Shrub's favorite painting and why it doesn't mean what he thinks it means...bwahahahaha

[Extend a Hand]

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002237

So Bush’s description of “A Charge to Keep” struck me as very strange. In fact, I’d say highly improbable. Now, however, Jacob Weisberg has solved the mystery. He invested the time to track down the commission behind the art work and he gives us the full story in his forthcoming book on Bush, The Bush Tragedy:

came to believe that the picture depicted the circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century. In other words, the cowboy who looked like Bush was a missionary of his own denomination.

Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”

So Bush’s inspiring, prosyletizing Methodist is in fact a silver-tongued horse thief fleeing from a lynch mob. It seems a fitting marker for the Bush presidency. Bush has consistently exhibited what psychologists call the “Tolstoy syndrome.” That is, he is completely convinced he knows what things are, so he shuts down all avenues of inquiry about them and disregards the information that is offered to him. This is the hallmark of a tragically bad executive. But in this case, it couldn’t be more precious. The president of the United States has identified closely with a man he sees as a mythic, heroic figure. But in fact he’s a wily criminal one step out in front of justice. It perfectly reflects Bush the man. . . and Bush the president.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. "...a silver-tongued horse thief fleeing from a lynch mob."

:rofl:

[Orsino]

26. Yeah, the thought of * being silver-tongued is hilarious.

I suppose that the painting is also missing the flock of Democratic "leaders" covering his retreat.

[JBoy]

33. I'm sure * is quite often silver-tongued

[Orsino]

36. LOL n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

37. he is a "silver tongued thief"...wow how cosmic that * choose this painting LMAO

[Atman]

39. Silver-spooned.

.

[loudsue]

49. LOL! Silver-spooned, on a necklace, with powder trace...

no doubt!

[DrDan]

2. how absolutely insightful

my first view of that painting led me toward the intended message - one of someone fleeing a posse.

I am amazed at junior's interpretation.

And the connection to the Tolstoy Syndrome is priceless.

[AndyA]

3. Well, it figures, doesn't it?

Has Bush ever been correct about anything?

The man is a total disgrace.

[radfringe]

4. here's the pic

[Extend a Hand]

5. Thank You!

I was trying to figure out how to do that!

[radfringe]

9. easy

1. find pic you want to post
2. right click on it
3. select properties
4. highlight and right click on url (see above)
5. select copy
6. close properties
7. on the DU - right click and select PASTE

[mwb970]

12. You can also upload to an image hosting service and post that copy.

I use PicOodle.

If you use the original URL, the site owner gets charged bandwidth fees for each view. With the image hoster, this is avoided.

[WritersBlock]

10. It *does* look just like the lying little shit. Except for the horse; he'd be afraid to ride one.

Otherwise, the resemblance is uncanny. I just hope this one gets caught, too.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. More realistic reenactment:

[JNelson6563]

19. lol

Perfect. :toast:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. Hey, Jules.

:toast:

Btw, who are you supporting this go around?

[JNelson6563]

28. Hey RIF.

Was hopin' for Gore, now kinda pullin' for Edwards but not too invested in the primaries this time through. Managing the race for our US House seat this cycle so much more focused on that than the WH primaries. Ugh. Watching the blood flow around here I'm mighty glad of it, lemme tellya!

How 'bout you? In any camp in particular?

Julie

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

40. No one in particular.

Mostly hoping for a vast congressional majority of good, left-leaning Dems. Although I'll support any nominee, I've got a few reservations:

Obama: Not specific enough. Smart and inspiring, though.
Clinton: Right on the smaller issues, wrong on the big ones.
Edwards: Love what he's saying but nothing in his Senate tenure backs it up.

They're alright, though.


Luck against Knollenberg.(?) :hi:

[JNelson6563]

48. I'm with you

There's no Dean among 'em this year. Better to concentrate my efforts where I can have the most direct effect.

I'm in Michigan's 4th District, going up against the little noted but as evil as the rest Dave Camp. Well funded. Bastard.

Love to see you popping in to the Stock Watch Thread these days. :hi: Happy Weekend! :toast:

Julie

[WritersBlock]

27. ROFL - yes, perfect! n/t

[MiniMe]

6. Maybe he wishes that he were "smooth talking".

[babylonsister]

7. Rec'd. Oh, the irony... nt

[Fridays Child]

32. Profoundly ironic.

And what a steady diet of irony we've been fed by the man and his administration!

[rosesaylavee]

8. Love the irony.

K & R

[UTUSN]

11. "Slipper Tongue" is multiply excellent for Shrub!1 His recurrent problems with artists:

***********QUOTE**********
.... The president, the painter, and porn: actor-painter Jeff Griggs presented a portrait to President Bush in the White House. Then the tabloids discovered his gay-porn past - People - Interview

The invitation was for Griggs to present the 9/11-themed George W. Bush portrait he had painted, which a friend of a friend had recommended to the White House. So he bought airline tickets for himself and his mom, checked his painting with the baggage, and went to meet the commander in chief.

Months later, the tabloids discovered that Griggs, a former Days of Our Lives cast member, had also done all-male adult films in the late 1980s. GAY PORN STAR PAINTS THE PRESIDENT INTO A CORNER, the headline shouted. The stow faded again until April of this year--when a gay gossip Web site and the New York Post dredged it up again. ....

Always a proud supporter of the president, Griggs says his conviction was strengthened by their meeting. "As we stood there and looked at my painting, as we were reminded of the loss," he says, "I was convinced that he was completely aware of his own humanity and of his failings. But I was also aware that--damn it--he was the president of the United States and he was going to do his damnedest to see that this never happens to our country again." (Griggs can't say where the painting is now, but he's been told its final destination is likely Bush's presidential library.)

Griggs, who's gay and "not single," speaks with admiration of Bush's international AIDS initiative but doesn't feel the need to debate the Administration's policies point by point. "Bottom line is this: I'm sold on the man. Period. He's for us. It's hard not to like the guy."

As for whether Griggs's past "bad choices" really painted the president into a corner, his D.C. contacts tell him that "the White House isn't one bit concerned," he says. "Maybe I needed to have that experience to keep me humble and to remind me that I'm not that far from falling," he says of the gossip eruptions. "It reminds me how fortunate I am to be able to paint and have great friends and family. I am a blessed man."








It seems that a sculptor/painter, Richard SERRA, copied from Spaniard Francisco GOYA, substituting Shrub's face. GOYA's painting, "Saturn Devouring One of His Sons" was aimed at the repressive Spanish monarchy. Well, Robert NOVAK had a FIT on CNN Friday and again on Saturday.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/saturnmyth.html

.... In the Greek version, Kronos (Saturn) also became pregnant, but by swallowing his own children as fast as they were born, having been warned that he would be dethroned by one of them just as he had supplanted his own father. His wife, Rhea, somewhat distressed by the loss of the first five, substituted a stone for the next, the storm god Zeus, who was then raised in secret. After liberating his brothers and sisters, Zeus led their rebellion - as they had been reborn, he was now the eldest - and so became king of the gods. ....

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix_u.htm
DEMON ART

A SHOCKING image of a blood-spattered President Bush devouring a headless child is causing an uproar. The drawing by sculptor Richard Serra, based on a painting by Goya, is being used to promote pleasevote.com, billed as "a call to vote the Bush administration out of office." It appears on the back cover of The Nation's July 5 issue. Ironically, Serra, a past recipient of NEA grants, was once praised by First Lady Laura Bush in a White House press release about one of his pieces at a Texas museum. His "Tilted Arc" once graced (or defaced) Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan until it was destroyed in 1989. Pundit Andrew Sullivan labeled the Bush image "an obscenity" and "simple demonization."

http://www.netserves.com/moca/lectures/boogoya.htm
.... Goya was a lifelong rebel. ....

Goya's observation of the world led him to believe that the eighteenth century philosophers' dream of Reason only produced monsters. ....

...The horrors of war became his subject, and his paintings and etchings exhibited the atrocities that men visit upon one another in the name of "God and Country." The Third of May, 1808 (below) is Goya's response to the slaughter of 5,000 Spanish civilians who were executed in reprisal for a revolt against the French army without regard to whether they were guilty or innocent. Until Goya, warfare was generally painted as a glorified pageant of heros. ....
GOYA's Third of May 1808:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2003...

********UNQUOTE*******

[many a good man]

45. Shrubya is the perfect example of the sleep of reason creating monsters

I bet he can probably interpret this one correctly:

[UTUSN]

46. Wow, thanks for that Richard SIERRA piece!1 I had lost it from the quote. n/t

[Vinca]

13. ROFL - that's perfect. nt

[whatchamacallit]

14. And on the eighth day God created assholes... n/t

[NoFederales]

15. Absolutely stunning!

NoFederales

[underpants]

17. "Will he embarass us?"

a story I read in Rolling Stone back in 2000-this was the main question all the big bucks contributors who were called in to have personal direct interviews with Bush asked. To a person that was the first thing that came to their mind. They should have trusted their instincts.

[malaise]

18. A superb post

That's George -the criminal who escapes by fifteen minutes.

[bdamomma]

23. hopefully he won't escape.

if there is any justice left.

[malaise]

30. I'm still hoping n/t

[Junkdrawer]

20. Here's a longer article...it's actually worse (read better) than the first...

http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/5/13/222815/402

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

21. can't help thinking of jebediah springfield and bush

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

22. I Kinda Gotta Disagree With The Tone/Premise Of The Article.

If it's one thing I'm a big believer in, it is the freedom associated with art and its interpretation.

Regardless of what the painter wanted to portray, art should and always be left up to the interpretation of the viewer as to what it actually is. That's the beauty of all things artistic.

[Gruenemann]

43. While I agree different interpretations are important....

When a representational work of art is known to have been intended to portray something specific, any other interpretation is just plain silly. Would you interpret "George Washington Crossing the Delaware" as a bunch of guys out for a joy cruise?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

44. If That's What It Meant To Me, And That's What I Chose For It To Mean For Me, Then Yes.

And nothing you could say would have the power to take that away from me, either.

That's why it's art.

[hvn_nbr_2]

25. Tolstoy syndrome

I never heard of it before, but it's a perfect description of my (now former) boss who just got fired yesterday. I resisted the temptation to do a happy dance around the office.

[0007]

29. junior & his dick escaping from criminals war prosecutors on a horsefly

Hard to find these two cretins on such a large fly.

[Historic NY]

31. Too funny they usually hang horse thieves.

[Uncle Joe]

34. I believe the one they hate the most is the Picasso painting about war.

The PBS telecast special "The Power of Art" reported how Cheney's people coincidentally had that one covered up during the run up to the war with Iraq, when he was scheduled to make a speech in front of it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

35. now that is really funy

[sutz12]

38. "the hallmark of a tragically bad executive"

Could we get that engraved on Shrub's tombstone?

:shrug:

[Rhiannon12866]

41. I'm surprised that he would choose a painting with a horse in it, LOL.

Maybe Laura chose it for him, just as she did the redecorating of the Oval Office...:shrug:

[ProgressiveFool]

42. yep, just the fact that the rider doesn't have a hat should tell you he's in a hurry

and the guys behind him don't look too happy

[Oilwellian]

47. Funny story

Thanks for posting.

[hisownpetard]

50. The only way Bush could be silver-tongued is if he has thrush.

[Disturbed]

52. Busholini is a Silver Spoon Sociopath that is afraid of horses.

The irony!

[Elidor]

51. So perfect

I never email political stuff to my family and friends, but this one's a keeper. I have to send it on.

[formercia]

53. Rod Serling's Night Gallery: The Escape Route

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqUV6pwzw4A&feature=related

[bklyncowgirl]

54. Some "Silver Tongued" art dealer must have seen the Shrubster coming a mile away

I mean you look at that picture and you see a guy on horseback racing up a rocky hill with two other guys on his tail. Either they're all fleeing something out of sight or the guy in front is being chased by the guys behnd.

Somehow I don't think Methodist missionaries tore assed on rocky ground like that all that much. For one thing it's hard on the horses and most missionaries are not that well funded to have an endless supply of equine transportation at their disposal. "Damnit Pastor Willingworth, this is the third horse you've had to shoot this month. Would you PLEASE slow down." A guy on horseback with a Bible trudging through the snow would be far more historically accurate--and appropriately spiritual. I suppose the missionary could have been run out of town by outraged sinners--or Baptists--but the simplest explanation is usually the correct one and this is a criminal who is about to be captured--and in the tradition of the West--treated to a necktie party.

I wonder if the art dealer who sold him the picture put the bug in his brain that this was a missionary. Most collectors of western art would see that painting for what it was and buy it because they liked. Maybe the dealer knew who he was dealing with, knew Bush liked religious art and concocted both a title change and a backstory for the painting especially for his wealthy and, let's face it, none too bright client.

Just a theory.

[formercia]

55. Do horses in Paraguay understand faux-Texan?

"I speak French to my ambassadors, English to my accountant, Italian to my mistress, Latin to my God, and German to my horse." Frederick the Great

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

56. My guess is that he knows exactly what it depicts and lies about it. Remember that he

is a Skull & Bones (pirate) thief who is plundering our treasury.