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America comes around: From Wall St. to Penn State, we are seeing things more clearly
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ^ | Stanley Crouch

Posted on 11/28/2011 12:15:43 PM PST by presidio9

Americans are finally waking up to see the realities of the day. Last week, as the wings of a flightless bird overshadowed everything with its crass commercialism, a number of developments gave me reason to celebrate a wide range of enlightened American moments and decisions.

It is true that ours is a time absent of political compromise and any fair sense of profit, wages and protection of the environment. The most naïve among us assume that, if left alone, the market itself will decide what is right and wrong simply because business is an arena in which only the moral triumph.

Naïve garbage.

But the Occupy Wall Street movement is far from naïve, an expression of long-simmering public disenchantment with our national financial sector and the ominous power it has over Washington. OWS has yet to articulate anything besides slogans about “equality.” But it is so grounded in public despair that it will not go away just because Fox News says it should.

Sometimes, we Americans take a long time to come around. But eventually we see things as they really are.

Take The Grio, a black-themed website that spends too much of its time swooning before wealth. Yet The Grio has recently attacked tattooed vulgarians like Lil Wayne, questioning how these talentless minstrels we call musicians have made their millions. Say what?

Another great thing is the reaction to the pedophilia scandal Penn State is accused of covering up. The widespread condemnation of football coach Joe Paterno and university leadership provides another opportunity for Americans to face the tragic complexity that can bring down any institution too proud of its reputation to do the right thing. Penn State should be on its knees in the same pew with the leadership of the Catholic Church, tasting the bitter fruits of the coverup.

On a less somber note, I was taken by the celebration of Wynton Marsalis’ 50th birthday, as he represents complete integrity in a period distinguished by the selling out across the board of popular musicians. He has never been broke, but he could have made much more money if he were more willing to genuflect at the dollar tree.

And on a recent rainy night, I heard two sets of music from pianists Chick Corea and Marcus Roberts at the Blue Note in Manhattan, both to a packed house. It was top-level jazz, which has always been a shining emblem of the greatness at the center of American democracy.

I was also greatly impressed by the pacing, nuance and taste of Clint Eastwood’s newest movie, “J. Edgar.” The film does not deny Hoover his organizational genius for fusing science and law enforcement, but shows him as a deeply troubled man who abused power. If anyone were to make a fictionalized film inspired by the tragedy at Penn State, Eastwood could bring off the assignment, I am sure.

There is always more, but the above should be enough to convince that we are sufficiently great as a nation to see the huge warts on the face of Wall Street, understand the complexity of the Penn State scandal, rise from our knees at the trough of slop dripping from the money tree, question the garbage of hip hop, get ourselves to hear good jazz and comprehend the Richard III brilliance and dubious qualities of our country’s most famous lawman.

Think about that while enjoying your leftover turkey.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: stanleycrouch; turkey

Last week, as the wings of a flightless bird overshadowed everything with its crass commercialism,

1 posted on 11/28/2011 12:15:47 PM PST by presidio9
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To: presidio9

???

What drugs are these people on?

Did a senile, drunken Larry King come back and write this rambling, lost without a map article?


2 posted on 11/28/2011 12:18:23 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: presidio9

LOL. Yes. Turkeys fly. Wild turkeys fly like nobodies business. Fat lazy domesticated turkeys still fly, just not so high.


3 posted on 11/28/2011 12:18:36 PM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: presidio9
Ya mean like "Moral Relativism has a price?
4 posted on 11/28/2011 12:26:30 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: allmendream

I remember reading somewhere that the male turkey was the heaviest flighted bird. I just can’t find it now.


5 posted on 11/28/2011 12:27:28 PM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does.)
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To: presidio9
"...the market itself will decide what is right and wrong simply because business is an arena in which only the moral triumph."

The market has nothing to do with "right" or "wrong" as it is an impartial allocator of resources. Labels like "right" and "wrong" are coined by people to register their subjective feelings about whatever the market happens to doing at any given time.

6 posted on 11/28/2011 12:33:27 PM PST by circlecity
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To: presidio9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_bustard

The Great Bustard.

Close relation to the Arrogant Bustard, which is less large, but more arrogant. ;)


7 posted on 11/28/2011 12:34:01 PM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: presidio9
I would like to put mister stanley crouch’s head in a hydraulic press... just to open it and see what a vacuum looks like up close.

LLS

8 posted on 11/28/2011 12:35:03 PM PST by LibLieSlayer ("Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness." Ronaldo Magnus)
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To: presidio9

My last post was for humor only... you know the leftards today.

LLS


9 posted on 11/28/2011 12:36:06 PM PST by LibLieSlayer ("Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness." Ronaldo Magnus)
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To: presidio9

I have no idea what this rambling grab bag of nonsequitors is supposed to be about, but it has to be written by a liberal, since no one else would dare use the word “genuflect”


10 posted on 11/28/2011 12:38:00 PM PST by dk88 (Occupy=Liberalism: No solutions, no responsibility and demanding free stuff from someone else)
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To: GeronL

Andy Rooney’s final column??


11 posted on 11/28/2011 12:44:16 PM PST by WayneS (Comments now include 25 percent more sarcasm for no additional charge...)
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To: presidio9

Funny how the culture of perversion that has been created and championed by the left-wing at Penn State is now all of a sudden a part of some moral victory for them. They created the culture of perversion at Penn State just as they created the culture of perversion of the Occupier movement that rapes and defecates in public.

And then this mindless propagandist wants to connect being opposed to the left-wing pedophilic / homosexual corruption at Penn State to global warming and the filth of Occupy Wall Street in such a mindlessly obvious attempt at swaying anyone opposed to pedophilia to connect that with support for global warming and the OWS movement.

This should have come with a BARF alert!


12 posted on 11/28/2011 12:44:47 PM PST by TheBigIf
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To: presidio9
Take The Grio, a black-themed website that spends too much of its time swooning before wealth. Yet The Grio has recently attacked tattooed vulgarians like Lil Wayne, questioning how these talentless minstrels we call musicians have made their millions. Say what?

Oh, well! If people have seen through Lil Wayne, then clearly the world will be a better place!

Lil Who?

13 posted on 11/28/2011 12:47:27 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: allmendream

Hey!!!!

Say it to my face, at least.


14 posted on 11/28/2011 12:59:12 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: presidio9
It is true that ours is a time absent of political compromise and any fair sense of profit, wages and protection of the environment...

I stopped here to browse other articles.

15 posted on 11/28/2011 1:02:23 PM PST by Tenacious 1 (Liberals vote like clowns walking thru a minefield, oblivious to the consequences.)
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To: WayneS

This column is guilty of gerrymandering or is it gerry-meandering?


16 posted on 11/28/2011 1:03:51 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: ArrogantBustard

LOL!!!!

Fan of Stone Brewing Company?

Arrogant Bastard Ale:

This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory–maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beverage will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make things taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.

At Stone Brewing, we believe that pandering to the lowest common denominator represents the height of tyranny - a virtual form of keeping the consumer barefoot and stupid. Brought forth upon an unsuspecting public in 1997, Arrogant Bastard Ale openly challenged the tyrannical overlords who were brazenly attempting to keep Americans chained in the shackles of poor taste. As the progenitor of its style, Arrogant Bastard Ale has reveled in its unprecedented and uncompromising celebration of intensity. There have been many nods to Arrogant Bastard Ale…even outright attempts to copy it… but only one can ever embody the true nature of liquid Arrogance!


17 posted on 11/28/2011 1:55:56 PM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: allmendream

Arrogant Bastard Ale is good stuff. I had never heard of it when I picked the name ... I first heard of the beer from another FReeper shortly after I joined.


18 posted on 11/28/2011 4:54:36 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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