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The bravery of artists…

Posted by gimpel on September 28, 2006 - 6:35 AM

Be against their mission, but support them
Be against what they do, but support who they are.
Deny their choice, but support their right to choose.

The new soldier in the war on terror?
Artists!
After all, they have been intimidated, attacked, and decapitated.
It is their war, now, too.
And they have let their dislike of our brave “real” soldiers be known.
So, in their pursuit of happiness, let them be pursued.

The Deutsche Opera announced on Tuesday that it had scratched the Mozart opera "Idomeneo" from its programme this season because one scene – the severed head of the prophet Mohammed rolling on to the stage – risked triggering an "incalculable security risk" for the theatre.
In the epilogue, Idomeneo, the king of Crete, comes on stage with a bloody sack in his hand. He then pulls the heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed out of the sack and places them triumphantly on four chairs. The opera, set in the capital of Crete just after the Trojan War, addresses human resistance to making sacrifices to the gods. Mozart's original version premiered in 1781.

But, then, this happened.

Germany's conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday led political and arts world uproar at the scrapping of a Mozart opera that features the head of the prophet Mohammed rolling across the stage.

Artists are going to fight back!
Apparently, the Buddha o’fascists and the Christian o’fascists understand art.

The head-rolling scene was recently added by a modern artist.
Mozart, perhaps a greater artist than the reviser of "Idomeneo" felt no need to show such.
But he knew nothing of terror, and its war.
The opera will be replaced by less offensive plays acceptable to Muslims, unless our artists fight back. But, if they fight back, they risk having their own heads roll across the floor.
A small sacrifice for art?

But what a novel idea! To enlist artists in the war on terror! Karl Rove must have thought of it. Perhaps we can revise the poetry of Poe, Dickinson, and Sandberg. The songs of Lennon, McCartney, and Dylan. Interpret Picasso as a severed head celebration.
What weapons these artists have! Art can win!
Then, as the war ends, we can all say, together, “Twas beauty killed the beast!”

Submitted by weekapaug05 on September 28, 2006 - 9:42 AM.

I'm really getting sick of everyone catering to Muslims as to not step on any eggshells. It's almost like we're playing into their whole plan. First we cater to their demands and whatever they say because people fear them. We are living in a world of fear and for no reason. The news makes us scared of everything going on around us. Headlines about how global warming is going to kill us all (and how it was going to cause this summer to be the worse hurricane season on record ... Ernesto was a light breeze with some drizzling), how terrorist are going to kill us if we use our right to freedom of speech and press, how Charlie Sheen is to become the highest paid sitcom star, and the list of media inspired fear goes on and on.
I have no idea why these radical Muslims believe that they are so superior. What major contributions to society have we seen out of the middle east? Why is it that if they're so superior that they are decades behind in technology? What art have they contributed? I've never heard of a great middle eastern composer, play write, painter, sculpter, musician, etc. They say that the middle east is the cradle of civilization, well its about time to grow up and get out of the play pen. Kind of reminds me a little about when Tipper Gore tried to censor music and Dee Schneider, Krist Novoselic, John Denver and Frank Zappa made her look like a complete idiot. Art can win and we underestimate what kind of new wave in the arts may spring from these times. I'm just glad that here in America we have the 2nd Amendment (The right to keep and bear arms) incase the paint brush fails.


Submitted by mydtwc on October 02, 2006 - 8:38 PM.

OK OK I know things are looking REAL bad for the republican hypocrites right now with molesting little boys. Then the republican hierarchy trying to cover it up instead of doing the right thing. Bob Woodward's book telling a story of lies and coverup about what is and has been going on in Iraq. And even more damning in my opinion is the fact that good old Condoleeza Rice was told of an imminent attack in the US by Al Quaida 2 months before 9/11 and just chose to ignore it.

And now Colin Powell's book that is going to be coming out will further blow the lid off this lying bunch of crooks.

But right now there are more important things to think about. Like where is gimpel's bread and FrozenOne???? I for one am really starting to get worried. No matter how bad the news has been before they have always been right there praising Bush and the REPUGS. If anybody has seen them, tell them to at least check in so we know they're OK.


Submitted by weekapaug05 on October 03, 2006 - 3:11 PM.

I'm wondering why you chose to write this as a reply to my statement? First of all I am not the keeper of gimpel and FrozenOne, I disagree with them probably as much as I disagree with you so I'm not sure why you're asking me.

As to your statement: this is the problem with the party system today; you said "republican hypocrites ... molesting little boys", as though no one affiliated with the democratic party has ever done anything along those lines. It's like me saying in 1969 something to the effect of 'things are looking bad for those hypocritical democrats with their drunk driving crashing cars off bridges letting prostitues die'. Every group has bad eggs.

And my final question is: what does your post have to do with "The bravery of artists ..."?


Submitted by mgroothand on September 28, 2006 - 12:15 PM.

FYI weekapaug05, Finland, with a population of 5.2 million people, has a higher GDP than all the Arab Muslim countries in the mid-east combined.
Q: "I have no idea why these radical Muslims believe that they are so superior"
A: Because their mullahs tell them so. These are holy men and they wouldn't lie?
Q: Why is it that if they're so superior that they are decades behind in technology?
A: You think riding a camel is easy? You can get seasick from that
Q:What art have they contributed?
A: Flying carpets and Ali Baba. Seriously, at one time many years ago they were one of the world's foremost contributors to fine art. It was only their music, then and now, that escaped notice in the western world. That is because of the frequent use of quarter notes that sounds strange to the western ear.
"They say that the middle east is the cradle of civilization, well its about time to grow up and get out of the play pen."
GREAT LINE!


Submitted by weekapaug05 on September 28, 2006 - 1:26 PM.

Thanks I have my moments. I believe that time that you are referring to when they were at their height was called the dark ages in "western" culture if I'm not mistaken (which I probably am because I'm not an extremely well versed history buff, so that one's a shot in the dark). And I'm pretty sure it's George Bush's fault. But they did have the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and various other heights in the ancient world, but so did the Egyptians and the Romans. This is our time (in the immortal words of the Goonies), and I'm not going to have it ruined by some dudes that can't take a joke or appreciate art.
It's so amazing to me the parallels with what many "liberals" in America do with censorship. Like Tipper Gore censoring music, well shouldn't she stand for the right of an individual to express him/her self? I would think so, but we don't want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Art and music are things that should be left up to the viewer/listener to decide what that particular piece of art or song means to them, not Tipper Gore trying to tell me that a Twisted Sister song that was written about a friend’s surgery is about sadomasochism. Or that someone’s artwork should not be allowed to be viewed because it may offend someone. If you find it offensive don't go see it, don't listen to it, pay attention to your kids if you don't want them to. Artists have the right to express themselves freely, because this is America the land of the free ... or so I'm told.


Submitted by g_dog_blog on September 28, 2006 - 6:09 PM.

They do design and make wonderful carpets.

The only way to resolve the problem is to hit them harder than they hit us. It is the only thing they understand. Most of the Muslim people are just as fearful as Americans. The radicals have hijacked them and the mass population fears retribution if they do not go along.

Think back when President Bush #1 was president. In the Operation Desert Storm the American soldiers hit them hard through air strikes. When the soldiers marched in the Iraqi soldiers willingly laid down their weapons. Why? Because at the moment of the American invasion they feared America more than Saddam Hussein. Then American politics got involved and we began to waffle showing extreme signs of weakness.

Today what we are seeing is that the extremists do not fear us because we will not do what needs to be done.

This seems a little off the wall and extreme and would drive the liberals absolutely nits but if they kill one American then we should kill 5 extremists. Always with every attack we need to hit them harder than they hit us. It is the only thing the extremists understand. The rest of what the general population do is mob and survivalist mentality.


Submitted by mgroothand on September 30, 2006 - 10:56 AM.

"but if they kill one American then we should kill 5 extremists".
That was extensively practiced by the Nazis and the Japanese during WWII. I don't think we want to stoop to that.
Some months ago I read an advertisement in the Jerusalem Post selling dried pig blood. The purpose was to spread the powder over the corpse(s) of Islamic suicide bombers so they would never be able to enter paradise. Their souls were damned forever.
General Pershing is rumored to have done something similar in the Phillippines. Captured Islamic fanatics were wrapped in bloody pig hides and shot to death leaving only one to go back and tell of that fate to his buddies. Peace and tranquility returned.
If true, this is one method that has not been tried. Since most of these extremists ply their barbarism to enter into paradise it maybe something to consider? Videotape the desecration by pig's blood of their dead bodies and send it to Al Jazeera.
Nah, our PC body-politics would be horrified at such a thought and Muslims all over the world would riot. We should not defy these radical murderers by denying them their one-way trip to paradise.


Submitted by g_dog_blog on September 30, 2006 - 9:31 PM.

I understand about not stooping to that level but I also understand that you have to do something that speaks to the extremists on their level. They operate on the eye for eye, tooth for tooth level.

They submit to those whose strength overpowers theirs and allows them to live. This is why Saddam Hussein was able to rule over them.

In June, 1994 I was sitting at a motel in Tiberias, Israel talking with several devout Palestinian Muslims. It was early evening and you could hear distant mortar fire and see the accompanying flashes to the North in Lebanon. A couple of days prior to that evening we were in Jericho on the day before Israel gave that city and area back to the Palestinians.

The topic that evening was about Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein. They were praising Mr. Hussein and cursing Mr. Arafat. I asked them why they were responding in this manner. I was told that Mr. Hussein was a great leader and Mr. Arafat was nothing more than a puppet to the American Government, which surprised me since he didn’t have favor with anyone in Washington D.C.

At some point I asked a question and the answer completely changed my outlook about Islam. My question was, “Why do you praise Saddam Hussein? If he could, he would kill everyone in Israel including you, your wife, and your children in order to kill all of the Jews.” He looked me dead in the eye in a way that shook me to the bone, it absolutely un-nerved me, and said, “If it would kill all of the Jews and end their occupation of our land it would be worth the loss of my family.”

The western civilization doesn’t even begin to understand that kind of thinking anymore. We have been away from this kind of barbaric behavior for too long. They still operate with that kind of mentality over there. Why else would they behead innocent civilians on television? They do it to instill fear and gain power over us and they are doing a very good job of it. Look at the infighting in our nation over this issue.

They have not committed a terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11; they do not have to. Politically we are imploding as a result of it. George W. Bush and the soldiers are doing a great thing in Iraq but we are losing the mind war in America.

So the question is: If attacking them hard in a five for one kill is stooping too low, then what method do we used to bring this war to an end? Reasoning, diplomacy and political correctness has never worked and for the foreseeable future will not work. If they only understand power and fear, the only way to overcome their attacks is through power and fear.


Submitted by mgroothand on October 02, 2006 - 9:24 AM.

Although Biblical, I'm not so sure that the eye for an eye approach would work in this case. We have to remember that this is a religious world war. That's where to hit them since they have no fear of dying for "the cause". They actually look forward to such demise. Debunk their fanaticism, defile their physical being and block their entry to martyrdom and paradise, then we're talking real progress.


Submitted by mydtwc on October 01, 2006 - 10:35 AM.

g_dog_blog we are WAY over that 5 to 1 ratio now.

Of course the major problem is we don't know if they are terrorist or not. Mr Bush admits to probably 60,000 civilian Iraqi's killed and if you believe figures that come from others that figure is closer to a 100,000.

So as you can see we are well above your 5 to 1 ratio but what part of that 60 or 100,000 were innocent men, women and children that never had a terroristic thought in their head????????


Submitted by weekapaug05 on October 02, 2006 - 5:06 PM.

Well that's what happens when you don't wear a uniform and use children to bomb people. If the terrorist complain about US troops killing citizens they should wear a uniform so that they are more easily recognized so we can target them better and stop using children to throw rocks at our soldiers or carry bombs up to them. Why should we care about their civilians when they don't even care about them? We don't even care for our own citizens that well, so why hold them in such high regard?


Submitted by g_dog_blog on October 02, 2006 - 12:09 PM.

mgroothand, I understand your point and the Biblical concept of eye for eye. The 5 to 1 ratio is more of a concept rather that a numbers idea. I could have used 10 to 1 or even 20 to 1 but the concept of striking back with an overwhelming and devastating force was what I was trying to communicate.

Look at what we know:

1. Most all-Muslim countries in the Middle East are ruled with terror. Governments are taken over by force and ruled by dictators and punishment for rebellion is calculated, severe, public, and swift.
2. Humiliation is not an excellent tool when the opposition is a master at it. Look at the events that took place where soldiers sexually abused Muslim terrorists on film and the reports of the Koran being flushed down the toilet. (I do not in anyway endorsed the events that happened.) The Islamofascists made some noise about it but nothing happened. There was no retaliation. Humiliation would never work anyway because there are too many liberals in Washington D.C. that would … well let’s just say that the battle within America would intensify to catastrophic proportions.

The major concern I have today is the bickering and fighting within the United States. The greatest threat we face today is the division in our nation. I have been accused in these blogs of being an ignorant redneck and a blind follower of the President. They don’t even have a clue. That is what people do when they cannot deliver a cohesive argument for their position. The Islamofascists love what is happening in America. It is better than what they did to the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Division will be the ruin of this nation. “United we stand, divided we fall,” isn’t just a great hook in a song but a concept of guaranteed victory. Unfortunately the Democrat Party leaders know this to be true but are so caught up in trying to regain control of our government that they are willing to sell the souls of every American to get it back. I suppose they think they can regain and overcome our current situation once they get Washington D.C. back. I think it will be too late. I hope not but am skeptical at this point.

The Democrat Party leaders also understand a mob mentality through attacking the President and have employed it quite well.

I could go on but the two ingredients we need to bring this war to a swift resolution is unity and beating them unmercifully. Will innocent women and children die in the process? Yes, unfortunately there will be some, they are dying now in car bombings, but if we don’t not come into unity the women and children that will be dying in the future will be ours.

We do not need to wait for the elections to bring unity it needs to happen now much like it did right after 9/11.