Understanding arts in the time of Obama

[wally wonder]

jonah goldberg has a column out. the local paper has this thread title as the title of his opinion piece. looked on-line for opinion on the opinion. believe the title goldberg gave the piece is "he came, he saw, he kow-towed".

freerepublic had about sixteen posts on the matter, most seemed to echo a part of what goldberg wrote about. democraticunderground didn't have anything on this particular piece, though other columns by goldberg were frowned upon by those there.

the column is as much about rocco landesman, the guy obama picked to head the national endowment for the arts. seems landesman doesn't know his presidential history, credits lincoln with writing books. goldberg says never happened.

goldberg quoted this landesman guy as saying something like, if the usa is the most powerful country in the world, "then barack obama is the most powerful writer since julius ceasar. that has to be good for american artists."

i guess the obama adminstration has been accused of trying "to turn the arts community into proselytizers of its very special brand of hope and change..."

i'm curious what people think about the matter. i don't have links so you can read his opinion column, but one can find it easy enough. perhaps you have already read it. so what do you think about any part of it or all of it?

[PatInTheHat]

I have no problem with the direction of the NEA, even if it in fact is set to reflect the current administrations mantra of "Hope & Change"...cool by me, I'm all for Hope, and do want change.

That said, I think if what Goldgerg has written is correct, then this guy Landesman is pretty much a uninformed &/or uneducated &/or strangely odd opinionated goof, and while there is alway's hope for a goof (personally, I certainly hope so), when it comes to Washington, that sure ain't much change...goofballs getting big time management jobs wise that is.

[wally wonder]

thanks pat. kinda what i thought. guess it isn't anything new to hear some bureaucrat open his/her mouth and remove all doubt as to their standing. i wondered about the issue, historically that is. like did the king pay shakespeare or help him pay the bills, keep the lights on, so he could do his thing? guess there's enough bad examples throughout our history and the u s of a is not excluded from that list. i take it that most people don't have an opinion on it one way or t'other. got me curious about caesar, too. did i spell that right? got this little red line under it, ceesar, there too. oh, s'posed to capitalize it. do most people think caesar is that guy w/the pizzas? are people more daft today than they were way back in the day? is that a good sign?

it'll be interesting to see what develops w/this. curious to see how it is interpreted.