Free Republic

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? [taken from October 2010 articles/blog posts]NASA's Islam Outreach Minister Charles BoldenGOP lawmakers are critical of Charles Bolden for leaving last week on a trip to China just as the agency he leads begins pursuing an ambitious new agenda. It is the latest in a series of controversial moves that some speculate could result in Bolden's ouster. A law signed a week ago gives NASA four months or less to develop a dozen different plans for the future, including a detailed report on how it would replace the retiring space shuttle.It's an ambitious schedule, one that NASA...

Rocco Landesman is the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Boy, does he know how to spin the official line on offensive art. In a recent interview in Cincinnati, he was asked vaguely about controversy. "The best art taps into deep feelings, sometimes to comfort and sometimes to confront. Art can be very uncomfortable," Landesman said. "That can lead to strong reactions. For some of us, it draws us into the arts over our lifetimes and careers. For others, it creates strong negative feelings." Landesman wasn't being asked specifically about negative feelings over the Loveland Museum Gallery in...

A Montana woman faces criminal charges after she used a crowbar to destroy a blasphemous exhibit at a gallery in Colorado. Kathleen Folden was arrested after she smashed an exhibit that depicted Jesus in a lewd act. The exhibit, by artist Enrique Chagoya of Stanford University, had caused outrage among Christians.

LOVELAND — About 25 to 30 residents stood outside the Loveland Museum/Gallery this morning protesting a portion of an exhibit that appears to show Jesus Christ involved in a sex act. "This is not art, it's smut, pure and simple," said Ronald Minto, who said he's not against graphic art per se. But the color lithograph produced by Stanford University's Enrique Chagoya is outright pornography, he said. "This is a museum, not an X-rated book store," said Minto. The lithograph is spread over 12 panels, each about 7- by 7-inches, and is called "The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals." It's...