Tom Lehrer: Poisoning Pigeons In The Park

I just discovered the delightful pianist and satirist, Tom Lehrer, via Roderick Long’s blog. A mathematician (BA magna cum laude from Harvard, a phi beta kappa, and teaching stints at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley, although he never finished his doctorate), Lehrer was employed at Los Alamos and the National Security Agency and then lectured widely in political science and musical theater. There are dozens of great pieces of his posted on youtube, on everything from Werner von Braun to World War III. To my ears, Lehrer sounds a bit like Danny Kaye (another of  my favorites) –  for the politically savvy.

The lyrics of this song, “Poisoning Pigeons In the Park,” perfectly capture the macabre sangfroid toward cruelty and wanton destruction that the corporate-state tries to inculcate in the population.

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Wash-Po’s “Objective” Reporter On Conservatism Outed As Conservative-Hater

Reporter David Weigel’s feverish imaginings about the group he pretends to cover objectively have surfaced in emails sent to the liberal listserv, Journolist, according to Fishbowl DC (hat-tip to LRC blog).

Why am I not surprised?

Global-warming “scientists” turn out to be political hacks grinding over-sized axes; “educators” preaching “tolerance” and “love” turn out to be sexual Bolsheviks; green “activists” turn out to be shills for billionaire speculators….. Continue reading

Are Secularists and Atheists A Persecuted Minority?

UPDATE
Since writing this post a few years ago, I have stopped dabbling in astrology and have become more orthodox in my Christian beliefs. I still accept the tenets of Sanatana Dharma that undergird traditional Hindu belief, and consider that they make me more, rather than less, a Christian.

ORIGINAL POST
Atheists and agnostics often imply that they are a persecuted minority. I decided to look it up.
Turns out that after Christianity and Islam (which the elites have conveniently set at each others’ throats), secularists command the largest following (along with Hindus). By the time the Christians and Muslims get done polishing each other of, I guess they’d be the most dominant group. Hmm..mm, as my friends at the Daily Bell would say.  For the record, I define myself as an esoteric Christian, neo-Hindu, skeptical spiritualist, and ethical occultist (“God’s Son, Falwell’s Mother, and the Rest of Us Ho’s,” Dissident Voice, May 18, 2007). Continue reading

Eldridge Cleaver, Capitalist: Produce More, Consume Less

In an interview with Reason magazine, February 1986, Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther who converted later to Christianity, showed a keen appreciation of many free-market principles:

Cleaver: I’ve come to basically the same conclusions. My life, I think, spans the whole era of the welfare state. I was born in 1935. I remember when people were ashamed to be on welfare and receive state aid and all that, but we developed a situation where black people to a large degree and a lot of other groups such as elderly people, children and a lot of poor white people ended being harnessed by political forces, particularly the Democratic Party. In return for the federal appropriations that we now dependent upon, our leaders were obligated to get out the black vote for the Democratic Party. So this put us in a negative relationship with the economic system. We were dependent upon the federal budget—a very precarious situation, because when the political winds change, we get our living cut off. Continue reading

Sauvik Chakravarti On Eco-Statism

Sauvik Chakravarti at Antidote on human-hating environmentalism:

Next: look at the different “utopias” of libertarians and environmentalists. Libertarians idealise the most perfect freedom. Environmentalists idealise “pristine” Nature. They are all from cities – but they love the jungle. They love beasts – the tigers and the elephants – and never consider what life must be like for someone who lives near wild elephants and tigers. These forest-dwellers are enemies of the environmentalist. Their greatest friends are the State forest guards – the very people the forest-dwellers hate. Environmentalists are therefore enemies of Man, enemies of Freedom, and friends of the State. This should always be borne in mind. They are all “watermelons”: green outside, but red inside. Continue reading

Che Guevara: From Communist Icon To Starbucks Logo

Humble Libertarian enjoys some unseemly lulz at the expense of revolutionary never-wasser Che Guevara:

“What a shame. All that time fighting capitalism only to end up making capitalists rich selling t-shirts of his face to ignorant, white, middle class, wannabes who wear his image with their name brand sneakers, designer jeans, and Axe body spray while sipping Starbuck’s Coffee. Karma is definitely real.”