Category: Bob Small

Effigy Burning Is An International Tradition

By Bob Small

Recently, New London, CT revived the Burning Benedict Arnold Festival, in remembrance of the Sept. 6, 1781 raid on that town, burning most of it to the ground. Derron Wood, organizer and also Artistic Director of New London’s Flock Theatre calls it the “Original Burning Man Festival”.

Victor Chiburis, also of Flock Theatre, said that one year, there were mock Arnold Supporters butit usually is very peaceful and historic.

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, hanging in effigy was a common form of political protest in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

In 1765, the patriots of Boston lynched the British Imperial Taxman

There were also traditional burnings in effigy of Robert Lundy, who betrayed the defense of Derry with Ian Paisley describing Margaret Thatcher and David Trimble as “Lundies”.

In present times both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have been hung in effigy if not burned. These deeds are protected by the First Amendment. Similarly, Mexicans were also burning Trump effigies.

The Times of India indicates burning a politician in effigy is not considered a crime except for “rash and negligent handling of fire or combustible matter”.

Going further back in history, we have the “burning of Judas” and the last known case of that was in Liverpool, England in 1971. To my knowledge, it’s not a practice in any US Churches.

Any discerning fan of horror cinema is aware of the Hammer Studios Contributions, and The Wicker Man (1973)   is actually based on Druidic legend

The final citation is not a person burned in effigy but Covid 19

One wonders whether there should be an unofficial US  Effigy Day, perhaps every Sept. 6, as an unofficial day of protest against whatever tyrants groups choose.

The choice, of course, would be up to the group.

Anti-Semitic Podcast Hosted By State Department Worker

By Bob Small

“If we don’t believe in free expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” — Noam Chomsky

Hate speech, as long as it’s only speech, is reprehensible and regrettable, but not illegal, at least in the U.S.

Now we get to  Bloodandfaith.com, a podcast by Fritz Berggren.

Six years of “The Jews worship Satan and they’re Satan’s own children” just might qualify as hate speech.

So why does this particular hate speech matter more than other?

Berggren is a long-term employee of the U.S. State Department. He was removed from the Bahrain embassy after complaints from fellow workers yet he remains working to represent America’s interests abroad.

This is despite 70 members of Congress in 2021 and 2022 urging he be canned.

More than 70 State Department staffers in 2021 called on Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is Jewish, to take action.

Nothing happened.

Berggren received a PhD in 2001 from the University of Miami. He is married with four children.

His connections with the U.S. State Department were outed by Politico.

We recently saw The House on Carroll Street which was based on Operation Paperclip, in which the government brought 16,000 former Nazis into America in the 1950s. entailed the US Government bringing approximately

Berggren is also anti-LGBTQ, anti African-Americans, and anti anyone who is not a white Christian supremacist. His belief is that “Jesus Christ came to save the world from the Jews” — ignoring the fact that Jesus himself was Jewish, as was made very clear to me when I was being harangued by a chapter of Jews for Jesus.

Possibly the U.S. State Department is constrained by the First Amendment. Any thoughts?

Anti-Semitic Podcast Hosted By State Department Worker

Tiny Homes For Homeless?

By Bob Small

In the ’90s when I finished my degree at Neumann (Night School), one of their “causes” was “Books for the Homeless”.  Other groups collected clothes, food, offered donations of haircuts, healthcare, raincoats, shaves, shoes, and etc.

Now, someone has come up with a fairly radical solution, homes for the homeless.

The Tiny Homes Community Collaborative (THCC) Facebook page explains the alternative therapeutic farm at Penny Lane is just one part of the project.  Each tiny home can be produced for $50,000 through a public/private partnership through XDS, inc. and the UNC School of Social Work

Their first goal is 15 tiny homes with five of those prioritized for veterans with chronic health conditions.

The engine behind this is Thava Mahadevan,who is a clinical addiction specialist and director of operations at the UNC center for Excellence in Mental Health. He began his journey as a Tamil in Sri Lanka and then fled to India where he experienced homelessness. Mahadevan expects these houses to rent for $250 per month.

Alaina Money-Garman, the founder and CEO of Garman Homes, says she believes private and public partnership are key to addressing affordable housing challenges.

Not everyone is thrilled with this concept.

“We don’t want this here,” Robert Wilson of Charlotte said.  We don’t think it’s the right place for it here. We feel like it’s going to hurt our property values.”

Tiny Home Industry Association is a website dedicated to the latest in tiny homes.

Some of these proposals even include tiny homes on wheels! 

There are even tiny homes TV shows.

Some of these, by the way, are not for persons with mental problems, but for people with tiny incomes.

This is happening throughout the country.

Is Delaware County next?

Tiny Homes For Homeless coming?

Rich Men North Right Or Left?

By Bob Small

Must we see Rich Men North as left or right

The first time Rich Men North of Richmond played on the headphones, there were echoes of Billy Bragg, of Woody Guthrie, in the song written and sung by Oliver Anthony

“I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay”.

The whole song felt very left to me but Rolling Stone tried to disabuse me of that notion.  Yet in this same article, they quoted Oliver Anthony “it seems like both sides serve the same master-and that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country.” 

Tell me how that’s left or right.

Fox and The Seattle Times insist on this opinion.

Bryan Chai of the Western Journal, takes a more nuanced approach saying “Men like Aldean and Anthony are clearly sick of  (Flyover Country) that being a pejorative and want Americans to know that whether you’re suffering in Farmville or Silicon Valley, they hear you and feel you”.

See also

Music sensation Oliver Anthony gets record offer as ‘Rich Men North o 

and from overseas

The protest song that’s taken America by storm hits … – The Guardian 

When Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut dared to say  “I think Progressives should listen to this”iliberals piled on him.

Even after adding “all problems the left has better solutions to than the right,” attacks continued.

As to the “obese milking welfare” lines in the song, that should not be seen as racist, more as frustration about a government system that rarely works as it should.

Here is a recent quote from Anthony that has angered some of those on the right:

“I mean, we are the melting pot of the world, and that’s what makes us strong, is our diversity, and we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it, and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone separate from each other you know?”