One painting, two portraits steeped in history…

In honor of Lincoln's birthday here is a fascinating story from the New York Times of two portraits in one painting.

Photographs from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum

Left, the altered portrait depicting Mrs. Lincoln; right, the restored image, an unknown woman without a Lincoln brooch.

It’s a story that, while still exposing a fake portrait, accents not only the important historic and intrinsic value of art, but the poignant connections attached to it that were ultimately triggered by the assassination of a great leader.

Read the full story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/arts/design/portrait-of-mary-todd-lincoln-is-deemed-a-hoax.html?_r=1

Pure. Ugly. Hypocrisy.

Just the first 5 minutes of the great Rachel Maddow segment alone (linked to at the end of this post) will give enough documented proof to show the pure, fetid, stomach churning hypocrisy that the  Republican party of today represents. Somehow - over the last 25 years or so - , they have de-evolved into a party of hateful, fearful, easily-lead, unquestioning, gullible, small-minded, selfish, uncaring, unimaginative, colorless, stunted, drab, hypocritical people.

They have become the kind of people not to fight against oppression, but to lead it. They have become the kind of people not to stand up for human rights, but to oppose them. They have become the kind of people not to help those in need, but to trod upon them.

The beautiful words forever etched on the base of the Statue of Liberty - “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - have become lost on them, though they themselves are the descendants of immigrants to this fantastic country.

How long I wonder, if ever they were to create a place where their warped fantasy of a totally homogenous world consisting of a white, Christian, heterosexual, male- dominated population were to come true, would it take them to start pointing their fingers at each other.  What imperfection would it take? Perhaps having brown eyes, or left handedness, or maybe an usual way of pronouncing certain words could be the trigger pulling defect.

Of course, one doesn’t have to look very far through the history books to see the last time this kind of empty headed, blind trust in a “one of us” kind of mentality shook the world.

Fortunately, predictably, and historically it failed.  And as all hate-inspired, fear-fuelled, separationist movements go, eventually, the dark wave that has currently engulfed the GOP will find it’s way down the drain.

The problem will then be, as always, the dark ring left behind.

Rachel Maddow segment here:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Republicans reverse themselves in trying to drag America backward

Stupid is as stupid does….

Here's something to file under "Things You Already Know To Be True But Are Glad For The Confirmation All The Same".  A new study, published in Psychological Science, showed that people who score low on I.Q. tests in childhood are more likely to develop prejudiced beliefs and socially conservative politics in adulthood.

So, the next time you find yourself confronted by a Tea Party moron, hand them this article and a crossword puzzle for a quick escape.

Or, maybe a Speak-N-Spell for the truly slow ones, though quite perplexed by "smart" toys they love the line "The cow says moo"…

One bad apple…

If you blissfully stroll through the the brand driven, ad agency carefully crafted, glistening, candy-coated Apple dreamscape of an exalted place of refined air far above the hellish nether-world of jaw-dropping labor abuses in Chinese sweat shops, it's time for your wake up call.



Yesterday’s Business Section of the New York Times, featured a scathing and comprehensive article titled, “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad”. It does a fine job of describing just how much blood, sweat, and tears (literally) goes into the shiny new iPhones and iPads that have driven Apple sales into new realms of success.

Make no mistake, I’m no fan of China. In my opinion, they are simply wrong on every level whether it be citizen oppression or social injustice, wildly flagrant environmental damage, over population and a strict unyielding compliance to an outdated, failed, political system steeped in dysfunction. I could go on, but my point is made.

Regardless of my personal feelings however, I understand that when all the layers of psychological, religious, social and personal identification are gone, people are people.

And a human being deserves better than what is reported in the article.

I’m curious now as to what steps Apple will take, if any, to repair this ugly situation.

Now who’s gonna swab the deck pirate scum?

I laugh heartily when I hear GOP spin-masters decry Obama with baseless implications about him being weak on military support or lacking in concern about defense against terrorism and the such.

As Commander-in-Chief, not only did he authorize the taking out of bin Laden, last night, right before/during his SOTU address mind you, he authorized an operation to rescue Jessica Buchanan, an American citizen who was kidnapped and held against her will for three months in Somalia by pirates.

These are pirates who now will no longer be needing an eye patch, peg leg, or parrot.

(Image by johnx1 of the Independents for If Pirates Ruled Photoshop strange pictures contest)

Way to kick some smarmy Somalian pirate pirate ass POTUS!

Read the entire article here courtesy of thehill.com 

Empty Subway…

Having lived in Washington, DC for over 20 years, I’ve taken countless metro rides throughout the great city and surrounding metro area.

While journeying via the metro to the Shady Grove stop for a business meeting late yesterday morning, I realized that it had been years since I had ridden to any of the “last stops” on the system. I lost track of time gliding through the tunnels as I mentally flipped through the years attempting to pinpoint the last time I had the experience. No luck. As I lifted my head out of the futility of my memory haze, I noticed that I was the sole passenger on the car.

I quickly glanced to both the left and right to see if I could see a distant profile of some other rider lost in a newspaper or iPhone. No one.

It’s a surreal, dreamlike, short-lived and rare experience to be the only person in a passenger car on a metro system that shuttles over 2.5 million people annually. So, of course, I reached for my iPhone to make quick use of my favorite camera app to quickly visually document the fleeting experience. After a wee bit of tweaking in Photoshop, I present the results here for you to enjoy.

If you ever find yourself alone in an otherwise crowded space, after taking a moment to take in the Zen of it all. Grab your camera, visually document, and then let me know. I’d like to see what you come up with and I’d like to share it here.

(and please remember folks - all images in this post ©Michael Sprouse 2012)

Click on the image below to see a larger version in a new window

Pardon me, is that a head in your bag? Say Cheese!

What kind of twisted American society have we created where the first impulse someone has when they have the unfortunate and horrific experience of stumbling across a severed head while walking through the park is to have a photograph of taken of themselves posing next to the hideousness with a smile?

What if their second impulse is to list the macabre image to a photographic licensing firm so as to get at least a 5 grand asking price from the media frenzy as they each attempt to claim it?

I envision snarling, angry junkyard dogs leaping wild eyed for a gnarled bone dangled from the hand of an inbreed mouth-breathing freak.

Horrifying though this thought may be to the sane few who dwell amongst this culturally decimated society , it's all true. You can find the sordid details here.

How rich the irony that this news item appears on the same day photography giant and American icon Kodak files for bankruptcy?

Remember, say cheese...