Hi Beth, My graphic for the nekkid blogger's ring has stopped opening up. after checking other member sites I see I'm not the only one. do you know whats up with that?

Hmmm. It only happens to me when I access my site from behind the gov't firewall at work (yes, I'm allowed to do that people, chill) and I assume for me it's either a port filter at work or a timeout issue. Now, I dunno. Hmmmmm. At my location, we have software on the servers that block access to foreign sites. The graphic is actually hosted by Cheeky Squirrel, who is in the UK, but I can get to sites there, in fact I have to, for work. Might be however, that Cheeky's ISP is on a banned list because of spamming problems or some sort. I know I get a lot of mail bounced by my ISP from AOL as an example. Which is annoying, as my father is on AOL. Roadrunner is unmoved. Their suggestion is that he dump AOL. RR has come customer service issues... 8^)

I'm behind a gov firewall too but I can't see it from my home system either. does anyone have the code for the non-graphic display?

Two points:

It's only 15 million bucks. (Only? Yeah, the budget's over a trillion. there's a million millions in a trillion, after all.)

It's not the NEA of the late 80s and 90s. The modern NEA doesn't fund "pisschrist"s and Mapplethorpes.

Just like the Moral Majority doesn't have any power to speak of anymore and should not, in a rational analysis be the lighting-rod it is on the Left, so the NEA shouldn't be that horrible to the Right anymore.

(I think the Government really oughtn't fund Culture at all, really, but if it is, it's better now than it was before, and the total amount of money simply isn't significant as a point of conflict.)

Yeah, but 15 million here, 15 million there, it all adds up pretty quick to a hefty deficit.
Mind, now I'm all for deficit spending when we are at war and in a recession, but ... we should not be expanding that kind of program. That's what rich endowments are for.

Bush is actually just playing a game of Civilization II on his G5 at home. A little 'fist' icon appeared on one of his cities so he had to make artists to make people happy so they keep building stuff. Also, it must be pretty late in the game because he's starting the "space race" now. In 20 years we'll be in Alpha Centauri!!

Whoops, actually, the game ends in 2020, so Bush only has 16 turns to get there!

The lefties hate it when you throw pisschrist and Mapplethorpe in their faces ... heh ...

My feeling is, if you want to make "art" that millions of people find blasphemous, at least have the decency to GET A DAMN JOB and buy the film and Crucifix and beaker (and urine?) with your own money, and told ask taxpayers to support your filthy little hobby ...