|
|
||
Date published: 2/10/2002
IS THE BUSH administration If so, it began last week when Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the semi-nude statue of the Spirit of Justice covered with drapes that, according to an Associated Press story, cost American taxpayers some $8,000. Miss Spirit is a 10- to 12-foot statue that was sculpted in the 1930s and sits in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice. She wears a toga and sits with a single breast exposed. Ashcroft reportedly complained because he is often videotaped with the statue in the background and demanded that it be covered. I guess he figures the sight of an exposed breast on a background piece of art will shock the American public. To tell you the truth, I've seen worse sights at an office party. In fact, there is a much more lewd picture in the front of my Bible, one of Adam and Eve where the mother of humanity is shown with both breasts exposed. Are breasts that shocking to Ashcroft? After all, I routinely see bare breasts on the History, Learning and Discovery channels during prime time. And the same cable systems that deliver C-SPAN also bring HBO and Cinemax into American homes. If the attorney general has an aversion to bare breasts, he had better not flip on some of those channels after 11 p.m. I see bare-breasted statues on the Travel Channel all the time as tourists visit historic cities such as Rome and Athens. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art is loaded with bare-breasted paintings. There is a painting of Venus with a single breast exposed in my 1960 World Book Encyclopedia, a reference volume that was printed back before sex was invented. In fact, that same edition calls Venus de Milo "a magnificent Greek statue." Politicians of the past may have whacked off her arms, but they never fooled with Venus' breasts. I have racked my brain trying to figure out why the Bush administration is so worried about a statue with a single breast exposed. After all, there are plenty of statues of cows down in Texas whose udders and teats are showing.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
