... Meade pays homage to the man he once horrified Texans to call his favorite Texan...
... and I pay a third visit — here are my first and second visits — to my favorite object from a Supreme Court opinion....
Don't you want an American flag on your 10 Commandments?
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42 comments:
Hey, Meade was right there in the comments on the first visit post. Hmmmm. Life is strange. Or Meade is devilishly clever.
The best thing about that GWB portrait is that its position reflects his best act as govenor, replacing Ann Richards.
Welcome to Austin.
Don't forget Fogo de Chão.
re: dome, what means STEXA?
As to flags on the monument, The Ten Commandments are God's gift to all nations to give them good laws with which to order their society for safe living among that most dangerous of species when wild without a lawful order, called Homo Sapiens. So the flags from all of the UN's blossoming of nations after WWII have a claim to a place on that monument which is a monument to human society's most prescious fundamental gift of a good government on earth.
Let's analyze the middle picture!
1, Meade has turned his back on Althouse.
2. George W. is looking down on Meade,
3. Ann Richards is obviously Bush's equal.
"The best thing about that GWB portrait is that its position reflects his best act as govenor, replacing Ann Richards."
Yeah, she made her "reputation" by mocking his father in 1988 atthe Dem convention.
So, its nice that the son beat her for re-election.
You got that picture of the Commandments just in the nick of time. I read that not long afterward some unknown vandal added "Thou shalt not wear shorts" in lipstick.
Thanks a lot, Texas.
Will there be barbecue blogging? Can't spend time in Austin without eating some brisket.
One day, that photo will be proof that Althouse fashioned the Ten Commandments.
Or is that your ski outfit?
Meant to ask, is that the same state capitol built by a British syndicate 125 years ago? If so, the syndicate was rewarded with the biggest cattle ranch in American history, the XIT - 3 million acres.
garage mahal said...
Thanks a lot, Texas.
Indeed. We could have been stuck with Albert Gore, The Living Redwood, on 9/11.
Andy said...
Let's analyze the middle picture!
1, Meade has turned his back on Althouse.
2. George W. is looking down on Meade,
3. Ann Richards is obviously Bush's equal.
Anent # 3, to quote 2 great Americans, "That'll be the day".
I take issue with the imprecision of your describing Meade as having "once horrified Texans [by] call[ing George W. Bush] his favorite Texan." Meade may have horrified some Texans with that statement, but such anti-Dubya Texans would still constitute a substantial minority of this state's voting public, and probably a minority of everyone here (voters or not). George W. Bush could be still be elected to any office in this state, from governor on down, by a 60%+ vote. If you want to horrify most Texans -- outside Austin a/k/a Sodom on the Colorado, anyway -- speak some praise of Al Gore, John Kerry, or Barack Obama.
That first pic is cool. I remember that from my only trip to Austin. The second pic...I'm pretty sure that's the same security guard who was standing in the same spot when I was there.
The American flag on my ten commandments? No, thank you. I'm a crazy Reformed charistmatic, re-born follower of Jesus Christ, and I want no part of wrapping the flag around my Bible. My faith is separate from my patriotism. I'm disgusted when my brothers and sisters in Christ conflate the two and am embarrassed by the ignorance produced by that conflation.
Windbag...You just voiced the reason behind the First Amendment...to protect local church's from being co-opted by national political controllers. But saying that a local State's public display of the basic source of all good law has become taboo just because its author was God was never prohibited by the First Amendment, until a the Supremes in the early 1960's decided that it would wiser to eliminate all sources of the accusation that they believed in God.
Indeed. We could have been stuck with Albert Gore, The Living Redwood, on 9/11.
I thought Garage was thanking Texas for keeping unemployment down, so that the nationwide numbers don't look as bad for Congressional Democrats and Obama.
Meade, you need to get rid of the effeminate pinky camera hold. You should hold the camera like you are doing chin ups and punch the button with your fist.
I recommend the same methodology for lovemaking BTW.
aptly punctuated by the WV = hizessiv
The first photo is cool, but what the heck does Exast mean? Or is that Xaste?
Fun post, although I'm not sure that snapping a cell picture counts as paying homage.
My favorite part of the 10 Commandments monument, however, is the homage is pays to Cecil B. DeMille. Aren't those mini-tablets with the paleo-Hebrew exact copies of the props used in the 1956 epic? (Complete, apparently with errors and missing letters.)
Here's a pic (reversed) and
another of the Styrofoamy original.
Is seems that this monument sins in a way similar to most "official" art -- the seething desire to get all is messages in. Need something about America? Cram it in over here. How about something historical. Stick it up there. Fill in the space with curlicues ... and chi-rhos (gotta have some Jesus) ... and stars ... and Masonic symbology
The Texas statehouse suffers from the same affliction, apparently. How 'bout those letters T-E-X-A-S between the points of the star. Was the same 14-year-old consulted about the design for both items?
W.V.: pingoc -- paleo-Hebrew for "tacky," as in "Thou shalt not be so..."
Hey, Meade was right there in the comments on the first visit post.
I skimmed it just now. In it, hdhouse refers to "eugenics" as "eubonics." LMAO
garage mahal said...
Thanks a lot, Texas.
Indeed. We could have been stuck with Albert Gore, The Living Redwood, on 9/11.
I'll take a living redwood over a bush any day ;)
"Meade, you need to get rid of the effeminate pinky camera hold."
That's Meade? Damn.
I was pretty sure it was Kokopelli.
I was pretty sure it was Kokopelli.
Too bad the redwood is wrong all the time. At least the bush protects all it shelters.
Slightly OT: One third of all terror plots since 9/11 have been uncovered on Bambi's watch.
Change!
bearbee,
ASTEX. (There, FIFY.)
(Oh and btw, I think it's a reference to some people who were here--well, not around Austin, precisely, but in the larger sense--before the Europeans arrived.)
Althouse's final paragraph was definitely an LOL moment, though if we have to talk seriously I'm with Windbag on the question.
wv: spologi -- some Italian thing I'm just as happy not knowing the definition of.
Cont. O.T. "Slightly OT: One third of all terror plots since 9/11 have been uncovered on Bambi's watch."
Some will say this is a good thing catching so many, but I think it indicates a renewed confidence in our enemies, now that the crazy terrorist-killing cowboy from T E X A S is gone. Didn't that sheriff in "High Noon" leave town at the end? We need a sequel where some new bad guys come to town and meet the new sheriff played by Don Knotts.
Christianist! Christainist!
Some will say this is a good thing catching so many, but I think it indicates a renewed confidence in our enemies, now that the crazy terrorist-killing cowboy from T E X A S is gone.
Wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Cheney, and almost the entire right wing in this country keep telling the world that we are weak and vulnerable now Obama is president?
Is it just the curvature of the room, or is Bush's portrait a smidge higher than Richards'?
I love Austin. Went there for the first time this past autumn.
You must go check out the Texas State History Museum. It's very interesting and gives you excellent insight into the unique Texas spirit.
Dear Professor Althouse-Meade:
Would it be possible sometime in the future, to see you in this little number?
I believe we have seen the skirt you're wearing, several times already. I love it, but would like to see you try out some new looks.
http://gop.am/Xjg2
Thanks in advance!
No, I don't like the flag on the tablet of the Ten Commandments, any more than I'd want a flag inscribed on the tabernacle in church (for those who aren't familiar, a tabernacle is where Catholics place the Eucharist, which we believe is the true Body and Blood of Jesus), or on the pulpit, or on the Bible, or on anything else used for the liturgy. We have an American flag in our church, prominently displayed, but toward the back of church. But it's a national symbol, not a sacred symbol. I don't like the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance; in the extremely unlikely event anyone asks me to help reword it, I would say something like:
"I pledge allegiance to the Republic of the United States of America and to our Constitution--and to this flag that represents our one nation, under God..." etc.
I don't like so-called "God and Country" rallies because they end up being all about how God is really an American and approves--or he **** well better approve!--of everything we do. God and God-stuff becomes something to dress up what we were going to do anyway--but better to do it with a little God thrown in, right?
Speaking obviously as a believer, the Ten Commandments are God's own Words, enduring forever.
My country, as much as I love her, doesn't rank anywhere near so high. The Ten Commandments deserve a great deal of veneration because of whose words they are, all by themselves, they don't need to be dressed up with the flag or an American eagle. Obviously unintentionally, this is a kind of desecration; I wouldn't expect a lot of folks to get that; it's just better not to do it.
I don't mean to get all ACLU on this, because I really don't want to have much of anything to do with them; it just happens that my distaste for this coincides more or less with their position. I'm open to putting up a display of the Ten Commandments on my church's property; I'd rather not see it at the courthouse.
Father Fox...I see your point that adding commercial and political signs onto a sacred thing is like a Ford car being plastered with logos in its NASCAR version of a Ford Stock Car. But would not Ford benefit from that public display too? My thought is that the gift thru Moses to the Hebrews was an amazingly good historical event that should not be hidden away anymore than Antibiotics should be hidden away to save that Miracle Drug from all the infected people needing it to survive.
damn ann
you're so fine
you make those ten commandments shine!
re: BBQ blogging. If you're going to have some brisket, try getting down to Lockhart. They have some of the best BBQ places in Central Texas. The meat's great at all of them, but Smitty's has the best atmosphere--literally. The walls have absorbed BBQ smoke for decades. They still have the hooks that the communal knives used to be attached to, and the room that women were allowed to use is still off the main dining room.
I worked at the Capitol for 14 years and during most of that time, I would tear up every time I walked in; I was blessed beyond measure, getting to work there, doing the people's business.
The Ten Commandments are God's gift to all nations to give them good laws with which to order their society for safe living
Well said. Until they were brought to my ancestors, it was thought that murder, theft, adultery and perjury were all OK.
And everybody treated their parents like shit.
You guys have got Moses all wrong. A youngster showed me what those tablets really said.
... Meade pays homage to the man he once horrified Texans to call his favorite Texan...
GO MEADE!! You're not alone in your quixotic regional likes, baby!
Cheers,
Victoria
The dome spells several words:
Stexa
Astex
Xaste
Exast
as well as Texas.
Didn't Dan Brown write about this Freemason secret-language stuff?
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