BUDGET INCREASE FOR THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS

The Drudge Report ^ | 01-28-2004 | Matt Drudge

[Captain Peter Blood]

BUSH TO SEEK BIG BUDGET INCREASE FOR NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS... Laura Bush plans to announce the request -- for the largest increase in two decades -- on Thursday... Developing...

[GeronL]

...um... I seem to recall a few immigration threads where you sounded like a third-party, spawn of satan type...

did you get NEA funding or something? =o)

maybe I missed something?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

You're right . we barely survived the Clinton years .. why anyone would want to go back and redo that .. God only knows.

This "destroy it to save it" stuff is insanity, but if one is a powerless third party supporter, it's probably their only angle to grasp any relevancy.

[Sabertooth]

What's wrong with South Philadelphia?

Nothing, just a semi-inside joke.

Mo1's from Philly, and they used to tape the Mike Douglas Show on the South Side. So, if you were a guest on the show, and were bombing, you could always win the crowd back by saying "Hello South Philadelphia!"

How come Mike and Merv never needed the NEA?

[FreeReign]

The NEA is a pustule, but a symbolic pustule, and not that expensive, as big government swindles go. I'd kill it in a heartbeat, but I was strcuk at how this, of all things, touched the nerve it has with a few.

Forget large Presciption Drugs, Medicare and Social Security spending increases. It's time to jump ship because this puny NEA spending is going back to spending levels that are... ah, ah, still no where's near 1995 levels.

Isn't it amazing.

[luvbach1]

Yeah, and your point?

A dig at revisionists who deny and reject the wisdom the founding fathers because of the institution of slavery. You missed my sarcasm even though it was stated in my post.

[gatorbait]

I'm glad to see that it didn't since you are unable to refute anything I said.

Well, you epitomize the old saying about mud wrestling with a pig. I don't enjoy being muddy. Enjoy your moment,Pyhrrus.

[Mo1]

Don't know

[The Old Hoosier]

Enjoy your bile broth.

Thanks. Hope you enjoy the next "Piss Christ."

[The Old Hoosier]

Speaking of Pyrrhus, I think he won the election in 2000. The party is burning right now.

[Mo1]

The South Philadelphia part was an inside joke to me and not anything against South Philly

I'm from Philly also and when my mother passed away at Christmas time .. Saber told me a funny story about Mike Douglas and South Philly to help cheer me up

[nopardons]

Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

We should probably stop posting here, until after the election...if we bother to come back at all. Let the UNAPPEASABLES have the forum. Turn FR into the LIBERTARAIN/CONSITUTION PARTIES site.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

You mean it's not? (That's certainly the way it seems.)

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

I don't care where the money goes. The Federal government has no business in financing "the arts". I assume because you support the beneficiaries that these expenditures would be fine. But what if these same expenditures were to go to anti-American Islamist organizations? I am employing hyperbole, but my point remains valid. Principles must stand on their own. What is right is right, and should not be modulated by anyone's personal agenda or beliefs. IMO a conservative would frown at the position you took in your post, despite your altruism. Having enjoyed your posts and discourse in the past, I am quite surprised.

[The Old Hoosier]

Unappeasables?!!!

Bush is way too busy appeasing the Left to appease us.

[rwfromkansas]

Good grief man...I am just stunned that he is actually doing this. Beyond despicable.

I generally will stand by him on anything, even the friggin' immigration plan.

But this. This is over the line. This is supporting not only immorality, not only blasphemy, not only just plain things that are not "real" art...this is supporting the idea that the govt. even should be involved in showing off poop with a statue of Christ in it.

And that is absolutely disturbing.

This does not mesh with his stance on abortion and gay marriage.

What the HELL is he doing?

[Our man in washington]

F.C. wrote:

"The Washington Monument. Works of Mozart. Michaelangelo. Though these may not necessarily benefit each of us personally and directly, they were accomplished with the assistance of funding that would not beavailable were it not for the decisions of kings, princes, and the like
(e.g. government).

Be thankful that this request is coming from one who would be the last to fund "Piss Christ," and understand that the arts are a part of life we should enjoy during our short stay here.

Better yet, take up art yourself and produce something to benefit the rest of us in such a way as the above and see if you can do it without assistance while still feeding yourself and your family."

Valid points, but...

The N.E.A. is bad for art. Has any form of art in this country gotten better since the N.E.A. started? Take theater, a field I know something about. In the forties and fifties, with Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, American theater was the greatest in the world. Now, what do we have? The best we can do is Mamet's curse-filled productions. And truly awful playwrights like Tony Kushner get awards.

Subsidies for art can come in three forms:

1. Rich people giving money. This is hit or miss, but since different rich people have different criteria, competing standards exist. Competition is good. Also, the rich people themselves are often not artists, thereby forcing the artist to appeal to someone outside his or her field.

2. Government paying for highly visible public art. This method is usually not too bad. Politicians aren't going to want the embarrassment of something disgusting that gets written about on page 1 of every newspaper. This art can range from merely bland at worst to pretty good at best.

3. Government paying for art that few people see. This method is the worst, because politicians don't have to accountable and turn the decision over to artists. Artists tend to be depressed and bitter people, so what artists think is art is usually ugly and adolescent. Oddly enough, artists do a better job when they have to appeal to the market, although artists would protest this fact.

Here's a thought experiment. Imagine if the N.E.A. had been given the job of designing the Vietnam War Memorial, and were basically told that whatever their artists' panels came up with was fine. We'd have a statue of some soldier raping a vietnamese women on the mall right now.

I manage to write plays just fine while working a full-time job. Most playwrights have other jobs. The ones who don't tend to spend a lot of time staring at their walls and writing pretty depressing stuff.

[The Old Hoosier]

Regardless of what you think of government funding of the arts, this cannot be interpreted as anything but a slap in the face, a direct insult to Bush's own base. The NEA is to conservatives as pigs are to Jews.

What's baffling is that Bush has nothing to gain politically and everything to lose by proposing this. He's going to blow the election.

[Mulder]

Well, you epitomize the old saying about mud wrestling with a pig. I don't enjoy being muddy. Enjoy your moment,Pyhrrus.

LOL!

You guys have perfected the Klintonian techniques of attacking ones' character.

[Texasforever]

Well I see that the "dump Bush" gaggle is still in their "dump Bush" orgy with yet another outrage against humanity.