Thanks a reader who alerted us to a nice read on David Koch in Conde Nast Portfolio.
The story talks about how he is ranked seventh in the magazine’s Generosity Index, just behind the likes of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. His most recent gift is the $100 million he donated during the summer to the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center,
It also talks about his marriage and how he survived a plane crash and cancer.
He says the motive for much of his giving can be traced to that February evening on the tarmac in L.A. “When you’re the only one who survived in the front of the plane and everyone else died—yeah, you think, My God, the good Lord spared me for some greater purpose,” he says. “My joke is that I’ve been busy ever since, doing all the good works I can think of so he can have confidence in me.”
5 Comments
HEY MR. KOCH:
I recently posed the following question to Alan Cobb, Kansas State Director of Americans for Prosperity:
Are the Kochs happy with the status quo in Wichita Kansas?
The point that I was trying to make is why would one of the most powerful Libertarian families in the U.S. stand by silently to watch so much corruption in local government agencies & so many civil rights atrocities to occur in the district attorneys offcie and the district courts. Do the wealthy instinctively like corrupt governments? Given it failure to protect citizens constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law, Kansas seems more & more like a 3rd world country.
Your charitible giving may impress the elitists in Boston & NYC, but the Koch family is not doing nearly enough to improve Kansas. Before Warren Buffett recommends that Obama raise income taxes on the top 25% of income earners, the Populists in Kansas should recommend that we raise the estate tax to 80% for billionaire estates. I bet you would spread your money around a little bit more. Perhaps you would be able to think if God really has a greater purposes in life for you than renovating theaters in NYC.
kiakahahaha@yahoo.com
Mr. McKean: “invidiousness occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.”
To many other of the fair citizens of Gotham, envy can also be recognized as a wish to “spread the wealth around”.
Envy cannot be hidden, buried, nor denied by blaming those individuals that have more than you, REGARDLESS of how they came upon it.
I am not envious of David Koch in any way. I am just challenging him to ponder what really is God’s plan for him and to encourage him to prove that he is not a hypocrite when he claims to care about efficient government, individual liberty or the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.
I seriously doubt if the Koch brothers get out of their limos on their way from their gated mansions to the tarmac at Jabarra or to Koch headuarters. I hope Mrs. Koch will read this and take the time to recognize the human rights civil rights atrocities that are occurring against white middle class Christians by the fascist ruling class of private attorneys, judges, prosecutors & law enforcement officials.
It would be a great idea if Mrs. Koch & former Bishop Gerber discussed the benefits of the Koch family using a small percentage of their wealth to fund a small private law school at Newman University to be offically under the quasi-control of the Catholic Diocese. I think that the Kochs and their agent, Americans for Prosperity, would agree with me that the Kansas Supreme Court and the Board of Trustees at the public law schools at Washburn & KU at controlled by the fascist Kansas Bar Association.
kiakahahaha@yahoo.com 293-6079
Bill,
FYI — The Kochs fund Americans for Prosperity — a group that weighed in pretty heavily in some state legislative races and the Peterjohn election. And I believe David Koch is the Chairman of AFP. Just FYI
Thanks Progress. FYI I post an entry on the WE blog then copy it and e-mail it to the person who I challenged in the blog. These blogs stay out in internet space for ever. Former Wichita Eagle managing editor Teresa Johnson used to work for the Wichita Eagle. 16 months ago I spoke with Teresa on the phone at length about the civil rights atrocities involving disabled air force vet Joe Liddle and his son, 14 yo David. The criminal perjury, obstruction of justice involved GOP county chairman Mark Kahrs, Judges Pilshaw, Henderson, Brooks, Fleetwood & Owens, asst. DA Christine Ladner, Court Trustee Genine Ware and a few sheriff department employees. The Kochs should be aware of these civil rights horror stories. I guess the Kochs don’t care about freedom only cutting business taxes. It makes me want to write Obama and tell him to raise the state taxes.
Thanks again for reading my blog entry. I guess no body want to press misdemeanor charges against me for criminal defamation because I can’t cause too much trouble on this blog, but people can always e-mails me and I’ll send them scanned documents about Joe’s case including letters from US Sen. Grassley & State Rep. Bill Otto.
Bill McKean kiakahahaha@yahoo.com 293-6079