Photo: Glen Wielgus with some of his beautiful paintings at the last Pines Biennial. Glen is the organizer of this year's event."The Democratic-led Congress, more concerned with protecting its political
backside than with safeguarding the privacy of American citizens, left town
early yesterday after caving in to administration demands that it allow warrantless surveillance of the phone calls and e-mails of American citizens, with scant judicial
supervision and no reporting to Congress about how many communications are being intercepted. To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much
credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through
both chambers by an administration that seized the opportunity to write its warrantless wiretapping program into law—or, more precisely, to write it out from under any real legal restrictions."
Here's another photo of the venue for the Pines Biennial Art Show, which will be held this Saturday afternoon. If you can make this event, don't miss it!
The Pines Biennial Art Exhibit will be held this Saturday from 1:30 to 4:30 PM. There will be about two dozen artists and sculptors exhibiting. Dan will have about 2o paintings in the show. The venue is a large double house compound on Seaview walk. Paintings are displayed on the walls of the houses and on the fencing. Sculptures are placed poolside or in open areas on the deck. It's really a spectacular show and the artwork looks great outdoors.
Here's one of Dan's recent paintings based upon photos taken during our adventures in Japan during the two tours that we enjoyed in that wonderful country. Dan will be exhibiting his paintings next week in the highly respected Pines biennial art exhibit. The date is next Saturday, August 11 during the afternoon hours.
The "Yearly Kos" confab is in the blogosphere news currently. For those who don't follow the "liberal blogosphere" that closely, the "Daily Kos" is a liberal blog that has garnered a lot of influence in Democratic Party circles. Howard Dean, the Chairman of the Democratic Party, just gave the keynote address at the Yearly Kos convention, and there has been a lot of buzz about how well Hillary Clinton will do in a presidential candidates debate or forum in front of an audience composed of the liberal Daily Kos bloggers. Last year she was booed when she stated her opposition to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Since then she has deftly modified (or blurred) her position on the war and now she is calling for an immediate partial troop withdrawal. She still has not apologized for her vote authorizing the war. It will be interesting to see how she does today at the debate."I think the difference between today’s left and yesterday’s is partly
explained by the difference between the wars that have energized them. Vietnam
was, as Bob Dole might say, a “Democrat war.” You couldn't’t protest it just by
putting your energies into electing Democrats, and of course you couldn't’t do it
by trying to elect Republicans, who liked the war even more. You had to go to
the left of the Dems, and if you hadn’t happened to have already acquired a
moral/political compass, you might keep going till you ended up at the feet of
Chairman Mao. This war is an all-Republican affair. And this generation, thank
God, is perfectly content to stick with (Democratic Party) Chairman
Howard."
The annual Cherry Grove Art Show was held at the community house last weekend. This event gives local artists a chance to showcase their work and it is usually very well attended. Here's a photo of our friend Michael and his paintings on display at the show.
While this year's event was smaller overall than in years past, there was a spirit of fun and comaraderie throughout the event and at the "Victory Party" held afterward around the Ice Palace pool. Here is a photo of emcee and announcer Sal and the 2007 Cherry Bowl Queen "Serrata Edge"
- a volley by Monica
My disgust with our government grows even further. Now congress is attempting to tank (as in kill, deep six, nullify) healthcare for Children!
The late 1960s was also a time of sexual liberation for many. The song of the period which best captured that sense for me was David Crosby's "Triad" written in 1968. While the "Stonewall Rebellion" of 1969 was a watershed event in the modern gay rights struggle, it would be another nine years before I would come out as a gay man. In 1969 I had a journey ahead of me before I would get to that point. In the meantime I could only listen to songs like "Triad," watch film clips of lovers romping naked at Woodstock, and dream of my own personal sexual liberation.
