Oh yes! This is true! I was in Paris in April of 2004 and the Parisiens are still trying to get ride of the hideous thing. Have you ever noticed all of the planes that circle it? They are trying to find a time when no one is there so that they can bomb it to kingdom come.
For two or three years now, there have been uniformed and armed French soldiers at the base trying to fight through the crowds of tourists to rig it with explosives, but it has been too crowded to even put up the “Boom Goes the Dynamite” signs.
Twice a year – in July and December – all of Paris gathers to try to push the Tower over, but they are pushing from all directions at the same time and it has been a four-way tie each time. Curses.
Word has it that they keep adding lights to make it easier to see as a target. The “light spasm” that happens for ten minutes once an hour at night is said to be a “triple chien dare” – whatever that means.
Meanwhile, the totally tasteless continue to flock to see this relic from La Belle Epoque. The last estimate was 300,000,000 – or maybe it was only 200 hundred million since it opened. Who can blame the Parisiens? They’re very private, you know.
You are also right that it doesn’t go with the rest of the buildings which are all Eighteenth Century. I abhor inconsistency.
Yes, as the Parisiens say, it’s very out of place in Paris.
It is true that the objections also apply to state arts funding. As I said…
Of course, our governement is representative. All it can hope to do it represent the majority. A local governance is more likely to represent the opinion of its constituency than the feds are.
Thank you…you just supported my point. The grant was awarded at the local level, but funded at the federal level. This is exactly my problem…why should I in Illinois have to fund a piece of art I find offensive, because North Carolina thought it was ok?
Well, it sounds like a problem that you personally have with art, and modern art in specific. If you’re going to rip on something and dismiss it, the best way to do it is to study it and put together a good argument why it should be more celebrated. If your complaints still hold up to it, then you may be onto something.
Pick up a few books on modern art. Visit the museum. Do some research.
Well, you keep saying the same thing over. It’s like you’ve been properly brainwashed to think this way and that there was no path of thought to get you to this point.
Yes, the proponents of funding art aren’t backing down. That’s because the burden of proving the system is wrong is squarely on you.
Prove your point, or open your mind and fight your programming.
Your position does not make any sense, though. If it’s wrong for someone in Oklahoma to pay for art they don’t like in New York, why is it less wrong for someone in Oklahoma to pay for art they don’t like in Oklahoma? Why does the geographical distance involved make the injustice greater?
Well, rather than hijack this thread yet again, I suggest you search GD for threads on Creationism to figure out why that is wholly at odds with your belief that schools in Arkansas should be able to teach Intelligent Design.
Actually, I’m afraid he demolished your point. You’ve argued (somewhat bafflingly) that art funding decisions should be made on the state level, because that makes it more representative of the standards of the residents of that state. Well, federal grants are awarded at the state level. Assuming all states are receiving from the fund in amounts commensurate with how much they pay in, the effect is identical to the funding being collected and disbursed at the state level. Your chief complaint against federal funding of the arts just went up in smoke.
Or YOU could find another example, since that particular one has been shown repeatedly to be a bad one. Although I do find it cute when you put your hands over your ears and yell so that you can’t hear us.
On the other hand… you know, it’s kinda sexy when a man admits he’s wrong. You could try it.
I really don’t see how I can explain it any more clearly. If you don’t understand that the cultures & values of the states are different, and each elects government representatives to reflect these cultures & values, and so state goverment is more likely to represent the will of the people in that state more than the federal government will, then I guess you think we shouldn’t have state government at all.
I am supposed to take the opinions of people posting here as some kind of evidence that I am wrong about this? I’ll thank you for letting me have my own opinion about the meaning of the Constitution. I seriously doubt that anything I read here will convince me that I should feel differently about it.
Some states (and cities, and neighborhoods) are poorer than others, making it harder for them to fund art (and other civic improvements) locally. So I think it’s a very fine thing that we have a common pool of money that can be distributed throughout the country for these sorts of activities.
You don’t live in North Carolina. You don’t have to look at what the North Carolinians do with their money. So what do you care? If the North Carolinians want to spend their share of the money on black velvet paintings and kazoo concerts, that’s their business. It doesn’t harm you or me in the least. It sounds like you want more, not less, centralized control – somewhat of an odd stance coming from a libertarian.
Actually, I think you’ve been plenty clear. It’s just that your position is not internally consistent. If you’re going to say that it’s wrong to make people pay for art they don’t like, you cannot turn around and say that you think its okay for states to fund arts. Any state-run arts program is going to produce art that offends some of the people whose taxes paid into the program. This is inherent in the nature of art: nothing is going to appeal to everyone. If it’s some sort of injustice that a person in North Carolina has to pay to make art they don’t like in Arizona, then it is equally an injustice if that person has to pay to make art they don’t like in North Carolina. I’m afraid your position in this thread is simply not logical.
Two things:
First, if nothing you read on this site can possibly change your opinion, why are you here in the first place?
And second, it’s not a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of fact. The first ammendment prohibits the government from establishing a religion, and the fourteenth extends the prohibitions on the actions of the federal government to the states. You cannot support the right of a state to teach Creationism, which is a religious doctrine, as scientific fact in a public school, without also supporting the repeal of either the first or the fourteenth ammendments.
Do I really have to prove that classical music is incredibly popular in the world now? Tell you what, you prove to me that it is not popular and I will refute you.
Luciano Pavarotti has sold over 100 million albums in his career.
‘Three Tenors in Concert’ has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony sold more than 1 million CDs.
Gregorian chant CD sold over 4 million copies.
“Moreover, according to the National Endowment for the Arts, 30 million adults (16 percent) had attended a classical music event in the previous 12 months.” http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr2003/q2/requiem.htm
Popular enough for the State to go “Hey, people really like this stuff, but there’s a private funding shortfall, so why don’t we help orchestras out with some of this extra cash we have lying around”.
Or do you think it’d still be quite as popular if ticket prices reflected the true cost of running an orchestra?
Sarahfeena, I live literally within 15 minutes of the Southern Baptist Convention. Should I go with predominate local tastes? States-wide preferences? Pin my hopes on travelling art?
Don’t count too much on stereotypes. Nashville voted blue. It’s in a red state, but the Western third of the state is liberal. Yet I grew up near Skullbone, a tiny widespot in the road, and the Kingdom of Skullbonia, touted in the New York Times for its bizarre white supremest/Hell’s Angels/friendly neighborhood rock and country concerts that attract good music, a diverse crowd and 3,000 motorcycles. All of this takes place pretty much in the backyards of the Mennonites.
I’ve lived in Nashville over 40 years and never seen a performance of the Grand Ole Opry. Shame on me for that though. I like Appalachian music and some of the older country pieces and the Celtic sound that much of it is based upon.
But my favorite music is jazz, especially Latin jazz. That’s what I was listening to Friday afternoon when last I drove past the Graylines Tour Bus and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Thanks to Dr. Frist, we have us some Egyptian Culture right now, but we may need help from the outside world after that. We even sent scouts to Oklahoma and Arkansas to take leftovers.
