Defense Department's $600,000 Fairy Sculpture?

...And the lasers have an (unneeded) redundant backup system that cost ANOTHER $500,000 because they are manufactured in Boehner's district!! Yeah!!! I should have seen that one coming.

DOD is still under obama messiah's watch, who knew! Obama fights terrorists with fairy sculptures :Cheer: ..interesting

It's not really about the fairy riding the toad; it's about officials' unwillingness to scrutinize their commissions. Because the arts' effects are often immeasurable, the government has no frame of reference for how much artistic projects are actually worth. Administrators may be oblivious to overspending, even if the public has no trouble calling a toad a toad.

....

If a sculpture like "Cloud Gate" drives millions of visits each year, it's declared it a success. But how do you measure the impact of an artwork that the same 2,500 people see every day? Higher employee satisfaction ratings? A thousand enthusiastic fans? A hundred? Ten?

The reality is that these criteria don't even enter the official deliberation process. The people administering federal budgets for individual facilities, the advisory groups, the city councils, view their arts allocations as money that must be spent. In commissioning an artwork, they don't have to understand it or like it or expect others to like it, they just have to approve it. The abrupt selection of finalists for the DOD installation speaks to this apathy.

So, as I read this, the money may NOT need to be spent. We can talk about food programs, etc., but I believe we still need to fund art and music.

Where is this building? I saw nothing in the article that gives its location. Is the art work going in front of the building, with the front away from the street? Is the building located in a remote location with a ton of security? Are any of the other final three as expensive as the fairy and the toad? Would it make a difference in our opinions if the other three art items more interesting?

LJ:

I admit it, I am slowing down. I need to catch up on this. Is this Bush' fault? It seems that after over 2 years anything in the government that you complain about has to finally rest in the lap of the Anointed One.

So are we to assume that you are finally complaining about what His government is doing, or are we back to George Bush being at fault for everything?

Nmysys wrote: LJ:

I admit it, I am slowing down. I need to catch up on this. Is this Bush' fault? It seems that after over 2 years anything in the government that you complain about has to finally rest in the lap of the Anointed One.

So are we to assume that you are finally complaining about what His government is doing, or are we back to George Bush being at fault for everything?

Dr Evil and Bush collaborated on a defensive LAASSSEEERR and Obama dressed it up with the PC fairy and the environmental toad.

Nmysys wrote: LJ:

I admit it, I am slowing down. I need to catch up on this. Is this Bush' fault? It seems that after over 2 years anything in the government that you complain about has to finally rest in the lap of the Anointed One.

So are we to assume that you are finally complaining about what His government is doing, or are we back to George Bush being at fault for everything?

When are you going to get it through your thick skull that it has nothing to do with what political party is in power? Everyone in Washington, eating out of the taxpayer-funding public trough, has this mentality. That's the problem.

And since the Defense Department gets pretty much everything it wants, you end up with $500 hammers, $800 toilet seats and $600,000 sculptures.

Think how much body armor and Humvee hardening $600,000 could buy...

That's great but whatever happened to "change we can believe in"?

It's the same ol' same ol' no matter who is in power.

When are you going to get it through your thick skull that it has nothing to do with what political party is in power? Everyone in Washington, eating out of the taxpayer-funding public trough, has this mentality. That's the problem.

Funny, I don't remember saying anything about Bush... Must be your LJ-Derangement-Syndrome flaring up again... You might try upping your meds a little.

LadyJazzer wrote: Funny, I don't remember saying anything about Bush...

For the first time since GW was elected....

:thumbsup:

Glad to see you're finally moving on.