Having gently zinged Allahpundit for weaseling with a faint rebuke regarding the cultish chant lately demanded of schoolchildren in our fair republic, I thought it might be fun to introduce here an idea incident to that communication.
With the modesty of OSlash Himself, I append my response to the AP post:
I hope the world will always be safe for your ironic detachment, AP. But ironic detachment doesn’t keep it that way.
Conservatives are right: having kids chant ideological refrains about Obama is cultism, not “recognizing the president as a friendly guy.”
It’s one thing to send Reagan jelly beans. But if a public school teacher had asked kids to chant about Reagan the way they’re chanting about Obama?
Mmm, mmm, mmm
Ronald Wilson Reagan!
He says we’ll beat the Russkis –
Put the fissile to the missile!Mmm, mmm, mm
Ronald Wilson Reagan!
He says we’ll all get rich again –
More axin’ and less taxin’!Not that these wouldn’t be charming in the hands of Jib-Jab. But cultism is cultism. That’s one big, hairy, sweaty leader cult they got goin’, them O-bot types. Hands off the schoolkids with it.
J.E. Dyer on September 24, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Now, seriously, politics-fans: don’t you think we could do a lot better than the O Set at coming up with chants for kids? The possibilities for Reagan and Bush II seem endless. And that’s just for starters.
Now and then it does seem like there’s a pathetic weakness in the machinations of the left: they’re just so predictable. Indoctrinate the kiddies with leader worship? Been there. Done that! Guess they just want another T-shirt. Or maybe they need to complete their theme mug set, or they still don’t have the running shorts. The Progressive-Collectivist Theme Shoppe is always out of XL.
Comments 55
A few crude ones to the side, tehre are actually some fairly amusing “Obama Carols” on that HA thread. If I felt 100%, I’d try to come up with a contribution of my own, here or there.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Incredible as it may seem to a person of your tender years,JED, but teachers used to ask children to pray for the president.
This chanting thing prolly began with you and the other hairy krishnas of your generation.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Oh, come on, fuster. Even you must recognize the difference between praying for the president — whoever’s the president — and teaching children an ideological chant about a particular president.
If you object to the “praying for the president” part, it’s the praying that gets to you, not the involving the president in it.
Unless you’re going to tell me you’d be tickled to death for teachers to have kids pray for, say, the Buckeyes in the Michigan game, or the local talent adorning Dancing with the Stars this season. It’s just if you start praying for the president — eeyeuw, that’s gross.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
What bothers me more about Obama than anything else, at least at the moment, is that the United States is supporting Zelaya. Zelaya, hiding out in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is claiming that Israelis are subjecting him to mind-altering gas and radiation. He is qrazier than Qaddafi and more Ahnti-Semitic than Ahmadinejad.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
George Jochnowitz — I don’t know that I’d say Zelaya is more anti-Semitic than Ahmadinejad, but obviously there is no moral brake whatsoever in his mind on anti-Semitism.
Zelaya is a Chavez protege, which explains a lot. Zelaya’s choice to complain of being targeted by Israeli mind-rays looks like a calculated appeal to the loony-tunes anti-Semitism of the scaff and raff of the UN. The timing of his tinfoil-hat announcement is ideal to catch the anti-Semitic horde in full demagogic cry.
His appeal to this contingent explains everything you need to know about Zelaya. Regrettably, it conveys much about Obama as well. Some of us are not as surprised by that as others.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I guess we can all take comfort in the fact that upon reaching a certain age these children will start to question all the good horsehockey they were told was true. My eight year old daughter is told regularly at school that Obama is the greatest thing since sliced bread. My guess is by the time that she is twelve the events of the world will have proved otherwise and, like her fascination with Hannah Montana, it will be a thing of the past and forgotten.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
@J.E. Dyer – C’mon yourself, you little hippie. This praying thing used to be widespread. Once we were asked to pray for the Secretary-General of the UN!!!!!
This is how we all came to be under the thumb of the ZOG and those black helicopters that are constantly circling overhead.
Of course, I understand this and don’t much like it. I also don’t know much about it. Can you tell me how many teachers and children were involved.
Was this particular chant a nation-wide thing or was it confined to some quadrant of the country?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Ohoo saay can you see
Mister Peanut on tee vee
From the dawn’s early light
Bla bla bla bla bla bla BLA
Was he talking all through the night
Can’t he turn off the light
And the platitudes run on
They just go on and on
He keeps talking and talking like some boring schmegegee
Can someone please tell him to shut up already
Oh say why he thinks he’s so smart and so brave
Mister Peanut please shut up, I won’t be your new slave
September 24th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I don’t know, nkh. The sliced bread has turned out to be full of high-fructose corn syrup.
So I guess, ultimately, you may well be right. What we can probably look forward to is the restless populace not only getting over OSlash, but Manhattan passing a law against him. Or at least imposing a special tax on him.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Very nice, ZN. You couldn’t get something in there about the 3-ply toilet paper that’s killing the planet?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
@fuster – I remember in elementary school the nuns were big fans all things Camelot but I don’t remember saying prayers for either Tricky Dick or the Peanut Farmer from Plains. Of course, they would also rap your knuckles with a wooden ruler for the slightest infraction against their authority. Strange how the liberals unconstrained gravitate to the extremes…
September 24th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Z wins in the category of “Best use of schmegegee in a lyric.”
September 24th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
@nokarmahere – Perhaps there were unconstrained liberal nuns in your neighborhood, but not too many in the Bronx of my youth.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I know this will scare the bejeebers out of you, fuster, but there are still, today, teachers in private schools having kids pray for our public officials.
Cue slasher-film scream.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
@fuster – I like the spelling “schmegegee.” It suggests the existence of a schmegegor. (There are so many possibilities: Peter Rabbit and Mr. Schmegegor. I am a man more schmegegged against than schmegegging…)
September 24th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
@J.E. Dyer – It don’t matter to me, JED. Public or private.
I’ve got this really bizarre notion that the education of children isn’t something that can be or should be confined to school.
Are you going to tell me if this was a wide-spread thing or not?
Or do I have to do my own homework?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
@fuster –
I’ve been asked to sing it in my cape and tights before the next Bears Game.
I think it would be good to have a Mister Peanut Flag, don’t you?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
In my shul, we pray every shabbat for the president–also governor of our state. I notice that some who were not moving their lips during the previous 8 years are doing so now.
But I do get disappointed with the tribe from time to time. No one has bothered to issue me my mind-altering radiation kit. And there are a lot of people whose minds I’d like to alter.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
@Zoltan Newberry – Well, Z, you’ll definitely need your own drummer. If you can’t find a local madman, gimme a call.
BTW, are you driving to the game?
http://www.x-entertainment.com/updates/pics/peanutcar.jpg
September 24th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
@Margo – I assume you mean taking in, because there’s probably not enough material to be letting ‘em out much.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
@Zoltan Newberry –
http://splicd.com/VH2nQHPs4aA/35/37
September 24th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
@fuster Remember, Maryland was home of the Catonsville Nine. There were a lot of radical religious types floating around here from the late 60′s through the 70′s.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
@nokarmahere – I had forgotten them, nok, but by then I was old enough to have my own draft card.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
@CK MacLeod –
Dear fellow, you are my muse.
He’s done such a good job with Mister Peanut, how about we ask Howard to create a vision of Vladimir Putin on a Ritz Cracker.
Putin on the Ritz!
haw haw haw haw haw
September 24th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Video, please, ZN. That’s all I ask.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
@Peter Shalen – schmegegoration comes to mind, but makes me think of Prof Irwin Corey giving a lecture.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Margo, are you sure they aren’t using the radiation kit on you, down at the shul?
I mean, that praying for the public officials stuff. That’s really out there.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
@Zoltan Newberry – Bravo!
September 24th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
@fuster – between the the black teenage boys vowing to make Obama proud, military-style, and the little school kids with their “Obama’s gonna lead ‘em” song, and the nationwide Dept of Ed lesson suggestion that students describe how they’re going to help the Prez, and now this video… I think we’ve seen more than enough cockroaches to presume a major infestation, cluck.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Margo,
In 1990, I visited Poland, partly because I had been in China during the defeat of Beijing Spring in 1989 and wanted to see a country where Communism had been overthrown. I found a prayerbook in the Warsaw synagogue dating from before 1914, when Warsaw was still part of the Russian Empire. The book contained a prayer for the health and well-being of the Czar and his family.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Gee-yod, CKM, the kids are just praying for OSlash. Get hip, will ya?
ZN, you’re my Pun Hero. And that’s saying a lot.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Margo’s must be conservative like mine, and, for about 8 years, many of my haverim always seemed to need to take a potty break just about then. Conservative Judiasm should not be mistaken for conservative politics.
I don’t remember Ronald Reagan asking people to stand up (please rise) sit down (you may be seated) stand up sit down over and over and over for 2 1/2 hours.
Most of the Conservative Jews I know have had 3 knee replacements already.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Yep. I’ve never been in a church that did not pray for our political leaders every Sunday. Ain’t no thang.
However, not once in all my years have I ever encountered an eleemosynary situation in which teachers required students to chant about what a sitting president (or indeed, any other president) was going to change about our country, make happen, require of us, or anything else for that matter.
Millions of Chinese, Russian, Cuban, and other schoolchildren did have that experience in the last 90 years, however.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
@CK MacLeod – MacLeod, there were over sixty-eight million old farts marching in DC demanding the restoration of the CSA and free Miracle Whip.
Howard started a campaign for $40,000 and a red mule for all white people. (except Steven).
Glenn Beck has a deep-seated hatred of frogs or frog culture, I’m not sure.
I have met the infestation….
September 24th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
@Zoltan Newberry – I guess they’re now on their last leg.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
@J.E. Dyer – How many card-carrying children did you say there were?
(thanks for eleemosynary. brings back fond memories.)
September 24th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Watergate hearings?
September 25th, 2009 at 12:14 am
@Peter Shalen – Sen. Sam Ervin.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:21 am
@fuster – Right.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:29 am
The whole problem; an aura of a cult personality built up with things I see from 3rd world tinpot dictator stuff or communist countries.
It is just creepy.
And yeah, our church pretty much prays for every public official around. Lord knows they need the help.
September 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Actually, the prayers are something we can all get behind, including things like the leaders should “govern all affairs of state fairly, so that peace and security, happiness and prosperity, justice and freedom may forever abide in our midst.”
George, I figure the czar of Russia really needed prayers that he would be guided to do the right thing.
The prayers are required, because the rabbis of the Talmud noted, “Pray for the civil authorities, because without them people would eat each other up.”
September 25th, 2009 at 9:31 am
@Peter Shalen — Peter, I’m just reading this delightful post and the comments to it (except for your, fuster–sorry but you continue to be a bore). Anyway, I, too, was struck with Zoltan’s spelling of schmegegge (see also shmegeggy, shmageggy, etc.) Anyway, this spelling also allows one to speak of being all schmegegged up.
It also reminds me of a friend from childhood who is Jewish but says schmedrick, rather than the correct schmendrick (with an “n”). Even more problematic is that his children, who were raised as Christians, also say schmedrick, which is very problematic somehow.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:37 am
@Zoltan Newberry — Zolt, how goes the peanut paraphernalia?
September 25th, 2009 at 11:37 am
@nokarmahere — Nok, they were one fine baseball team!
September 25th, 2009 at 11:39 am
May the Lord bless and keep the Czars. . . far away from here.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Well, I think the gals are of one mind. The standard intercessory prayers of both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches and schools always, always include prayers for civil authorities. In my experience, entirely non-partisan, even at the very liberal church that I attend.
In any case, fuster, the point is that when you pray for God to help Barack Obama, you acknowledge that there is something bigger than Barack Obama, more powerful, more knowing, more caring of humanity. This is a tough pill for liberal secularists to swallow, but probably the one most important for young children’s understanding of their own freedom.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
@Barbara – Gee, thanks Barb. I was wondering about the whole idea of praying. I’ma gonna give it another go soon’s I get the hang of how many points in the star.
Every time lately, the place ends up all astinking.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
And did anyone else notice that our five year-olds really sucked compared to the Chinese and NoKo 5 year-olds, who have the whole Sychronized Praise of Dear Leader event down? For once, I’m glad we won’t get the gold in that one.
September 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I find the video relatively hopeful.
By now I would have expected a video of children singing “I know that my Obama liveth” or “Ave Ann Dunham.”
September 25th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
@Sully – How about “Barack of Ages”?
September 25th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Love “Ave Ann Dunham.” Love it. “Barack of Ages” has some serious staying power as well.
Consider these altered lines from another crowd favorite:
“Then sings my soul, Barack Hussein, to thee,
” ‘How great thou art! How great thou art!’ ”
And of course, no hymnal would be complete without “Now Thank We All Barack.”
September 25th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
@J.E. Dyer – I don’t know whether to laugh or throw up.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Barbara,
Have to be careful here.
“Barack of ages, cleft for me,” might draw unwelcome attention from the Secret Service if sung by someone with the sort of blissful look on his face evidenced in that photo Howard just posted.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
@Sully – Hey, he brought up “cleavages of the Cold War,” not me. As Charles K. says, “Interesting noun.” Not interesting: it’s just another stupid alliteration.
Checking the photo….ugggghhhhh. I forget which one of you really objected to my Narcoleptic Ter-ray-za, but this one of BO is way worse.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
@Howard Portnoy –
Howard: I need help (so what else is new!) I’d love to order and pay for a Mister Peanut flag, and many many decals, but the process is daunting for an old, technologically disabled furt.
I also dream of getting a pair of Mister Alpha pajamas, and also the full regalia outfit, cape and all, which maybe I could wear to work on Fridays sitting at my trading desk in The Loop. In this wonderful internet age of instant global communication, anything is possible.
Even outing Mister Peanut as an empty suit.
Even Putin on the Ritz!
They wind him up, he gives a speech. Then they wind him up some more, and he gives another speech, and then……………
And, somehow, it always sounds the same.
Oy Vey.
I wonder what our Awesome Creator has in mind for us now. I’ve survived many tests in my life. This one is a duzey.
btw, I enjoy misspelling words. It’s the rebel in me, my frem.
I can’t tell you how much i appreciate what you and Colin and JED and Fuster and Barbara and Sully and Peter, et all have done to make this a most enjoyable site. I miss Joe Nocera, the now busy schoolteacher.
What was that focus group all about? And who is Michael L…?
September 25th, 2009 at 10:55 pm