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A Further Perspective
Occupational Therapy
It’s been a short road from Woodstock to Zuccatti Park.
If you are old enough to remember the so-called “Summer of Love” that was perpetrated on this land by a bunch of bored, spoiled kids and their liberal enablers in 1968, then I don’t have to draw you a picture of all that it entailed. On the other hand, if you are fortunate enough not to have that awful year and the subsequent decade seared into your brain, unfortunately you can still get a whiff of it by pointing your nose toward lower Manhattan.
Although I’ve tried to steer clear of coverage of the Occupy Wall Street gang due to the fear of non-chemically induced flashbacks, I’ve seen enough to recognize that we’ve been here before. For a quick history lesson watch — if you can bear it — some video of Woodstock and you’ll be shocked at how similar are the dreadful inanities of the those hippies and their woeful imitators at OWS; minus the awful music of course.
And so we are once again treated to the sounds of endless dronings about abuses of power coupled with angst-filled moanings of economic injustice, all delivered by expensively clad clods armed with all the latest toys and hurled amidst mountains of garbage; all the detritus of rampant capitalism. It almost makes one nostalgic for the yelping of 40 years ago, when the participants at least had the incentive of keeping their sorry selves out of Vietnam. Yes, the 1960s were the halcyon days for liberals, when antiwar protests sent a tingle up the leg of Walter Cronkite, as they continue to do for his devoted disciples. Remember Cindy Sheehan?
Which brings us to our current rebels without a cause. Amongst endless speculation of exactly who or what is the target of their whiny protestations, the answer seems to be a familiar one for anybody who remembers the '60s: it’s The Man. Who is this man, you ask? He’s the evil authority figure who — although he is the source and sustenance of your existence — is the one who makes you do things you don’t want to do: like work, pay taxes and make mortgage payments. In other words, it’s Daddy. The realization that Daddy is knocking on the door of their heretofore carefree lives is a rude awakening for those reared by the tender hand of the Nanny State, and probably the reason for their self-imposed stupor.
All of this would be a terribly sad story were it not so fiendishly funny. Their claim that they represent 99 percent of the American people is what gives real value to the OWS movement, but not in the way that they planned. None but a tiny minority on the deluded left truly believes that the American Way deprives anyone of a chance to improve their lot; a look at the last names of the people in the so-called one percent is proof enough of that. No, the real economic problems faced by this country are the result of the policies of those who are bound and determined to put an end to the class-busting foundations at the core of our nation’s prosperity.
So what to do when the nightly news is rife with coverage of same? How to keep one’s chin up when we are ankle deep in the inane rantings of post-adolescent chuckleheads? Not to worry. There is no cause for despair, because these displays of liberal absurdity almost always lead to conservative gains. And this is why groups like OWS, much like their progenitors from the '60s, are bound to drive the county in a right-ward direction. In truth, as the Immortal Bard says, methinks that they protest too much. In the four decades since the Summer of Love and its attendant foolishness, we’ve had 28 years of Republican presidencies and only 14 of Democrats.
The most recent demonstration of America’s distaste for leftist protest shenanigans was the defeat of John F. Kerry in 2004. I am sure that it only took the publication of photos from his antiwar days to swiftly sink his boat. They recalled Americans of a certain age to the noxious notions of that time, like it took just as much courage to resist the draft as it did to actually serve and fight. Voters didn’t buy it in 1968 and 1972 when they elected Richard Nixon and certainly not when George W. Bush dispatched Kerry in ‘04.
However supportive he may be of their aims, Barack Obama and his messiah-like campaign of light did much to erase the memory of the left’s propensity to participate in angry demonstrations against the American Way of Life and so attracted many independent voters to his side. But riding to the rescue like so many socialist cavalrymen come the largely unoccupied occupiers of Zuccotti Park, just in time to remind America what a nation where 99 percent of its population consisted of slackers and malcontents would look like. And if the Obama Administration makes the critical mistake of hitching their wagon to this group of losers, he will soon join their ranks.
So, I say to the occupiers of the Wall Street and friends: Keep up the good work and stay warm this winter. Peace and love.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (113) | Leave a comment
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ENOUGH ROPE| 10.26.11 @ 6:45AM
If OWS were to rule America, then the OWS gangs would inter us conservatives and other patriots in gulags. Absurd? Remember the FBI undercover agent in The Weathermen who asked the Weathermen leaders in the 1970s how many people would have to be killed to establish leftist control of America. The answer was 25 million would have to be killed. I wonder when a replica of a guillitone will appear near Wall Street. Ah shucks, there just some kids having fun--"nothin ta worry bout."
Indy| 10.26.11 @ 8:35AM
Thank goodness for the internet, we are paying attention. Look who made an appearance in Chicago, Bill Ayers is now offering his expertise to the young protesters.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.co.....y-chicago/
Frances Fox Piven, Cornel West and others are reliving the 60's and the media fails to report all of this, why? Instead they say, OWS is just like the Tea Party, really? The media is being exposed, more people are waking up.
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 11:51AM
and folks called Glen Beck a loon. Okay. We have this mob being given credence by the political left in the US; Libya is going to be a sharia state, and I would be on Egypt following suit; Iran is further emboldened; Europe is being taken over from within; and so forth. The transformation change promised by the campaigner-in-chief cannot be accomplished without chaos and disorder. OWS is part of it. When do local officials grow a pair and say that the right to assembly and speech DOES NOT include a corresponding right to camp out endlessly.
TrueBlue| 10.26.11 @ 1:57PM
Or to interfere with the rights of others to continue to do business and get on with their lives? The OWS crowds leave piles of trash, the area smells horrid, and they get in the way of anyone not part of their little group. On top of that they are constantly harrassing the police in an attempt to get the cops to attack them first so they can get a spectacle on tape. Even when they openly start the fight they still scream at the cops for even thinking of defending themselves. Apparently my piddle $50k a year puts me in the 1%, because I know I'm sure as hell not part of THAT group.
Lizard King| 10.26.11 @ 8:04PM
Take a look at Aaron Lewis's music vid, "Country Boy". You may see, "corny redneck". What I see is a large segment of non-urban America that is well informed, literate and armed like no other civilian population on the planet. There is not even a slim chance the OWS dorks can/will inflict ANY physical harm on this genuine element of our culture. Delusional, effete, entitled, pseudo-intellectuals v the Aaron Lewis men of this planet, I know whose back I'll have!
race_to_the_bottom| 10.26.11 @ 11:01PM
a guillitone ??? Spell checker is your friend. Actually, I have been waiting to see a replica guillotine. Of course, EVERYONE, except maybe Rope, would undestand that this was merely theatre and not a death threat. Now if they started wearing cammies and exercising their second ammendment rights by, say, brandishing assault rifles, well, then, that might be cause for concern.
LindaF | 10.26.11 @ 7:28AM
I truly don't understand the nostalgia of the Boomers. Did they learn nothing in their lives? Did they not "wake up and smell the coffee"?
I'm often asked by kids (I teach high school) "Were you at Woodstock?"
They seem disappointed when I tell them, "No, the idea of spending 3 days in the rain, surrounded by half-naked strangers, whose conversation was limited to "Whoa! This is good Sh!t!" was not an attractive one.
Not to mention that I didn't even know it was "on" till it was over. I worked for a living.
crw| 10.26.11 @ 8:05AM
Like the French aristocracy, the Boomers "have learned nothing and forgotten nothing." (To borrow from Tallyrand)
Johnny Rotten| 10.26.11 @ 3:30PM
... the Boomers "have learned nothing and forgotten nothing."
The oldest Boomers in attendance at Woodstock were 23. Tens of millions of additional Boomers were under 10 years old when Woodstock happened. But, please, don't let mere facts get in the way of your presumptions!
Mike Hawk| 10.26.11 @ 8:18AM
Hundreds of thousands of us "Boomers" were overseas in 1968 and not just in Viet Nam. Equating all of us with the Woodstock crowd is fallacious. We have been at odds with them for years and resist their leftist agenda right down to their 'Occupy' descendents. Most of us 'Boomers' have learned what the Woodstock faction hasn't. I hope the current generation learns the lessons of history as well. It's not the 'Boomers', but the leftist Woodstock Generation and their inheritors who are indoctrinating in the schools and 'institutions of higher learning' while the rest of us are being screwed. We are in the Tea Party movement in large numbers. The "Clueless" generation of today needs to wake up and learn that after 18 you are not a child anymore and much is ecpected of you. You are owed nothing except liberty which all to many seem all to willing to give up for 'freebies'.
Moe Blotz| 10.26.11 @ 10:00AM
Right in. As with OWS today, the big piss up at Yasgur's farm was attended by a fraction of the youth population, but the media played it up as if millions of us were of the same mind set. A high school friend of mine was one of the few who bought tickets to the event that advertised "Three Days of Music, Peace, and Love", but we never got use them. By the time we arrived at the closest exit from NY Rte 17, the gates had been crashed and the "I want everything for free" crowd had overwhelmed the security contractor. Woodstock became a free concert. We never got closer than 20 miles and turned around to return home.
Dick Nome| 10.26.11 @ 11:06AM
"Far't man"
Appleby| 10.26.11 @ 2:38PM
Woodstock was quite near my home and although 3 of us were teenagers we were not allowed to attend -- and we didn't. I was the first member of my immediate family to graduate from high school, and the second in my extended family to graduate from university; I was far too busy working part-time jobs and taking classes to have any time for protests. (Okay, so on the first Earth Day members of my university staged an event in which everyone drove to school and parked on the lawn, and when they started their tree-planting thing we all honked our horns. On Vietnam Awareness Day we went to the beach. And so on.) We had nothing whatever to do with any of that Woodstock crapola, and it's past time for the generations we reared to stop blaming the whole generation for that.
And by the way, I have nothing whatever to do with whatever fruitcake started calling us "Zoomers". If you want to find a short, accurate decription of me, Old Maid will do just fine.
Fast Johnny| 10.26.11 @ 11:49AM
Mike, I think we all understand that it was a much smaller fraction of the Boomer Generation than the media portrayed that were engaged in these socially immature goings on. I grew up during that era and disliked the stinky hippie mindset and post modernist thinking that pervaded these people. As a young child the lesson wasn't lost on me that these people were 'no where'. The anti-Americanism was something I loathed and even through the VietNam era, I desired to be a member of the armed forces, which eventually was to be when I grew up. As an only child with two fairly liberal parents (think Mike and Gloria in All in the Family), I turned out to be quite conservative: go figure. The current OWS movement smacks of the same social immaturity and lack of adulthood that I saw back in the late 60's and early 70's and I am not sure how these people can actually believe the doggie do that they are spewing. I can understand how a freshman in college can think left and be an ultra liberal, but the fact that these 20 somethings, 50 something ex commune dwellers and public sector union agitators completely forget or just rewrite history is appalling. There is a time to be a kid and a time to be an adult and these people never really made it to the second stage of life. How many of these people would be willing to take a job that payed the bills but wasn't their dream job, how many of these people would be willing to dig ditches like I have had to do to make ends meet and how many of these people understand that the rest of America is too busy looking for a job, working or doing whatever they can to get by without pointing fingers and demanding that Uncle Sam provide a salary for idleness. They can scream all they want and see where it gets them. Regardless of how much support they think they have, I would surmise that most of America is just sick and tired of these puerile actors. I mean come on, bongos went out of style with Maynard G Krebbs. It is funny though, this kind of protest brings the strangest people out of the woodwork, the only difference between the hippies of the past and the currrent OWS hipsters is that it used to be LSD, Grateful Dead and leather fringe jackets, now it is Xtasy, Phish and REI Goretex shells.
Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to rent out Max Yasgur's place again, they can see how fun it is to roll around in the mud, while 'tripping' their faces off. Of course they have to ditch iPhones, iPads (I mean they have to get rid of the trappings of the evil capitalist society or it is all hypocritical) and ASICS sneakers and go barefoot with no contact to the outside world which they loathe at this point. Yeah, I know, it won't happen because without capitalism and us evil, greedy money mongers, they would have nothing...NOTHING!!!
Moe Blotz| 10.26.11 @ 12:11PM
Max Yasgur died in 1973 and his son owns the old dairy farm. The site of the Woodstock Music Festival is owned by the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In August 2009 two commemorative concerts were held in New York, one freebie on 1 August in Kuestrin, and another that charged an admission fee at the Bethel Woods facility two weeks later. Guess which one was covered extensively for drug use and debauchery.
Dick Nome| 10.26.11 @ 1:11PM
Not possible. It's not a farm anymore. Now it's high rent real estate with big buck residents. In other words, rich people who don't pay their fair share. Occupy Yasgur's farm!
DONBALTIMORE| 10.27.11 @ 3:46PM
I spent most of the 60's under the far North Atlantic chasing other nations submarines. Maybe it would have been nice to have been there, but looking at it from todays political perspective, I believe most of those "entertainers" were against the America that I served for. Glad I was at Sea at the time!
Kingofthenet| 10.26.11 @ 5:28PM
Boy Linda you sound SO exciting!
ray bob| 10.26.11 @ 8:02AM
well, most didn't have to attend, like today we waited for the movie to go to 'disc' ... but, like all movements, the next wave was disco and all its bad vibes ... viva the 1%!!
Aiken_Bob| 10.26.11 @ 8:11AM
It is crazy -- but the 60's were crazy too. It took the Kent State shootings to wake up America at that time. I'm guessing that it will take something similar today. There is no logic or thinking with these spoiled brats. This only stops when 'Daddy' has had enough. That was Kent State in 1969 -
Teaghan| 10.26.11 @ 8:14AM
Great article Lisa! But what worries me are the people who think this is a legit happening and they will enact change to make things "fair". The rich have too much money. I always ask them if they are including obama and moochelle in their groups of rich.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.26.11 @ 8:15AM
Lisa: Yep, your right!! I love this OWS crowd too, it's just the thing we need to have a complete landslide in 2012. They think this movement is selling well to "middle" America, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. With every outrageous thing they do and say, like crapping on cop cars, spewing Socialist ideas to solve our economic problems, marching around with the Soviet Flag, wearing Che Guevara T-Shirts, begging for an even larger Government, and especially those friggin' annoying drum circles, another undecided Independent falls off the fence and lands on the Right. And some People like to compare this OWS movement to the Tea Party? What type of drugs are they taking, huh? There is "no" comparison!!
At some point Mayor Bloomberg is going to get tired of this, especially if one of the Occupiers has the gall to light up a cigarette in the heart of New York City, then he's going to have seen enough, and send in the Police to eject them (and to confiscate their butts), and then, it's officially "On". They've been waiting for this upcoming battle, which they'll lose (of course), but that's what they want, because they think it'll earn them sympathy from the masses, when a Cop splits open one of their heads with a Billy-Club. It won't earn them the sympathy they think it will, because by the time it goes down, most Folks will think they deserve what's coming to them. I've been visiting their website on and off for the last two weeks, and posting what I really think of them, and so far, I'm making some new friends!! One of them even called me Joe McCarthy, witch I believe was a compliment? Or at least I took it as a compliment.
John Navratil| 10.26.11 @ 9:07AM
Lullabys, Legends and Lies,
As the true pudding heads get through a night of two of freezing cold or a drizzle and wander off to Daddy's warm basement, they will be replaced by the committed agitators. The redolent autumnal zephyrs will be replaced by a cold wind. I'll be pleased to be wrong in my expectation of trouble.
sean| 10.26.11 @ 2:25PM
Anybody that can quote Bobby Bare has my respect!! Way to go!!
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.26.11 @ 4:18PM
Sean: My Dad tortured me with that album back in the 70's, but as time went by, I came to understand why he liked it so much, and I still listen to it today when I get in the mood to reminisce. It's a great album, and the "only" Country album that I own (and know every word too)!!
John: "redolent autumnal zephyrs"?, seriously man, are you making words up now? Smaller, simpler words please (K.I.S.S)!!
John Navratil| 10.26.11 @ 7:12PM
Lullabys, Legends and Lies, Sean,
I confess I had to google Bobby Bare. I was looking for something to capture that jeune c'est quoi. You know when your gratefully tokin' a brother's doobie... a little afternoon delight... a summer breeze... listenin' to the man-wannabe dissin' workin' for the man. The ambiance, dude... You know, redolent!
The "countriest" (I made that one up) album in my collection was CS&N "Four way street".
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 10.26.11 @ 7:52PM
No John, I do not know about the "redolent" anymore!! Been Clean & Sober for 11 years now, with 9-1/2 of those years in the Army, and because Army time is different than Civilian time, that's like 30 years C&S (I've been in the Army a very long, Long, LONG time)!! So I really don't remember the redolence anymore, although I've got a few pictures and VCR tapes from back in the day (a Wednesday, if I remember correctly?), that may show that I "may" have been an expert in the field at that time. But no more!! Some Folks around here call me SGT Straightandnarrow now, because I'm such a rule follower (they really don't call me that, I just made that up). So maybe that's why I don't side with the OWS crowd, I don't remember the redolence!! Could be, huh?
John Navratil| 10.26.11 @ 10:19PM
Lullabys, Legends and Lies,
I was too "square" for the scene, myself. I can't claim the Clinton defense, but I became conservative while watching the foolishness in college.
I was Navy ROTC (I wanted badly to bounce planes off boats) until my eyes crapped out. We parted ways in 1975; there really wasn't a lot of call for people like me. But I do regret not having served.
Cheers to you!
Other Joe| 10.26.11 @ 8:35AM
Quibble - the Summer of Love was 1967. 1968 included the riots in Chicago, Columbia campus and elsewhere, the shootings of Kennedy, MLK and Andy Warhol...where's the love? It's amazing how quickly the love ethos became "burn baby burn".
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 9:17AM
One wag has pointed out that the Woodstock Nation lasted from the Woodstock festival in August until the Altamont murder in November of 1969, three months in all.
Mike Hawk| 10.26.11 @ 9:33AM
Having been out of the the country in 68-69 serving in the US Army, I find it interesting when I find out about events that occurred here that I am still not aware of. The cultural and political change that happened while hundreds of thousands of us were overseas was a shock when we came home. The contempt the "Flower Children" visited upon us has always been raw. They are still children who still cannot deal with a major portion of their contemporaries who matured in a fashion they cannot comprehend (they never did).
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 11:57AM
They are still children
-------------------------
and unfortunately, they are children who are now in control of many of our institutions, infecting the next generation with their poisonous thinking. While conservatives of the 60s and 70s went into business, liberals went into education and govt, the results of which are evident. OWS did not arrive at its conclusions independently; the ideas were drilled into these skulls over a 12--15 year time period by a group that has always resented America.
TrueBlue| 10.26.11 @ 2:23PM
What was that saying? If you can't do, teach.
Think that's right. Not saying all teachers are incapable of doing the job they are instructors for, I know plenty who still do both, but there does seem to be a good number of teachers who are unable to actually perform the tasks they are supposedly qualified to instruct others to accomplish.
markenoff| 10.27.11 @ 1:42AM
The phrase "If you can't do, teach" even if true, only tells you about those who can't do and those who can't teach, not about those who teach or do.
The phrase implies that those with the characteristic "can't do" have the characteristic "can teach" which also implies that those who "can do" also "can't teach" because if there was a "doer" who could also "teach" the sentence would be false.
As a teacher of logical reasoning I use this trite phrase to teach my students not to make the logical mistake of confusing necessary with sufficient conditions. If I am teaching that does not necessarily put me in the "can't do" category. You would have to know that I either meet the condition "can't do" which would be sufficient for you to say that I "teach" or know that I have the conditions "can't teach" which would that I "do". However, once you identify one individual who can do and can teach or one individual who can't do and can't teach you have proven the statement false which is demonstrably is.
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 3:35PM
The Altamont murder took place on December 6, 1969. Can't people here get their facts right?
Mac Jehoff| 10.26.11 @ 4:07PM
With Bill posting a comment with an erroneous date, you have an opportunity to shine. Savour the moment. Gimme Shelter.
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 5:55PM
Woodstock "Three Days of Peace and Music" - August 15 to August 18, 1969;
Altamont murder - December 6, 1969
Counting from the first day of Woodstock, elapsed time for Woodstock Nation: 115 days, or 3 months and 23 days. Okay, rounding off to the next month, Woodstock Nation lasted a week less than 4 months. A tad more precisely, 3.75 months. The Summer of Love was still in 1967, not 1968, and Kent State happened in 1970, not 1969.
Sorry for the error.
Yep| 10.26.11 @ 8:45AM
Cleverly worded and well said, Lisa.
POST American| 10.26.11 @ 8:52AM
----ONE giveaway for all these EEL-eat
(Rockefeller/ ROT-child et al) FAKE OPS
---including Woodstock, they're
painfully laid on ---and, like soda pop,
go flat in no time at all.
They're about as grassroots as
astro turf ---and just as vapid.
---CUT TO THE CHASE:
----------HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012------------
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 9:12AM
The Summer of Love was the summer of 1967.
The Woodstock music festival was in the summer of 1969.
The summer of 1968 was the summer of the Democratic National Convention and the confrontation between antiwar protesters, the Illinois National Guard and the Chicago Police Department.
The Kent State incident occurred over the weekend of May 1-4, 1970, not 1969, with the notorious shooting on Monday, May 4, 1970.
If you're going to evoke the 1960s, please get it right.
JimH| 10.26.11 @ 9:18AM
Far our man. If you remember it you didn't live it.
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 9:21AM
I'll match my freak credentials against yours any time, not that it's worth it.
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 9:22AM
...and you mean "far out." But to say "far our" is outtasight.
Dick Nome| 10.26.11 @ 11:03AM
Shorten that to " far't " .
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 2:22PM
I always favored making it one word, "faroot" that rhymes with "cheroot."
Moe Blotz| 10.26.11 @ 4:08PM
Sounds too much like Chew the Root. Depends on what you are smoking.
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 11:36AM
Lisa always has been factually challenged. She's outdone herself this time, I think.
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 11:58AM
apparently, she has not been to all 57 states, is unfamiliar with the intercontinental railroad, does not speak the Austrian language, does not know too many "corpse-men" and seldom sees fallen heroes at memorial gatherings. I see where a couple of dates are more problematic to you.
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 2:15PM
And since when did I make such points? Or more apropos, why do you assume that I voted for Obama? Perhaps to a knave like you, any criticism of a fellow conservative constitutes an act of treason or at least suspicion.
Lisa Fabrizio has written yeat another mean, vindictive and stupid article. That President Obama can say things every bit as dumb is entirely irrelevant.
Appleby| 10.26.11 @ 2:41PM
Yeat?
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 3:36PM
Sorry, my lord -- "yet."
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 3:04PM
The point is, you made NO points: you claimed Lisa was factually-challenged but did not bother to challenge a single fact or alleged fact. That's not criticism, certainly not of the substantive variety. Instead, you took the personal route of attack, making it difficult to take you seriously. But I'm just a knave toiling in the hinterlands of the kingdom. Feel free to sway me with your substance, sire.
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 2:24PM
You can say THAT again!
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 11:58AM
apparently, she has not been to all 57 states, is unfamiliar with the intercontinental railroad, does not speak the Austrian language, does not know too many "corpse-men" and seldom sees fallen heroes at memorial gatherings. I see where a couple of dates are more problematic to you.
Melvin| 10.26.11 @ 9:34AM
Maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong point of view. I dunno, suppose it has something on getting older, not liking change or whatever .
The generation before me was like, "I had to ride a horse in six foot snow drifts twenty miles to go to school." My generation, "I had to walk a mile and a half, through the snow, and most of the time we were throwing snowballs at each other."
Many young me are so effeminate and into this kissy huggy thing ever time they meet someone.
Most of these protesters are standing with a blanket that looked like they lifted from the family dog and are hugging some mousy haired doe eyed virgineete with her head resting against his shaved chest and he has these moon faced gaze into nothingness.
The park in New York City, is having a wide-screen TV shipped in so they can have pajama, and popcorn movie night. Pajama night for Christ sake.
A fourteen year old female was caught in Texas OWS having sex with anyone who had an appendage. Drugs are like Cheerios in the morning when they're not eating gourmet prepared meals.
The whole damn thing just seems ass backwards, and the Democrats want to associate these individuals with the Tea Party? Thats like asking Charles Rangel to pay his taxes on time.
Edo| 10.26.11 @ 9:53AM
"hugging some mousy haired doe eyed virgineete with her head resting against his shaved chest and he has these moon faced gaze into nothingness" -- John and Yoko all over again! At least Lennon-Ono got a proper room in a hotel for their "Bed-In" for peace!
Timothy L. Pennell| 10.26.11 @ 9:47AM
This is even WORSE than what took place in the 60's. Or, at least it WILL be.
INDY has listed the Who's Who, of this Astro Turfed, Obama Organized, shindig. And, that's just the beginning.
The Freaks and the Hippies from the 60's? They're in the HOUSE, now. (And, NO, not like PAPA JOHN'S) They're in the SENATE. Their SON is in the White House. They're Teaching our kids, in School. At the Universities. They run the Entertainment Industry. This has all been GROWING for 50 YEARS.
In the 60's, it was pretty much a spontaneous event, with the War in Vietnam as a focal point.
Now? This isn't a Protest. It's a MOVEMENT. They have LEADERS, now. They have 50 years of Experience in creating Anarchy. And they are not protesting a War, anymore. They are out to destroy our very way of life.
It took Lenin a long time to get Russia to Communism. It took Hitler a long time to put the Nazis in Power. It took time for MAO to unleash his "New Awakening". I believe that all these men spent time in Prison, for their efforts. But, they never quit. They never gave up.
There's nothing new under the Sun. I see NO DIFFERENCE between what's happening today, and what happened in the early 1900's.
Revolution by Intimidation.
HOPE and CHANGE. That's what we were promised. I see No Hope for our Future. Only Change. We are changing in to a Country that I no longer recognize.
I wonder if that's how the peoples of Russia and Germany and China felt? And, of course, these things never end well.
Why don't Human Beings EVER Learn from History?
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 9:50AM
There's at least one hope we can have: like the ideal of the New Soviet Man, American progressivism will eventually run aground on the reefs of reality.
Indy| 10.26.11 @ 10:19AM
Had a discussion with a high schooler, who is interested in history and knows his stuff, wrote a paper on W. Wilson and the Progressive movement. He said near the end of the school year (last year) some of his classmates said they finally understood why they had to study history, it is repeating so not all hope is lost on our youth, some are learning, however, they are small in numbers so we must help to educate.
Some who are doing great work exposing OSW,
- Breitbart at biggovernment, many stories / videos
http://biggovernment.com/lstra.....evolution/
- The Blaze and GBTV, even the left have admitted Glenn Beck is correct violence and OWS
- verumserum, see Van Jones at OWS in San Francisco, sadly he is surrounded by young people who have bought into his message, scroll to the bottom of the page, he's added several videos since last night, this blogger is working OT to get the word out.
http://www.verumserum.com/
There are many others working to bring us the truth while the MSM is cheerleading and actively working with OWS (NBC, MSNBC, NYT, NPR as examples)
POST American| 10.26.11 @ 10:00AM
"---NEVER join a mob or a crowd.
NEVER. They're always set ups,
and always steered and directed
by a designated few. That includes
even rock concerts, and those mass
religious set ups. That's from the
French Revolution ---onward,.
Probably always been that way.
NEVER join a crowd."
-ALAN WATT
(speaking on the provocateured
London riots of a few months ago)
--------Here! ----Here!
bill carson| 10.26.11 @ 10:25AM
Correction: Obama has hitched his wagon to OWS. Now, he needs to sink with that movement.
scotchieguy| 10.26.11 @ 11:19AM
Great article, except for one thing--"awful music?" Are you kidding? What kind of music do you listen to? The only good thing about Woodstock that still holds its own is the music. Yeah, the music. The Who, Santana, Hendrix, CSN, Ten Years After, Canned Heat, Joan Baez. Oh, yeah, and Sly Stone.
My theory is this--the number one thing that prompted all of these hippies to sell out and become good capitalistic yuppies was three days of mud. What a wake up call!
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 11:41AM
Not to mention Arlo Guthrie, John Sebastian, Creedence and a cast of others.
Mike 3/505| 10.26.11 @ 3:29PM
You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant, excepting Alice...
Margie| 10.26.11 @ 10:03PM
I was 12 when my Dad (a Police officer and hippie-despiser) bought me the Woodstock album for Christmas. I remember blasting Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner. I thought it was awesome. My Dad couldn't stand it. I couldn't understand why.
At age 19, when I became a Christian, by the Grace of God, I fully understood. The immorality behind that whole scene is what he hated.
Heck, he bought me my first Beatles album when I was 10!
markenoff| 10.27.11 @ 1:56AM
Don't forget Sha Na Na, Ravi Shankar, Quill and and the Keef Hartley Band.
Skippy| 10.27.11 @ 3:10PM
In general, the bands were hammered; the sound system sucked; there was no clean water or safe food; it truly did stink on ice.
Listening to the music today, it is generally poor quality. Played by talented folks, but they were stoned and distracted.
Some were OK, but most......
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 11:39AM
Woodstock was not a political event, although certain Leftist organizers (e.g., Abbie Hoffman) tried unsuccessfully to make it into one. People overwhelmingly came for one reason: the music. (I know -- Lisa Fabrizio doesn't consider it music, but we'll leave that aside.) In that, at least, Woodstock certainly was not an ancestor of the OWS movement.
Jim Woodward| 10.26.11 @ 12:16PM
Born in 1947. So I'm on the leading edge of the Boomers.
Luckily, I didn't get sucked into the insanity of the "counter culture". Yes, I liked the music, experimented with "pot", wore bell bottoms, and had longish hair and a beard: by choice, not intimidation.
The politics disgusted me. The "natural" lifesyle even more so. Mattress on the floor. Same jeans for weeks on end. Women with over grown arm pits and furry legs. Bath optional. Eeeewww!
I worked and liked to work. I liked being around my elders in the work place and learning from them (what a concept). Started going to school at night in the early seventies, finishing with a graduate degree in the early eighties.
I have always been a reader and I think that was one of the reasons I just couldn't buy any of the philosophical crud tossed around during that period. A super family was also a GREAT plus!
For those of you younger Spectator readers and contributors interested in a little synopsis of the times and relevant to today, heres a little reading list. Tom Wolfes "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", David Horowicz "Radical Son", P.J. O'Rourke "Age and Guile Beat Youth Innocence and a Bad Haircut", early works of Hunter S. Thompson, and some W.F. Buckley Jr. Just a sampler. Of course, if you haven't read Marx you can't pretend to know what was and is going on.
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 2:29PM
I was born in 1946. I protested the Vietnam War because we weren't fighting it to win and we refused to invade the North. I wasn't the only right-wing protester, nor was I the only individualist anarchist.
But all that is forgotten as the people who were responsible for teaching our children focused on the leftist aspects of the antiwar movement.
I still feel exactly the same about using our armed forces now as I did then: if we're not going to fight to win, goddammit, we have no business sending our troops into harm's way.
markenoff| 10.27.11 @ 1:58AM
Nobody reads Marx, even the Marxist. Except Thomas Sowell.
Bill| 10.27.11 @ 8:59AM
I defy any normal person to get much farther than about halfway through Volume I of Das Kapital.
bingogringo| 10.26.11 @ 12:18PM
I think the Vietnam War demonstrations were probably propped up by the Free Love and Woman Lib movements. None of which is present today. This present movement will lose steam quickly without the sex factor included in the earlier example. I think it is already losing steam, and hence resorting to more violence to try to funnel public opinion towards a more supportive, "those poor people" against the local constabulary. Thus pushing the true majority away as Fabrizio notes.
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.11 @ 12:25PM
OK, I will bite.
If this is 1968 redux, then does this mean the American public has to endure the 10 years of the 1970's to get to the Reagan 1980's redux.
That is going to be a long horrible wait until the Presidential election of 2024 gets here.
Lee Ghume| 10.26.11 @ 12:41PM
Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. Fight it Pixie.
Dick Nome| 10.26.11 @ 1:12PM
Does this mean Disco will return. Arrrgggghhhh!!
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.11 @ 2:57PM
Greeting Lee and Dick
Disco, Big Hair Afros, Loud “Mod” clothing, high-heels for men, sanctimonious pretentious politicians, moral-preening musicals, really stupid dance moves and hip urban chic all set to a “second time around” farcical format!!!!!
MY GOD, What a stylistic social and cultural disaster is set to befall society and set to comedy mode to boot!!!!
I had hoped to see the end of that wretched decade and mankind learned enough to never repeat the cultural mistakes of the 1970's.
Now where did I put that hibernation cylinder so I can blissfully sleep-through the stylistic disasters to come.
Wake me up when Michael Reagan or Mark Levin is elected President.
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 3:08PM
hard to get uptight about big hair and the Bee Gees in a time of multi-tats and piercings, Jersey Shore, and Taylor Swift. Please. It's not like there has been a social progression since disco balls.
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 3:08PM
hard to get uptight about big hair and the Bee Gees in a time of multi-tats and piercings, Jersey Shore, and Taylor Swift. Please. It's not like there has been a social progression since disco balls.
Mike Hawk| 10.26.11 @ 3:33PM
Pop 'music' has never recovered from the Disco disaster. Disco is to music what processed cheese is to real good Cheddar or Roquefort. Provolone too. (You can leave out the Brie, that''s yuppie stuff.)
Peppermint Tea| 10.26.11 @ 1:57PM
Let's hope the next president (Cain? Romney?) isn't Nixon redux.
Dixie Pixie| 10.26.11 @ 3:00PM
If Obama is not the inverse-look doppelganger of Richard Nixon then who is?
Howard| 10.26.11 @ 2:10PM
I went to Woodstock. While there was some politics involved, most attendees were there for the music. And everyone left after 4 days. These OWS clowns are planning on living there permanently. I hope for a cold winter.
Nina| 10.26.11 @ 2:19PM
Oh come on all. Can't you see how much better they are than us? They are after all products of "enlightenment" and "inner selves" of their parents from dropping acid at Woodstock. They KNOW what's good for us. Constantly being fed history as they wanted it to be instead of the real history of this country, violently protesting veterans who returned from Vietnam, bouncing from bed to bed, spreading STD's everywhere they landed their butts! I agree, keep up the good work you OWSers, I can see middle America on their way to support ya'll now!
Kingofthenet| 10.26.11 @ 2:36PM
Lisa, isn't it time to do another Religious piece on behalf of the Discovery Institute?
Why the RICH are allowed to make most of their income from investments at such a low tax rate is a disgrace, Capital Gains need to be taxed as regular income NOW.
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 3:10PM
that money was already taxed once, when it was initially earned. When an investment goes bad, the rich isn't asking you for a handout. And when it goes well, it means a company is growing and, likely, hiring. Who gives a shit how the rich make their money so long as they're not stealing it. It's their money, not yours and certainly not the govt's.
Alex| 10.26.11 @ 3:10PM
that money was already taxed once, when it was initially earned. When an investment goes bad, the rich isn't asking you for a handout. And when it goes well, it means a company is growing and, likely, hiring. Who gives a shit how the rich make their money so long as they're not stealing it. It's their money, not yours and certainly not the govt's.
Kingofthenet| 10.26.11 @ 3:27PM
So is my money, but if I take it to Atlantic City and make a killing, I don't get that break. We have a huge deficit that needs filling, I am not asking for them to pay more than regular income just the same rate as I do, who cares HOW it's earned? It would be like the Fat Cats carved out 'Tax free' exemptions for ultra Luxury goods, say any car over 100k is tax free, sure it's for everyone who buys that car, but it's goal is obvious.
markenoff| 10.27.11 @ 2:03AM
You can take all the money that the top 1% own and it will not make a dent in the deficit. The only solution is stop spending money on unConstitutional programs. Where in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to give $1,200,000,000 to a compay (SunPower) to build solar panels in Mexico? Where in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to give $300,000,000 annually to a corporation with over $1,000,000,000 in annual revenue whose main purpose and source of revenue is the killing of unborn babies (Planned Parenthood)?
Donna Graham| 10.26.11 @ 3:33PM
Lisa, I believe that you and the great majority of the commentators here have not addressed one salient point: the majority of the country is deeply angry about having been swindled and driven into a deep recession. That anger spawned the OWS movement, however ragtag and silly it may seem at the moment. All the ridicule and dismissive comments are not going to make national anger - or, I suspect, this movement - disappear.
John| 10.27.11 @ 11:37AM
My thoughts exactly. Lots of smug ridicule of hippies on this board, and not a single comment on why this movement is spreading like a wildfire and spreading globally. It's not Woodstock Redux. It's not going away.
Skippy| 10.27.11 @ 3:18PM
Yes it is.
Either with the chill winds of winter or the sound of gunfire, this movement is going away.
If cold air is all it takes, then their demands will melt away with the slush.
If hot lead is required, the result will be the same.
Donna Graham| 10.27.11 @ 3:35PM
I wish I could say you are right, Skippy, but I doubt it. Too many groups with their own agenda will take advantage of this phenomenon. We will see it go dormant for the winter, and re-emerge in the spring, but more organized and more dangerous. Summer of 2012, perhaps especially because it is an election year, is not going to be a peaceful one.
Kingofthenet| 10.26.11 @ 4:17PM
If I was George Soros, the CEO of Goldman Sachs and other Big Banks and investment Houses I would send a nice Bouquet of Flowers to Lisa, Joseph Lawler and other SUCKERS, for defending my rape and pillaging to their OWN detriment. Notice I didn't mention Rush or Sean Hannity because their defense of Fat Cats is just personal self interest. It takes a whole other class of idiot who isn't massively wealthy like Lisa and Joe to defend and protect George Soros from paying his fair share.Make no mistake George Soros pays less because Lisa and Joe pay More.
Frosty| 10.26.11 @ 11:58PM
Yes, let's tax Mr. Soros a full 100% of his entire net worth and all our problems will be solved. Who would have known it could be so easy. Sign This Bill!!!
marshcope| 10.26.11 @ 4:46PM
Woodstock was going on at the same time Hurricane Camille was doing a bookoo number tenthou on the Gulf coast. I have yet to hear of any loveand flowers youth revolutionary going right from the Stock to Biloxi to start rebuilding the region and share the love.
Kingofthenet| 10.26.11 @ 5:00PM
God will help the South
Bill| 10.26.11 @ 6:02PM
The people who told us "Save your Confederate money" knew whereof they spoke; Confederate money is now worth more than U.S. currency.
Rich Fisher| 10.26.11 @ 6:27PM
The one subject no one seems to want to really talk about is Obama's part in the OWS protests. He has spent the past 2 1/2 years demonizing anyone who makes a profit-except of course himself, moochelle and the rest of his Limousine Liberal crowd which includes Hollywood-as if making a profit was somehow anti American and morally indefensible. The fact is that Obama has whipped up this storm and, as in a lot of cases, is along for the ride that will take him he knows not where. A man that can raise a billion dollars to run for president isn't getting it in nickels and dimes from the OWS crowd. He's getting it from the crowd they are protesting. Profit is necessary to grow companies, conduct R&D, hire more people and pay dividends to the stockholding parents of these degenrates so that they can afford for their kids to spend months not working or going to school with no financial consequences. Polls have shown that over 85% of these neer do wells have some type of job. My question is, why do they still have any job at all. The company I work for and most that I know of have a policy that if you don't show up for work for 3-5 days without either being on vacation or having a legitimate illness-idiocy does not count-you are considered to have voluntarilly quit. Period. If these pampered spoiled brats had any parents with guts who would cut off their funds and employers who would step up and fire them I'd guess that most of them would be back on the job post haste. God help us if any of them actually get into a position of some type of authority. The historical landscape is littered with the dead bodies and destroyed countries that just one person managed to get control of-Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot...and the list goes on. We survived Kent State and may have been better for it. I think we could survive a reprisal in New York City.
ot| 10.26.11 @ 10:06PM
Oh, please do not use "Occupational Therapy" in this negative light. OT is a health care profession dedicated to helping people regain function to live productive lives. Don't insult us by associating the title with these nimwits.
POST American| 10.26.11 @ 11:38PM
-----Putting aside our phoney TAVISTOCK
meets ROT-child meets Rockefeller 'counter'
culture-----
"DON'T feel bad if you're NOT
suck-cess--full because we are,
in fact, living in a psychopathic
culture, designed and run by psychoaths,
for the enrichment and advancement
of psychopaths. WE are living in their
'reality'. The 'dog eat dog' ethos ---is
psychopathic. It's a deviant ID--ALL
and can NEVER produce ANYTHING
normal, good or lasting. NEVER."
-ALAN WATT
(superb online coverage)
------YES, Global USURY is ABOMINATION------
----You yourself are about to discover, quite
wonderfully, what ABOMINATION -------IS.
----------HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012--------
Frosty| 10.26.11 @ 11:55PM
Lisa....great commentary. Agree 100%. I have always thought that the election of BO would present conservatives with the greatest opportunity ever. We have been on an imperceptible (to those non-conservatives) slide towards progressivism/socialism/liberalism for over 60 years with the exception of the Reagan years. Because Barackie O was so convinced he was the one we have been waiting for, he forgot to continue the charade and went full throttle leftward. I think he spent his entire life so inculcated with the ideas of the left that he was just plain unaware that the majority of Americans don't see our country the way he does. Fatal Error. He removed the mask that liberals have been wearing and allowed those Americans who generally don't look closely or are too busy to pay attention to finally get a glimpse at what was really happening. OWS, in it's own way, has done the same. The more raucous, rowdy, nasty, absurd, and ignorant they are, the more the casual political observer/independent voter will turn rightward. Conservatives should be confident that the majority of our country will not identify with these miscreants and we should celebrate every time they are paraded across the front pages and TV screens.
CT_Freeper| 10.27.11 @ 12:55AM
Having lived through Country Joe, and the rest of the nonsense, singing his most famous song does bring back memories. But that was then as a young kid on his way through Boot Camp in San Diego. The nation was so screwed up during the late Sixties, and even into the Seventies, other than college I stayed out of the country until almost the 1980's. Then Reagan came, and many of us could rest easier. But not completely.
Obama is as close to watching our nation burn as it did during the late Sixties. He is the Great Divider.
race_to_the_bottom| 10.27.11 @ 2:45AM
Those who proclaim that the participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement are a reincarnation of the Woodstock hippies are either dishonest or completely ignorant. It is simply impossible for knowledgeable observers to confuse the two. I was a 21 year old student when the Woodstock festival occurred and so speak from personal knowledge of the social, intellectual, and political currents of that era. It was basically a hedonist affair, not taken all that seriously by the adults of the time. The OWS people are completely different. They are politically very serious people who have issued an indictment of Wall Street, corporate America, and corruption in government which resonates with a majority of the US people who feel that the social contract has been broken. Furthermore, it has a strong internationalist component which connects with like-minded people across the world, drawing inspiration from the movements of the Arab Spring to the protests against the austerity programs of various European countries.
The OWS movement has had a profound impact on the US body politic, even if it disappeared tomorrow. For people who have been downsized, foreclosed, and beat down, the sight of a noisy, militant, crowd festooned with homemade signs denouncing financiers, corporations, and their bought and paid for politicians resonates. The polls prove it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50.....ll-street/
The Democrats are trying to figure out how to co-opt it and so offer qualified support., but the OWS crowd has indicted both parties. The Republicans mostly resort to the type of "analysis" Ms Fabrizio and Fox News engage in , which is so bizarre it appears to come from a parallel universe. To this observer, who campaigned for Alali Stevenson in 1956 when he was 8 years old and has maintained a keen interest in politics since, it appears that an important milestone has been reached in politics in the US. It is not impossible that we will witness truly revolutionary changes in the not to distant future.
Frosty| 10.27.11 @ 9:21AM
You have had too many mushrooms....not going to happen
race_to_the_bottom| 10.27.11 @ 10:51AM
Nope, never had mushrooms. Plenty of pot and some damn good acid, though.
Otis Criblecoblis | 10.27.11 @ 4:51AM
Just a tiny nit to pick, but the actual "Summer of Love" occurred in 1967, not 1968.
POST American| 10.27.11 @ 5:02AM
----------------------FINAL WORD----------------------
-----------SOROS/ Tavistock/Rockefeller-----------
------------------(ie Lord ROT-child)-------------------
---------------CO-OPTING & PHONEY----------------
-----------------'COUNTER' culture--------------------
-----------from 'the counters' themselves-------------
----------------------------LOL-----------------------------
WickedDickie--Virginia| 10.27.11 @ 9:11AM
Obama-ayers is involved with this collection of maggot-infested freeloaders. His ACORN, now renamed New York Communities for Change is paying some of these slugs ten bucks a hour to protest. ACORN leader, one Jon Kest is operating out of the same old offices with the same old staff to promote this revolutionary nonsense along with the usual Union thug suspects from the likes of the AFT. And then, there's King Putt's warning to his supporters that if he loses in 2012, "it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America". Oh woe, what are we ever going to do without Momma Government?
POST American| 10.28.11 @ 12:29AM
-------------------BOTTOM LINE-----------------------
---Bush Sr ---the Rockefeller blood-linked
CLINT---INS ---Bush Jr ----and now, Rockefeller/
Kissinger 'brought in' ---CFR front op OBAMA.
----------HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012----------
small oil press | 11.25.11 @ 2:52AM
I'm just starting out in community management/marketing media and trying to learn how to do it well - resources like this article are incredibly helpful
Thomas Shay | 12.12.11 @ 10:27PM
I support the 99% and agree that they need more of a direct plans. They are protesting to many different things and need a more defined agenda. When you say "The Man", what exactly does that mean, as if we want to get anything done, it has to be through the process we have today. We can't make radical changes fast. I wish them all the luck in the world, but if they really want to make changes, then they need to VOTE!
Occupational Therapy Schools | 12.12.11 @ 10:41PM
I agree with Thomas, if we want to make changes in our government, we need to vote. We can't bitch about what they do, if we don't vote.