JANE AUSTEN'S RING - YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

 

From The History Blog:

At the Sotheby’s English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations sale in London this July, a turquoise and gold ring which had once belonged to Jane Austen was purchased for £152,450 ($244,000). As is their wont, Sotheby’s did not release the name of the buyer, but now the buyer has revealed herself. In an interview with British tabloid the Daily Star, singer and first American Idol Kelly Clarkson identified herself as the bidder who won Jane Austen’s ring.

Yes, the ring really did belong to Jane Austen.  But there is a twist to the story.

Unfortunately for Ms. Clarkson, she won’t be wearing Jane’s ring back home. She applied for an export license as required by law, but the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest advised the Secretary of State not to grant it on the grounds that the object is of national importance. With the export ban in place, the item cannot leave British soil. Kelly is going to have to cross an ocean to visit her ring.

I’m sorry for Ms Clarkson's sake, but I think the ring IS a national treasure. I hope Sotheby forewarned her that she might not be able to take the ring out of the country. My suggestion to Ms Clarkson is to donate the ring to the Chawton House Museum in Hampshire, Jane Austen’s last home, where her other jewelry and personal items are on display.  I was fortunate to visit the museum on two occasions a number of years ago, and I recommend it highly.

My earlier post on the ring.

BLUNT AND CANDID

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson former chief of staff to Colin Powell is very blunt and candid about racism in the Republican party.

It's no surprise to me that Col Wilkerson states candidly that the Republican Party is "full of racists".  Louisiana is a very red state, and I'd agree with the colonel that the Republican Party here is "full of racists". 

NOT GOOD AT ALL, NOPD

New Orleans — “Ann” said she was walking to a friend’s house on Tulane Avenue in September when a New Orleans police officer stopped her for no real reason and asked for her identification. By the end of their interaction, she was in handcuffs, booked with crimes against nature and verbally abused by a local judge. “Ann” said her only crime was being a young, black transgender girl.

Like others, she was too afraid to tell her story in public or use her real name. Instead, a friend read her testimony before the City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday. Her presentation was one of several the committee heard — directly or indirectly — from members of the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community.

If this is how the NOPD officers spend (waste) their time in the murder capital of the country, then their priorities are in serious disarray.  No wonder the department will be under a years-long consent decree order by the US Department of Justice due to "a history of discriminatory policing on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual status."

New Orleans has always been a city of great diversity, and it is unconscionable that the department is guilty of discriminatory behavior in its approach to policing in a city in so great need of a well-functioning police department that treats all citizens fairly.  And for heaven's sake, the police should concentrate their efforts on finding the murderers and perpetrators of violence who make living in certain areas of the city like living in a war zone.

Kudos to Wes Ware, director of BreakOut, "an organization that seeks to end what it calls the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans" and the members of the organization and to the Justice Department for their efforts to bring about fair and equal treatment by NOPD of all the citizens of New Orleans.  

IS IT THAT TIME OF THE YEAR ALREADY?

 

 

HA HA HA - PRICELESS

 

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

OH NO! ME AND MY SECRETS IN WIKIPEDIA?

 

That dear man Josh Thomas thinks I belong in Wikipedia as a notable person in the entry on Thibodaux, Louisiana, and wrote a post to that effect.  I'm flattered and honored beyond expression, but unfortunately (and unintentionally, I'm sure), he has revealed secrets that I'd rather not have called to public attention.

Truly, the post is clever and hilarious.  Here's a snippet:

Ten years ago she accepted the offer of a free, all-expenses-paid vacation at a palace in the American Southwest, where she rode around in limousines and ate like a queen – despite knowing that her hosts were charter members of the International Gay Cabal (known to the CIA as the “Gay Agendists”). These subversives succeeded in beginning her conversion to warped ways.

Experienced spies will tell you that everyone can be seduced to The Other Side. For some it’s sex, and for all we know that may have been part of her downfall. But for others, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Those Gay tempters must have taken her to the top of a mountain and shown her, “All this can be yours!”

She signed right on the spot, happily entering a life of sordid degradation.

As you read, keep in mind that Josh Thomas runs the excellent prayer site The Daily Office West, which I use nearly every day.   Contradictions abound in the person of Josh. :-)  I give him great credit for using flattering pictures of me in his post.  The picture above is one of my favorites, taken by that big cuddly bear, Paul Strid, when we had lunch and a stroll around the French Quarter in New Orleans.  Paul's account of our meeting is at his blog Byzigenous Buddhapalian.

WEEKLY REMINDER

 

Yes, Bobby Jindal said "Obamneycare" in a slip of the tongue.

The picture also serves as a reminder that people will lose their health care coverage if Mitt Romney is elected president.

IN MEMORY OF JONATHAN'S GLENNA

 

(June Butler 10-24-2012)

Jonathan blogs as MadPriest.

WAXING GIBBOUS MOON

The picture shows the moon as it looked when I walked tonight.

Waxing gibbous moon
The words themselves a poem
Turning full moon soon

A repost which I use from time to time when the gibbous moon shines in the night sky.

HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it passing strange that the name of the most recent Republican occupant of the Oval Office is never mentioned by the members of his own party, not even in whispers?  Republicans reach back to Ronald Reagan and even as far back as Abraham Lincoln, but George W Bush has been effectively airbrushed out of Republican history.  W has not been seen nor heard from during the campaign, nor at the convention.  Which Republican candidate for public office trumpets an endorsement from George W Bush?  He's the invisible man.  Come to think of it, the Republicans are silent about W's father, George H W Bush as well.  It's as though the two presidencies never happened.  And that's not to speak of Richard Nixon, whose presidency never happened, either. 

Democrats have not forgotten W and often speak of the wars, the deficit, the tax cuts for the rich, and the economy in deep recession, on the brink of a depression, that he bequeathed to the country and to the president who came after.  How ironic that Republicans blame Obama for the last 12 years with nary a mention of George W Bush.  As Democrats say, the election of Romney would take us back to W's policies, but "on steroids".