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.