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"…