In another thread, RfM poster "axeldc" reports:

"Dr. Ben Carson [has been] accused of plagiarism [of] Cleon Skousen, et al. Which is worse: stealing ideas, or thinking Cleon Skousen's ideas are worth stealing?"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson-book#.ahy7NDkXX

(posted by "axeldc," on "Recovery from Mormon" discussion board, 7 January 2015, at: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1478405,1478405#msg-1478405)


Ironic, ain't it, that Carson, an African-American, is plagiarizing Skousen, a White-bred racist?

Here's LDS loon Skousen's record on that score, just in case Carson is lurking here and would like to cite the proof (attribution preferred, of course).
_____


--Skousen's Claim That Enslaved Blacks Never Had It So Good

In his poorly- and insultingly-crafted textbook, "The Making of America" (which I eventually ditched after it was given to me by a Skousen supporter), Skousen favorably quoted a 1934 essay which paternalistically referred to the children of African-American slaves using the racially degratory term "pickaninnies":

". . . Skousen became the center of a minor controversy when state legislators in California approved the official use of another of his books, the 1982 history text, 'The Making of America.'

"Besides bursting with factual errors, Skousen's book characterized African-American children as 'pickaninnies' and described American slave owners as the 'worst victims' of the slavery system.

"Quoting the historian Fred Albert Shannon, 'The Making of America' explained that '[slave] gangs in transit were usually a cheerful lot, though the presence of a number of the more vicious type sometimes made it necessary for them all to go in chains.'"

("Beck Guru Skousen's 'Story of Slavery' Suggests Slave Owners Were 'Worst Victims of the System,'" in "Media Matters for America," 30 September 2009)


About life in the Slave South, Skousen--a pseudo-"historian" who, in his day, peddled a revoltingly toxic brand of racist revisionism--as quoted in his book, "The Five Thousand Year Leap":

"If the pickaninnies ran naked it was generally from choice, and when the white boys had to put on shoes and go away to school they were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates."

Predictably, Skousen's bigotry-belching books have become holy bibles in the kooky congretations of the racist radical fringe:

". . . Until 2010, George Wythe University taught Skousen's work as part of its core curricula, alongside such classics as Alexis de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America' and Tom Paine's 'Common Sense.' Freshmen were assigned 'The Five Thousand Year Leap' and 'The Making of America,' which came close to idealizing slavery . . . . "

(". . . Romney Aided Fringe Utah College Founded by Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorist," by David Co
rn and Stephanie Mencimer, "Mother Jones," 11 October 2012)


However, as one would expect, serious scholars regard Skousen as an utter and complete joke:

"In 1982, Skousen published . . . an ancestor-worshipping history text titled 'The Making of America,' and prepared a study guide for nationwide seminars based on its contents. As Alexander Zaitchik reports in his informative study of [Glenn] Beck, 'Common Nonsense,' the new book became an object of controversy in 1987, after the California Bicentennial Commission sold it as part of a fund-raising drive. Among its offenses was an account of slavery drawn from long-disgraced work by the historian Fred A. Shannon, which characterized slave children as 'pickaninnies' and suggested that the worst victims of slavery were the slaveholders themselves. The constitutional scholar, Jack Rakove, of Stanford, inspected Skousen’s book and seminars and pronounced them 'a joke that no self-respecting scholar would think is worth a warm pitcher of spit.'"

("Confounding Fathers:The Tea Party’s Cold War Roots," by Sean Wilentz, "The New Yorker," 18 October 2010)
_____


--Skousen's Incendiary Claim That Communists Were Behind Attacks on the Mormon Church's Racist Anti-Black Doctrine, Plus Other Racist Rants

In 1970, amid growing college protests against BYU sports teams for the LDS Church’s anti-Black priesthood policy, Skousen published a tabloid featuring the screaming headline, “The Communist Attack on the Mormons.”

The article asserted that:

" . . . [Professional] Communist-oriented revolutionary groups have been spearheading the wave of protests and violence directed toward Brigham Young University and the Mormon Church,” [employing] “Marxism and Maoism as their ideological base and terror tactics as their method . . .”

Skousen warned that Communists were plotting to manipulate press reports into depicting the Mormon Church as being “rich, priest-ridden, racist, super-authoritarian and conservative to the point of being archaically reactionary.”

He claimed that, in fact, the Mormon Church was one of the Communists’ “prime TARGETS FOR ATTACK” because it is “STRONGLY PRO-AMERICAN” and that the ‘Negro-priesthood issue” was being used as a “SMOKESREEN” to “further their ulterior motives.”

Citing my grandfather Ezra Taft Benson’s speech, “Civil Rights: Tool of Communist Deception,” Skousen warned that Communist-inspired assaults on the Mormon Church were designed to: " . . . create resentment and hatred between the races by distorting the religious tenet of the Church regarding the Negro and blowing it up to ridiculous proportions."

(“Special Report by National Research Group,” American Fork, Utah, 84003, March 1970, emphasis in original)
_____


--Skousen's Anti-MLK Views

Like my grandfather, Skousen declared that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a tool in a Kremlin-concocted conspiracy to destroy America.

Writes historian D. Michael Quinn:

"After [President Ronald] Reagan signed the law for King Day, Cleon Skousen's Freemen Institute observed that this national holiday honored 'a man who courted violence and nightriding and borke the law to acheive his purposes; who found it expedient openly to collaborate with totalitarian Communism; and whose personal life was so revolting that it cannot be discussed.'"

(D. Michael Quinn, "The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1997])
____


--Skousen's Incendiary Claim That Communists Were Behind Attacks on the Mormon Church's Racist Anti-Black Doctrine, Plus Other Racist Rants

In 1970, amid growing college protests against BYU sports teams for the LDS Church’s anti-Black priesthood policy, Skousen published a tabloid featuring the screaming headline, “The Communist Attack on the Mormons.”

The article asserted that:

" . . . [Professional] Communist-oriented revolutionary groups have been spearheading the wave of protests and violence directed toward Brigham Young University and the Mormon Church,” [employing] “Marxism and Maoism as their ideological base and terror tactics as their method . . .”

Skousen warned that Communists were plotting to manipulate press reports into depicting the Mormon Church as being “rich, priest-ridden, racist, super-authoritarian and conservative to the point of being archaically reactionary.”

He claimed that, in fact, the Mormon Church was one of the Communists’ “prime TARGETS FOR ATTACK” because it is “STRONGLY PRO-AMERICAN” and that the ‘Negro-priesthood issue” was being used as a “SMOKESREEN” to “further their ulterior motives.”

Citing Ezra Taft Benson’s speech, “Civil Rights: Tool of Communist Deception,” he warned that Communist-inspired assaults on the Mormon Church were designed to " . . . create resentment and hatred between the races by distorting the religious tenet of the Church regarding the Negro and blowing it up to ridiculous proportions."

(“Special Report by National Research Group,” American Fork, Utah, 84003, March 1970, p. 1, emphasis in original)


Like my grandfather, Skousen also declared that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a tool in a Kremlin-concocted conspiracy to destroy America.

Writes Quinn:

"After [President Ronald] Reagan signed the law for King Day, Cleon Skousen's Freemen Institute observed that this national holiday honored 'a man who courted violence and nightriding and borke the law to acheive his purposes; who found it expedient openly to collaborate with totalitarian Communism; and whose personal life was so revolting that it cannot be discussed.'"

(Quinn, "Mormon Hierachy")


Cliven Bundy: For Mormonism, the nightmare continues.If you're going to rip someone off, at least check their creeds and their creds first. :)

******


While we're at it, below are some further indicators of Skousen's racist views--paired up, as they are, with the anti-Black, pro-Skousen burbling rants dumbly expressed by Mormon Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy:

--Cliven Bundy, Cleon Skousen and Mormon Bigotry: Sourcing the Snake Oil

Mormonism's bigoted wack-job, Brother Bundy, finally showed his true colors. Not surprisingly (to quote the Book of Mormon), they were proven to be quite "white and delightsome."

Bundy (a long-time tax cheat and goofy states-righter who recognizes no authority higher than the local sheriff level) notified reporters that he ". . . want[ed] to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro." Bundy proceeded to ramble on about driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas where, he said, "in front of that government house, the door was usually open and the older people and the kids--and there is always at least a half-a-dozen people sitting on the porch--they didn't have nothing to do. They didn't have nothing for their kids to do. They didn't have nothing for their young girls to do. And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."

("Cliven Bundy: Are Black People 'Better Off As Slaves' Than 'Under Government Subsidy'?," at "Huff Post Politics," 24 April 2014; for Bundy's video-taped comments, see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/cliven-bundy-racist_n_5204821.html)


You heard it right--as in right from the far-right racist's mouth (with special thanks to Bundy's right-hand racist man, W. Cleon Skousen).
_____


--The Bundy-Skousen Connection

Tax scofflaw and "conservative" big-gub'ment-moocher Bundy owes his far-out, bigoted views to fellow rabid Mormon theologian, Skousen--as given away by what Bundy has been carting around on his person:

"In a recent media appearance, Bundy was proudly displaying a copy of the Constitution in his shirt pocket. After searching for the distinctive cover of the document in Bundy's pocket, the publisher turned out to be the innocuously-named 'National Center for Constitutional Studies' (NCCS). However, the NCCS is not the commendable educational organization it purports to be. It began life as the 'Freemen Institute,' a vehicle for the far-right, Mormon, anti-commie, history revisionist, W. Cleon Skousen.

"Skousen taught that the Constitution was inspired by a God who intended America to be a Christian nation. He also professed the canon of white supremicism that Anglo-Saxons are descended from a lost tribe of Israel. The Southern Poverty Law Center chronicled the NCCS curriculum based on Skousen's philosophy saying that he '. . . demonized the federal regulatory agencies, arguing for the abolition of everything from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the Environmental Protection Agency. He wanted to repeal the minimum wage, smash unions, nullify anti-discrimination laws, sell off public lands and national parks, end the direct election of senators, kill the income tax and the estate tax, knock down state-level walls separating church and state, and, of course, raze the Federal Reserve System.'

"Sound familiar? Skousen's warped ideology . . . syncs up perfectly with the Tea Party and other purveyors of fringe fear-mongering like politi-vangelist [Mormon] Glenn Beck, who literally begged his audience to read Skousen's book, /The 5,000 Year Leap,' which Beck said was 'divinely inspired.' The conspiracy-obsessed NCCS shares with Beck and Bundy an animosity toward government that exceeds the boundaries of common sense. Along with Skousen's books, the NCCS website features anti-UN screeds ('Confronting Agenda 21'), treatises on wingnut electoral reforms ('Repeal 17 Now!'), harbingers of one-world government ('The Rise of Global Governance') and appeals for institutionalized theocracy ('America's God & Country'). No wonder Bundy was sporting a version of the Constitution that was distributed by the NCCS, an organization that advances ultra-conservative conspiracy theories and promotes anti-government hostility.

"The threatening hysteria and deception emanating from Bundy, and the armed militias that came to his defense, are emblematic of the apocalyptic doctrine of the NCCS. It is no accident that Bundy's Constitution was provided by a group whose teachings have been denounced by historians and constitutional scholars. But it does explain the extremism and advocacy of violence that Bundy et al have espoused. All of this makes it all the more inappropriate and irresponsible for Bundy to be hailed as hero by conservative media outlets like the National Review and Fox News who, just last week, compared Bundy to Gandhi in a feat of epic cognitive collapse."

("EXPOSED: The Source of Cliven Bundy's Crackpot Constitutionalism," by "News Corps" for "Media Watch," in "Daily Kos," 20 April 2014)

W. Cleon Skousen and Cliven Bundy are two racists in the same pea-brained pod.



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2015 02:22AM by steve benson.

issue?

And isn't it interesting that you pop up on RfM under the board handle "racism," having never posted under that ID before . . .

http://exmormon.org/phorum/search.php?2,search=,author=racism,page=1,match_type=ALL,match_dates=0,match_forum=2,match_threads=0

How convenient.

Caught ya, racist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2015 07:12PM by steve benson.

is black and you are joining in on the criticism of him.

You must be racist.

. . . and in the long history of "all dates" for search-sourcing of author names posted in the forum, this is your first and only time here, ever--making you gutless and transparent, all at the same time.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/search.php?2,search=,author=racism,page=1,match_type=ALL,match_dates=365,match_forum=ALL,match_threads=0


P.S.--I am criticizing Carson for, as an African-American, apparently not doing his due diligence in homeworking the anti-Black Skousen, the latter who has a Latter-day Saint history of demeaning Blacks--an issue pf Skousen's blatant bigotry that doesn't seem to bother you.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2015 07:45PM by steve benson.

and automatically assumes that anyone who criticizes a Black President, or someone crossing the border illegally is a "racist".

Criticisms directed at people from a different race are always racist unless the criticism comes from the mouth of an "enlightened" individual like Steve Benson.

Got the courage to criticize Skousen for his historically-cited bigotry as couched (among other things) in Mormon Church doctrine--or is that beyond the "pale" for you, so to speak?

Why your silence? Book of Mormon got your tongue?

(By the way, since you're obviously new here, you need to learn how to indent under the post of the person you are trying to talk to).



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2015 07:38PM by steve benson.

the man that allegedly plagiarized him.

Nor am I a mormon.

I find it funny that self proclaimed racism detectors like Steve Benson post criticisms of a black man and don't see the irony in being called a racist for doing so.

Let the record show:

-EXHIBIT A (before)

"Posted by: RACISM [emphasis added], Date: January 07, 2015 07:07PM . . . "

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1478972,1478983#msg-1478983


-EXHIBIT B (after)

"Posted by: RACIST [emphasis added], Date: January 07, 2015, 08:40PM . . . "

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1478972,1479092#msg-1479092

(And, just think, you came to embrace your inner racist child in less than two hours).

By the way, so that you know, Mr. Junior Varsity racist, handle-flipping is a violation of board policy--but at least now you're openly admitting you're a racist. Freudian slip on your part. Got you rattled, eh? Chuckle. You're out of your league.

P.S.--If, as you claim, you're actually not a Mormon and don't care about Cleon Skousen, then why won't you condemn the racism of Mormon Skousen?

(*Board note: After this jumpy joker for Cleon's White Mormon Jesus changed his handle twice in this thread--first from "racism" to "racist," then back from "racist" to "racism"--he got caught. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive").

:)



Edited 14 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2015 02:26AM by steve benson.

These numbskull nuggets serve as further indicators of Skousen's racist views, especially when endorsed by the anti-Black burblings impulsively expressed by Mormon Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy:

--Cliven Bundy, Cleon Skousen and Mormon Bigotry: Sourcing the Snake Oil

Mormonism's bigoted wack-job, Brother Bundy, finally showed his true colors. Not surprisingly (to quote the Book of Mormon), they were proven to be quite "white and delightsome."

Bundy (a long-time tax cheat and goofy states-righter who apparently recognizes no legitimate governmental authority higher than the local sheriff level) notified reporters that he ". . . want[ed] to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro." Bundy proceeded to ramble on about driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas where, he said, "in front of that government house, the door was usually open and the older people and the kids--and there is always at least a half-a-dozen people sitting on the porch--they didn't have nothing to do. They didn't have nothing for their kids to do. They didn't have nothing for their young girls to do. And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."

("Cliven Bundy: Are Black People 'Better Off As Slaves' Than 'Under Government Subsidy'?," at "Huff Post Politics," 24 April 2014; for Bundy's video-taped comments, see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/cliven-bundy-racist_n_5204821.html)


You heard it right--as in right from the far-right racist's mouth (with special thanks to Bundy's right-hand racist man, W. Cleon Skousen).
_____


--The Bundy-Skousen Connection

Tax scofflaw and "conservative" big-gub'ment-moocher Bundy owes his far-out, bigoted views to fellow rabid Mormon theologian, Skousen--as given away by what Bundy has been carting around on his person:

"In a recent media appearance, Bundy was proudly displaying a copy of the Constitution in his shirt pocket. After searching for the distinctive cover of the document in Bundy's pocket, the publisher turned out to be the innocuously-named 'National Center for Constitutional Studies' (NCCS). However, the NCCS is not the commendable educational organization it purports to be. It began life as the 'Freemen Institute,' a vehicle for the far-right, Mormon, anti-commie, history revisionist, W. Cleon Skousen.

"Skousen taught that the Constitution was inspired by a God who intended America to be a Christian nation. He also professed the canon of white supremicism that Anglo-Saxons are descended from a lost tribe of Israel. The Southern Poverty Law Center chronicled the NCCS curriculum based on Skousen's philosophy saying that he '. . . demonized the federal regulatory agencies, arguing for the abolition of everything from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the Environmental Protection Agency. He wanted to repeal the minimum wage, smash unions, nullify anti-discrimination laws, sell off public lands and national parks, end the direct election of senators, kill the income tax and the estate tax, knock down state-level walls separating church and state, and, of course, raze the Federal Reserve System.'

"Sound familiar? Skousen's warped ideology . . . syncs up perfectly with the Tea Party and other purveyors of fringe fear-mongering like politi-vangelist [Mormon] Glenn Beck, who literally begged his audience to read Skousen's book, /The 5,000 Year Leap,' which Beck said was 'divinely inspired.' The conspiracy-obsessed NCCS shares with Beck and Bundy an animosity toward government that exceeds the boundaries of common sense. Along with Skousen's books, the NCCS website features anti-UN screeds ('Confronting Agenda 21'), treatises on wingnut electoral reforms ('Repeal 17 Now!'), harbingers of one-world government ('The Rise of Global Governance') and appeals for institutionalized theocracy ('America's God & Country'). No wonder Bundy was sporting a version of the Constitution that was distributed by the NCCS, an organization that advances ultra-conservative conspiracy theories and promotes anti-government hostility.

"The threatening hysteria and deception emanating from Bundy, and the armed militias that came to his defense, are emblematic of the apocalyptic doctrine of the NCCS. It is no accident that Bundy's Constitution was provided by a group whose teachings have been denounced by historians and constitutional scholars. But it does explain the extremism and advocacy of violence that Bundy et al have espoused. All of this makes it all the more inappropriate and irresponsible for Bundy to be hailed as hero by conservative media outlets like the National Review and Fox News who, just last week, compared Bundy to Gandhi in a feat of epic cognitive collapse."

("EXPOSED: The Source of Cliven Bundy's Crackpot Constitutionalism," by "News Corps" for "Media Watch," in "Daily Kos," 20 April 2014)

W. Cleon Skousen and Cliven Bundy are two racists in the same pea-brained pod.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2015 02:11AM by steve benson.

This is from the Wiki entry on Dr. Ben Carson:

In a 1996 Megadiversities interview, he said: "The entire concept of for profits for the insurance companies makes absolutely no sense. 'I deny that you need care and I will make more money.' This is totally ridiculous. The first thing we need to do is get rid of for-profit insurance companies. We have a lack of policies and we need to make the government responsible for catastrophic health care."[27] In 1992 Carson wrote "The most natural question is, who will pay for catastrophic health care? The answer: The government-run catastrophic health care fund. Such a fund would be supported by a mandatory contribution of 10 to 15 percent of the profits of each health insurance company, including managed care operations.

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

I also note that Dr. Carson was a product of the Detroit public schools, from which he went on to Yale University for his undergraduate degree (gosh, the public schools must have done *something* right!) Since his father was a church minister, I'm going to assume that some sort of scholarship was offered by Yale.

So what I want to know is, when did he change his mind? When did he decide that people do not need a helping hand up in the world -- a helping hand from which he himself benefited?

As a public school teacher of poor, urban children, many of whom are African-American, I can tell you that we often hold Dr. Carson up as an example -- that if our students come to school every day, work hard, and succeed, they will get the help that they need to further themselves. We fight so hard to get our most able students into the best high schools and hopefully on to college. A number of colleges know just how many obstacles our students must overcome in order to achieve, and those colleges offer numerous scholarships to them.

And now Dr. Carson would have us believe that he did it all by himself? Right. [/sarcasm.]

Wow.... racism is so brave he can't even use his real name....

How ironic, sort of like the Klan members who hide behind their

white robes.

. . . to defend your White-and-Delightsome Lord when called upon.

I think "racism" actually may be the poster's temple name and he doesn't want to use it openly here anymore. His bishop, who also lurks here, may catch him through the power of the Holy Ghost. :)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2015 08:15PM by steve benson.

steve benson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> . . . to defend your White-and-Delightsome Lord
> when called upon.
>
> I think "racism" actually may be the poster's
> temple name and he doesn't want to use it openly
> here anymore. His bishop, who also lurks here,
> may catch him through the power of the Holy Ghost.
> :)


I think you're on to something.

Steve, this is unrelated, but I read an article that a lot of prominent cartoonist are drawing cartoons to honor the slain cartoonist in France. Are you one of these? Are you going to do one? I don't know why, but I can't stop thinking about Paris today. These guys stood up to a religious tyranny through cartoons, and they paid the ultimate price for it. As a cartoonist who stands up to religious tyranny every day, I would love to see your take on it.

I have deep respect for my colleagues who have paid the ultimate price for boldly expressing their views in the face of extremist religious tyranny. (I appreciate their sacrifice on a personal level because, in reaction to my own cartoons, I have experienced my share of death threats, received other intimations of physical harm, have been provided police protection and have taken successful court action against an individual who, in reaction to my drawings, vowed to physically harm me). Goes with the territory, even in "free-speech' societies where provocative art can lead some people to acts of senseless, criminal, abhorrent violence. My hat is off to those who do this work--and who end up dying for it.

That said, one can tell how "democratic" (small "d") a society is by how it treats its artists, cartoonists, poets, musicians and playwrights. Like Picasso said, art is not done to decorate apartments but to wage war against the enemy.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2015 09:00PM by steve benson.

Is that the Jack West slide show wasn't world renowned pure archeology! I don't know how I can deal with all this!.....

I remember back in the wilder days of doctrine he was quoted as often as GAs in SS classes

As Steve doubtless has for former Arizona governor Evan Mecham...

Well, except Mecham is pretty-much last century stuff, and WC is a gift who keeps on giving, courtesy of his acolyte, Glenn Beck.

Best of luck with your cartoon, Steve; our mutual colleague-in-heresy has already addressed the subject.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2032114-155/bagley-cartoon-cartoonist-lives-matter

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/bae4bb0b039c8c4e5041bc2c86bb5d5e6ab47e86/c=2-0-1199-900&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2015/01/07/Phoenix/Phoenix/635562713447957805-Benson--Cartoonist-Killings-01-08-14.jpg

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/steve-benson/2015/01/08/steve-benson-paris-terrorist-attack/21426843/
_____


As far as Pat's cartoon, yup, it's a good one:

http://www.sltrib.com/csp/mediapool/sites/sltrib/Pages/gallery.csp?cid=2032114&pid=2107715


And so is Andy Marlette's:

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/f9be0d8e2540e6da0c209969fb08ca83e769aa28/c=0-4-2400-1809&r=x513&c=680x510/local/-/media/2015/01/07/USATODAY/USATODAY/635562442380819403-010815pcola-islam.jpg

:)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2015 02:22AM by steve benson.

Some others... Unfortunately, it seems tragedy is often the godfather of great art...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/07/375622835/united-in-grief-cartoonists-show-solidarity-with-charlie-hebdo

I had Cleon Skousen quoted against me by my own family. Sigh...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2015 02:09AM by steve benson.

Muddy boots aren't welcome indoors, I know.

Perhaps Carson was doing so (quoting Skousen) to court the mormon vote?
I mean, he wasn't going to *convert* for crying out loud...

BTW, nice cartoon, Steve.
Je suis Charlie.

I had Skousen as a "professor" at BYU. It was like taking classes from Glenn Beck.

I spent a few days with Dr Carson many years ago, seemed like a nice enough fellow at the time, I am surprised to see his new career as a conservative blowhard. He is a hard working guy who was given a chance, then he went on to write the humbly titled "Gifted Hands" (sarcasm). Smart guys go off the rails too.

steve benson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In another thread, RfM poster "axeldc" reports:
>
> "Dr. Ben Carson accused of plagiarism Cleon
> Skousen, et al. Which is worse: stealing ideas, or
> thinking Cleon Skousen's ideas are worth
> stealing?"
>
> http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson
> -book#.ahy7NDkXX
>


> --The Bundy-Skousen Connection
>
>
> "Skousen taught that the Constitution was inspired
> by a God who intended America to be a Christian
> nation. He also professed the canon of white
> supremicism that Anglo-Saxons are descended from a
> lost tribe of Israel. The Southern Poverty Law
> Center chronicled the NCCS curriculum based on
> Skousen's philosophy saying that he '. . .
> demonized the federal regulatory agencies, arguing
> for the abolition of everything from the
> Occupational Safety and Health Administration to
> the Environmental Protection Agency. He wanted to
> repeal the minimum wage, smash unions, nullify
> anti-discrimination laws, sell off public lands
> and national parks, end the direct election of
> senators, kill the income tax and the estate tax,
> knock down state-level walls separating church and
> state, and, of course, raze the Federal Reserve
> System.'

So if congress made an announcement they were going to:

1. Unload a percentage of public lands that the Federal Government didn't want to manage anymore and would be made available to the highest bidder.
2. Kill the income tax. It's unmanageable, average citizen or law maker really can't comprehend the entirety of the IRS laws, and it is full of special interest group / lobbyist favors for specific industries. Scrap it and replace with something more manageable and stream lined like a flat or fair tax (after lots of discussion, debates, open criticism, and bill writing with plenty of review time).
3. Estate tax is abolished
4. Audit the Federal Reserve and review the practice of paying interest to the Fed for borrowing money that never existed.

You would find fault with this Steve?


>
> "Sound familiar? Skousen's warped ideology . . .
> syncs up perfectly with the Tea Party and other
> purveyors of fringe fear-mongering like
> politi-vangelist Glenn Beck, who literally begged
> his audience to read Skousen's book, /The 5,000
> Year Leap,' which Beck said was 'divinely
> inspired.' The conspiracy-obsessed NCCS shares
> with Beck and Bundy an animosity toward government
> that exceeds the boundaries of common sense. Along
> with Skousen's books, the NCCS website features
> anti-UN screeds ('Confronting Agenda 21'),
> treatises on wingnut electoral reforms ('Repeal 17
> Now!'), harbingers of one-world government ('The
> Rise of Global Governance') and appeals for
> institutionalized theocracy ('America's God &
> Country'). No wonder Bundy was sporting a version
> of the Constitution that was distributed by the
> NCCS, an organization that advances
> ultra-conservative conspiracy theories and
> promotes anti-government hostility.


I agree that Glenn Beck some how misses the mark when it comes to researching his own religion and believing that Skousen wrote an inspired book.
There appears to be some relationships to the Agenda 21 type of local government decisions that the conservative / conspiracy crowd are concerned with.

Clyde Bundy may not be an active mormon in the traditional sense but he is anti-Gov , far right fringe conservative that is part of the Sovereign Citizen Movement. He doesn't feel he owes the range fees to his Government because he isn't part of the "system" in his mind.

I attended a FBI presentation regarding the Sovereign Citizen Movements and it is the failure of the local , state, governments from being able to immediately revoke official government applications sent in by these Sovereign Citizen. The more state and local forms they get through the system the more legit they think they are for their cause. It's all bogus of course but they think their stack of paperwork is valid. It is not.


http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/april/sovereigncitizens_041310


So yes, some far right / middle road conservative ideas, Tea Party ideas and Sovereign citizen ideas may collide together but they are not in unison with their demands and ideologies.


> "The threatening hysteria and deception emanating
> from Bundy, and the armed militias that came to
> his defense, are emblematic of the apocalyptic
> doctrine of the NCCS. It is no accident that
> Bundy's Constitution was provided by a group whose
> teachings have been denounced by historians and
> constitutional scholars. But it does explain the
> extremism and advocacy of violence that Bundy et
> al have espoused. All of this makes it all the
> more inappropriate and irresponsible for Bundy to
> be hailed as hero by conservative media outlets
> like the National Review and Fox News who, just
> last week, compared Bundy to Gandhi in a feat of
> epic cognitive collapse."
>
> ("EXPOSED: The Source of Cliven Bundy's Crackpot
> Constitutionalism," by "News Corps" for "Media
> Watch," in "Daily Kos," 20 April 2014)
>
> W. Cleon Skousen and Cliven Bundy are two racists
> in the same pea-brained pod.



The armed militia was a mix bag of people but many could be labeled as part of the Sovereign Citizen Movement. This whole scuffle over cattle just gave more credibility to the Sovereign Citizen sympathizers / anti-gov types that the entirety of their cause is true. It is not.

An attempt to refine the Federal government to be more efficient by closing down unneeded departments, shifting those responsibilities within other departments, cutting down duplicity amongst the entire conglomerated beast, and telling the Federal Government to do MORE with less taxpayer money and force them to find a way... is a great movement to improving every citizen's interaction with supporting a money drunk spending Government.

Remember that Skousen is basically a Mormon Cop.

The racial focus on the differences between Carson and Skousen made me think of some research I recently read. Apparently political differences have become deeper and more divisive than racial differences in the way individuals interact with each other. Conservatives tend to overlook race in favor of political alignment, as do liberals--even to the extent of whom they will marry. So Carson and Skousen were made for each other.

I suppose this is some sort of advance in racial relations...


http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/october/dems-gop-polarized-10-08-14.html