CHANGING HIS TUNE ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 2 May 2009 | Mark Steyn

[diamond6]

bump

[Rummyfan]

James Lileks, the bard of Minnesota, once offered this trenchant analysis of Pete Seeger:

‘If I Had A Hammer’? Well, what’s stopping you? Go to the hardware store; they’re about a buck-ninety, tops.

Mark Steyn quoting Lileks - love it!

[Stepan12]

I hate to mention it but we were singing by the campfire at by best friend's wedding and we sung "Where have all the flowers ago?". I am the one holding the camera for this.

Earlier I sang "The Star Spangled Banner" by myself at the campfire. Most people don't know that our National Anthem has four stanzas at the third is rarely sung because it is anti British: The Complete "Star Spangled Banner"

[Chuzzlewit]

Mark Steyn.. brilliant, as usual. thank you posting the article..

Steyn and Colter... you did need much more than that.

[alecqss]

James Lileks, the bard of Minnesota, once offered this trenchant analysis of Pete Seeger:
‘If I Had A Hammer’? Well, what’s stopping you? Go to the hardware store; they’re about a buck-ninety, tops.
Mark Steyn quoting Lileks - love it!

"Buck-ninety" - that's the whole problem, they want hammer for free, just to "have it" miraculously.

[hosepipe]

There ya go...
Theres a 90 to 1 chance a leftist can compute the obvious..
That Joe Stalin was a murderous son of a democrat harpy..

-OR- the democrats on your family are dumber than a box of marbles (90 of them)..

[Noumenon]

...he kept on singing for “peace” no matter how many millions died and millions more had to live in bondage, and, while that may seem agreeably peaceful when you’re singing “If I Had A Hammer” in Ann Arbor, it’s not if you’re on the sharp end of the deal thousands of miles away.

In a just world, these moral midgets would have to live the consequences of that they're cheering on. Let's see how long they'd last on one of Stalin's camps. Or one of Castro's prisons.

[Pastelsbywelz]

Pete Seeger is dead. Don’t know the death date but you have to figure most of the voters in Illinois and especially Chicago are dead. There are more dead people on the voter registration rolls than live folks. So it is fitting to have a dead guy sing at the imposter’s inaguration.

[PzLdr]

Surprised Steyn forgot to mention Old Pete’s PRO- WAR songs, like the “Good Ship Rueben James”, written AFTER Adolf rolled into Russia.

[Zman516]

"Buck-ninety" - that's the whole problem, they want hammer for free, just to "have it" miraculously.

True. But since communists are forbidden to actually "own" anything, said hammer would have to be property of the State.

Pete was probably waiting in a line at a commie hammer store (without hammers, as usual) when he composed the song.

[Batrachian]

We make a mistake to think of these leftists as well intentioned dupes. They're not. They're part of a superbly organized and funded (and quite successful) fifth column who's goal is the destruction of our nation, and indeed all of western culture.

I believe they deserve the same fate as that of Stalin's victims, and Mao Tse Tung's, and Castro's. That would be justice.

[nothingnew]

For the cost of a restricted-view seat at a Peter, Paul and Mary revival, you could buy half-a-dozen top-of-the-line hammers and have a lot more fun, even if you used them on yourself.

BWAHAHAHA!!! Steyn!!

FMCDH(BITS)

[ThreePuttinDude]

Pete is alive and kickin'. He performed at the 0bama Inaugural Celebration

Lets not forget about this little tidbit about ol' Pete, Pre-1950, In 1936, at the age of 17, Pete Seeger joined the Young Communist League (YCL), then at the height of its popularity and influence. In 1942 he became a member of the Communist Party itself (see quotation below). He drifted away from the Party in the 1950's, but remained an unrepentant Stalinist.

[alecqss]

Pete was probably waiting in a line at a commie hammer store (without hammers, as usual) when he composed the song.

LOL!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yes, they’re dopey nursery-school jingles, but that’s why they’re so insidious. The numbing simplicity allows them to be passed off as uncontentious unexceptionable all-purpose anthems of goodwill. Which is why you hear “This Land Is Your Land” in American grade schools, but not “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic”. The invention of the faux-childlike faux-folk song was one of the greatest forces in the infantilization of American culture.

Excellent point. I really lament the passing of the songs we learned in grade school in the 50s and early 60s that celebrated America - The Star Spangled Banner; The Battle Hymn of the Republic; The Marines Hymn; Anchors Aweigh; Shenandoah; Yankee Doodle; America; When Johnny Comes Marching Home; The Yellow Rose of Texas; She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain; John Henry, Steel Drivin' Man; Oh Susanna!; Camptown Races; Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair; Erie Canal

Our kids are being cheated out of so much of our heritage and particularly that which taught love of your country. PC and Pete Seeger nursery rhymes have destroyed all of. It's all part of public school efforts to teach kids all the evils of their nation.

I didn't enjoy singing all that much as a kid, but it is amazing to think how I still remember all those songs and their lyrics to this day.

[GOPJ]

...Seeger’s lifelong support of Stalinism had not made the final cut. No surprise there. In such circumstances, the rule is to hail someone for his “activism” and “commitment” and “passion” without getting hung up on the specifics of what exactly he’s actively and passionately committing to... The Washington Post’s Style section, with its usual sly elan, hailed him as America’s “best-loved Commie” – which I think translates as “Okay, so the genial old coot spent a lifetime shilling for totalitarian murderers, but only uptight Republican squares would be boorish enough to dwell on it.”

Here's that "double standard" again - I see a person who "celebrated Stalin" being the moral equivalent of someone who "celebrated Hitler" - as would any rational person comparing mass murderers.

The fact that "cool" people were communists (in the mind's of liberal elites) seems to make them think the rest of us see supporters of these mass murderers the same too. What idiots. Eff the Washington Post. Eff the New York Times. Stalin and Hitler were both mass murderers and the people who supported them are not just idiots or useful idiots, but ENABLERS. The New York Times helped Stalin in his free murder reign. Won a prize for it too.

[y6162]

Pete Seeger = BANJO BOLSHEVIK

[trisham]

Wow. Excellent article.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It's all part of Obama's Retro-Left freakshow.
The Fabian Socialist as hipster. Obammunist chic.
He'd be a hit at Newport. How is he on tambourine?