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Good Morning!
Cuernos Del Paine, Andes Mtns Chile-- google images
John F. Kennedy-- Remarks At Amherst College, October 26, 1963
The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world.
In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fibre of our national life.
If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.
News
The Road to Amnesia: How to Forget on Memorial Day
If nothing else, the path to American amnesia is worth recalling on this Memorial Day.
Though few here remember it that way, the invasion of Afghanistan was launched on a cult of the dead.
These were the dead civilians from the Twin Towers in New York City. It was to their memory that the only “Wall” of this era -- the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan -- has been built. Theirs are the biographies that are still remembered in annual rites nationwide. They are, and remain, the dead of the Afghan War, even though they died before it began.
Obama Admin "Guides" Hollywood Film About Killing Of OBL
While asking a CIA official to speak to one of the filmmakers, a public affairs officer wrote, "I know this is a little outside what we typically do ... We're trying to keep his visits a bit quiet."
Sources tell CBS News the White House put the movie on the fast track, aggressively looking for ways to help.
Congressmen Urge Obama To Pressure Colombia To Protect Union Leaders
Two other leaders of the union, known as SINTRAEMCALI, received death threats last month signed by The Black Eagles, a far-right militia, inviting them to their own funerals, according to a letter that 10 U.S. congressmen sent to U.S. President Barack Obama last week.
Noting "an intensification of violence against labor activists" in Colombia, the letter urged Obama to ensure the Andean nation keeps its commitments to protect labor leaders under a free trade agreement between the countries that had just taken effect.
Constitutional Rights Attorneys, Media Challenge Secrecy of Manning Court Martial
......the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a petition requesting the Army Court of Criminal Appeals to order the Judge in the court martial of alleged Wikileaks leaker Private Bradley Manning to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date.
In addition, the petition challenges the fact that substantive legal matters in the court martial – including a pretrial publicity order – have been argued and decided in secret.
Slowdown In U.S. Business Investment
Orders for computers, machinery and other capital equipment dropped in April for a second month, pointing to a slowdown in U.S. business investment, another report showed today. Bookings for non-military goods excluding aircraft decreased 1.9 percent after falling 2.2 percent in March, the first back-to-back decline in a year, data from the Commerce Department said.
Canada To Celebrate Aboriginal Day
National Aboriginal Day is celebrated each year on June 21. It is a day that recognizes and celebrates the contributions of Aboriginal people to Canada.
This year the concert takes place on Saturday, June 23 at The Forks in Winnipeg and a second, smaller concert will take place in Regina at the First Nations University of Canada, simultaneously.
The Forks, with a 6,000-year history, is a traditional gathering place of the Ojibwa and Dakota peoples of the region. It is also where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet, and now where Winnipeggers gather for outdoor concerts, shopping and eating at several restaurants in the marketplace.
Obama Vastly Outspends Romney In Online Ads
Already in the 2012 election cycle, the Obama For America team, headquartered in Chicago, has spent $19m on online advertising – more than the entire amount spent by Obama in this area in 2008. The interactive marketing news site ClickZ calculates that at current rates OFA will spend $35m on digital advertising by November, though that could prove to be an underestimate.
Obama Ushers in Era of Unprecedented Arctic Drilling
President Barack Obama, who once elevated the hopes of many US environmentalists by promising to be a 'transformative' president -- one whose term, as he said, would mark "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal" -- may yet be the president remembered for passing on a potentially historic opportunity to end, or at least curb, the practice of dangerous offshore drilling.
Climate Of Repression During NATO Summit
This is the fear that activists had. As Hermes reports, police and the FBI went around to homes of known organizers. They swarmed these homes with squad cars. They showed pictures of people and were asking questions about the protests. In addition to what Hermes shares, there were other reports of real estate managers apparently being visited. They were being told this space was on a list of “suspected anarchist spaces,” as if it was a crime to be an anarchist.
Police targeted “specific activists” with snatch and grabs. Mark Neiweem (one of two activists who was charged with terrorism-related crimes a day after the NATO 3 were charged on Saturday), was, according to Hermes, “picked off the street coming out of a restaurant at Halsted & Maxwell. During the May 20 march, smiley face stickers were being put on people whom officers thought were suspicious and might deserve to be arrested if necessary.
31st Night Of Protest In Montreal
On Wednesday night, more than 500 people were arrested after a peaceful downtown march degenerated into a tense standoff with riot police at the corner of Sherbrooke Street West and St-Denis Street.
In Quebec City, 176 protesters were arrested under Bill 78's new provisions.
Quebec's Liberal government has pledged toresume talks with student groups to resolve the three-month old tuition talks.
This Is State-Sponsored Persecution of a Protected Species.....
But his latest act suggests something even worse: that he is using his department's budget to subsidise the class and culture to which he belongs, at the expense of both taxpayers and birds of prey.
Pheasants, which are an exotic species in the UK, are bred here in large numbers to be shot, generally by and for some of the richest people in the country. They are reared in pens, then released into the countryside. People then pay a fortune to line up in a field, armed with shotguns, while an army of beaters works its way through the woods towards them, driving the pheasants into the air and over their heads. This activity is classified as "sport".
Newborn Cheetah Cubs Being Hand Raised at National Zoo
Two month-old cheetah cubs are the latest addition to the Smithsonian National Zoo. The cubs arrived at the zoo on May 18 after narrowly avoiding death. Their mother, 5-year-old Ally, gave birth to the first cub, but then abandoned him. A team of veterinarians at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., were forced to perform an emergency cesarean section to rescue the additional three cubs in her litter. After hours of CPR and treatment, one of the three cubs survived. Now, the two surviving cubs must be bottle fed by zoo keepers every few hours, according to the Smithsonian, and will receive care around the clock to nurse them to health. The siblings will make their public debut this summer
Blog Posts Of Interest
The Evening Blues - 5-24-12 on DailyKos by joe shikspack
On the Bridge With OLB Banners Flags a Marching Band They've Got Money We've Got Us Daily Kos by noise of rain