Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that features images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as "homoerotic." “This is an exhibition that displays masterpieces of American portraiture and we wanted to illustrate how questions of biography and identity went into the making of images that are canonical,”...

Woodstock ponders kinder, gentler manufacturing Thursday, 3:05 AM EST By WILLIAM J. KEMBLECorrespondent WOODSTOCK — The Town Board is considering acting locally while thinking globally. Specifically, members are discussing whether to try to prohibit the local manufacture of parts used for military equipment. The concern arises from the fact that Ametek Rotron Inc. has a manufacturing operation on Hasbrouck Lane in Woodstock, and a letter submitted to the Town Board by 14 local residents notes the company makes parts for helicopters, rocket launchers, tanks and armored personnel carriers. Rotron’s Web site confirms the company manufactures those parts, but it does...

Radio talk show host Lars Larson wants to know if you think it’s appropriate to display this anti-American “art” at the tax-funded Portland Airport: IMAGE Christian-bashing? Check. Anti-gun message? Check. Anti-war zealotry? Check. Anti-capitalism symbolism? Check. American flag mockery? Check. I agree with Lars: This should not hang in a public space. Michael Moore’s living room? Nancy Pelosi’s beach house? Fine. But in a publicly-subsidized airport? No. What’s next: A display of the soldier burnt in effigy in Portland earlier this spring? Or how about the flag that was defecated upon by a Portland peacenik at the anti-war rally? Contact...

(If you're thinking what you're thinking is just a joke; you might be horrified to know that any play on words in the original title is intentional.) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- New York, NY- July, 26 2006—- A presidential bust of Hillary Clinton is set to be unveiled at the Museum of Sex on August 9, 2006 at 10 am. Accentuating her sexual power and bolstered by the presidential seal, The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States of America will be officially open for public viewing on August 9 for a limited six...

Near the end of each year, or century, or in this case Millennium, writers like to go back over the year(s) and dote on the most historic events having taken place, defending their choices, outlining for the historically illiterate some of the background of these events. Sometimes, for a change of pace, they focus just on individuals, or even places or things, and expound on the circumstances and why they were chosen. In the same vein and in view of the fact that there are few surviving paintings more than a thousand years old, I'd like to propose my own...

AVIGNON, France, July 21 (AFP) - This year's edition of one of Europe's top summer arts events was described as a pretentious catastrophe Thursday after angry audiences booed or walked out of a series of performances. Critics attending the three-week Avignon theatre festival in southern France said it had plumbed new depths of intellectual obscurity and warned that a contempt for the mainstream public was placing the future of a prestigious national institution in jeopardy. "What purgatory!" headlined the news magazine Le Point on its culture pages, "Loyal spectators are sad, disorientated and haggard," while a commentator for the Communist...

Two top executives of Salt Lake County's Fine Arts Division are on their way out and more employees may face discipline in connection with an ongoing investigation that has revealed "sloppy accounting" practices that could require a $1 million fix. The County Mayor's Office is taking formal steps to terminate Division Director Marian Iwasaki and fiscal analyst Carol Martin-Mahoney as part of a review of the division's books dating back to 1999; the two employees previously were demoted and both have filed grievances. Iwasaki, who oversaw the county's arts facilities and a $5.25 million budget, and Martin-Mahoney have been placed...