Art, Literature, and Politics

It’s Tuesday morning again and I’ve got about two hours to kill before doing some prep for tomorrow’s classes, so here I am at the keyboard once more.

I’ve got a painting titled “The Bearable Lightness of Being” at The Hot Shops Nicholas Street Gallery, 13th and Nicholas, for a month as part of their fundraiser for the food bank. Stop by if you get a chance and see some of work of the best artists in the area. Take a can of food. I call the painting "The Bearable Lightness of Being." A Kundera novel with the title of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being" was made into a movie of the same name years ago and were philosophical looks at cycles of life and recurring archetypes and what if there is no life after this life?, German existentialism, the futility of life, etc. So I think that even if we are given one shot at life and that's it, we should make it a good one. Not that I've particularly succeeded, but it's a good thought. So do well and do good seems to be a good strategy no matter what the depths of despair in an uncaring universe. To see more of my art go to: http://www.artbreak.com/artbycassiday

My current reading includes Joseph Heller’s, “God Knows-Go Figure,” a fictional autobiography of King David, William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways,” Kenneth Davis’ “Don’t Know Much About History,” Ted Kooser's, "One Hundred Postcards," James Morgan’s “Chasing Matisse: A Year in France Living My Dream,” a Christmas gift from my sweetheart, (I may write “Six Years in Papillion: Living My Nightmare”), about a 59 year old successful writer and editor who decides to sell everything, move to Paris with his successful wife, and become at artist – what a crazy idea - , and another Christmas gift, “The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter,” by Quinn and Nir, two astrophysicists contemplating the cosmology of why we are here anyway and were not all annihilated in the first one-billionth of a second after the Big Bang. I’m wondering too. I’ve been reading Heller’s “God Knows” continuously for years now and am in my 4th or 5th read. Wonderful book.

And my few thoughts on the last few days politics:

Sarah Palin –According to many of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign managers, Sarah Palin was a walking catastrophe: her mangled “word twistification” and garbled thought processes; her information deficit; her fact avoidance; her truth challenged look at the world; and her willingness to spread untruths even after the few facts she was given indicated otherwise. And now she’s going to Fox News as a commentator and news contributer – sounds like a perfect fit. And the Tea Parties – these folks continue to be fringe looney-toons guided by Dick Armey, Fox News, and some corporate right wingers as far as I can tell. Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak at their upcoming convention in Memphis…….That they appear to be gaining traction says much about the “dumbification” and embrace of demagoguery in America. I hope I’m wrong about that.


Health Insurance Reform is turning into a health insurance industry windfall where citizens are required to purchase health insurance and illegal aliens are prevented from doing same; I’ve heard very little about ending the anti-trust exemption given to the insurance industry decades ago, Ben Nelson’s gambit regarding Federal Medicaid reimbursements for Nebraska made him look greedy and petty. Without competitive forces introduced into the industry, rates will continue to skyrocket – I got a notice the other day that my own crappy over the counter catastrophic health insurance premium will go up by 20% this year. For a few days last month the idea of Medicare buy-ins at 55 was circulating as part of the discussion gave me hope, but that died even quicker than those thousands of Americans who die each year sans health insurance and health care.

Harry Reid’s clumsy and “inartful” remarks on President Obama’s lack of a “Negro dialect” loosed the hounds of hypocrisy: that Trent Lott was forced to resign as Leader of the Senate after his fawning tribute to segregationist Strom Thurmond a few years ago are now being equated with Senator Reid’s gaffe; Reid was pummeled and pilloried over the weekend by right wing talking heads including Michael, “Honest Injun,” Steele, head of the Republican party and all the other shallow draft Republicans were trying to score cheap political points. The transparency and silliness of it all is reaching new heights and depths of tawdriness.


The Big Lie – President Obama’s response to the failed terror attack on an airplane headed to Detroit caused the right wing propoganda machine to say over and over again, “There were no attacks on the US during George W. Bush’s watch” - except many pointed out the biggest attack in US history and the shoe bomber and the anthrax thing and some others. Oh, those……those shouldn’t count, they say. And the repeated untruths that Obama didn’t use the words “terror” or “terrorism” in his many speeches this last year while a look back shows repeated use of the very words. The Big Lie Machine continues to work and the mainstream media tends to sit back and not challenge the malefactors. Even heavyweights like George Stephanopoulos on his ABC interview with Rudy Guiliani had to apologize publicly afterward for letting such inane and inaccurate remarks from Rudy Giuliani go unchallenged.

So there you go, and as Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” narrator said one hundred and sixteen times, “So it goes.”

Regards, Bud C