Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

 
[Crosswalk]

(WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of artwork that is offensive.)

Federal taxpayers are subsidizing a college in New York whose art school is currently displaying works that include a drawing of a man with a crucifix coming out of his rectum, a drawing of a man with a rosary coming out of his rectum, and rosaries decorated with penises.

Over the last eight years, at least $4.6 million in federal tax dollars have been provided to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, which is displaying the controversial artworks. Some of the money has come in the form of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Most of the $4.6 million in federal tax dollars that has gone to Cooper Union over the last eight years has been given to the school’s engineering and science programs. But Cybercast News Service has learned that the National Endowment for the Arts has given the school’s art program more than $122,000 during that same period.

The NEA awarded the grants because, in its words, they “(enrich) our Nation and diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country.”

According to the NEA’s Web site, the art school received: 

– $17,000 in 2001, $20,000 in 2002, and $10,000 in 2003 to support and expand a community arts partnership (CAP). This money went to provide pre-college studio art classes to the community “outside of the academic setting.”

– $400 in 2002 for design arts.

– $45,000 in 2006 to support the school’s Saturday Outreach Program, and its Outreach Track. These projects provide high school students with free visual arts education.

– $10,000 in 2004.

The NEA grants did not go directly to fund Cooper Union’s “best of” student art exhibition, which includes the controversial drawings of student Felipe Baeza that depict a man with an erection and a halo over his head; a man with a rosary hanging from his rectum; a man with a crucifix extending from his rectum, and a man with his pants down over an angel holding two rosaries with penises attached to them.

The student art exhibit runs until June 10.

Read more here.

[From me]

I’m not going to play the Christian victim card here.  I just want to know how this is art?  Why in the world would a person go out of their way to insult someone’s faith.  I wouldn’t do this kind of display about any faith.  I don’t get it.

What do you think?

[USA TODAY]

Dana Jacobson, co-host of ESPN2’s First Take, will remain off-air until Monday for comments at a social event she now says were “foolish and insensitive.”

Jacobson spoke at a roast of ESPN’s Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic in Atlantic City Jan. 1. Onstage there, according to The Press of Atlantic City, she was “swilling vodka” and “cursing like a sailor” and made “an absolute fool of herself” as the crowd booed.

That prompted her current one-week suspension. Says ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys: “She’s been disciplined.”

Ironically, the Orlando Sentinel says Jacobson was one of those who defended Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman when she was being criticized for using the word “lynch” in reference to Tiger Woods.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Apparently she dropped a few “F” Bombs about Notre Dame and Jesus. Why is she only getting a one-week suspension when Jimmy the Greek and Rush Limbaugh get fired for just expressing their opinions. Now their opinions were misguided and I don’t agree with them. But they didn’t use profanity. They didn’t say things about someone’s religion. Why weren’t they suspended for only one-week? No, they were fired. There is a double standard.

Jacobson offended the Catholic church for sure. But as a Protestant Christian I’m offended too. I’ll bet she would have been fired had she said the same about Muhammad, Buddha or made a racial slur.  Should she be fired?  I don’t know.  I would rather give her a second chance.

But, where is the consistency?

What do you think?

[HT] bryan allain

[Christian Post]

It’s not Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It’s not even Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot or Adolph Hitler. No, according to Keith Olbermann — that blinkered liberal extremist who plays a newsman on TV — Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), is “the worst person in the world.”

While discussing abstinence education during a recent interview on the Fox News Channel’s Special Report, Wright accurately pointed out that the most strident devotees of that abysmal failure tagged “comprehensive sex education” are most likely to benefit financially when children and teens become pregnant or contract sexually transmitted diseases.

During the interview, Wright hit the nail squarely on the head, saying, “In fact, they want to encourage [kids to have sex] because they benefit when kids end up having sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies and then they lead them into having abortions. So, you have to look at the financial motives behind those who are promoting comprehensive sex ed.”

And the financial motives are staggering. According to its own annual report, Planned Parenthood — which receives its lion’s share of profit from abortion — performed 264,943 abortions in the 2006 fiscal year, raking in an astronomical $55.8 million in profit … free and clear.

It doesn’t take a Phi Beta Kappa to figure out that Planned Parenthood — one of the foremost cheerleaders of “comprehensive sex ed” — has a vested interest in seeing that young girls become pregnant and have abortions. It’s a classic case of “the fox watching the hen house.” “Comprehensive sex ed” spells money in the bank because it actually encourages kids to have sex. It doesn’t work, and they know it.

Well, Wright’s comments didn’t sit well with the left. Liberal bloggers went nuts, and in a recent episode of MSNBC’s poorly rated “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” the painfully “progressive” talking-head took issue with Wendy for pointing out this clear conflict of interest, crowning her “the worst person in the world.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

I guess if you can’t win an argument with the facts — resort to name calling!

What do you think?

[CBS11TV]

A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion. Christine Lutz says she was reading her Bible to her children when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus. Lutz, a Seventh Day Adventist, and her children were on their way to church.

“She then said, ‘Well I don’t think this is the place or the time to do so.’ And I said, ‘Oh, but it’s the perfect time and the perfect place since it is our Sabbath and it is the time with the Lord and therefore I’m going to continue.’ And I continued,” she explained.

Then, a TRE supervisor came on board. Lutz also told him that she would not stop reading. She and her family were escorted off the bus.

“This was definitely a clear cut case of persecution,” she said.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I wasn’t there so who knows. If she was loud it may have been offensive not because it was the Bible but because she was loud.

What do you think?

[Channel 3000]

Some Janesville parents said that they’re concerned that in this incident, in which a student allegedly tore pages from a Bible, the balance between the two was tipped toward the First Amendment, WISC-TV reported.As many Parker High School students get ready for Christmas break, junior Elle Jacobson is at home and will not be returning like her friends.”I have never felt threatened like that in a classroom before,” said Jacobson.The 17-year-old is talking about an incident in her English class two weeks ago during a class presentation.”This boy got up and his visual aid was a Bible and a book. And he got up and started his speech by saying ‘Now, this piece of crap’ and pointed to the Bible.”Jacobson said that she quickly felt threatened.”He took the Bible and he said, ‘I’m going to do this because I can. I’m going to do something that your stupid, little minds aren’t going to be able to comprehend and he took the Bible and started ripping out pages.”School officials said that they know about the incident.”We take this extremely seriously,” said Dr. Karen Schulte, Janesville School District safety and security coordinator. Officials said that they will not confirm whether the boy was suspended.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Now I’m sure this incident is protected by the Constitution, but why do it? This was done to get a reaction from the other students. I wouldn’t rip up a Book of Mormon or Koran to anger those who find those books important. Why would someone do something like this. Is it free speech? Yes. Was it wise? No.

What do you think?