Tag: Cato the Elder

New Monstrosity at Rockefeller Center

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

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Is there some reason why any American city should celebrate “African Culture”? With a 25-foot-high statue, no less.

This monstrosity now occupies Rockefeller Center. It is said the artist used his own face as a model. Don’t worry; he doesn’t really look like that.

What does that sculpture even mean? Why is it there? Just how “African” are African-Americans?

Well, all right, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans are not exactly bashful about celebrating the Old Country–although their ancestors didn’t choose to stay there, did they? So if African-Americans want to “celebrate,” they have a right to it.

But it’s not clear to me, from the nooze story (https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/25-foot-statue-just-unveiled-nyc-rockefeller-center-honor-african-culture/), how this artistic disaster was paid for, or by whom. If it was public money, tax money, the people of New York have been ripped off again.

Question! When are Far Left crazies going to tear down this statue?

Quote, from Cato the Elder: “I would rather people asked why I don’t have a statue, than why I do.”

A Snippet of Imaginary History

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

Head of a Roman Patrician (article) | Khan Academy

It’s 160 B.C., and the Roman Republic is the dominant power in the Mediterranean, governed by the Roman Senate and the Roman People’s Assembly.

But there has been friction between Rome and a power far inland–the United Scythians of Asia. We join the Senate with the debate in progress. Marcus Cato, Cato the Elder, is speaking.

“Senators, the United Scythians are ruled by a doddering dotard who can’t always remember to put his trousers on; and his newest government minister is this fat guy who paints his face and insists he is a woman. Their government is the laughing-stock of the civilized world! How long would it take us to conquer them? Fifteen minutes? Twenty? Or a whole day, if the weather’s bad? The only reason I can think of to send an army there would be if we felt sorry enough for those people to replace their government for them. And it wouldn’t have to be a big army, either!”

Happily, we know that no government like that would ever come into existence in the real world…

Cato the Elder… on Statues

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

Patrizio Torlonia.jpg

Cato the Elder: not the cheeriest guy in Rome, but one of the wisest

Marcus Porcius Cato, Cato the Elder, was the arch-conservative of Rome’s republic and used his considerable powers to preserve it, very likely gaining for it an extra hundred years. His great-grandson, Cato the Younger, gave his life trying to protect it from Caesar.

Cato the Elder had too much opposition ever to become an idol of the masses; and once upon a time, according to Plutarch, someone asked him why such a famous and important man as Cato didn’t have a statue in the Forum.

Cato’s answer: “I would rather people asked why I didn’t have a statue, than why I did.”

If you haven’t read Plutarch’s Lives, and would like a nice, thick book jam-packed with history, philosophy, and character study that’ll probably carry you through an entire year of fascinating reading–well, what are you waiting for?