Being May Day and all, I thought I would jump in early to remind everyone that Karl himself will have his 200th birthday on Saturday. And in looking online to see how the celebrations will be going, I came across this which captures my sentiments exactly: Why Is the EU Celebrating Karl Marx’s Birthday?

The evil ideology known as communism left a track record of unimaginable horror. Experts estimate that 100 million people were killed by Marxist regimes.

Some were murdered. Other starved to death because of the pervasive economic failure of communism.

Yet there are dupes and apologists who overlook all this death and misery.

One of them is Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission. A few days from now, this über-bureaucrat will help celebrate the 200th birthday of Karl Marx.

The European Commission President will travel to Trier, Germany, where he will give a speech to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth. …The Commission President will give a speech at the opening ceremony of the Karl Marx exhibition in the city. …The chief eurocrat’s trip has received critics, who have suggested the 63-year-old forgetting how Marx’s “warped ideology” led to millions of deaths across the world. Ukip MEP and the party’s former leader Paul Nuttall said: “It is appalling that Jean-Claude Juncker feels it necessary to commemorate a man whose ideology—Marxism/Communism—led to more than 100 million deaths. …Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski…, who as a seven-year-old boy fled to Britain with his family from the Communist regime in Poland, said Mr. Juncker should reject any invitations to commemorate the event. He said: “I think it’s in very poor taste we have to remember that Marxism was all about ripping power and individual means away from people and giving to State. “Marxism led to the killing of millions around the world as it allowed a small band of fanatics to suppress the people we must learn the lessons from this and share with our children.”

It will be interesting to see how the celebrations go on Saturday. It does just seem that some people seek the furthest extremes, and that is the kind of political niche Marxists inhabit so that there is a Venezuela or Cuba in everyone’s potential future. Political inertia can be your friend, but once you fall into one of these socialist traps, it can take a long long long time to get back out.

NEW YORK TIMES UPDATE: This really is from The New York Times: Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You Were Right!

And where we will also find these words:

While most are in agreement about Marx’s diagnosis of capitalism, opinion on how to treat its “disorder” is thoroughly divided. And this is where Marx’s originality and profound importance as a philosopher lies.

Proving once again that there is nothing so stupid that some intellectual won’t believe it.

MORE HERE: Marx at 200: Germany torn over revolutionary’s legacy.