Saturday, April 3, 2010

"feeling lonesome" (South Park, Quincy, Illinois, March 29, 2010)

WELL, a gay wedding (actually, a civil partnership) in the Household Calvary, the United Kingdom's most elite branch of service. A refreshing attitude.

Friday, April 2, 2010

"classifieds" (cast acrylic monotype on canvas, 12" x 12", 2010)

"VARIOUS forms of same-sex sexual activity have been recorded in more than 450 different species of animals by now, from flamingos to bison to beetles to guppies to warthogs. ...", which is one way of saying that our ignorance about the nature of human sexuality remains both willful and appalling.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

"awaiting summer" (South Park, Quincy, Illinois, March 29, 2010)

THERE'S nothing quite like a good solid rant from the Left:

I hope that Mr. Obama's party can carry this message clearly into the electoral battles ahead, painting the Republican opposition for what it is: a gang of hypocritical, pietistic sadists, seeking pleasure in the suffering of others while pretending to be Christians, devoid of sympathy, empathy, or any inclination to simple human kindness, constant breakers of the Golden Rule, enemies of the common good. In fact, the current edition of the Republican party has achieved something really memorable in the annals of collective bad intentions: they have managed to create a sense of the public interest whose main goal is the destruction of the public interest.

This is exactly what the Republican majority on the Supreme Court did earlier this year by deciding that corporations — which are sociopathic by definition in being answerable only to their shareholders and nothing else — should enjoy the same full privileges in election campaign contributions as human persons, who are assumed to have obligations, duties, and responsibilities to the common good (and therefore to the public interest). This shameful act by the court majority only underscores the chief defining characteristic of Republicans in their current incarnation: an inability to think. And so, naturally Republicans gravitate toward superstition and the traditional devices of improvident religious authorities — persecution of the weak, torture, denial of due process, and dogmas designed to spread hatred.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

"untitled" (cast acrylic monotype and acrylic on wood panel, 10" x 10", 2010)

THIS Volvo owner is learning that nothing is sacred anymore.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

South Park, Quincy, Illinois, March 29, 2010

AH, yes, the life and times of those fiscal (or should it be social) conservatives. But at least somebody got fired.

A poem by Wendell Berry ...

FROM Wendell Berry's collection, "Leavings":

2005
VII
If we have become a people incapable
of thought, then the brute-thought
of mere power and mere greed
will think for us.

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything,
then all that we have
will be taken from us.

If we have no compassion,
we will suffer alone, we will suffer
alone the destruction of ourselves.

These are merely the laws of this world
as known to Shakespeare, as known to Milton:

When we cease from human thought,
a low and effective cunning
stirs in the most inhuman minds.

[Publisher: Counterpoint, Berkeley, 2010]

Quoting ...

FROM "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle" by Chris Hedges, a long-time foreign correspondent, senior fellow of The Nation Institute, and a columnist at Truthdig, a truly illuminating Webzine:

Democracy is not an outgrowth of free markets. Democracy and capitalism are antagonistic entities. Democracy, like individualism, is based not on personal gain but on self-sacrifice. A functioning democracy must often defy the economic interests of elites on behalf of citizens ... .

Yes, a thought worth thinking about.

MEANWHILE, Tom Harper made a trip to Searchlight, Nevada, to commit "teabuggery."

Or, you can consider Frank Rich's analysis of the rage out there: Yes, it's mostly about race and inevitably changing demographics, not health care.

Or, consider that the state of Virginia has a real wackjob as attorney general.