Taking on Goliath…again

A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo’s David raises questions about freedom of expression

[The Galleria dell’Accademia’s director, Cecilie Hollberg] is a bit of a David herself against the Goliath of unfettered capitalism with its army of street vendors and souvenir shop operators hawking aprons of the statue’s nude figure, T-shirts of it engaged in obscene gestures, and ubiquitous figurines, often in Pop Art neon.

But wait! What about Andy Warhol? an art dealer in New York wants to know.

Maybe Warhol is…fettered capitalism?

It's complicated.

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

“The Wounded Surgeon” East Coker (IV) 

T. S. Eliot 

The wounded surgeon plies the steel That questions the distempered part; Beneath the bleeding hands we feel The sharp compassion of the healer's art Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease If we obey the dying nurse Whose constant care is not to please But to remind of our, and Adam's curse, And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital Endowed by the ruined millionaire, Wherein, if we do well, we shall Die of the absolute paternal care That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees, The fever sings in mental wires. If to be warmed, then I must freeze And quake in frigid purgatorial fires Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink, The bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood— Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

Anyway, it's only money

South Carolina has $1.8 billion but doesn’t know where the money came from or where it should go

Loftis has said he invested the money in the mystery account and made nearly $200 million in interest for the state, which led to questions about why he didn’t let the General Assembly know money they either set aside for state agencies or that might have been in a trust fund was just sitting around.

Loftis said that wasn’t the job of his office.

Loftis — Curtis Loftis, to be specific — is the state treasurer. 

OK. Stop right there.

The TikTok bill isn’t just about TikTok

There’s also an exemption for websites and apps “whose primary purpose is to allow users to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.” While that might sound like it applies only to apps like Yelp and Tripadvisor, aides for several lawmakers acknowledged they aren’t sure exactly what the exemption’s true intent is or why it’s in the bill.

[Emphasis mine.]

Really?

“There’s obviously something afoot,” [said] Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). “You don’t airdrop a paragraph into a piece of legislation exempting one category of business that has nothing to do with the thing that you’re supposedly banning, so for me it raises a flag. I don’t know who the exemption is for.”…

“The rush to pass this bill that could potentially censor the speech of 170 million Americans and that have favorable exclusions for certain companies highlights Congress’s lack of seriousness on tech policy,” [said] Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

But the bill did pass in the house, and goes to the Senate now.

Is it too much to ask that Congress quits screwing around?

How to get a girlfriend, and other notes

Germany braces for Russian influence operations

"The digital world is a dream come true for intelligence services."

Meanwhile in several EU countries 16 year olds will be voting this year. Social media influencers have been quick to jump onboard. 

"Real men are right-wing, real men have ideals, real men are patriots," he says in a video that so far has garnered over 1 million views. "Then you'll get a girlfriend," claims one on TikTok.

Who is the scariest of them all?

Trump evokes more anger and fear from Democrats than Biden does from Republicans, AP-NORC poll shows

Seven in 10 Democrats say the words “angry” or “fearful” would describe their emotions “extremely well” or “very well” upon a Trump victory. A smaller majority of Republicans – 56% – say the same about a Biden triumph. About 6 in 10 Democrats cite both emotions when contemplating a Trump victory. Again, that exceeds the roughly 4 out of 10 Republicans who said they would feel both angry and scared about Biden prevailing.

But Republicans are "more excited," this poll says.

We seem to be aimlessly drifting deeper into what is easily the most depressing Presidential election in my voting lifetime, and it's been quite a long one. 

The multitude groaned with horror

It was a fictional 6th Century solar eclipse that rescued the Connecticut Yankee from a rather dire predicament in Mark Twain's novel of that name.

It got to be pitch dark, at last, and the multitude groaned with horror to feel the cold uncanny night breezes fan through the place and see the stars come out and twinkle in the sky. At last the eclipse was total, and I was very glad of it, but everybody else was in misery; which was quite natural.

But this (real) 21st Century repetition has become the biggest tourist event since the Super Bowl, according to this piece in the Washington Post:

Eclipse viewing parties are everywhere, from alpaca farms in Texas to ski slopes in Vermont

And make it quick

Ready, Set, Garçon! Paris Waiters Race as Storied Contest Returns

“When foreigners come to Paris, they don’t just come for the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower,” said Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, the deputy mayor in charge of commerce. “They also come to eat in our cafes, at the Bouillon Chartier, the Brasserie Lipp or the Procope.”

It's a Prime, Prime World

Want to feel special? Stores and restaurants with paid memberships are betting on it

Paid loyalty programs are all the rage in the restaurant and retail worlds. Looking for reliable sales in an unpredictable spending environment, more companies have extended their points-based loyalty tiers to making their most dependable customers feel valued for an up-front fee.

Turns out you're more likely to spend money with a company that charges you a fee to do it.

(Yeah, I know. Me too. But I have an excuse, of course.)

Big Cheese

Steel, cement and — cheese? U.S. spends big to cut these carbon footprints.

It underscores how the administration is racing to get green money out the door before a possible change in control of the White House after the 2024 election.

Before the 2024 election, more like it; but that's just me being a little grumpier than usual this morning. 

The Biden administration has unveiled ambitious climate regulations for power plants and vehicles, two leading sources of U.S. emissions. But it has yet to impose new climate controls on industrial facilities, which could prompt pushback from union workers in states key to Biden’s reelection chances.

Or not.

Either way, this is another example of taxpayers picking up the tab for stuff these big corporations should be doing for themselves. (Another example: Cleaning up the toxic waste industrial plants often leave behind when they disappear — after having been been granted big tax breaks for being there in the first place.)

Kraft, the big cheese in this story, will receive $170.9 million to "decarbonize" 10 of its factories (“It takes a whole lot of heat to dry all that macaroni,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says). Granted, that's not a big bite as government giveaways go, but it's not a big bite, either, for these guys. 

Or steel. Or cement.

New Jersey goes to Philadelphia

Famed battleship USS New Jersey floating down Delaware River to Philadelphia for maintenance

Ryan Szimanski, the battleship’s curator, said moving the ship could be “a once in a generation occurrence.” He described the ship as ”one of the most impressive man-made objects ever,” noting it’s the size of a 90-story office building, can displace 57,500 tons and can move through the water at about 38 mph (61 kph).

Occasionally one fights back

Historic covered bridges are under threat by truck drivers relying on GPS meant for cars

“Every now and then we’ll get a large camper being pulled through and those generally get damaged because the bridge will take air conditioning units right off the top,” he said.

But mostly, the old bridges are taking a real beating. And there seems to be no sure way of protecting them.

“I swear, we could take that bridge out and not replace it and people would go in the river. It’s very frustrating to think that we are that set to what something tells us to do.”