Posse Incitatus

Our Fallen Heroes

It is so easy to look upon Memorial Day as just another day off, a three-day weekend that serves as a sort of gateway to the summer.  Here in Michigan, folks love camping, hunting, fishing, going to the beach, and spending time "Up North" in our beautiful state.  Because our winters are harsh, we thoroughly enjoy spring and summer.

But it is my hope that the majority of Americans will take at least a few moments to remember the significance of Memorial Day.  Perhaps say a prayer for the heartbroken family members who have lost a loved one who was serving our country.  Or at least spend some time thinking or reading about the hardships, sacrifice, and suffering so many fine young people have endured so that we might enjoy our back yard barbecues, time at the beach, or baseball and softball games.

I have long thought that the more we become aware of history, the less likely we are to whine and complain.  For it will become readily apparent to anyone who takes just a cursory glance at history's horrors that we Americans are profoundly blessed.  The valor, dedication and selfless sacrifice of our men and women in uniform earned and continues to protect our precious freedom.

A guy with whom I used to be close friends (his left-wing tendencies and opinionated, stubborn ways finally turned me off) got upset one time when I complained about an inane left wing bumper sticker that said something like: "Too bad we don't spend trillions on education and make the Pentagon hold bake sale fundraisers."

That is so incredibly idiotic and insipid, it almost doesn't deserve a response. But I pointed out the obvious, that if it weren't for our strong defense, the teachers wouldn't have the right to teach a broad curriculum in a free society.  They wouldn't have the right to criticize our government, or present both sides of various issues. Everything would be force-fed from Big Brother, Cuban style. 

Perhaps my exasperation got the better of me and I made some very disparaging remarks about teachers' unions or something like that.  Whatever it was, my friend got upset that I wasn't acknowledging the need for more education spending (He didn't seem to realize that we keep throwing more and more money into the education black hole, without getting better results.)  I think this particular incident was one of several within a few months that caused us to drift further apart.  We used to send birthday cards to each other, and chat on the phone. But we haven't seen each other in several years, and never talk on the phone anymore.

Why do I digress? To illustrate the point that I get angry at people who do not appreciate the need for a strong defense, do not recognize the service and sacrifice of our veterans, and seem to regard Pentagon bloat, waste, and corruption as "givens" -- their default position about defense spending.

I might add that the people currently serving and retired veterans whom I have had the pleasure to meet, as well as those I've seen on TV or read about in the paper, have all greatly impressed me by their demeanor and respectful behavior (on top of the considerable sacrifices they make for love of country, and their willingness to put themselves in harm's way to protect and defend our nation).

In an age when so many folks like to "toot their own horn" with self-absorbed Facebook hype, YouTube videos, and talent contests such as "American Idol," it is great to know that humble people still exist. Indeed, the character of our service men and women, and their commitment to put others before themselves, are the qualities that make their loss all the more painful.

Our nation has not just lost 5,469 average Joe's  in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus tens of thousands more in Vietnam, Korea, World Wars I and II, and other conflicts....We have lost the best of the best.

Today, let us ponder the enormity of our loss, and be grateful for the blessings we enjoy thanks to veterans.

Memorial Day 2010

Six years ago the fighting in Iraq had not yet reached its deadly crescendo and this blog, like many others, followed events there closely.

I happened to be driving into the Detroit area one morning and heard a familiar name over the radio - Sean Grimes.  A soldier with of that name had been killed in Iraq.  One of my friends from middle school was named Sean Grimes, but I had not heard from him in years.  Was it him, or someone else with the same name?

As soon as I could get to a computer, I checked up on the story.  It was him.

I posted about it and for a time, this blog became a place where those who knew him shared their memories.

Time often brings forgetfulness.  Iraq has faded as an issue, the troop drawdown continues and life goes on.  Since 2004, I have changed jobs three times and added another child to the family.

But I have not forgotten Sean.

Doing a web search, I was pleased to see that a scholarship has been created to honor his memory and thereby ensure his supreme sacrifice was not in vain.

This Memorial Day the Posse offers its prayers to Capt. Sean Grimes’ family and loved ones.  Rest in peace.

They're Dropping Like Dominos

There is SOME good news to report from Detroit: Several of the many crooks who have plundered the Motor City for too many years, screwing over their fellow African Americans, are now being locked up. Good. I only wish they were being locked up for longer.

On Tuesday, former hip-hop Mayor Kwame ThugPatrick -- er, Kilpatrick -- was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 5 years in prison for violating his probation and generally being less than forthright when claiming an inability to pay back court-ordered restitution.  His original dust-up with the law involved misuse of city funds, perjury, and assaulting a court officer, all stemming from a police whistle-blower case and also part of a shameful and sleazy "sexting" scandal involving his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.  It would take days of blogs to explain it all, so that's all I'll say by way of background.

Today, so-called political consultant Sam Riddle was sentenced to two years in prison for an assault case involving the use of a shotgun and his "girlfriend" Mary Waters, a former State Representative.  She's headed for the pokey, too. More on that in a minute.

Riddle also faces a sentencing in August for a guilty plea he entered several months ago on conspiracy charges.  That goes back to his involvement with the Detroit City Council in the "pay to play" days of a few years ago, when the council was probably more corrupt than anything Chicago or New Orleans have ever seen.

Waters pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false tax return. She faces zero to 6 months in jail and will be sentenced along with Riddle on Aug. 17.

Finally, there's the incorrigible, insufferable Monica Conyers, wife of far-left octogenarian Congressman John Conyers of Detroit.  Ms. Conyers was sentenced to 37 months in prison for bribery in a sludge-hauling contract scheme that also took down a high-ranking executive of Houston-based Synagro Technologies.

The FBI is still sniffing around in Detroit, and it wouldn't surprise me to see more dominos falling in the coming months.

Mayor David Bing and several council members elected in recent months seem sincere about cleaning up the rat's nest of corruption and putting an end to Detroit paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuit settlements because of incompetency and criminal actions of its police department and government officials.

Robert Bobb, put in charge of cleaning up the school system's books, also is on the right track. He's getting major heat from the teacher's unions and other flaming liberals. That's fantastic.

Major damage has been done to Detroit over the years, and it will take a long time to repair the wreckage.  But when an arrogant, conceited, narcissistic thug like Kwame Kilpatrick gets locked up, there is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

All Kwame's groupies and all Kwame's suck-up supporters and cronies couldn't put Kwame back together again.  How's prison life, K? Still wearing that gold earring? HAH!

Maize and blue suicide pact

Michigan’s internets are aflame with contemplation and reaction to U of M’s much-anticipated self-imposed sanctions for its NCAA violation.

Rather than cover the same ground as the mainstream press, I would rather dwell on what is most noteworthy:  The absolute (and inexplicable) devotion of U of M fans to RichRod.

Here is a man who has done absolutely nothing but harm to the University these people are supposed to love.

He is not a distinguished alum trailing clouds of glory on the Ann Arbor gridiron.  If he had, for example, won consecutive Rose Bowls for the Skunk Bears, I could understand it.  Yet the man has no roots there at all.

Let us recall that he came to the university after a bumbling search that took almost a month – hardly befitting what is allegedly college football’s most storied program.  Almost immediately the circumstances of his hiring kicked off a lawsuit, the end result of which was to demonstrate that the man was a liar – and his lies cost the university another $1.5 million.

He then proceeded to lead his team to its worst season – including its first loss to a MAC team.  And it wasn’t just any MAC team – this was no CMU or Western Michigan en route to a bowl game, no it was an otherwise hapless Toledo squad that shamed them in the Big House.  Toledo’s coach was cashiered at the end of the season, but RichRod remained.

The bowl streak was over, but hopes were high for last season, though players continued to quit the program.  Despite the extra practices, Michigan still was unable to break even.

Now it is facing sanctions and despite being caught in the act with overwhelming evidence, RichRod’s main line of defense is “Other people screwed up, too.”

Long-time observers should not be surprised.  This is, after all, the guy who blamed everyone but himself for his team’s failures.  Have the faithful forgotten the pathetic spectacle of RichRod castigating his true freshman quarterback near the end of last year’s season?  No wonder players ratted him out – and no wonder so many desired to leave.

Let us also recall this stellar example of RichRod’s devotion to his players.

Naturally, RichRod denies it ever happened, and former coach Lloyd Carr says the conversation was “distorted” (note that he doesn’t deny it ever happened, merely that it was reported incorrectly).

The upshot is that once again we have a very unhappy player who either was hampered in his desire to go to the NFL by RichRod or nursed enough of a grudge towards him to make up a nasty story.

Neither version reflects well upon the coach.

Perhaps someone in the comments will explain why RichRod has this level of devotion.  Were he MSU’s head coach, he would be fired by now.  The sanctions would have done him in.

MSU football has had a challenging couple of decades (arguably it’s been in decline ever since the Daughtery-Munn glory years), but the Spartan faithful are, if anything, even less tolerant of failure than they were before.

After suffering through the excesses of George Perles, Bobby Williams and John L. Smith, the tolerance level simply isn’t there.  Mark Dantonio gets credit for rebuilding and though he may not be the most talented strategist, he is trying to fundamentally change the culture to one of responsibility.

RichRod combines the worst features of college football: a win-at-any-cost attitude with a total lack of personal responsibility.  He’s like Lou Holtz – without the winning record.

And, not to belabor the point – he has no history with Michigan.  This isn’t Lloyd Carr’s chosen heir we are talking about, or Bo Schembechler’s son.  Rodriguez doesn’t have a closet full of old maize-and-blue jerseys and his number has not be retired.  He has done nothing positive for the university that seems committed to a suicide pact with him.

I simply can’t understand it.

The darkening scene

The international news gets darker and darker.  Like anyone with a decent knowledge of history, I can’t decide what year of the 1930s we’re emulating – or who is playing what role.  Is North Korea Nazi Germany or does that part fall to Iran?  Are the Israelis the Czechs or the Poles?

Are we in 1930?  1931?  1937?   How close to the conflagration are we?

The Abyss beckons.

North Korea has torpedoed a South Korea warship.  What price will they pay for this act of war?  The administration would prefer to ignore it, but in Asia, the concept of honor – “face” – still has meaning.  South Korea cannot afford to let this affront stand.

The Euro is disintegrating and the entire economy of Europe trembles.  The statesmen in London, Paris and Berlin are powerless as political instability makes their own hold on power tenuous at best.  Who can rise to leadership in these circumstances?  England has an awkward coalition, Germany’s leader is now reviled by her own party and France is…France.

Despite having held the spigot wide open for more than a year, despite billions of dollars pumped into the economy, deflation is beginning to rear its ugly head here in the U.S.

Last week the thought entered my head – buy gold, guns and seed crops.  Then I saw this link on Instapundit.

Meanwhile, Miss America is a Muslim from Dearborn.  I didn’t watch the pageant (I never do) so I don’t care much for the commentary one way or the other.  Donald Trump clearly wants people to pay attention and if this is what it takes to boost ratings, good for him.

Last night Sithkitten proposed the Question of the Day:  If she’s murdered for insulting Islam, will anyone care?

I’d say no, not really.  The usual suspects will note that she was awfully provocative, and anyway beauty pageants are awful and should be banned outright.  I expect NOW will make some sort of “Of course we deplore violence against women BUT…” statement, thus completing the final act of feminism’s self-betrayal.

Those whose eyes are already open, on the other hand, will simply nod in grim acknowledgement and buy more bullets.  They are out there – I even heard an advertisement for them on WJR in Detroit.

Still, it’s a dispiriting way to start the week.

I try to be an optimist, but the administration is making it harder every day…

BP = Big Problem

Random thoughts:

There are thousands of offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico -- some of them owned and operated by foreign countries.  We are not going to stop drilling in the gulf, but we can take a close look at better measures to prevent catastrophes such as the BP/Deepwater Horizon disaster.

It is depressing and disturbing to witness oil gushing out day after day, week after week, and see pictures of oily pelicans, sea gulls and ducks.  It is sad that thousands of shrimpers and other commercial fishermen, plus owners of resorts and other vacation-related businesses, will be out of work indefinitely and face financial ruin, barring compensation by BP.

It is also maddening to see the Obama administration seem to dither interminably, just a few days ago appointing a new commission to study this problem and come up with recommendations.  That's tantamount to appointing an ad hoc committee to "study" a raging three-alarm building fire.  Urgent, swift action is needed. NOW.

I am not an engineer, and frankly have not read enough articles or studied the issue enough to know what might be the best course of action to stem the oil gusher.  But I think talk show host Laura Ingraham may have been on to something this morning when she urged getting the military involved.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a proud 235-year history of constructing infrastructure that aids in navigation, prevents flooding, and helps protect the environment. Surely this organization must have some expertise and equipment that could come in handy.  And perhaps the President has some executive powers to waive the agonizingly slow process of issuing permits and jumping through other bureaucratic hoops.

The U.S. Navy must have some high-tech equipment that could help here.  Maybe other private sector companies, too. Who knows? It seems to me that not enough is being done, and British Petroleum has about as bad a problem as the Annointed One and his fellow ivory tower elitists with a severe lack of urgency.

Make no mistake, this is a grave disaster, with potentially devastating and very long-term damage.  Still, I think it would be a mistake to halt all drilling in the gulf, as some have proposed. There is a price to pay for all forms of energy, and even though tanker disasters are few and far between, the price we pay for importing billions of barrels of oil from the Middle East is helping line the pockets of Islamofascist extremists who seek to undermine Israel and any other threat to autocratic Islamic regimes in the Middle East.  Sort of like cocaine and marijuana users: They are supporting thuggish gangs, terrorists and dictators in Latin America, whether they realize it or not.

When a jet airliner crashes, 150 or more people might lose their lives. When vehicles collide head-on on the highway, sometimes six or eight people die.  Something like 35,000 people per year die in vehicular accidents in the United States.  Yet no one proposes halting commercial airline travel or banning travel by automobile.

The drilling will go on, but I believe there can be redundant backup systems (similar to what a commercial jet airliner would have) to prevent this kind of catastrophic failure from occurring again.

Meantime, it's become so blatantly obvious that there is a major double standard in the way the media is covering this (If it were Bush in the White House, he'd be crucified mercilessly 24/7), that even the smug lefty Bill Maher criticized Barry.  My, my. This is getting interesting.

Still, I wouldn't go so far as to call this "Obama's Katrina," in part because 1,500 people died in Katrina, but also because that designation implies that Bush is responsible for the scores of deaths during Katrina's aftermath.

As I've pointed out before, emergency management starts at the local level, then tiers up to the state, and THEN goes to Uncle Sam. And FEMA never was intended to be a first-responder agency.  Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was the definition of inept and incompetent, and former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco wasn't much better. Hey, if you've got buses to evacuate people, how about using them rather than letting them sit in a parking lot and get flooded while people scramble to their rooftops? DUH!

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, almost as much of a whipping boy as George W. Bush, also was castigated unfairly. The fact is, locally controlled levee boards lined cronies' pockets and squandered maintenance/repair money on bribes and lavish parties.  New Orleans (aka "The Big Sleazy"), let us not forget, is well established as one of the most corrupt cities in the world.  Yet somehow, it's George Bush's fault.

'Tis the Season...

It's that time of year again: Graduation time.

Our son will turn 18 in less than a month.  He will be graduating from East Lansing High School in a few days.

Call me an old curmudgeon, but I have long believed that people make too big a deal out of graduation.  Why celebrate, go hog wild, and bestow gifts upon someone who is just doing what's expected of him? Does someone present me with a plaque or medal for showing up for work on time day after day, week after week, month after month? No. And I don't expect that.

I knew things were getting out of hand in 1996, when our son, a couple weeks short of his fourth birthday, was part of a Pre-K commencement ceremony.  I've heard of plenty of other types of "graduations," e.g., from sixth grade, eighth grade, ninth grade.... (Some school districts consider "high school" to be grades 9-12; others have a grades 7-9 "junior high" with high school going from 10th to 12th grade.)

My son's school sent home a schedule of activities for graduation week (this coming a couple weeks after the senior prom, which is a huge expense and a ridiculous waste of money that pressures parents to spend more than they can afford).

Today, thee was a Baccalaureate at a local church -- cap and gown required -- that included musical performances, poetry, and some prayers in an interfaith service. It was a nice service, followed by refreshments and photos.

Wednesday night, there is a "convocation" at the East Lansing High School Center for the Performing Arts -- cap and gown required.  Thankfully, my son won't be able to make it because he has orientation for a summer job.  So that means the Mrs. and I are off the hook.

Thursday there is a rehearsal for graduation at the Michigan State University auditorium, followed by a brunch.

Then there is the actual graduation, Sunday at MSU's Breslin Center (HOME OF THE SPARTAN HOOPSTERS).

On June 2, there is a so-called "Ceniad Signing Party." Don't ask me what it is. I don't want to know, nor do I want to attend.

It's been said that one reason so many young people are part of the "E" Generation (Entitlement) is because their parents have spoiled them rotten, continuously praised them (Oh, you're special!), and refused to discipline them or give them constructive criticism when that's exactly what they needed to hear.

One of the blessings of being middle class and not anywhere near "rich" is that my wife and I have not been able to afford to spoil our son. Sure, we've taken a few nice vacations, and bought him some nice presents over the years, but it will be a cold day in hell before I ever buy a child of mine a new car, or foot 100 percent of his college costs -- even if I could afford to do so.

I grew up in a large family, and money was tight.  I bought my first 10-speed bicycle with money I earned on my paper route, and often used my own money to buy clothes or new shoes.  And it never dawned on me that this was some kind of injustice. That's just the way it was.

I also earned dirt wages my first few years out of college, but knew I would have to pay my dues and gradually work my way up the ladder.

But from what I have read and heard, a lot of today's 20-somethings expect to make good money right out of high school, and do not even have the work ethic that would inspire them to show up for work on time every day (well-rested, alert, and not hung over) and work a full eight hours without whining.  Well, I've got news for them: Many of them are in for a rude awakening.  Welcome, my friends, to the real world.

I've gotten off on a tangent a bit here on what started out as a commentary on the trend to blow graduation out of proportion.  I'd like to poke fun at the endless supply of commencement speeches riddled with platitudes and cliches.  But that's a topic for another blog.

Meanwhile, congratulations to graduates all over this great land.  But don't think you're so special just because you did what you really need to do as responsible citizens.

Good luck in the future, but please don't count on continuous praise and a smooth path always being in front of you.

Anniversary ignored, blog not speaking to me

Amidst the crush of exciting events this spring, we utterly ignored this blog's sixth anniversary.

Traditionally we marked this glorious occasion by making March "Pledge Month," wherein our myriads of addicted readers would empty their bank accounts so that we could keep the rent current on this site - and of course live in style in our Providence cottage with our boyfriend and beagle.

Oh wait, that's Andrew Sullivan.

Anyhow, if you enjoy the blog, send a few bucks - we don't expect to take a six-figure payday but something to cover the renewal and maybe buy a box of ammo would be nice.

Thanks.

Hit Me Again, Por Favor

At times, the Annointed One seems to act like a masochist.  It's bad enough when he self-flagellates while speaking to the Arab world, or lets despot Hugo Chavez dump all over America during a pow-wow in South America.

But to stand in the White House and let Mexican President Felipe Calderon harshly criticize Arizona for trying to protect the integrity of its borders (the same caballero whose own nation treats illegal immigrants far more harshly than does the U.S.)....this is beyond the pale.  It is the type of disgraceful behavior we've come to expect from this misguided, arrogant and narcissistic leftist at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Yeah, yeah, we know: racial profiling, bigotry, show us your papers.....Yawn. It's as predictable as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West.  It is utter drivel, but it is the mother's milk of knee-jerk leftists everywhere.

Obama, you may recall, is the same president who treated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- supposedly an important ally -- shabbily in the White House a couple months ago, and who was so aghast at the presence of a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office, he sent it back to England.

As I've stated before, Obama is the personification of Orwellian logic. Up is down and left is right.  Add a dash of hypocrisy ("I will not tolerate finger pointing" RE: BP oil rig disaster), a pinch of haughty arrogance, and a few sprinkles of Ivy League idealism, and you have a recipe for poisoning the United States of America for years to come.

It took Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush many years to repair the economic and military damage wreaked by the inept peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia. (Not to mention America's gravely damaged international prestige and Americans' utter demoralization.)

Who knows how long it will take to correct the fallout from President Teleprompter sucking up to odious dictators, badmouthing the United States, undermining earnest and reasonable efforts to protect the border, and cynically demonizing patriotic Americans who protest an out-of-control, voracious government under the Tea Party banner.

Heaven help us.

Changing of the Guard

The times they are-a-changing.

A few months ago, Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy.  And the longtime blue state of New Jersey replaced tax-and-spend governor Jon Corzine with no-nonsense conservative Chris Christie.

On Tuesday, eighty-year-old Sen. Arlen Specter lost in his Pennsylvania primary race to Joe Sestak, a year after he ended his long-time GOP-membership and became a Democrat.  It's kind of an ironic twist that one of the ads his Democratic opponent used against Specter was a George W. Bush endorsement from a few years ago. 

In Kentucky, Trey Grayson, the handpicked candidate of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, lost to upstart Tea Party candidate Rand Paul, son of the renowned Texas Congressman Ron Paul.  And in Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln was forced into a June 8 runoff  with Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

Tuesday's results come hard on the heels of three-term Utah Republican Sen. Robert Bennett losing his bid for re-election in the GOP nominating convention.

In a few months, the Left Coast Limousine Liberal Nancy "Botox" Pelosi and her wretched Senate cohort, Scary Harry Reid, will be put out to pasture.  I'll have my champagne chilled and ready for a big celebration on what will undoubtedly be a gray, cold, gloomy November evening in mid-Michigan. 

The media will interpret all of this as simply an anti-incumbent mood among the electorate.  But in reality, it is a rejection of the Obama statist agenda. (Then why did Republican Bennett lose? Who knows, maybe he wasn't sufficiently anti-Obama, or was just too enamored of the old pork barrel-spending/under-the-table deal/horse-trading/lobbyist wining and dining M.O.)

At any rate, it's nice to know Washington is being fumigated.  Think of the Orkin commercial when the human-sized cockroach shows up at the guy's door asking to use his phone because he's had car trouble.  I guess you could say the cockroach represents Washington career politicians and the lobbyist leeches that hang around them.

DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO -- Indiana Congressman Mark Souder and anti-gay Baptist minister Rev. George Rekers, founder of the Family Research Council, are more evidence that no one should be foolish enough to put faith in politicians as paragons of virtue who uphold so-called "family values."

Souder was a proponent of teen abstinence -- not a bad stance to take, but bad if you're in the public eye and plan to be a philanderer.  Irony of ironies, the woman with whom he had an affair, his pretty (and married) legislative aide Tracy Jackson, had interviewed Souder for a public service announcement on the importance of teen abstinence.

And as for the Rev. Rekers, why, he's straight from central casting.  The quintessential hypocritical southern preacher with the overbearing, holier-than-thou attitude.  He claims to have been able to "cure" gays of their homosexuality, and has railed against homosexuality for decades.  But who accompanied the married minister and father of three adult children on a recent vacation to Europe? Why, a gay escort from rentboy.com, that's who.

SPITZER'S TWIN? -- If not in looks, then in sheer, unadulterated chutzpah and arrogance.  Connecticut Attorney General and Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, who lied about having served in Vietnam, now has the gall to blame the news media for distorting the story.  You see, if we're to believe this jerk, he simply "misspoke himself."  He reminds me of the insufferable Elliot Spitzer.  Often, the more arrogant a person is, the more brazen and downright stupidly he acts.  Proverbs 16:18: Pride goeth before a fall.

R.I.P., DIO -- Heavy metal icon Ronnie James Dio passed away from stomach cancer on Sunday at the age of 67.  The diminutive Dio (5' 4", but with a shrieking metal voice for the ages), was born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, N.H. He replaced Ozzy Osbourne as lead singer of Black Sabbath in the late 1970s, and also sang with Rainbow, a group founded by Deep Purple lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Who could forget this classic heavy metal album cover? There were plenty of this ilk back in the 1980s...just ask Tipper Gore.  Here's another one.  And another.  A genre all to itself.

While many suspected the heavy metal and "death metal" practitioners decked out in black leather, chains, and spike heels were worshipers of Satan, methinks they were mainly worshipers of the almighty greenback -- those dead presidents we carry around in our wallets.