Mobster Mentality
In Just a Thought, February 23rd, 2009
Have you ever watched an old 40′s or 50′s Chicago gangster movie?
In those classic old films, there was often a neighborhood boss who demanded the store owners pay him “protection money” to keep their businesses safe from outside troublemakers.
James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson could often be heard saying to the innocent business owner, “Pay the protection money or your business might encounter an irreversible catastrophe.”
Listening to the president’s recent demands for the quick passage of his enormous spending package…sometimes humorously referred to as a stimulus package, I could swear I heard him utter those same words.
Didn’t he say, “Pay up or suffer an irreversible catastrophe”?
Maybe it just a coincidence, but he is a neighborhood organizer from Chicago and old habits die hard.
