pot-shots

The Cranberries are back. I always liked them.

Everybody's a critic. And to po-mo art critics everyone (else) is a hypocrite too.  Ann Althouse has a piece on her blog somewhat critical of Seattle's The Stranger's art critic. My response to that was: "When I see Jenny Graves write articles like this about Maplethorpe or Basquiat then I'll know that the po-mo artsy fartsy critics are serious about their 'insights'. Until then she should piss off. When has art had to made by perfect human beings? Has it ever?" Not bloody likely.


Seth Casteel's images of dogs diving underwater to fetch balls are both terrifying and bewitching. Twenty pic photo blog slideshow.

Right-wing cultural warriors should grow some balls or else STFU. Today's example: John Derbyshire. Not that what Derb says isn't true, but I am shocked that he's shocked. When wasn't it like this? It's just that in the digital age it's so  much easier for people to vent, taunt, flaunt, tease, and otherwise show what irritating half-wits they are.


So why did the USSR break-up? One academic paper on the SSRN says, to paraphrase, "diversity equals disintegration for nation states".  I hope so myself.

Tuesday pot-shots

War is just another government program full of waste, fraud, and abuse. A fine illustration is this story  about the Army's new batch of M-240L machineguns  supposedly at the eye-popping price of $86,000 per weapon. However if you read the story you'll see that's not the actual price. Too bad that even after you read the complex details in the story that you still won't  have any idea what they really cost the taxpayer.
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Ever wonder what the 10 most pirated movies on the Internet are? C/Net has a list. I don't blame people for stealing a view of these films; I wouldn't pay $10 to see this shit either.
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A Volkh Conspiracy blogger comments that people tend to discus politics with people they already agree with and read/listen/watch political media whose viewpoint they already support. This is news? People believe what they chose to believe and are likely wary of starting arguments, feuds, or causing ill-feelings with friends and acquaintances when they don't have to. Who can blame them really?
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What daily existence looks like when a court runs your life. The story of the New Jersey supreme court since the 1950s. The justices are appointed for "life" (until age 70) and lacking any restraints whatever. "Absolute power" corrupts.
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An altogether pointless article that closely examines some  libertarian philosophical  minutiae in great depth but to no apparent purpose. "Too many books make one weary", eh?
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Prospective jurors for the upcoming Hutaree Militia trial  have begun the voire dire process. Good. It's been nearly two fuckin' years since they were entrapped arrested. This lengthy time lapse just goes to show that this stuff about the US government being required to give arrestees a "speedy trial" is bullshit.
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Detroit's  own version of Toulouse Lautrec's oeuvre (i.e., low-brow subject matter like prostitutes, strippers, and prurient nudes done with a classical painter's technique).

Detroit becoming an "artist's haven, hipster's hotspot" says LA Times

Downtown Detroit could perhaps evolve into something interesting but only if they do something about all those icky, nasty neighborhoods (and the people that live in them) that surround it.

"Yet Detroit is evolving," says the LA Time's Andrew Bender, "not unlike late 1990s downtown Los Angeles. Cheap rents and an urban pioneering spirit are attracting young artists, and new restaurants, nightspots and even urban farms are serving this growing community and its hipster fans. It's still the early days, but change is palpable, even to the casual visitor."


Yeah well we've seen this sort of thing before Mr. Bender. The last time Detroit had a cultural renaissance back in the 1960's all the artistes and their parasites moved off to Los Angeles and New York  just as fast as their checks cleared. I'm not trying to be a buzz-kill here but there needs to be a sobering reminder of how things go in real life injected into this fog of optimism.

LA graffiti artists pissed because others defaced their art

No seriously. Some LA "street artists"painted a mural on the wall of a building and then some different people put their work over it. The nerve of some people, eh?
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Sign of the times...cont'd.

Portrait of a Village School Teacher - 1958

I don't care what the sophisticated art expert types say; I like socialist realism as an art form. I like Norman Rockwell too. Oh yeah, I took art history in high school and as an undergrad student too, so it's not like I haven't been exposed to the various genres by experts with Ph.Ds. But most modern art is just crap without any soul, beauty or meaning that I can discover. If you like it fine. But I don't and since I am an expert on what I like, that settles that.