Observations 10.19

"Corporations are people, banks are people. People are just empty vessels through which Facebook expresses itself." Well ....

Corporations are people my friend


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Published on Oct 18, 2012 by SchlepLabs
in association with Actually.org

Observations on Art 10.18

Yes I know, yet another art heist post. The whole affair just intrigues me so I was reading what I could find about it and came across something I wanted to share. it's an opinion piece from The National which is the English publication of the Abu Dhabi Media Group. I know, now you are wondering what the hell I am doing reading a newspaper from the Emirates and I'll get to that after the opinion. I wanted to share this in its entirety because it says a lot of what I was trying to say and maybe says it better.

Painted Into A Corner
National Editorial
Oct 18, 2012

"Art heists capture the imagination like few other crimes do. Is there some secret cabal of art aficionados willing to pay millions for stolen masterpieces? It might make a good movie, but in real life, probably not. In fact, the thieves who lifted seven works, including paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, Monet and Matisse, from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam this week may well have been amateurs who knew their supposed value - in the tens of millions of dollars - but had no understanding of the art market.

While it's possible the paintings were stolen to order, either to pay off a debt or to satisfy somebody's personal whim, FBI art crime team founder Robert Wittman told The Atlantic magazine that even black-market buyers wouldn't touch such high-profile stolen goods - because their value resides to a great extent in ownership of legal title. If the works are offered for sale, the "buyer" could well be an undercover cop. More likely, Wittman says, they will sit in storage, for years or even decades, and will eventually be recovered. Or possibly destroyed.

This will be cold comfort to the Triton Foundation, which owns the paintings, but it will illustrate the chestnut that crime doesn't pay."

And why was I reading The National today? Because the United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, probably have one of the largest concentrations of mega art collectors in the world. In the next few years branches of both the Guggenheim and the Louvre will open in Abu Dhabi and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Gagosian Gallery spring up somewhere in the region. Last November Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the daughter of the Emir of Qatar and head of the Qatar Museum Board, was named the most powerful person in the art world by Art & Auction magazine. At about the same time that same board paid $250 million for Paul Cézanne's The Card Players from a group that included a secret partner rumored to be, that is correct, Larry Gagosian. So maybe now you can see why I check The National art section from time to time.

As for crime not paying, I'm not so sure I agree with that line in this situation. Personally I think there is more 'commissioned' art theft than anybody in the market wants to admit. There is just too damn much money involved for there not to be.

Observations on Art 10.17

The Thomas Crown Affair, 1999 remake, historically I don't think its ever actually happened quite like this. Still, it is a good scene and an awesome tune if you like classic jazz. Enjoy ....

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In case you wondered, the tune is Nina Simone's Sinnerman.

Observations on Art 10.16

Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge

I don't think I have ever written about an art heist before but last night's was a major topic of conversation today. I want to say from the start that, contrary to a twitter rumor spreading from Sweden, I had nothing to do with it. Around 3 AM thieves broke into Rotterdam's Kunsthal Museum and made off with seven paintings worth in excess of $100 million. They entered through the back of the museum, swiped the paintings, and were gone when police arrived just five minutes after the alarm sounded. This was one of the topics discussed, the growing trend of museums using just electronic security. It may save money but in the long run it just isn't enough as last night proved.

The Kunsthal may have state of the art electronic surveillance and alarms but it has no "down time" security officers. In contrast over half of The Louvre's staff of 2,000 are security related and the Museum of Modern Art just completed a huge security upgrade in anticipation of showing Edward Munch's The Scream beginning next week.
The Scream was sold in May for $120 million. Granted these two museums are in a league all their own but is one guard too much to ask?

Whatever the case the thieves had exceptionally good taste. The haul was made up of Picasso's Harlequin Head (1971), Monet's Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge (both 1901), Matisse's Reading Girl in White and Yellow (1919), Paul Gauguin's Girl in Front of Open Window (1898), Meyer de Haan's Self-Portrait (1890), and Lucian Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed (2002). I don't understand the final one but than I had nothing to do with it. The Kunsthal has no collection of its own, all the paintings were on loan from the collection of the Cordia family.

When I write about art I like to try and teach something and here is the lesson for any budding art thieves out there. As I said the seven paintings are worth over $100 million but that is an auction/insurance figure. As far as the current 'owners' of the works are concerned they are all but worthless unless they have some totally immoral collector already lined up. That is always a possibility but more in the realm of Hollywood than in the real art world. Also unlikely, but still possible, is that the thieves will try and ransom the paintings through the insurers. One thing is certain, they wont be turning up at a flea market.

If not recovered quickly the paintings may not be seen for generations if ever. Over twenty years ago 13 paintings, including two Rembrandts, at the time worth $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. The museum offered a reward of $5 million for the paintings safe return, as always worded so that the thieves themselves aren't eligible to collect. None have ever been recovered in what is still the largest art heist in history.

And no, I was only 10 years old at the time.

10/17 update - There is a good article in today's New York Times that includes this; "Marc Masurovsky, a historian and an expert on plundered art in Washington, noted the possibility that the theft was "a contract job," adding: "These works were picked out. Could it be they had been targeted well before the theft, and the exhibit was the opportunity to strike?"'

Obama for America

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Published on Oct 13, 2012 by BarackObamadotcom

Observations 10.15

Full page ads are nothing special in a Sunday paper and this time of year full page political ads aren't all that unusual. Yesterday's
Seattle Times included a full page ad that was both political and special. Washington is one of the four states that next month will be voting on marriage equality laws of one form or another. The state's Referendum 74 asks people to either approve or reject Washington's law legalizing same sex marriage. The enactment of the law, which was passed earlier this year, is on hold pending next month’s vote.

Yesterday's ad, payed for by Washington United For Marriage, urges voters to approve R-74 which would enact the law and legalize same sex marriage in the state. The ad is signed by a whose who of companies including Amazon, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Nordstrum, REI, Starbucks, and T-Mobile. In part it says;

“We don’t want our employees, our customers or our friends and neighbors who are gay or lesbian to have to produce a legal document just to comfort a loved on in the hospital or to lose a partner of decades and be told that in the eyes of the government, they are considered a stranger. We support allowing all loving, committed couples the freedom to marry because it means every employee is treated fairly, it helps our competitive business advantage and is good for our state’s economy.”

If you want you can read the full ad with signatures here and and see a complete list of Washington United for Marriage coalition partners here. If you do read the ad you might notice that it is signed by VP David Zapolsky for Amazon and not Jeff Bezos. I have no idea why but I wanted to note that Amazon founder Bezos and his wife MacKenzie are the campaigns largest contributors having donated $2.5 million so far.

Meanwhile in Maryland, another of the four states, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg quietly donated $250,000 to the marriage equality campaign there. It is the largest individual contribution the campaign in Maryland has received. "I do not believe that government has any business telling one class of couples that they cannot marry," Bloomberg wrote in an e-mail. Earlier in the year Bloomberg donated the same amount to Planned Parenthood.

The election is now 21 days away.

10/16 update - From The Washington Post; "The lead group seeking to uphold Maryland’s same-sex marriage law on Monday announced it had received a $250,000 contribution from Paul Singer, a prominent New York-based hedge fund manager — and a major donor to Republican candidates. The contribution is among the largest that has been made to Marylanders for Marriage Equality...."

Observations from the Window 10.14

A rare geek post here, maybe a bit of geek vent, actually it's an explanation of sorts. If you look here often you know I like to post videos. Lately you may have noticed that the videos, or some of them, have an ugly title bar on top that really gets in the way on smaller frames like my blog. Well let me tell you it has nothing to do with me or my coding the fault is all YouTube's.

About a year ago YouTube released a new embed code replacing the long used flash code with a new HTML5 friendly one. Since than you have had a choice between embed codes, there was a small check box if you wanted the older flash based code. Now it seems that on new videos, some possibly all, the flash version is no longer an option. The look and play of the new player is just as good as the flash version was, the problem lies in the code as it's much shorter and as of now I have no clue how to tweek it.

The new version is viewable on more devices, I just don't like the look of the bar. With the old code I would insert a small line that deleted the info bar and some of the controls so it didn't look so busy. I never went so far as to delete the YouTube logo even though I could if I wanted. Maybe I wont be so polite with the new player.

As of now YouTube says it isn't planning on actually disabling the old player, they just will no longer support it. Than again one morning I may wake up and all my embedded videos are gone.

Something to keep in mind if you blog and use embedded videos.

10/15 update - Something I forgot to mention about the new embed code that probably annoys me more than anything else. Once you insert the code you can't get rid of the viewer even in HTML mode. It is still there over top of the code itself so really what you have to do is write your entire post than insert the embed code last which can be one big pain.

Observations 10.13.1

This week in the Party of Lincoln, Part 2 ....

In Thursday night's VP debate the final question from moderator Martha Raddatz was on abortion. At one point during his answer Paul Ryan said; "We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people, through their elected representatives and reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process, should make this determination." My translation would be 'we don't think what is constitutional, legal, or what a woman chooses to do matters. We think conservative, religious, wingnut men should decide this issue.' Suckit Ryan. For the record ABC's Raddatz was totally awesome.

To Ryan's credit earlier in the week he revoked his endorsement of Wisconsin state Rep. Roger Rivard after Rivard's challenger, Stephen Smith, revealed that 10 months ago Rivard had said "some girls rape easy." Rivard claims his comment was taken out of context.

Now, for the main part of this post, I give you Republican Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri who is running for the Senate seat held by Democrat Claire McCaskill. After Akin made his comments about the female body being able to shutdown in cases of "legitimate rape" Republicans all called for him to drop out of the race. At the time McCaskill stayed away from the issue unless she was asked. Anybody who follows politics knew why, she was waiting for the day McCaskill could no longer drop out and the GOP was irrevocably stuck with him as their candidate.

Wednesday was a day all political freaks were waiting for as McCaskill dropped the proverbial hammer and released three new ads in a 'it ends now' moment. All three ads feature women who were raped, two of which say they are pro-life, and one who says she is a Republican. The videos speak for themselves so I'm posting one video here with links to all three below it.

link Diana
link Rachel
link Joanie

Published on Oct 10, 2012 by ClaireMcCaskill2012

Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist, once asked a group of women at a university why they felt threatened by men. The women said they were afraid of being beaten, raped, or killed by men. She then asked a group of men why they felt threatened by women. They said they were afraid women would laugh at them.

Observations 11.13

With just 23 days left until the election super pacs on both sides are beginning to ramp up their campaigns. The latest on the Democrat/liberal side is Actually.org, a collaboration of American Bridge 21^st Century
and the Jewish Council for Education & Research. The following description and video are from their website.

"When lies go unchecked, we all lose. Actually.org spreads the truth, because the truth matters, even in politics. Our team calls ’em like they see ’em, and we hope you’ll support the truth by sharing Actually.org videos before Election Day."

The facts are out there, just not in Romney’s campaign.

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Observations 10.11

This week in the Party of Lincoln, Part 1 ....

It's just weeks until the election and the Republicans are suddenly becoming security conscious as they attack the President over his handling of the Libyan Consulate attack. Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, suddenly called called his committee back from recess to look into so called lapses in Libya and the lack of more funding for security there. But from yesterday's Washington Post; "For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program — well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012." Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah and outspoken member of the committee, attacked the Obama administration even though he admitted to voting for these embassy security cuts.

Elsewhere in the party of Lincoln, oh wait, Arkansas state Rep. Loy Mauch called Abraham Lincoln a Marxist. But that wasn't the best part as Mauch also defended slavery; "If slavery were so God-awful, why didn't Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn't there a war before 1861? The South has always stood by the Constitution and limited government. When one attacks the Confederate Battle Flag, he is certainly denouncing these principles of government as well as Christianity." Along with Lincoln Mauch called Grant, Sherman, Custer, and Sheridan Marxists too so evidently the man has a 150 year old chip on his shoulder.

Now if you think those are just the rants of a lone wingnut you would be wrong. Here is the comment of a reader to an article on Mauch in the Arkansas Times; "Actually, when you get right down to it. Lincoln wasn't a Marxist so much as he was a war criminal. He suspended Habius Corpus. He killed more civilians than any other war we have ever fought in. More people over all died in the War of Northern Aggression than any other war the US ever fought in by far. Lincoln had his troops come to the south to beat and rape the women (both black and white). And, he locked up anyone who disagreed with him, journalist and preacher. There is nothing that Assad in Syria has done that Lincoln didn't do."

What the hell is the War of Northern Aggression? I seem to have missed that one in school or overslept or skipped class that day, I have no idea.

You just can't make this shit up.

Observations on the 2012 Election

The vice presidential debate is tomorrow night and it seems to be up to VP Joe Biden to make us all forget President Obama's dismal performance in last week's debate. What Biden needs to do is force Paul Ryan to talk actual facts and figures when discussing the GOP budget plans yet not let him look like he is smarter than the rest of us. Ryan supposedly knows more about the budget than anybody in Washington and could make all our heads spin if given the chance.

While I'm looking forward to Biden's 'happy warrior' side I also hope he doesn't get too happy and stick his foot in his mouth. The media needs to be talking about the this debate and not the last one but for the right reasons. He needs to be in the form he was in for a 2008 Democratic presidential primary debate in which he had this to say about then GOP candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; “There only three things he mentions in a sentence: A noun and a verb and 9/11, I mean, there’s nothing else.” Sadly I guess he should refrain from using the f-word too.

Looking ahead to the second Presidential debate I have faith President Obama will come back strong against Willard. The format is town hall style so more suitable to the President. Also Bain and the 47% video are sure to come up with the public, or the public as the Gallup people see it, asking the questions. But if I were given just one political wish it is that this man could fill in for Obama for just one night ....

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Observations 10.9

Marriage for All Families: Stories from Minnesota


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Published on Oct 9, 2012 by NewLeftMedia

The second of a four-part series made in each of the states that have marriage equality votes this November, this short shares the experiences of same-sex couples who want to get married in Minnesota. They have the same challenges, responsibilities, and aspirations as any other couple, but they are strangers in the eyes of the law. That's why marriage equality is so important: it aligns personality reality with legal reality, as a simple matter of fairness.

The series is produced in association with The Four, a social media campaign to support marriage equality in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington State. Learn more and get involved at TheFour.com


Film produced by Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll.
Music by Timmy's Work.
See the first episode here.

Observations 10.8

This man is just a national treasure, seriously, it may sound corny but I can't think of any other word to use.

"We've got to be actively involved in the electoral process," he says. "If you really appreciate the price that has been paid for that right, you should be in there participating, protecting our interests and in so doing, making our democracy a truer democracy."

George Takei


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Published on Oct 5, 2012 by BarackObamadotcom

Observations 10.7.1

I wanted to share a portion of a statement by the North Carolina National Guard on the death of Staff Sgt. Donna R. Johnson in Afghanistan. Any death is sad, made even sadder given the location, but the line I have italicized seems important to me because I don't remember seeing something like it before. It's the flip side of the photo I used in my post on the anniversary of the end of DADT.

North Carolina National Guard Press Release

Lt. Col. Robert Carver

Office of Public Affairs

October 4, 2012

RALEIGH, N.C. – Army Staff Sgt. Donna R. Johnson of the North Carolina Army National Guard’s 514th Military Police Company based in Winterville, N.C., died as a result of wounds sustained in a suicide bomber attack while on patrol in Afghanistan, on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012. Staff Sgt. Donna R. Johnson, 29, of Raeford, N.C., is survived by her mother and father Sandra and Philas Johnson, her sister Rene Albattrawi, her Nephew and Niece, Jason and Hannah Albattrawi
and by her Spouse Tracy Dice.... (Full Statement)

Donna and her wife Tracy were married on Valentines Day of this year just before her deployment to Afghanistan.

10/8 update - Just wanted to clarify myself a bit. I was excited, satisfied, proud (pick one) to see the word spouse used with no other same-sex explanation necessary, like it was totally normal, which is exactly how it should be and hopefully always will be going forward.