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I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
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WoodlandsOwl Offline
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I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
Oval Office Rug gets history wrong

By: Jamie Stiehm
Saturday, September 4, 2010

A mistake has been made in the Oval Office makeover that goes beyond the beige.

President Obama's new presidential rug seemed beyond reproach, with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. woven along its curved edge.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.

Except it's not a King quote. The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington.

For the record, Theodore Parker is your man, President Obama. Unless you're fascinated by antebellum American reformers, you may not know of the lyrically gifted Parker, an abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the end of slavery, though he did not live to see emancipation. He died at age 49 in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.

A century later, during the civil rights movement, King, an admirer of Parker, quoted the Bostonian's lofty prophecy during marches and speeches. Often he'd ask in a refrain, "How long? Not long." He would finish in a flourish: "Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

King made no secret of the author of this idea. As a Baptist preacher on the front lines of racial justice, he regarded Parker, a religious leader, as a kindred spirit.

Yet somehow a mistake was made and magnified in our culture to the point that a New England antebellum abolitionist's words have been enshrined in the Oval Office while attributed to a major 20th-century figure. That is a shame, because the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was so eloquent in his own right. Obama, who is known for his rhetorical skills, is likely to feel the slight to King -- and Parker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...05100.html
09-04-2010 09:47 PM
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RobertN Offline
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RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
Whew. For a minute there, I thought the opinion piece was going to say it has the magical powers of flight. Then we would KNOW for sure that Obama is a Muslim! 03-lmfao
09-04-2010 10:21 PM
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Paul M Offline
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RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
It's a factually correct article. Why do you hate facts?
09-04-2010 10:37 PM
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RobertN Offline
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RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
(09-04-2010 10:37 PM)Paul M Wrote:  It's a factually correct article. Why do you hate facts?
Where did I say anything about it being factual or non-factual? I was just making a joke that the opinion piece about the rug was a piece about Obama's flying carpet. If this is true, then shame on the person that let the error get through. My guess is that King used that quote and the person who ok'ed the rug didn't check to see if it was a quote from someone else before King used it. If this us what happened, then the person who added that to the rug did a poor job of doing their homework(though, I suppose that one could argue- if the above is true- that King DID say it, but that would be a major spin job and intellectually dishonest.
09-04-2010 11:17 PM
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BlazerFan11 Offline
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Post: #5
RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
Theodore Parker didn't come up with that quote, Joe Biden did.
09-05-2010 06:18 PM
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Essency Offline
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Post: #6
RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
The Dude: Correct or not, the rug really ties the room together.
Walter: Yup.

[Image: dude-walter2.jpg]
09-08-2010 08:17 AM
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Owl 69/70/75 Offline
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Post: #7
RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
(09-04-2010 11:17 PM)RobertN Wrote:  Where did I say anything about it being factual or non-factual? I was just making a joke that the opinion piece about the rug was a piece about Obama's flying carpet. If this is true, then shame on the person that let the error get through. My guess is that King used that quote and the person who ok'ed the rug didn't check to see if it was a quote from someone else before King used it. If this us what happened, then the person who added that to the rug did a poor job of doing their homework(though, I suppose that one could argue- if the above is true- that King DID say it, but that would be a major spin job and intellectually dishonest.

This administration is certainly no stranger to major spin jobs and intellectual dishonesty.
(This post was last modified: 09-08-2010 10:36 AM by Owl 69/70/75.)
09-08-2010 10:36 AM
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Lord Stanley Offline
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RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
Personally I think the idea of a private charity that raises private donation to redecorate the glory hole er Oval Office is a perfect answer to the question of "do the curtains match the drapes?"
09-08-2010 02:36 PM
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onlinepole Offline
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Post: #9
RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
Parker no doubt held views that many tea folks would find sociocommunistic
09-08-2010 04:05 PM
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Owl 69/70/75 Offline
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Post: #10
RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
(09-08-2010 04:05 PM)onlinepole Wrote:  Parker no doubt held views that many tea folks would find sociocommunistic

Oh, really? What views might those be?
09-08-2010 05:08 PM
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smn1256 Offline
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RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
(09-08-2010 02:36 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Personally I think the idea of a private charity that raises private donation to redecorate the glory hole er Oval Office is a perfect answer to the question of "do the curtains match the drapes?"

If you want an answer to that question you have to ask a gay guy.
09-08-2010 05:41 PM
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jh Offline
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RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
Quote:Parker developed a new, sociological understanding of society. He filled his sermons and lectures with statistics, talked about social "classes," and became preoccupied with ethnology and "romantic" racial theory. He asserted that the Anglo-Saxon "race" was "more progressive" than all others, European or non-European, and made many condescending and disparaging comments about the potential of "Africans" for progress. Despite such views, he favored the racial integration of Boston schools and churches, and he became a leading abolitionist.
http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/...arker.html

Kind of an odd choice for inspiration.
09-08-2010 06:33 PM
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SumOfAllFears Offline
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Post: #13
RE: I'm glad the US Taxpayers didn't pay for the Rug.
(09-08-2010 02:36 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Personally I think the idea of a private charity that raises private donation to redecorate the glory hole er Oval Office is a perfect answer to the question of "do the curtains match the drapes?"

I thought we were talking about a f'ucked up rug. No matter, that rug and who brung it will be gone soon enough.
(This post was last modified: 09-08-2010 11:31 PM by SumOfAllFears.)
09-08-2010 11:29 PM
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