Friday, September 23, 2005

This Week's
Backside Of The Bell Curve
Winner!

Opus Dei's
US Supreme Court InJustice

Antonin
"It's not art unless I, Fat Tony, say it's art"
Scalia



Scalia tells Juilliard audience govt can choose the artwork when it's funding it

By PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writer

September 22, 2005, 10:59 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- The government is privileged to choose what artwork is worthwhile without being accused of censorship as long as it is funding the art, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Thursday.

"The First Amendment has not repealed the ancient rule of life, that he who pays the piper calls the tune," Scalia said at a symposium entitled "American Society and the Arts," hosted by the Juilliard School.

Scalia discussed and fielded questions about only the arts. He said he was not suggesting that the government not fund the arts but that if it does, just like when it runs a school system, it gets to pick the contents. --snip--

"I can truly understand the discomfort with government making artistic choices, but the only remedy is to get government out of funding," he told the audience. LINK

Here's an idea, Tony: Substitute the word "religious" for the word "artistic" in that last paragraph.

Don't like that idea, do you, Tony?

Guess what, Tony. You're not the government.

I am.

Along with every other taxpayer.

We're the government, you sanctimonious asshole.

We pay your salary.

That's why this is "art"...




And this is art...



And this is art...



And this is art...




Who the hell do you think you are, Tony?

The art police?

I know that you and your Opus Dei, self-flagellating buddies (like Bob Novak) would prefer each American taxpayer's annual 64 cent support of the arts be diverted to the faith-based crapfestalooza of your choice, but damn!

You told the students at Juilliard that the antiquated patronage system is good enough for 21st Century America.

That means you must condone the sexual submission and indentured slavery status so many young artists suffered for "patronage" in order to produce those In Excelsis Deo works of "art" you admire.

Hey, Tony! Take your black robed, grand inquisitor crap and shove it up your Mapplethorpe!


File this under:


posted by delilahboyd at 7:17 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger Simon said...

Uh...I think what Scalia was saying was not that government should regulate art, but that if government is going to give grants to artists, it has as much discretion over to whom to give money as a private foundation has. And therefore, as I read the quotes, he was actually arguing that government should get out of funding art for precisely the reason that if it does fund art, it inevitably ends up choosing which art it does and does not want to fund.

In any instance, this will perhaps become clearer when Juilliard release a transcript, which their communications office (communications at juilliard dot edu) tell me will happen shortly. All news reporting, practically by definition, must be selective with what it quotes, and - often inadvertently - this sometimes leads to remarks being taken out of context. Of course, this is also true of a full transcript; if one watches a speech by Justice Breyer and then reads a transcript, the speech could be very reasonable and intelligent, but a word-for-word transcript tends to make him look like a blithering idiot, because he minces and ums, errs and ahs a lot, and breaks off halfway through sentences. It makes perfect sense as a speech, but not as a transcript. But in any event, a full transcript still offers more context than selective quotes.

5:55 PM  

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