I've mentioned previously that I cannot stand nor understand bigotry in any form. It's so goddamn irrational. While I was searching for Andrew Wyeth obits for the post below, I stumbled across the most deeply disturbing, naked anti-Semitism.
-AF
Monday, January 19, 2009
Hate Rears Its Ugly Head: Anti-Semite Edition
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Andrew Wyeth's The White Dory
Here's the print I mentioned earlier.
Thanks to Mrs. Forester for the assist.
-AF
*Update: Boston Globe obit, NY Times obit, WaPo obit, AP obit, LA Times obit, AP sez: Wyeth's death reignites debate over his legacy.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Reagan-Appointed Judge Validated Warrentless Wiretaps
Of course he did. Bruce M. Selya, the judge who wrote the opinion, is a Reagan appointee. He probably shoots cuddly lil' animals on weekends with fellow Reaganites Dick Cheney & Justice Scalia just for fun.
Selya was part of the secret three-member FISA Review Court that made this ruling last summer. Why release it now? Bush's "legacy project." Natch.
Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out fellas.
Apology Rejected
Ex DOJ voting rights chief John Tanner has a lot to learn about making apologies.
-AF
**Update: "Supposed Apology" Is "Even Funnier."
RIP: Andrew Wyeth
Detail from Sea Shells, 1953.
My mother grew up in northern coastal Maine. Her mother was a talented, mostly self-taught artist. I cherish Grammy's paintings, pen and ink drawings, Christmas ornaments including Santa, Mrs. Claus and a slew of elves to this day.
In Grammy's world Andrew Wyeth's paintings were appreciated not only for their artistic merit but also with a keen sense of pride for their celebration of Maine. I vividly remember my whole family traipsing to a Wyeth exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. My cousins (who were/are older than my mom) gave us a deluxe print from the Farnsworth Museum of The White Dory as a wedding gift.
Andrew Wyeth died today in his suburban Phildelphia home. He was 91.
-AF
The Great Lost Gem of "Brit Pop"
Cast's "Alright"*
"Brit Pop." How I hated that word. But then again I've always been against labeling or pigeonholing. Unless I was tired or lazy and grasping for shorthand to explain a band's sound or milieu. When the "Brit Pop" flash in the pan that gave rise to Oasis and validated Blur is now examined some dozen years on, Cast invariably gets short shrift.
What a mistake! I'll gladly put All Change track for track up against any other "Brit Pop" release out in 1995. Pulp. Suede. Oasis. Supergrass. Blur. (OK, maybe not Elastica because I still hold a major unrequited crush on Justine Frischmann -- pay no mind). Cast's John Leckie-produced debut sounds great today.
I spent a lotta time with Cast on their first US tours. Being Liverpudlians, it was like hanging out with the Beatles' kids. I spent so much one-on-one time with the band over that stretch that by the time they headed home I had picked up their dialect's trademark lilt. It wore off, not in a fortnight, but in about in ten days time.
I don't have to try very hard to I hear John Power, in the Back of My Mind, saying, "Anacher, la..."
-AF
*Those brilliant fuckers at Universal still won't allow video embeds.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Daily Duck Dissects Daily Dish's Gaza Disconnect
In "Andrew Sullivan's Tidy Little World" The Duck attacks this humble blog's idiot namesake for his"wobbly sensibility." (A great turn of phrase that I'm sure to be stealing).
Unfortunately, The Duck's martial diplomacy is awfully reminiscent of a certain resolute someone. We know how that worked out.
-AF
*edited for clarity and sanity.
Newsflash: Bush Administration Finally Bases Policy Decision on Science!
Or "Duck season!" "Rabbit season!" "Duck season!" "Wolf season?"*
For almost eight years, courts have blocked every Bush administration attempt to kick gray wolves off the federal endangered species list. Today the Bush administration gave it one last try. Their justification? The gray wolf spent 34 out of the endangered species list's entire 35 year existence. So its population must be suddenly all better now. From the AP:
...the decision was based on science independently of policy considerations and that it was a watershed moment for a species first listed as endangered in 1974.Leave it to the Bush administration to say, "We've done this wonderful nature thing for America. Now let's kill it.""Returning this essential part of our national heritage to so much of our natural landscape ranks among our greatest conservation achievements," Scarlett said.
I don't know why Bush's DOI has had a hard-on for wolves Smells like Cheney. I can see it now...Ole Dick has plenty of free time coming up. Perhaps one of his friends will nice enough stake a wolf out in his Wyoming yard so Dick can shoot it from the comfort his porch. "If it weren't for that damn law!", Cheney bellows, "If it weren't for that damn law..."
Where was I?
It's no accident Lynn Scarlett made this announcement. I bet for weeks she was positively licking her lips in anticipation. Scarlett's official bio sez she "coordinates Interior's environmental policy initiatives to implement the President's executive order on cooperative conservation" -- a stunning piece of Newspeak that implies cooperation between anybody other than the Bush Administration and their campaign contributors.
Lynn Scarlett has a master degree in poli-sci and worse is a die hard -- as in ex-Prezzie of the Reason Foundation (motto: "free minds & free markets") -- libertarian. Now you know how I feel about libertarians (here, here, here, here, here and most especially here). Exactly the qualifications I don't want in our Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior.
Free market environmentalism my ass!
I'm counting the minutes until these people get kicked out of town.
-AF
(HT: Raw)
Hudson River Plane Crash Caused By Flock of Geese
Unbelievable. In January no less. I'm old enough to remember a time when geese would fly south for the winter.
If you still needed to be convinced that there's something drastically wrong with our ecosystem, this should do it.
-AF
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