireling Rick Warren today at the inauguration of a base stranger to the office of President of the United States of America. Surely more than a few Americans realized that this blasphemous plea directly contradicted what John Jay wrote in Federalist No. 2, that he counted it a blessing that America possessed "one united people�a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion"? Surely more than a few of us honestly and unashamedly despised Warren for what he was saying and what he was doing?
Warren had barely finished speaking when the electronic enemy began analyzing what he�d said and done. His self-professed "friend," Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Columbia University, snapped, "I don't think he acquitted himself very well. To lead the nation in saying the Lord's Prayer, which is so particularly Christian, was a mistake."
A professor. Of American religious history.''
I prefer the much better prayer which is at the end of the linked blog entry.
Finally, Melanie Phillips at the UK's Daily Mail gives us this rather mixed bag, which starts out fairly soundly, but then veers off to bow at the politically correct altar en route to the conclusion:
Sorry to be a party pooper, but I can't share this swooning Obama hysteria Has everyone lost their marbles? The inauguration of President Obama is being treated like the Second Coming. The coverage is so gushing we might all drown.
Of course it�s a great thing that America, with its history of slavery and segregation still a shockingly recent memory, now has a black President; the palpable joy of African-Americans is entirely understandable and deeply touching. And there�s no doubt that Obama is a highly charismatic and attractive personality.
But what�s more than a wee bit troubling is that the swooning hysteria reflects the fact that people appear to believe that as of today the world will be saved. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares, peace will be brought to the Middle East, Iran will be pacified, every American will have health insurance, poverty will be eliminated and utopia will have arrived.''
The obligatory PC disclaimer, which is there to announce that ''I'm not a racist, honestly I'm not", sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb, but check out the FReepers' response, which is not to disagree with Philliips's condemnation of America's ''history of slavery and segregation", but to petulantly mention that Britain was just as guilty in those bad old days of our bad old racist forefathers.
Over at the Forum, I posted a link to Justin Raimondo's piece, in which he contrasts Jefferson's inauguration to today's grotesque extravaganza:
When Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated, he sought to dismantle the evolving Federalist tradition of pomp and circumstance. In a ceremonial sense, royalism seemed to have been restored, or so it appeared to him. As this blogger put it, "Dressed in simple attire, Jefferson walked over to the Capitol with a phalanx of riflemen, friends, and fellow citizens from his home state of Virginia."
In these last days of the American Empire, such austere republicanism would be considered impossibly quaint. Having long ago morphed into Jefferson's worst nightmare, the closer we get to the end, the more glamorous our inaugurals become. The poorer we are, the more millions we'll throw at a ceremony that is really the crowning of a monarch � and not just any old king, but an emperor bestriding the globe.''
Today's bizarre display should make us stop and reflect on how we've gone from the Republic founded by our forefathers, led by men like Washington and Jefferson, to today's surreal spectacle.
''How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism." - James Monroe, 1778
Labels: Cult Of Personality, Identity Politics, Political Correctness, Politics, Racial Division