Above is the seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As you see, the goddess Virtus has a (Gasp...!) bared breast. Such lewdness is not to be tolerated - at least not by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Read the shocking story at Paul, the BB's place. I may seem to be favoring the BB today, but I'm not, although he IS a big huggable bear. It's that he's on a blogging roll.
Lapin sent me a link to The Huffington Post version of the story. What caught my eye at HP is the picture below of our former president's attorney general, John Ashcroft, standing in front of a statue of Lady Justice with (Gasp...!) a bare breast.
I've always felt a special fondness for pictures of Ashcroft standing before Lady Justice before he ordered $8000 worth of drapes to make the lady disappear.
Now you see her; now you don't.
And then I remembered the disgraceful picture of my friend and me standing near the statue of Neptune in the Piazza De La Signoria in Florence, which I saw just the other day when I was looking through my photo album. If ever there was a picture that cried out for cropping....
If you look at the revised image on the Huffington post site, you'll also notice the tyrant is now alive.
ReplyDeleteVirtue is also wearing red not blue. Though some have suggested the AG wanted Republican Red instead of Democrat Blue, the tyrant is also in red.
Virtue is suppose to be dressed as an Amazon hence weapons and bare breast.
Erp, I see that. The picture is so tiny that I hadn't noticed at first. I'd think that a good many manly Virginia men would also be offended by any image of a woman warrior vanquishing a man.
ReplyDeleteWell, Mimi, the question is re. Ashcroft, how many boobs can you see in the picture?
ReplyDeleteIT, excellent! You get A+ for your comment. I can't stop laughing. That's just my kind of funny.
ReplyDeleteWhatever would they do about Michelangelo's David? Do they make a Speedo for a marble hunk 14 feet tall?
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, I hope that John Ashcroft never makes his way to Italy. He won't survive the nudes.
ReplyDeleteI just had a thought. Some folks might say, "Crop those women out of the picture, and leave Neptune."
There. I said it before someone else did.
I don't see how someone like Ashcroft would survive Florence. His head would explode (or he'd have a non-stop stiffy). The not-so-implicit eroticism and homo-eroticism are everywhere and inescapable, even in churches.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it's right behind you in that picture, and not just Neptune either.
Of course, I love the place for exactly that reason.
Grandmere --this is all very titillating.... here, I have an itty bitty titty ode for you:
ReplyDeleteJust because you are so tiny,
don't be sad and don't you pout.
When a man is making love to you,
he can never ever leave you out.
Oh they don't point east,
they don't point west,
there's just no hope
for my little chest.
One day you'll be so closely knit,
that I'll wind up with one big....
You rhyme it your way honey,
and I'll rhyme it mine,
together wherever we go.
And --no, I'm an amazon. Amazons usually remove a breast or two --gets in the way of your bow and arrows!
I'm beginning to think that there's something in the water, Grandmere. There are just too many men getting uptight over boobies lately!
ReplyDeleteThe "how many boobs in the picture" is a true keeper!
Counterlight, I see the other naughties in the picture. My friend and I deliberately had our photo taken with the naughties.
ReplyDeleteMargaret! Titillating, indeed! Is the itty, bitty, titty ode your composition?
Yeah. Boobs and bows and arrows might not work well together.
Rachael, yes. Or something in the air.
Every time I see IT's funny, I laugh all over again.
"$8000 worth of drapes to make the lady disappear." Wonder which Wingnut friend of a friend got that contract.
ReplyDeleteI gather that the seal represents Virtus [What's with the masculine case-ending? One more, antique, insult to women?] as an Amazon, hence the one-breasted business. When I was a kid, we were taught - and here I quote Wiki - that "Among Classical Greeks, amazon was given a popular etymology as from a-mazos, "without breast", connected with an etiological tradition that Amazons had their right breast cut off or burnt out, so they would be able to use a bow more freely and throw spears without the physical limitation and obstruction".
Hence the single, exposed titty. Useless fact of the day.
WV malinger - I kid you not.
Grandmere --alas, it is not my composition. My beloved learned it at Episcopal Church Camp when he was a wee lad.... and has sung it with glory ever since.
ReplyDeleteLapin, Margaret had already informed us - more or less - and I remember now hearing or reading the story of the removal of a breast by Amazon women.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I should have known - a church camp.
Lapin, virtus is a feminine fourth-declension noun, not a masculine second-declension noun.
ReplyDeleteSecond useless fact of the day.
wv = hailysi
(ave atque yes)
Paul (A.), thank you. I'm relieved that's settled.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, your wife told me something you said about me that calls for vengeance. I'll get back at you for when you least expect it. :-)
I have no idea what I am supposed to have said, but I will start expecting retribution from now on.
ReplyDeleteHa!
The bare breast has long been associated with liberty, was common during the French Revolution, and caused a ruckus on the 1916 US Quarter-Dollar, which was covered up in subsequent coins.
ReplyDeleteThat was not a case of "tit for tat."
Leaving the stage, breasts covered...
Virtus ... virtutis" - all comes back to me now, as the skunk said when the wind changed. Sorry I missed Margaret's commenting on the Amazonian mammary. Not paying attention.
ReplyDeleteTobias, thank you for the further enlightenment on the symbolism of the bare breast.
ReplyDeleteThank you also, for not making me "get the hook".
Lovely conversation prompted by the biggest sombitch in the(formerly) proud Commonwealth of Virginia. Thanks for the sharing.
ReplyDelete"If ever there was a picture that cried out for cropping...."
ReplyDeleteOh, for heaven's sake, Mimi, it's only a penis, and not a very big one at that!
John D, I aim to oblige.
ReplyDeleteSusan, is that what it is? I never knew!
On the Law and statuary, The Windy City Times remembers 1958 Federal and State prosecution of Kris Studios when "the Post Office called in the Federal Justice Department, because some of the photos showed models with 'excessive genital delineation.' In those days gay people didn't fight back, and the local district attorney expected an easy conviction, so they were surprised when Renslow and his ACLU lawyers turned up in court.
ReplyDeleteUnlike similar previous arrests, Renslow's lawyers didn't claim the photographs were 'art,' but that they were not pornographic, as the human body was not obscene. Among the evidence submitted by the ACLU lawyers were photographs of nude statues on Chicago's City Hall, the very building where the trial was taking place.
It was more than a year later that the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision in Renslow's favor."
"Excessive genital delineation" would be a good name for a rock band.
ReplyDeleteOh, you are incorrigible! and thank you for that ;=)
ReplyDeleteGöran, we are all incorrigible, and now you are, too, for leaving your comment. :-)
ReplyDelete