The Stale Air of Business as Usual
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 24th, 2009 4:40 am by HL
The Stale Air of Business as Usual
It is still early, not even two-thirds of the way through the vaunted 100 days, and we are all admonished not to make judgments or dire predictions. Yet enough has been done so that, without fear history will someday mock me, I can state that Nancy Pelosi is off to one hell of a start. The president, alas, is a different story. The tale of two political figures was written one day last week when Pelosi went down into the well of the House and pitched the bill to heavily tax the bad people at AIG who received big bonuses. Using the tax code to exact punishment for political reasons is both very bad policy and very bad law — why not put gun-shop owners and cigarette manufacturers in the 100 percent bracket? — but it hurtled through Pelosi’s branch of the government with nary a hearing and few discouraging words, and only the mildest suggestion from the president that the bill was really a very dumb idea.
The Sex Workers’ Art Show on Campus
The Sex Workers’ Art Show returned for the fourth time to the College of William and Mary campus in Williamsburg, Va., this week. Described as an “eye-popping evening of visual and performance art created by people who work in the sex industry,” the show has been touring the country (and particularly college campuses) for the past several years. A Duke student publication reports that the show begins with a cast member leading the audience in a chant of “‘naked ladies.’ The remainder of the event featured political statements, musical theater, a mild dominatrix act, the elaborate removal of clothing and an anal sparkler for the grand finale.” The college president wasn’t thrilled about the show, but declined, as he put it, “to be a censor.” Instead of forbidding the performance on campus, W. Taylor Reveley III insisted that audiences as well as those who find the show “offensive and degrading” participate in a forum to discuss issues raised by the show at its conclusion.