Art, Violence, Government budgets etc
Hi there. Here are a couple related bits that are connected in a way that I don’t need to explain expect to say (my lawyers will be happy: that the lack of art was not necessarily the motive behind the massacre in Tuscon): Since I don’t have our beloved Ralph Steadman or Bob Dylan, or Eminem for that matter, at Owl Farm with me, here’s a piece of Hunter’s writing (perhaps posted before). But it’s more important now than ever as Arts Budget’s are about to be slashed.
In 1957, Hunter read Ayn Rand’s The Fountain Head. He discussed it over the years, but here is an important passage:
To Joe Bell (1957):
To discuss The Fountainhead would be useless — even more so with a person who understands it than wit one who doesn’t. It is nothing more or less than a re-affirming of a principle, that to drag it down to the level of a conversation piece would be to cheapen it…
Although I don’t feel that it’s all necessary to tell you how I feel about the principle of individuality, I know that I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life expressing it one way or another, and I think that I’ll accomplish more by expressing it on the keys than by letting it express itself in sudden outbursts of frustrated violence.
… And I can see your dilemma — in wanting to believe in this thing, yet not being able to find a way to believe in it and eat too. Keep in mind that the ability to create is an integral part of the makeup of man. If a lack is encountered, it lies not in the ability, but in the scope of perception of one’s own creative ability.
–Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway (1957)
Hmmm…
GOP CUTTING ARTS BUDGET:
La Times Reports that: …Any way you want to describe it, the Republican Study Committee, made up of about 165 GOP members of the House of Representatives, on Thursday announced a budget-cutting plan aimed at slashing federal spending, and it calls for the elimination of the nation’s two leading makers of government arts grants: the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Also on the chopping block is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors are likely to seize on evidence that Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet for information on lethal injection and assassins in the hours before the Tucson shooting spree as evidence that he was not mentally incompetent, a federal law enforcement official said Thursday.
Loughner, who was indicted on five federal counts of attempted murder, including shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was at his parents’ home on the computer reading information about the federal death penalty and profiles of famous assassins, the source said.
"He was up late, the night before and into the morning hours," said the federal law enforcement official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case. "
He added that Loughner’s Web traffic was downloaded on a disk and given to his defense attorneys to review when the two sides met on Monday in Phoenix for his arraignment. Loughner has pleaded not guilty.(BY RICHARD A. SERRANO, MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE)
Whether any of these items link together or not, I do wish the family and friends of the Tuscon victims peace. .. it will take a long time, I’m sure.
Your friend,
Anita Thompson
p.s. since you’e aready presued the main sites and papers regarding Cairo’s clash, read Jerry Merriitt’s TALK LEFT
also, sorry about Any Typos.
