Tristero at Hullabaloo waxes nostalgic about those dear, long-ago days when the Christian Right was in a frenzy because some art gallery in North Carolina displayed a photograph of a crucifix in a jar of urine. To this day the Right believes this opus was “funded” (how much funding do you need to pee in a jar?) by the National Endowment of the Arts. It wasn’t, but when has the Right let facts get in the way of self-righteousness?
The nostalgia was triggered by this rightie post on Muslims outraged by Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. “You know, the art community is always congratulating itself for being ‘daring,’ by mocking Christ,” says the rightie, “but this is territory that’s apparently a bit too scary for them, as art mocking Muslims is exceedingly rare.”
First, if the rightie had to go back nearly 20 years for an example of how the “art community” is “always” mocking Christ, maybe it’s not as common as he/she thinks. And Tristero has some examples of western art that mocks Muslims, although art mocking religious/ethnic groups generally isn’t as common as it used to be. Badmouthing of the Prophet by Christians possibly occurs as often, if not more often, than the “art community” mocks Christ, however.
Meanwhile, John Hinderaker is quaking with indignation over Democratic congressional candidate Coleen Rowley’s web site.
(If the name Coleen Rowley sounds familiar — yes, it’s that Coleen Rowley. Notice that Hinderaker doesn’t mention Rowley’s heroic past.)
The screen capture on PowerLine depicts Rowley’s opponent, John Kline, as the Colonel Klink character from the old television series Hogan’s Heroes. (Young people: Hogan’s Heroes was a comedy. Klink was an idiot and the foil of most of the jokes.) Kline complained that it depicted him as a Nazi, which Hinderacker calls a “despicable slander.”
I’m sure Hinkeraker was just as outraged when Saxby Chambliss ran campaign ads placing Max Cleland side by side with Osama bin Laden. Or, maybe not. But Glenn Greenwald documents some other situations in which righties hurled the “N” word at lefties, yet somehow that was all right. “Maybe Rowley should have spread rumors that Kline has a black baby and then it would have been OK,” says Glenn.
(Full disclosure: I called Michelle Malkin a goose-stepping, fascist toady in my previous post, but that’s because she is one.)
Anyway, this cutting-edge controversy alerted me to a blog post on Coleen Rowley’s campaign site that tells us Kline wants to replace Ulysses Grant’s picture with Ronald Reagan’s on $50 bills.
Kline’s is the most recent in a wild spree of proposals and bills that congressional Republicans proposed in the wake of President Reagan’s passing. Other various proposals seek to memorialize Reagan on the:
– Dime (replacing Franklin Roosevelt)
– Half-dollar (replacing John Kennedy)
– $10 bill (replacing Alexander Hamilton)
– $20 bill (replacing Andrew Jackson)
– $1, $2, and $5 coinsKline’s particular legislation has been praised by ultra-rightwing-insider Grover Norquist’s feverish Reagan Legacy Project — which takes an ironically Leninist approach in attempting to memorialize the former President whom the project credits for virtually single-handedly ‘crushing the Communists’.
Washington on the $1 bill and Lincoln on the $5 bill are still safe, it seems.
Many appreciate the symbolism of FDR on the dime, recalling the Depression hit “Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?” and the March of Dimes that raised money to end polio. Alexander Hamilton was the first secretary of the treasury and did a brilliant job of it, and he deserves to be on money somewhere. Andrew Jackson, who campaigned relentlessly against the national bank, is probably spinning in his grave about being pictured on a federal reserve note; let him spin, say I. And I enjoy seeing Grant’s picture on the $50. Well, I enjoy seeing $50, period, especially when somebody is handing it to me. But Grant’s life story was one financial disaster after another, and I’m sure he’d be pleased to to see himself looking fat and prosperous on $50 bills.
Ms. Rowley goes on to say some kind words about the General, which makes her good people in my book. So I sent her campaign a donation.
I just had to take a look at the picture that was an affront to human kind, otherwise I don’t much like to hit sites run by wingnut gasbags.
It has been awhile since I’ve visited Powerline, and I find it somewhat humorous that the idiot who wrote about the unfathomable genious of the preznit, whose last name lends itself to all manner of abuse, would choose for an icon, a penis shaped rocket. I mean thats just askin’ for trouble.
From now on I will never hesitate to pile on when the opportunity presents itself.
I thought the dime and Roosevelt was the march of dimes campaign…but I may be mistaken
After A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale University and later commissioner of baseball, died suddenly, Phil Hartman did a hilarious sketch on SNL (Young people: it used to be funny), a press conference on how the game would be renamed “bartball,” etc. etc., until every aspect of the game referred to the late commissioner. (Whose greatest contribution to American culture may yet be his son, the actor Paul Giamatti.)
I think of that sketch every time I hear of these ridiculous schemes to commemorate The Gipper. I think Giamatti was commissioner for a couple of months, and he accomplished nothing, really. He just loved the game. Reagan may have gotten all misty-eyed over “morning in America,” but the best thing this country can say is we survived his presidency. At least for a while.
When a candidate from any party sounds like an SNL sketch, I think comparisons to Col. Klink, Homer Simpson, or even Ashlee Simpson are perfectly appropriate.
I thought the dime and Roosevelt was the march of dimes
Yes, I mentioned March of Dimes.
Yeah, the Reagan beatification project was always a head-shaker for me. What on earth did he do? Did I miss something? I remember him mostly for his folksy talks where he sometimes made stuff up (like how he thought he had liberated concentration camps when in fact he was still in Hollywood). Or how it was reported that his senior staff seriously discussed invoking the 25th amendment because he wouldn’t come down from the residence to work. He preferred watching tv. Or how the staff made up 3 x 5 cards for him to use during meetings, because he couldn’t remember where he was or what he was doing.
But he was lucky; he had Howard Baker. Bush has Karl Rove. Maybe that’s the big difference.
“I thought the dime and Roosevelt was the march of dimes
Yes, I mentioned March of Dimes.”
Yes it was the March of Dimes – some attribute the connection to Eddie Cantor – that is he coined the phrase March of Dimes – did Eddie do it toungue in cheek to honor Yip Harburg’s lyrics?
BTW, it was Nancy Reagan who stopped the campaigns to put Ronnie on the dime instead of FDR.
Jane Smiley wrote a letter to the Times proposing Reagan for the 3 dollar bill. Sounds about right to me. Provided the rightwing doesn’t make the 3 dollar bill real, of course.
Oh, and I’m proud to say that, apparently I was one of the earliest donors to Rowley’s campaign. She even left a personal message on my machine. I swear it wasn’t a tape because she was fumbling for words, even mentioned my name (and no, it wasn’t manufactured or pre-taped. I would know if it was). I was so bummed I wasn’t there.
She’s a great person. Give her money.
Reagan has an airport named after him now. That’s more than enough. I can’t understand the Reagan worship, either.
Maybe someone recalls – I sure don’t – didn’t there used to be a rule about people being deceased for a number of years before they could be on stamps and coins? If so, it was a sensible rule.
I can hardly wait ’til all our legal tender has pictures of Republicans on them. From there, we can go to the latest “elected” Republican president, complete with laurel wreath.
Ever since 1982 all our pennies have been made mostly of zinc, with a thin copper cladding. Flip one and it will go *tink* instead of *tinnng*; scratch it and you will see the silvery shine of the zinc; drop it into some mild acid, and the next day it will be a hollow shell.
Therefore I call all post-1982 pennies “Reagan cents”.
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