What do you think about this?

An interesting article in the Washington Post about an internet meme springing up, which photoshops the image of the cop spraying the protestors at UC Davis into all sorts of famous paintings. See the Tumblr here. The closest similar example I can think of were the various photoshop jobs that added pictures everywhere of Princess Beatrice's hat, or Aretha Franklin's hat at Obama's swearing in.

What do you think? Is it a mistake to turn this episode into a joke? Or is it a clever commentary on the nature of brutality against peaceful protest, and a useful device to shame the cop?

Saw Fiona in a play this weekend

Several members of the family (my parents, my sister and Delia and I) went to see Fiona's performance in a play at Augsburg. The play was Inside Out, and it was a series of monologues written by students at Augsburg about the Asian American experience. The cast had about eighteen students, and Fiona was one of, I think, five white students in the cast. It was great fun. She had one short duet scene, and plenty of action in the background as other student spoke. The play was absorbing, touching, and funny.

And she really shone during the Bollywood dancing. Go, Fiona!

It was the first time she's ever been cast in a play--she had auditioned several times at her high school but never got a part. She wants to try for another play next spring. She's thinking of minoring in Theater--not a major, because she doesn't think that's smart in this economy. But she really enjoys it.

Cool idea

Cash mobs, in support of local businesses.

Fascinating analysis

What George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" has to tell us about the UC Davis pepper spraying incident.

It's hard to belief that this is not a spoof. But it isn't.

I keep thinking that the Republican party's goal seems to lead us proudly back to the 19th century. Here's another example. Link here.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told a crowd on Friday that the solution to income inequality is to fire school janitors, and replace them with children. I am not making this up, and it gets worse. He’s not talking about junior high or high school kids, he’s talking about "9 to 14 year-olds."

He suggests that these nine year-olds replace "union janitors" in poor neighborhoods, and that the kids work under a single "master janitor."

Gingrich's remarks, made during a Q&A at Harvard’s Kennedy School on Friday, are comically offensive on so many levels, it's hard to find words. Here are the direct quotes: from Politico:

“This is something that no liberal wants to deal with,” Gingrich said. “Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them by putting them in schools that fail has done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid.

"You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. You’re totally poor. You’re in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I’ve tried for years to have a very simple model," he said. "Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising."

He added, "You go out and talk to people, as I do, you go out and talk to people who are really successful in one generation. They all started their first job between nine and 14 years of age. They all were either selling newspapers, going door to door, they were doing something, they were washing cars."

"They all learned how to make money at a very early age," he said. "What do we say to poor kids in poor neighborhoods? Don’t do it. Remember all that stuff about don’t get a hamburger flipping job? The worst possible advice you could give to poor children. Get any job that teaches you to show up on Monday. Get any job that teaches you to stay all day even if you are in a fight with your girlfriend. The whole process of making work worthwhile is central."

Tommy Christopher [the blogger where I first found this report] goes on:

There can’t possibly be people with whom this resonates, can there? Even the most rabidly anti-union conservative has to agree that we shouldn’t exploit child labor, even if those children are someone else’s, even if they’re the children of those fat-cat union janitors, right? Surely we can all agree that kids aren’t failing in school because they lack the opportunity to clean toilets.

Words completely fail me here....Child labor laws (Newt called them “child laws;" I hope he was only referring to labor laws) are "stupid?" Poor kids should throw poor adults out of work, and answer to a "master janitor?" He’s not even hiding it, not even a little!

Gingrich’s stance here is about as extreme as it gets, but it is yet another indication that conservatism has morphed into unapologetic regressive-ism.

Simultaneous vid

Amazing video below gives you the infamous UC-Davis incident from four angles at once in real time. Starts with just two angles, then more.