Botero

Anyone who lives near Washington should check out the new Botero exhibition, which is commented on by Erica Jong in today's Washington Post:

"...American torture is different from other tortures because of the high opinion we have of our country and ourselves. Torture is something others do. We are above that. We are reasonable people governed by a great Enlightenment document we call The Constitution. We help, not hurt people all over the world. It is the incongruity of our image of ourselves versus the reality of our behavior that stings most."

That's really a joke, isn't it? The high opinion we have of ourselves. This is the same nonsense peddled by neocons and their theory of "american exceptionalism." What crap. Here's a link to some of the paintings, and a blogger's report from a showing of the paintings at Bezerkley.

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On a totally different note, Steve Perry over at the Daily Mole (serving the Twin Cities for the past 75 hours) notes the Strib is at it again, covering for governor pepsodent on the I-35 bridge collapse.