Friday, September 29, 2006

Foley - Forest for the Trees

We’ve all heard the saying, “Can’t see the forest because of the trees.”  This whole Foley thing is generating oodles of copy, and internet posts, I’m sure, of which this is but one.

I think all the copy you need to read is contained in the following paragraph.

His resignation further complicates the political landscape for Republicans, who are fighting to retain control of Congress. Democrats need to win a net of 15 Republican seats to regain the power they lost in 1994.

Control and power is what this is all about.

Paragraph above taken from the following piece at My Way News.

Foley Resigns From Congress Over E-Mails

Posted by John Venlet on 09/29 at 08:06 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

It’s Private Property

On August 30 of this year, I posted about the the travails of Dina Babbitt, who has been attempting to regain some art pieces she created while incarcerated in a concentration camp run by the Nazis in WWII.

In a similar vein, The Wall Street Journal today brings us the story of Maria Altmann, who, unlike Ms. Babbitt, has had restored to her possession five (5) extremely valuable Klimt paintings that had been confiscated from her family, by the Nazis.  After the war, the paintings ended up in the possession of various Austrian museums.  But, in the early part of 2006, the paintings were returned to Ms. Altmann and she has opted to market four (4) of them to the highest bidder via Christies.  The fifth has already been sold to Ronald Lauder for the sum of 135 million.

The fact that Ms. Altmann is selling the Klimt paintings has raised the ire of certain members of the art world, including the NYT’s chief art critic, Michael Kimmelman, who had this to say about the pending auction,

New York Times chief art critic Michael Kimmelman inveighed against the sale. Ms. Altmann and her relatives, he declared, were “cashing in,” turning a “story about justice and redemption after the Holocaust” into “yet another tale of the crazy, intoxicating art market.” The family should give the works away, donating “one or more” to a public institution, or negotiate “a private sale to a museum at a price below the auction house estimates.” He even came close to stating that Ms. Altmann’s museum loans weren’t a sign of her generosity but a kind of profiteering, since “the museums provided presale publicity of a sort that no auction house could organize.”

My, what breast beating from Mr. Kimmelman.  As if he has any right, what-so-ever, to set the rules for what Ms. Altmann decides to with her private property.

Mr. Kimmelman is not the only individual barking at Ms. Altmann, but that is not surprising since barking dogs tend to get other dogs barking.

The Wall Street Journal writer, Eric Gibson, gets it right, regardless of his invoking the “long-denied heirs” line, as the ending of his piece illustrates.

But there is a principle at stake bigger than cash flow, namely: Long-denied heirs like Ms. Altmann should be allowed to do as they please with their property once they have recovered it. Isn’t that, so to speak, the whole point? The “story about justice and redemption after the Holocaust,” to borrow Mr. Kimmelman’s phrase, surely includes the right of the descendants of Nazi-era victims to exercise the freedom their families were denied.

The WSJ piece is titled With Klimt Comes Condemnation

Posted by John Venlet on 09/29 at 09:37 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Nature Sh*ts Itself

The Washington Post reports the following this morning,

Scientists have run high-tech tests on harmful bacteria in local rivers and streams and found that many of the germs—and in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, a majority of them—come from wildlife dung. The strange proposition that nature is apparently polluting itself has created a serious conundrum for government officials charged with cleaning up the rivers.

Of course Nature’s problem with soiling herself, if indeed she is of the female persuasion, stems not from her brood of wild creatures, but from the government’s attempts to regulate the wild creatures’ populations through their horribly managed conservation policies.

Naturally, this does not mean that the government, in their oh so infinite wisdom, will not attempt to further regulate the wild creatures residing in the bosom of Nature.  I’m fairly certain that there will be attempts to set up porto potties, or some such designated defecation zone, designed for the wild creatures’ use, complete with Cottonelle, which is of course the tp preferred by bears.

Wildlife Waste Is Major Water Polluter, Studies Say

Posted by John Venlet on 09/29 at 08:10 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Terrorists Flooding Into Michigan?

The U.S. Coast Guard has begun patrolling the Great Lakes surrounding the State of Michigan armed with mounted machine guns, rather than their traditional small arms and rifles.  According to Toronto Globe and Mail reporter, Margaret Philp, the reason for this show of arms is the following,

The U.S. Coast Guard has started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and are conducting live-ammunition training drills on the American side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat.

I’m curious to know if this flood of terrorists is a larger threat to the Great Lakes than zebra mussels, or the Canadian themselves.

It’s also curious to note that this terrorist flood does not seem to emanate from Dearborn, Michigan, which appears to maintain the largest population of Muslims in the United States.

Personally, I think that if a terrorist flood begins to overwhelm the shores of Michigan, it will not be the U.S. Coast Guard which stems the tide.  Rather, the terrorists will probably run directly into one of the largest militias in the United States, the Michigan Militia, and they’ll get their clocks cleaned.

Margaret Philp’s story is titled Coast Guard’s live-ammo drills on Great Lakes raise ire, and was linked via Scripps Howard News Service.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/29 at 07:33 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages