If Michelangelo were to create a symbolic sculpture for today, it’s not impossible it would look something like this photo; an image of the wasteful, bloated greed of our U.S. government and megalomaniac pharmaceutical- and biochemical industries that lead to the poor health of man, environment, and our financial- and medical systems. 
La Nuit Normande, 70x65inches. 1994
The Flock, 60x48inches. 1986
Jacque's work will be exhibited at the Kim Foster Gallery in Chelsea from February 9 - March 15, 2008, Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm.
Reception: February 9, 6-8 pm. I'll be there.
Bill Moyers talks with host of MSNBC's COUNTDOWN with Keith Olbermann about the relationships between politics and journalism.
I received an email of introduction this morning from chef Dana Herbert in Philadelphia. 
That's the mind-set of Americans who can't stomach exchanging holiday presents. They aren't grinches or scrooges. They just reject what they consider the wastefulness and stress of the season.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
Max, Jason, Dana and Stacy
Jason and Max
Max and Jason
STEPHEN GYLLENHAAL will present four of his films at Cinestudio this week. "A Killing in a Small Town" will be Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; "Paris Trout" will be Friday at 7:30 p.m.; "Homegrown" is Saturday at 2:30 p.m.; "Waterland" is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. "Small Town" is unrated. The rest are R. He will do Q&As after the screenings. Admission for each show is $8, $7 for students, faculty and senior citizens. Cinestudio is at 300 Summit St., Hartford. Gyllenhaal also will hold classes in narrative storytelling (9 a.m. Friday); art vs. commerce (10:30 a.m. Friday); hands-on directing and camerawork (2 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday); and also will do a poetry reading at 10 p.m. Friday. For details, call 860-297-2544.
The son of capitalist parents, William Morris became a pioneer Marxian socialist.Our business, I repeat, is the making of socialists, i.e., convincing people that socialism is good for them and is possible. When we have enough people of that way of thinking, they will find out what action is necessary for putting their principles into practice. Until we have that mass of opinion, action for a general change that will benefit the whole people is impossible. (Where Are We Now?, 1890)Morris found himself as the main theorist of the Socialist League. He never denied that the working class could capture political power, including parliament; but his refusal to advocate the use of parliament to get reforms upset a group, including Marx's daughter Eleanor, who in the end broke away from the Socialist League. This left Morris at the mercy of the real anti-parliamentarians and anarchists, who eventually came to dominate the League with their advocacy of violence and bomb throwing. In 1890 Morris and the Hammersmith branch seceded, carrying on independent socialist activity as the Hammersmith Socialist Society.
By Deepak Chopra:Elected officials are sent to Washington to govern but not to rule. This may sound like a question of semantics or at best a fine distinction. But rulership isn’t a legitimate part of democracy. When a governing class develops in a democratic society, it loses contact with the people who elect it. In many ways America is burdened with such a class, which has amassed power over the past fifty years, until it arrived at a place where its right to rule goes almost unchallenged.Read the rest of the story here.
Who belongs to the ruling class? One might start with the wealthy lawyers who form an inordinate percentage of senators and congressmen, then move on to the corporations whose lobbyists write the very laws that are supposed to regulate corporations. Working hand in hand, these two blocs form a privileged class that feels free to ignore what the American people actually want.
An unexpected benefit of the Bush years is that the ruling class may have gone too far. A culture of corruption binds Congress and lobbyists to an unheard of degree. Bill after bill, earmark after earmark, has blatantly served special interests. Both parties are guilty of kowtowing to money and the corporations that dispense it with shameless abandon — the buying and selling of political favors has never been so outrageous. Influence peddling, once a crime, has become the norm.
SNIP
The betrayal of democracy hasn’t escaped notice, and the Democrats have promised, once they gain the White House, to sweep away the distorted policies of the right wing. Yet we can only watch and wait. The end of neoconservatives won’t end the war. Nor will it depose sitting judges or weaken lobbyists or bring in a new class of congressmen who aren’t beholden to moneyed interests. The entire government has become entangled in the problem, and it will take an awakened electorate to undo the harm that has been done already. The key to an optimistic, progressive America — the America that threatens to turn into a dream of the past — lies in a renewed belief in an open society and trust in the principles of democracy. Do you want to be governed or ruled?
If you are having trouble deciding which Presidential candidate to support, take THIS TEST.
NEW YORK - A painting stolen 20 years ago was found lying in trash along a street, and now it could fetch up to $1 million at auction.Read the entire story here.
Elizabeth Gibson didn't know anything about the brightly colored abstract work she spotted on her morning walk four years ago on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Sotheby's auction house will be selling the work next month for the now-widowed original owner.
"I would say it was an appointment with destiny," Gibson said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I just knew it meant something. ... It was extremely powerful, and even though I didn't understand it. I knew it had power."
Partial zoom:
Detail at actual size:
This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My underlying desire is to affirm and sanctify the crucial role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.
| You are a Social Liberal (95% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (0% permissive) You are best described as a:
You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. l Link: The Politics Test |
Nov. 14 - Apr. 29
ANN COULTER: Perfect for Halloween!
MODEL IN BLACK HAT, 30 x 40 acrylic, 2007
The artist at work.
In today's edition of The New York Times:For American dentists, times have never been better.
The same cannot be said for Americans’ teeth.
With dentists’ fees rising far faster than inflation and more than 100 million people lacking dental insurance, the percentage of Americans with untreated cavities began rising this decade, reversing a half-century trend of improvement in dental health.
In some cases, the results of poor dental care have been deadly. A child in Mississippi and another in Maryland died this year from infections caused by decayed teeth.
Dentists’ incomes have grown faster than that of the typical American and the incomes of medical doctors. Formerly poor relations to physicians, American dentists in general practice made an average salary of $185,000 in 2004, the most recent data available. That figure is similar to what non-specialist doctors make, but dentists work far fewer hours. Dental surgeons and orthodontists average more than $300,000 annually.
“Dentists make more than doctors,” said Morris M. Kleiner, a University of Minnesota economist. “If I had a kid going into the sciences, I’d tell them to become a dentist.”
The dental profession’s critics — who include public health experts, some physicians and even some dental school professors — say that too many dentists are focused more on money than medicine.
“Most dentists consider themselves to be in the business of dentistry rather than the practice of dentistry,” said Dr. David A. Nash, a professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Kentucky. “I’m a cynic about my profession, but the data are there. It’s embarrassing.”
“The dentists don’t want to see these kids [on Medicaid],” Dr. [Amos S.] Deinard said.
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