Art or Exploitation?

I know I'm having a strange day when I think something, and then read almost the exact thought printed in Peter Bronson's column. So today is a strange day.

Bronson was at the media preview of "Bodies . . . The Exhibition" at the Museum Center. He discusses it today. Included in his column was this:

I looked at another corpse throwing a baseball and wondered how it was so
different from the so-called "artist" photographer who was caught posing corpses
with keys and dolls in the lurid Hamilton County morgue case. They called that
desecration of a corpse. We call this educational.

How is the Museum Center exhibit any different? Diplaying posed bodies in the absence of the consent of the deceased (pre-death) or a family member (post-death) should not be cause for celebration in a civilized society.

If that creepy photographer Thomas Condon had put an exhibit of his morgue photographs together, I wouldn't have gone to see it. I doubt I'll be heading to the Museum Center to see "Bodies," either.

[Post edited by author to remove language suggesting the exhibition shouldn't be "tolerated" by our society.]

Waterboarding Would "Feel" Like Torture If You Did It To Me

So says the Attorney General of the United States today in response to a question by Senator Kennedy. But the Attorney General of the United States cannot admit that an "enhanced interrogation technique" that has been deemed "torture" by this country for most of its history and by almost all of the civilized world is, in fact, torture. Why is that? Because to admit this will be to admit a very dark truth ---- that over the past six year, despite its Constitutions, despite its rich anti-torture history, despite its laws, and despite its historic acceptance of the Geneva Conventions and other treaties banning torture, the United States has become a nation engaged in torture. Perhaps President Bush should have explained that to us in his final (Thank God!) State of the Union address as he weakly attempted to articulate a legacy out of an utterly failed presidency.

Perhaps someone should ask the Attorney General or the President whether we should any longer find torture shameful. As John McCain, the now presumptive Republican nominee for President, said back in October, "They should know what it (waterboarding) is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture. . . . . All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today."

Patricia Corbett, arts patron, dies.

Patricia Corbett, who together with her husband J. Ralph Corbett, supported arts organizations from CCM, to the Cincinnati Ballet, Music Hall, and countless others, died today in her sleep. She will be missed, but I'm sure her influence will be felt for years to come.

Archbishop Divides 'Bodies' In Half

The Cincinnati Archbishop deemed the 'Bodies' exhibit at the Museum Center "unseemly and inappropriate" and has decreed that local Catholic Schools should not organize field trips to the exhibit. What makes no sense is that the Archbishop instead leaves it up to the parents:

If parents, as the primary educators of their children, believe that it has educational value, they should be the ones to take their children to see it.”

So on one hand the local Catholic Church has condemned the exhibit as unseemly, but then they defer ultimate moral judgment to the parents. This is just not logical. If it is OK for Catholic school kids to go the exhibit with their parents permission, why does it matter that the Catholic school doesn't organize the trip? If it is not good to go through school, why would it be OK to go with your parents?

If nothing else, hopefully this will help the exhibit gain more attendance. If they church condemns it, more people are likely to want to go to it.

OK Cincinnati Go

UncleRando breaks down the GoCincinnati into a great summation, one that even a suburbanite could comprehend! Now, if they just understood it.....

New Coffeehouse Near UC

Options for coffee in the Clifton area has increased by one, with the addition of Taza. Has anyone been yet? What's the atmosphere like?

Mush!

There are times in a man's life when he must demonstrate to the world that he is indeed a man. Braving the harsh elements, maintaining self discipline under intense pressure, battling downtown traffic, and dressing up in a humorous (yet tasteful) costume are just a few of the demand tests that lie ahead in the Cinciditarod.

March 1st is the race. Are you man enough to organize your own team? Can you make it to the end of a grueling trek through the streets of Cincinnati? Can you legally obtain your own shopping cart?

If so, sign up by February 21st for the challenge of a life time, or at least for the Month of March.