Sunday, August 9, 2009

Follow the Nuts

They always "wuts".

Some guy at Reason:
...it feels to me, as it did during the campaign, that the art community is not meeting its duty of always questioning those in power. And I say duty because the art community, as a counterpart of the press, has been given special rights written into the Bill of Rights, known broadly as freedom of the press, for the explicit purpose of keeping power in check.
Okay, fine. What sterling example of questioning are we backing here?
Consider the recent flurry of debate over the Obama "Joker" posters that have been appearing in Los Angeles.
Oh. Never mind.

22 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

But he's posting at "Reason", so it must be reasonable.

Right?
~

Substance McGravitas said...

There's a funny comment on the article in which a libertarian takes umbrage at the idea that someone could possibly lecture someone of his ideological stripe about what socialism is.

All so much flumbrol.

J— said...

Odd that a libertarian would be arguing about a duty under the Constitution. Such talk of constitutional rights and duties usually come from more authoritarian ideological perspectives. Also odd that a libertarian would turn to the freedom of press part of the First Amendment when discussing protections afforded artists, and not the freedom of speech part.

J— said...

usually comes

Substance McGravitas said...

Odd that a libertarian would be arguing about a duty under the Constitution.

A very good point.

J Neo Marvin said...

Isn't that cute? NOW dissent is patriotic.

mikey said...

C'mon, now folks, deep breath now.

It's the fucking JOKER.

A completely ludicrous and utterly fantastic fictional creation. In a fictional place that has SUPERHEROES. With jet powered cars.

Somebody created a picture of "Obama as The Joker". Fine. I once created a picture of a flying turtle.

But for it to become the central part of a national debate of some kind is so unreasonable, so unhinged, so completely obfuscates the important questions of the day that it, the debate over the representation of the President of the United States as an imaginary character in a COMIC BOOK, is itself a telling indicator of the entirely valueless condition of the societal conversation today.

GADZOOKS, but I am bone-weary of the idiocy...

tigris said...

J--'s point is very good, and this was also interesting to me: "When asked by my former employee to be involved with the Hope poster distribution, I declined on philosophical grounds, but fully appreciated and understood their passions." So it's OK for him to choose how to involve himself based on his philosophy, but everyone else has a duty to respond to what HE sees as "the Obama administration's contradictions, hypocrisies, and distortions," whether they agree with him or not? Or maybe they should praise a shitty, derivative, unsubtle and nonsensical work simply because it aligns with his political opinions? Fuck him.

Substance McGravitas said...

Well, you could dress Obama up like Magneto over the word banana and I guess that'd work...

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

[Hedley Lamarr] Kinky.... [/Hedley Lamarr]

Substance McGravitas said...

I guess you'd have to figure out whether that was dissent or something...

herr doktor bimler said...

Well, you could dress Obama up like Magneto over the word banana

No we can't because we are still waiting for you to provide the Obama Dress-up post.
Enticingly large foreheads are not essential.

mikey said...

It just seemed to me that forehead of Bimler's needed to make a statement.

J said...

Reason regs offend nearly as much as like the wheezebags at Crooked Timber do, tho' not nearly as much as the usual Sub McG. corporate-lib-rawl jagg-off.

Sub McG: winner of the Holblo award for meaningless, sentimental bloviation.

heh heh.

Another Kiwi said...

Mikey's forehead picter for teh win.

Inkewise is readingwise

mikey said...

Wow, dood.

This J fellah really has a case of the red ass for you.

What, did you take away his toys or make him sit in the corner?

He reminds me of a girl I dated once.

I'm pretty sure she was pissed about SOMETHING, but the lingo she used was so full of inside references and terms she'd just made up to describe an injustice only she could see that it was impenetrable. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get her to clearly articulate what it was she was angry about. Of course, it didn't help that she was certifiably insane.

J said...

I think you're the byatch here, mikey--not to say incapable of deciphering fairly obvious messages.

Maybe point out what specific claims/assertions/ideals of the Reason gang you object to (or at least upgrade the satire).

They're not wrong just because they offend you (and as I said, the Crooked Timber apparatchiks are every bit as offensive and/or corrupt, they just prevaricate more effectively).

mikey said...

Ok, as much as he's all torn up over the house of substance and your dozens of readers, he REALLY has it in for this whole crooked timber thing.

Oh, and now he hates me too. But I'm ok with that - he's at least as annoying as my ex-wife, and she hates me too.

So bubba. Gimme the backstory. What'd you and crooked timber do to this idiot? Short sheet his bed in camp? Put itching powder in his underpants? Catch him dressing up as princess Leia?

'Cause frankly, he's eleven ways from unhinged, and it's about the most hilarious thing going on over here, and THAT'S saying something...

Hmm. Maybe Capcha's right. Maybe he's just unfing

Substance McGravitas said...

I dunno. He's definitely got a few bees in his bonnet, but I'm a nobody here and elsewhere so the Secret Knowledge requiring him to Not Get Stuff in my threads must be very narrow in scope.

J said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Substance McGravitas said...

Comment deleted just for fun.

Another Kiwi said...

Considering the bacterial load of most faeces, it is all living, really. Dead faeces would be far more symptomatic of disease.
That's yer achewal sekrit knowlege rite there.

Is this meat simburl!?!?!?!