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147 comments:
Silly and typical.
Because nothing says Christmas like the face of an atheist mass murderer.
So it's been confirmed? When I first saw this story, I thought it too absurd to be believed.
Maybe they played "dirty Santa" or "ornament swap," and that's what the Obama's were left with after it was over. You know, it was all gag ornaments.
So you figure the Mao ornament was from Anita Dunn? Or is this revenge from some interlopers at Fox News?
When I start hearing references to ObamaCare and cap-and-trade as the Great Leap Forward, it is time for me to move to Australia. Even the Chinese know better than to repeat 50-70 year old economic policy disasters.
My backyard blast furnace should arrive any day. Hopefully before I'm shipped off to a reeducation camp
I wish you'd have offered an option: As if anyone's surprised? I had to choose "I'm shocked" by default.
And Althouse an art major -- Who's more American than Andy Warhol?
http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Modern/pages/MOD_9.shtml
Anyhow, according to Michelle Obama, they sent old WH Christmas ornaments to thousands of people to decorate. These are the people's ornaments in the people's house.
What do you expect from Simon Doonan? The man lives to start controversy. One might ask him to grow up.
The question should be: Why was he chosen to do the decorating in the first place? Who chose him, and why does the chooser consider him an artist?
That said, I always chuckle over the name Hedda Lettuce.
it is time for me to move to Australia
For the tax-supported universal health care? If you hurry you'll be there just in time for Sorry Day, the annual ritual apology offered by whites to the aborigines.
Australia is more lefty than you can imagine. Pump shotguns are banned as assault rifles.
The question should be: Why was he chosen to do the decorating in the first place?
That's the question I have. Given his past work, hiring him to do the White House Christmas decorations seemed ill-advised.
This is what passes for conservative investigative journalism these days. Too funny.
Having watched the Oprah special, I'm scratching my head over the choice of "religious displays." I saw several trees, and a bunch of garland and ribbon, as well as three hundred pounds of white chocolate and gingerbread, but nothing giving a hint to the Reason for the season.
I chose it's pointless and distracting. Sometimes ornaments are just ornaments. I've always felt that we shouldn't criticize free expression, which this seems to be. That doesn't mean we should not form opinions. Better to thank those freely expressing themselves for their fine job of self-identification.
res ipsa loquitur and all that jazz.
What is shows is the Obama crew either just don't care or are completely incompetent. Or both.
Mao is not cool. Che is not cool. These were very bad individuals. Just as bad, in their own ways, as Hitler and Stalin. Stop pretending they are some sort of rebel heroes, they are not.
I always suspected Obama had the balls of a tranny.
"These are the people's ornaments in the people's house in the People's Republic."
FTFY.
Does nobody in this administration have a pinky's worth of taste?
Of course, the last time I saw Simon Doonan he was advising the idiots on ANTM, so what can you expect from him. But somebody that works in the white house ought to have a teensy bit of taste, class, sense of what's appropriate. You've got to work pretty hard to screw up a christmas tree.
It's good to see:
WHITE HOUSE HONORS JOLLY FAT MAN
http://naturalfake.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/white-house-honors-jolly-fat-man/
No, not Santa, you bourgeois backslider!
With Mao they have the "Great Leap Forward."
Where's Tiger Woods: the "Great Leap Whoreward?"
No, wait. That would be piling on. They already have Congress.
Echo Bob. Once again a little "situation" happens and I'm sure someone in the Obama entourage, if not the President himself, says
"What!? What's wrong with that?"
This actually makes that crazy FBI agent who said the Clintons decorated their Christamas tree with crackpipes and cokespoons slightly more credible. Slightly.
Freeman, for someone who has written one of the single most powerful and insightful posts possible on our present condition ("He Is Not Coming") I am surprised that you are surprised. Surprised that the same people who would hire a self-admitted Communist like Van Jones as "Green Czar" would hire a decorator that thought Mao made for a "cool yule?"
Surprised? Surprised that the man who utilized Nazi/Stalinist-style artwork for his "cult-of-personality" Presidential campaign would think nothing of allowing a likeness of himself on a Christmas tree as part of a holiday decoration celebrating the birth of Christ? Surprised?
This is par for the course kid. Too absurd? Surely you jest....
re: Your Response, 'Stupid' option lacking.
This year, finally, Christmas is going DOWN.
This is a White House that doesn't know the meaning of the word "inappropriate."
She's not a transvestite. Eddie Izzard is a transvestite. She's a drag queen.
Althouse-approved-assortment of images for White House Christmas ornaments:
http://store.nrm.org/browse.cfm/2,56.html
Point Of Order
While Eddie still talks about being a transvestite, he's pretty much dropped the clothing that goes along with it. When I saw him last year at the Orphium in St Louis, he was sans makeup with jeans, a regular collared shirt, and a leather jacket.
I've got tickets to see him again in St Louis (at the much better Fox Theater, thankfully) in January.
Regardless, Izzard's brand of high-brow humor is one of the best in the world. Plenty for regular comedy fans, but LOTS for fanboys.
No class. Liberals never have any class. They always turn out to be garbage.
Propose a special White House anthem based on the Russian (Soviet?) I Need an Enema!
WV: crepa - French for, well, you can guess.
I checked - "UP YOURS fellow Americans."
Obama ... what a sorry, weak little man.
"She's not a transvestite. Eddie Izzard is a transvestite. She's a drag queen."
"She" is not a "she" at all. Genetic realities aren't simply what we decide them to be.
So I wonder how much the hipster "diversity tree" cost us? It's very New York. When the idle rich become bored with luxury and beauty, they embrace trash and degradation. Transgression is the final excitement for a society that has exhausted its goodness and its purpose. That anyone of the peasantry should object doesn't occur to the rich and powerful and empty.
Since Woody Guthrie wrote the theme song, the marxists have been chanting that "This land is your land, this land is my land". The idea of private ownership which we fought for for 225 years to maintain has now been revoked by 60 bought and paid for votes in the Senate and a Kenyan-American President. Let them have a celebration in the White House to proclaims that victory. Then let's elect a new Senate and a new president.
I don't think it's *shocking* so much as that it displays poor judgment on the person who decorated the tree and poor judgment on whomever hired this person, and that person, and the next person.
The paper mache ornaments are cool and hip but...
Mao?
Really, this is a controversy? Please, let's worry about something that deserves our worry.
Who cares, except whacked out righties who need another excuse to crucify Obama.
Vicki from Pasadena
How about an option for "Typically low class and lefty - The Obamas all the way (she more than him)"
In the News Beyond Breitbart, one of the recycled ornaments was sent to a gay community center, where Hedda Lettuce decorated it with her(?) own image. She was reportedly proud to have one of her balls hanging in the White House.
I see the Althousians deplore freedom of experssion, and expect there to be a White House censor to weed out anything they don't care for. Like last year when Laura Bush nixed artist Deborah Lawrence's subtle "Impeach Bush" ornament.
I was going to vote for "hip and cool," but I then realized that hip and cool is still considered a good thing. With the apotheosis of cool in Mr. O, I have come to hate it.
Madison, this guy was picked to decorate precisely because of who he is: hip and cool and sexual and anti-this and anti-that.
America--the whole idea is sooo ironic.
good point fls. Let's get a charlie Manson one on there. Cederford, send them a hitler one. How about one for each of the skyjackers on 9/11? Where is your line on freedom of expression?
Where is your line on freedom of expression?
Broad enough to include self-portraits, collages of US Presidents, and images produced by famous American artists.
@FLS re Jeff
Jeff makes an excellent point. Why not put an upside-down crucifix on there. Better yet, how about an upside-down crucifix dipped into a container of yellowish liquid with it's own little light to plug into the strand?
There's a difference between freedom of expression and sheer stupidity with public money/equipment/facilities.
I could care less about most of those ornaments, but Mao? Is there some chapter of Zinn in which the truth about Mao is revealed? Where he's a benevolent non-violent, non-oppressive Ghandi-type that we just didn't learn about in school? Someone call Matt Damon quick and get this in his upcoming movie.
Come on, FLS, even for you that's glib. A collage of presidents, as you put it, wouldn't be designed to invoke an emotional response like Obama's grill overlaid on the EXISTING Rushmore.
I love it. "Waaaaaaaahhhhhh, it's not republican, conservative, white trash, baby jesus, or nascar!" Yea, Obama and a gay man ruined Christmas, children. God forbid this country to actually allow this to happen. We must act, now! To the tea bagging stations!
What, they couldn't find the Stalin and Lenin ornaments?
nascar
OMG, yes!
Let's make one of these a gift from the Althouse commentariat to the White House. We could use Althouse's Paypal link, if she agrees:
http://www.collectiblestoday.com/ct/product/prdid-1500424001.jsp?_Christmas+Decorations/_prod/_113/_/_/_/_&endeca=true&abbr=chris
These are the people's ornaments in the people's house.
Doesn't it seem odd that somehow only lefties are "the people?" I guess that makes the rest of us "unpersons." Our views are not welcome on The People's Tree.
I love it. "Waaaaaaaahhhhhh, it's not republican, conservative, white trash, baby jesus, or nascar!"
Slow down, did you see the tree? That was trashy as you can get.
(leaving the rest of it aside, because the white house is totally usually decorated with nascar, and of course, representations of baby jesus would be COMPLETELY CRAZY for a holiday which ostensibly celebrates his birth (leaving aside the whole mithra thing).)
Did you ever see the video of the old KGB guy Bezmenov on the demoralization of America?
I wonder what he would think of Obama.
The Long March
I know you’re making fun, fls, but did you see that that ornament has a car moving around the track as it hangs? That’s kind of awesome.
Doesn't it seem odd that somehow only lefties are "the people?"
No one seems to have submitted any Milton Freidman ornaments, did they? I bet if they had, the Obama's would have just hung them on the tree with the rest. Heh.
Obama may not be forthright and forceful about issues such as DADT or gay marriage, but he is willing to take a stand on transgressive Christmas ornaments. The gay community will rally behind Obama on this important issue and forgive him for his lapses in those other areas. Peoople without nuance would say that the gay community is stupid and easily manipulated.
@Shanna
No one seems to have submitted any Milton Freidman ornaments, did they? I bet if they had, the Obama's would have just hung them on the tree with the rest. Heh.
Your right. Just like he just left that ol' bust of Churchill in the office instead of unceremoniously dumping it on the British consulate.
I look forward to seeing President Palin's kitschy, ironic ornaments, with one showing her face on the Statue of Liberty, and another a Warhol-style portrait of Adolf Hitler.
That ought to get a warm-hearted chuckle from the likes of FLS and Garage.
What tacky ornaments. Does the tree also have chains made of construction paper?
Just like he just left that ol' bust of Churchill in the office instead of unceremoniously dumping it on the British consulate.
Oh yeah. Talk about tacky.
Weren’t people trying to sell the Obama’s as sophisticated? I’m just not seeing it.
1) Zero class, zero cool. But not remotely shocking.
2) Some people in this comment thread need to go back to Free Speech 101. Criticizing someone else's (stupid) speech isn't anti-free-speech, it's a manifestation of free speech.
Eh, just another case of ten pounds of cool in a five-pound bag. Nothing more.
It's a fitting expression of the President's contempt for the things Americans hold dea, but the birth of Christ isn't made any less meaningful because of this man's lack of taste. It wouldn't be more meaningful if he honored the traditions, either. He's just one small vacuous man, and it's just an accident of history that his tree would be the subject of conversation anywhere outside his comfortably smug circle of Hyde Park leftist intellectuals.
Just like he just left that ol' bust of Churchill in the office instead of unceremoniously dumping it on the British consulate.
Returning the bust of Churchill was just one more loose end W. left for his successor to take care of. The bust was lent to W. for his term in office, as a personal favor from Tony Blair. W. simply neglected to return it.
And just when it seemed that there would be no big controversy this Christmas.
Why, it's a miracle. A Christmas Controversy miracle.
Just imagine the giant cloud of smug over their heads as they designed the ornaments.
Our views are not welcome on The People's Tree.
Damn that Breitbart. Why didn't he take pictures of the other 2000 ornaments, instead of just those three vaguely offensive ones?
@FLS
Returning the bust of Churchill was just one more loose end W. left for his successor to take care of. The bust was lent to W. for his term in office, as a personal favor from Tony Blair. W. simply neglected to return it.
lol, doesn't that response belong in the Gitmo thread?
In any case, you can choose to believe that it was innocuous if you want, but taken in toto with the rest of Obama's treatment of the British and it becomes a bit more troubling. Reading a great deal of Brit journalism as I do, both right and left, the sense of head-scratching bewilderment is widespread in the UK.
This is another version of The Zero saying, "I won", and spitting in the eye of the American people.
I know a President can be impeached, but how about recalled?
(I know, it was in the draft in Franklin's pocket)
Talk about cheesy, one year my grandparents unboxed an old straight-up aluminum tree. It had a floor lamp that had a rotating disc of colored filters. Blue→ purple→ red→ orange→ yellow→ green→ blue. Completely mesmerizing. I only saw that tree once, but once was quite enough.
You don't seem to care to understand or make room for the mind of an artist, par la nature une trace au delà de normale.
Red = Mao, Mao = art (Warhol), art = outré.
That is all. Leftist expression is secondary to any of that. Please do be outraged, it's what artists live for. To produce things that fail to unsettle runs counter to artistic instinct. It reduces art to decoration and that will not do.
A friend of mine, an artist, decorated his tree entirely in purple green and gold garlands acquired from Mardi Gras. Of course he exposed himself energetically to acquire those garlands in such quantity, as opposite the notion of Christmas as imaginable but a continuous reminder of apparently very fond memories. Extremely cheesy, but he was well chuffed with the result.
(something happened with that post up there copy/paste didn't work right)
Who gives a fuck about a drag queen?
Fucking Mao Tse Tung!
Maybe it's a Kwanzaa thing, and crackers just don't understand.
Victoria said...
Who cares, except whacked out righties who need another excuse to crucify Obama.
The crucifixion is (obviously) planned for Easter. Please, try to keep your holidays straight.
The Salahis did it.
We need a poll selection for "tasteless and typically clueless."
PatCA, Yuri Bezmenov, yes I have. He has a whole set of videos on YouTube. I was impressed with his opinion the aparaticks would never have dreamed we'd socialize so rapidly as our own Left has brought us without them.
Hopefully we'll do socialism better than they have done, or at length relearn the lessons they already learned.
Crackers! Saltines would make great decorations.
I feel a Photoshop session coming on.
Indicative of the last free election. From now on it's the dupes vs. the government.
And before the righteous jump up to object to the communist takeover, when was the last time Congress ruled against the people.
I checked "shocking" not because I think it's such a big deal, but because it's shocking that no one in the chain of custody of that Mao ornament stopped to think, "Hmm, some muckraker is going to make a big deal out of this. Let's put this one back in the box."
I have no illusion that Obama is a Mao-lover. I suspect, however, that Obama might be ignorant of Mao's history prior to 1972. His view of Mao might be limited to, "He met with Nixon and this made the world a better place because he had the courage to extend an open hand instead of a fist." Hence, to Obama, Mao's image evokes dreams of peace and fellowship among all countries, the very embodiment of Christmas.
Obama would probably fail a Jeopardy! question like "He is the biggest mass murderer in history."
----
wv: trolvice. Tips 'n' hacks for people who want to screw up comment threads more efficiently.
Obama's treatment of the British
Churchill on the "special relationship" between the US and the UK:
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.”
Its not shocking really but I voted for that, because the other choices weren't exactly appropriate.
I wish there was this option:
I'm not shocked but I'm tired of the Obama administration being divisive for no apparent reason on every petty little thing they can, then blaming me if I call them on it.
Entirely predictable.
I am somewhat surprised there wasn't an Obama-as-baby-Jesus ornament though.
The left's art is about as transgressive as oatmeal. All of its standard pieties are on display, the usual clichés front and center, every trope in line as usual.
If this were 1968 at a grade school Christmas pageant, someone would have been shocked.
More class and cool that anything that Bush did. Please, people, this is controversial? Grow up. Like I said before, we have got more important stuff to worry about.
Vicki from pasadena
"we have got more important stuff to worry about."
Actual socialism in the White House is far worse than praising socialism on a Xmas ball.
What if someone had put one of the Danish Mohammed cartoons on an ornament? I'm guessing The One's minions wouldn't have allowed THAT. There are STANDARDS, after all.
The left's art is about as transgressive as oatmeal. All of its standard pieties are on display, the usual clichés front and center, every trope in line as usual.
One almost feels sorry for the "artists" of today. There really is not so much as an ounce of truth left over from the 60's that remains to be spoken to the slightest particle of power.
They are reduced to a mere sideshow distraction. "Yoo hoo! Over here! Come see my portrait of George Bush with a Hitler mustache and bloody fangs. Haw haw, hope none of you are Secret Service agents here to arrest me... Hey, where are you going, you guys...?"
I will agree that the Joker Obama portrait was well done, but it stands out only by contrast to the absence of any political illustration remotely as interesting in my adult lifetime.
If they're really interested in transgression, let's see some art dealing with the folly of climate-change pork-barrelling that takes food out of the mouths of African babies, or some even more daring follow-ups to the Mohammed cartoons.
The left's art is about as transgressive as oatmeal. All of its standard pieties are on display, the usual clichés front and center, every trope in line as usual.
One almost feels sorry for the "artists" of today. There really is not so much as an ounce of truth left over from the 60's that remains to be spoken to the slightest particle of power.
They are reduced to a mere sideshow distraction. "Yoo hoo! Over here! Come see my portrait of George Bush with a Hitler mustache and bloody fangs. Haw haw, hope none of you are Secret Service agents here to arrest me... Hey, where are you going, you guys...?"
I will agree that the Joker Obama portrait was well done, but it stands out only by contrast to the absence of any political illustration remotely as interesting in my adult lifetime.
If they're really interested in transgression, let's see some art dealing with the folly of climate-change pork-barrelling that takes food out of the mouths of African babies, or some even more daring follow-ups to the Mohammed cartoons.
Improved!
White House Christmas tree.
Now with more ART! Thank you, Allen.
Good one, Chip!
vaguely offensive
One wonders what would be more offensive than a picture of the greatest mass murderer of the 20th century? Of any century (so far)?
Oh, right, a picture of George W. Bush, no doubt.
Chip, if I had half of your talent, I'd be a czar.
I wish I could have put my ObaMao on a ball. Obama and Mao, two bad tastes that taste worse together!
verification word: whowin. Whowin? Obama say "I won"!
CzarS! Hey, maybe another sock in the drawer.
Man the commie jokes just never get old!
Of course, it all beats last Christmas in the White House, where they had the dancing Bocephus doll and the motion-activated talking Sean Hannity ornament, which, once started, wouldn't shut up and kept Barney the Dog up all night.
wv: "blented," which sounds like something one becomes on New Year's Eve.
"Man the commie jokes just never get old!"
No one's joking about it, garage.
Someone is spending too much time in the garage with an engine running.
You guys are seriously fucking weird. A Christmas ornament?
garage, I find you very amusing, but not in a Christmas decoration way.
Echoing Salamandyr, the big deal is it's an ornament of FUCKING GREAT CHAIRMAN MAO! All of you who say "ho hum what's the big deal?" have apparently never heard of the guy, have only a vague sense of who he was ("wasn't he the Emperor of China?"), or are fans.
"Churchill on the "special relationship" between the US and the UK:"
Just as I am forced to use the term "n word" instead of the actual word whereas the likes of Ice Cube et al. get to say the real thing, so Churchill (being half American) gets a pass on any slams against us. Don't identity politics suck? I'll note that even if I could get away with using that word I wouldn't as Althouse has asked that it not be used and it's her place.
T.W.: "viles" I shit you not.
"You guys are seriously fucking weird. A Christmas ornament?"
Do you have transvestites and rainbow flags and portraits of genocidal dictators on your Christmas ornaments?
Of course.
Made in China.
I can't put into words how I feel about this. It's not shock or outrage. Nor is it a sense that any controversy is overblown. It's something like, why in the world would sophisticated people court the kind of trouble such a display will invariably bring?
It's another unforced error. If Obama was a tennis player, all you'd have to do would be stand on the baseline and return the ball until he screws up.
Do you have transvestites and rainbow flags and portraits of genocidal dictators on your Christmas ornaments?
Nope, no Republicans on my tree ;)
FLS said: "I see the Althousians deplore freedom of experssion, and expect there to be a White House censor to weed out anything they don't care for."
You really don't get it, FLS. He is the President. He can put up any damn ornament he wants. We get to draw conclusions about him based on his choices.
Did FLS really say that, David? I am shocked because FLS is better than that. He knows the difference among:
1. Free speech
2. Free opinions about speech
Vulgar people. NOSD.
You've got to work pretty hard to screw up a christmas tree.
Yes, exactly. I mean, c'mon, you're in a bureaucratic installation. Christmas is not edgy. Bureaucracies are not edgy. Just decorate the damn tree like a normal person. Sheesh.
Freeman, for someone who has written one of the single most powerful and insightful posts possible on our present condition ("He Is Not Coming") ...
Wow! Thanks.
We get to draw conclusions about him based on his choices
x x x
He knows the difference among:
1. Free speech
2. Free opinions about speech
Now why didn't 7N explain to David -- and just about everyone else on this thread -- the difference between providing a forum for speech, as the White House did by sending out ornaments to be decorated for its tree, and endorsing speech, which neither Obama nor Mrs. Obama, nor Rahm Emanuel, nor even Bo the dog has done here?
"Man the commie jokes just never get old!"
They would get old if Obama wasn't providing new source material every week.
Just decorate the damn tree like a normal person.
Where is the art in that?
FLS -- Of course the Obami have made endorsements. The choices that you make are endorsements.
Do you really think every ornament that could have been selected was selected? You aren't really suggesting that. Don't be so bad at arguing. Make it harder for me. I relish a challenge.
For those crying "It's free speech," you think an ornament with Hitler would have made the cut? How about one with a picture of the WTC in flames? Not a freaking chance.
But Mao, hey, why not? Communist chic.
I'm not shocked but I'm tired of the Obama administration being divisive for no apparent reason on every petty little thing they can, then blaming me if I call them on it.
Well put.
7N: Do you really think the Obamas reviewed each and every ornament before it went on the tree? Or set up guidelines for the ballhangers to go by?
And I can think of many inoffensive contexts for a Hitler ornament (Our Greatest Generation kicked his ass, after all) or for the WTC in flames (Never Forget!).
We have the context FLS. It's just a portrait of Mao. A portrait of Hitler?
Yeah, FLS, I really think that somebody in the Obama administration reviewed each ornament before it went on the tree. That person is obviously tone deaf and stupid. And that person in a member of the Obama administration, which is tone deaf and stupid overall.
Mao good. Hitler bad. It's not that you kill millions because of who they are, it's merely the style and panache with which you do it.
And how about the hiring of the decorator in the first place? What brand of idiot hires some super edgy guy to do the holiday decorating for a government building? Oh wait, don't tell me.
FLS's argument: the ornaments went onto the tree by themselves.
it's merely the style and panache with which you do it.
I couldn't find a pic of them embracing, but obviously Dick loved Mao and vice versa:
http://www.operatoday.com/content/Mao_Nixon_1976.png
Freeman, for someone who has written one of the single most powerful and insightful posts possible on our present condition ("He Is Not Coming") ...
Wow! Thanks.
Is there a link?
Guess I should read your blog if I want more of your startling insights.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,... it's just a Christmas ornament.
But who even HAS a Mao Christmas ornament? That's the strange thing. How did someone find it?
Here's another bit of self-inflicted damage Obama can look forward to: Next year, the Republicans or an independent committee might decide that with all the socialism Obama's supposedly pushing, they should make a poster sort of merging Obama with Mao.
The left is deeply offended, and even the David Gergens of the world will say, "This time, the Republicans have gone too far."
The riposte: "What's the problem? He had a Christmas ornament with Mao's face on it. How can comparing him to Mao be considered out of bounds. He celebrated the holidays looking at an image of him."
John, this is the post. I don't post very often.
Nixon? Not exactly a member of the conservative pantheon. But anyway, there are plenty of pictures of FDR and Stalin. Where is Uncle Joe's ornament?
Did they walk around the whole tree? Maybe there's a Trotsky ornament.
Decoratin' with pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone, anyhow.
Who cares. The tree was probably decorated by a bunch of college aged interns who thought they were being cool, hip and funny.
What if they sent YOU a ball?
I'm sitting over there >>> envisioning mine.
Do you guys even "get" what Warhol's portrait of Mao does? By all means, go ahead and be offended without contemplating what you're looking at, but I would've thought you righties would be down with this:
"...the image is turned on its head by Warhol’s strategic re-contextualization. In one of his most radical and subversive turns, Warhol re-shaped the visual codes of the all-powerful, all-knowing Mao portrait “freeing it” from its original function of eradicating vestiges of bourgeois consumerism lingering in society. Applications of a bright undercoat of paint and sensual Ab-Ex brushstrokes on top of the silkscreened “aura” made the dictator/Chinese leader look as if he were wearing lipstick and eye shadow: The impact of the macho leader’s propaganda image is made to stand on its head. Through the eyes of the homosexual artist—daringly provocative and subversive for his time—Warhol explores sexual mutability with its implications of self-transcendence transforming the severe high-collared militaristic Chairman into a foppish, middle-aged queen."
I suppose subverting Communist propaganda is only acceptable on the left? I know you guys love putting face paint on democratically elected leaders...
BTW if you want to suggest Obama is a Communist, painting his face like the joker (an Anarchist) is a pretty silly way to do it. Just FYI. Man, you guys are having trouble with your symbolism.
Stephen,
Interpret it all you want. Is there some reason it needs to be on the freakin' White House Christmas tree?
Your interpretation (in this context) would be less risible if the administration showed any interest in subverting Communist propaganda rather than employing it.
Remember the recent fraud story of people being killed in order to harvest their fat. This is sure to turn out to be some kind of hoax. Conservatives sure have a low opinion of the President and his staff if they think he would put a Mao bulb on the White House Christmas tree....I would expect conservatives to fall for it, but how can liberals believe such slander? How can you have such little faith in your President? ...When this prank is revealed everyone is going to look pretty silly but especially the liberals for their spirited defense of decking Xmas trees with Mao bulbs.
Oh Jesus, Stephen! Spare us and my beloved Warhol from the ravages of that turgid, steaming pile of art crit shit! Sounds like someone's undergraduate thesis in Queer Semiotics at Brown University in 1991. Talk about taking all the mystery out of art...
@Blake
No there's no reason it needs to be on the tree. There's also no reason it shouldn't be. It's a rather famous peice of American artwork and not communist propaganda. It's a non-issue.
@Palladian
Sorry, I know it's overwrought. I just couldn't help myself. My breif tenure at Pratt Institute of Taking all the Mystery Out of Art strikes again.
It's a non-issue.
Clearly not.
Andy made one foray into political propaganda art which he regretted for years because he was convinced that because of it he was audited for years afterward.
Warhol's "Mao" was ambiguous yet certainly not commie propaganda. But I don't expect Obama nor his minions have the intellectual nuance to understand that.
@Blake
Allow me to rephrase. It should be a non-issue. But then again, who am I to say? Enjoy your umbrage this holiday season if you must.
@Palladian
I wasn't aware of that particular peice of Warhol history. Interesting.
As for your assertion about Obama and his "minions" it seems I don't have the intellectual nuance to understand what you mean.
Are you saying they should've seen the outrage coming, or are you saying they think Mao's just great and don't understand that defacing a portrait isn't generally considered complimentary?
"Talk about taking all the mystery out of art..."
It was never the same after I hung him on the wall.
Oh, hardly. I'm not surprised at all, and certainly not outraged. There are a lot of people who don't see Mao for the monster that he was. They're ignorant and I think it's clear that that's nothing remarkable.
But it is tone deaf.
Why not a "Happy Days" ornament? I say that because my WV is "Potsy". Heh.
Seriously Mr. President ! There is no excuse for a Mao ornament! You liberals would freak out if someone had sent in a Joe McCarthy ornament.
So, I have to suspect the White House tree has a Rev.Wright ornament next to a Bills Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn ornament.
Blah, blah, Obama is a communist, blah blah, Obama is a socialist. Nothing new under the sun? Nothing more original? Because it is all crap!
Freedom of expression? Ever heard of it? Nothing offensive there, nothing to get your panties in a twist. This does not signal armageddon. Trust me, the faux patriotism and religiousity of the Bush administration is something we are well rid of. Yes, I mean faux.
Sometimes a duck is just a duck, not a representation of something more dastardly. Get over yourselves.
Vicki from Pasadena
@Blake
Tone deaf? I guess...
Evidence of anyone harboring a soft spot for a particular communist dictator out of ignorance? A bridge too far.
As I've said, the portrait is not exactly complimentary. But who knows. Subjectivity and all that.
Anyway, enjoy your umbrage-free holiday. I've got to go put up my Mickey Mao tree topper...
Vicki from Pasadena blows goats every night. She's a racist and her poop is red and gelatinous. She also like George W. Bush and wants to have sex with him. And his dog. At the same time.
Just using my freedom of expression. Thanks.
Nice post. This post provided very useful and important information.
Regards.
http://www.talon-direct.com/
Freedom of expression? Ever heard of it? Nothing offensive there
Vicki, I don't know if you are pretending to be dense to make lame political points or if you actually are dense. Just because you had the freedom to say something doesn't mean it wasn't offensive.
Sometimes a duck is just a duck, not a representation of something more dastardly.
So, a chairman Mao on the christmas tree means the Obama's like that murderer enough to put him on the Christmas tree. Thanks for the clarification!
Mao good. Hitler bad. It's not that you kill millions because of who they are, it's merely the style and panache with which you do it.
No, not quite. Hitler had far more style and panache than Mao. The determinant is apparently what empty slogans you mouth when you do it.
my view is this is another case of obama proving to be a poor manager. surely even if they loved mao and had a secret shrine to him, they know better than to put an ornament on the tree. but their agents apparently are fools.
theprophet has never been the same since Tecumseh went solo.
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