A blow for Liberty?

Click photo to enlarge. . .
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Senator Hillary Clinton's Breasts Unveiled

Click The Senator's breast(s) to enlarge the photograph

The sculptor, Daniel Edwards — who recently brought us a life-size statue of Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug with the young 'uns head crowning in the posterior view (see photo below) — has created a buxom sculpture of Sen. Hillary Clinton's head, and bust. The armless (ala Venus DeMilo) but big-bosomed Senator rests on a plinth that reads: “Presidential Bust of Hillary Clinton.” There is a strange documentary short on YouTube of Daniels, and his new scuplture. He seems like a genuinely kooky, and nice, guy.

The sculpture will be rolled out next week at the NYC Museum of Sex, according to the New York Daily News.


The Britney Spears Sculpture (side view)
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Son of Sam was arrested 29 years ago today -- "What took you so long?"

Click David Berkowitz to enlarge

On August 10, 1977, an utterly deranged 24-year-old postal employee (note: he was also one of the first postal employees to go "postal"), David Berkowitz was arrested and charged with being the "44 caliber killer" a/k/a "Son of Sam." Son of Sam was a serial killer who terrorized New York City for more than a year, killing six young people and wounding seven others with a .44-caliber revolver, all allegedly on the orders of a barking dog next door that Berkowitz claimed was channeling a neighbor named Sam. Berkowitz targeted attractive young women with long brown hair, and therefore, "hundreds of young women had their hair cut short and dyed blond during the time he terrorized the city. " At least according to one article I read. I don't remember anyone doing this, but I remember people on the news talking about it.


The police sketch and a photograph

The Son of Sam name came from his first letter, left in one of the victim's cars. It was addressed to police captain Joe Borelli, who headed up Task Force Omega, a group of a large number of detectives searching for the "44 caliber killer." The letter said:

"I am deeply hurt by your calling me a weman-hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the "son of Sam". I am a little brat. When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean. He beats our family. Sometimes he ties me up to the back of the house. Other times he locks me in the garage. Sam loves to drink blood. "Go out and kills" commands father Sam. Behind our house some rest. Mostly young - raped and slaughtered - their blood drained - just bones now. Pap Sam keeps me locked in the attic too. I can't get out but I look out the attick window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I am on a different wavelength then everybody else - programmed to kill. However, to stop me you must kill me. Attention all police: shoot me first - shoot to kill or else keep out of my way or you will die. Papa Sam is old now. He needs some blood to preserve his youth. He has too many heart attacks. "Ugh, me hoot, it hurts, sonny boy." I miss my pretty princess most of all. She's resting in our ladies house. But i'll see her soon. I am the "monster" - "Beelzebub" - the chubby behemouth. I love to hunt. Prowlling the streets looking for fair game - tasty meat. The wemon of Queens are prettyist of all. I must be the water they drink. I live for the hunt - my life. Blood for papa. Mr. Borelli, sir, I don't want to kill any more. No sur, no more but I must, "honour thy father". I want to make love to the world. I love people. I don't belong on earth. Return me to yahoos. To the people of Queens, I love you. And i want to wish all of you a happy Easter. May God bless you in this life and in the next. And for now I say goodbye and goodnight. Police: Let me haunt you with these words: I'll be back. I'll be back. To be interrpreted as - bang, bang, bang, bang - ugh. Yours in murder, Mr. Monster. "

I remember the New York Post and Daily News almost taunting him with their headlines as the anniversary of the first killings approached (the anniversary was June 29, 1977). I arrived in town in early June. He struck on June 26, but Sal Lupo and Judy Placido both survived, relatively unscathed. On July 30, he killed Stacy Moskowitz, and blinded Robert Violante.

He wrote a letter to Jimmy Breslin, the great NYC columnist (and author of the delightful novel The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight):

"Hello from the gutters of N.Y.C. which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from the sewers of N.Y.C. which swallow up these delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. Hello from the cracks in the sidewalks of N.Y.C. and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed in the dried blood of the dead that has settled into the cracks..."

The writer noted that he was a fan of Breslin: "J.B., I also want to tell you that I read your column daily and find it quite informative."

The writer added, "What will you have for July 29?" (the anniversary of the first .44 Caliber shooting).

I had been in the city for a few months when he was arrested, a month after the famous blackout and riots. I happened to also be in love with an attractive young woman with long brown hair. We never "necked" in parked cars, so we were relatively safe. However, we did live and hang out in Brooklyn, one of his targets. And when he was caught, he was taken to the Brooklyn House of Detention--right across the street from our apartment!

Court TV's Crime Library has a long article about Berkowitz/Sam, and, the Wikipedia has a good article as well. . .
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painting: Variations on Jack Brummet's head

click to enlarge
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"Crazy" Joe Lieberman takes a licking and keeps on ticking

click poster to enlarge


Crazy Joe Lieberman, standing on a stack of telephone books behind the podium, tonight conceded the election to Ned Lamont and confirmed he would be running for the Senate as a third party candidate.

I remember when third party candidates were wackos and hopeless nutjobs like Gus Hall and George Wallace, or egocentric, deranged spoilers like Ralph Nader. Same as it ever was. . .same as it ever was. . .same as it ever was. . .
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Some nice Engrish photographs

Click here to see this photo set. And if you want more, there is always the engrish.com web site.



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President Richard M. Nixon decommissioned, resigns in disgrace

Click the collage to enlarge

Dick Nixon was a fascinating, brilliant, and revolting man. He did change the world. He resigned 32 years ago today. Even with the specter of Jerry Ford as President (since Agnew had recently resigned following a felony nolo contendre pleading), we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Nixon, Haldeman, Erlichman, Dean, Magruder, Mitchell, Colson, Liddy, Ziegler, Hunt. . .the entire band of sneaky little weasels thrown out! It was a good day.

President Nixon was actually the last of the liberal Republican presidents--social spending was at an all-time high under The Nixon Administration. The country, however, seemed to visibly crumble under all the cheapjack domestic spying, break-ins, misinformation campaigns, Kent State, prosecution of the Chicago 7, massive anti-war demonstrations, the bombing of Cambodia, hardhats and Hell's Angels attacking peace marchers. . .and all the other outrages committed and encouraged by Nixon's henchmen, a band of misanthropic thugs. President Nixon's long smoldering resentments, doubts about his own self-worth, and his paranoia about The Kennedys and their successors would eventually sink his presidency.



The war against North Vietnam raged on with increased troop levels, saturation bombing, napalm napalm napalm, and massive body counts. The body count became a feature of every nightly news broadcast. On the plus side of the ledger, President Nixon reached out to both Russia and China, and set the stage for the later upheavals in Russia, up to and including the fall of communism. He opened China up to diplomacy and trade and sat with Mao Zedong. He changed the modern world.

After resigning in disgrace, Nixon hid out in California a couple of years, and then moved to NYC. He went on to write numerous books on foreign policy, and unofficially (with no public fanfare) advise every President until the day he died. If you want a fascinating read on Richard Nixon, check out Chris Matthew's book Kennedy And Nixon. I've read many books about Richard Nixon, and I probably enjoyed this one the most.

Links on all this is that:

All This Is That: Stopping By Richard Nixon's
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All This Is That Reheated:::::Stopping By Richard Nixon's

click painting to enlarge

From all this is that, Wednesday, December 08, 2004


One of my favorite activities in New York City was to visit Former President Richard M. Nixon's house. He lived in a sweet little townhouse on the Upper East Side (142 East 65th Street). We probably stopped by ten times while I lived there. I would drag friends there in a taxi, or car, if someone had one. The President never actually came out to greet us.

A few years after he resigned, he returned east from his California exile. This is the President who wanted to send me to Vietnam, so I had mixed feelings, indeed, about this man. He kept the Great Society funded, even as he lied and weaseled his way to disgrace. What could you think of the ex red-baiter who went to China and opened diplomatic relations? He was a two-edged sword, which made him endlessly fascinating. And I frequently went there to pay homage to both Good King Richard and Evil Dick.

These visits would almost always occur around closing time (did I even need to mention that?). I seem to recall often having a bottle or go cup in hand, as we stood outside the townhouse for ten or fifteen minutes. I always secretly hoped he might spy us and come out (like the time he visited the students at the Lincoln Memorial). I'd like to think he maybe heard us once or twice!

Interestingly, in all of those visits, the Secret Service never came near us. We saw them a few times, but no matter how loud and raucous we got, they never approached. I guess that makes sense. There were 20 million people living within an easy car drive of 142 East 65th Street. I was probably not the only knucklehead among the 20 million to stop by--or worse. Eventually, in the mid-eighties, Richard Nixon and I both moved from Manhattan. He moved to Saddle River, New Jersey and wrote a lot of books, as well as advising every President in some capacity. He died ten years ago, in New York. /jack

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32 Years Ago Today, Richard Nixon Walked Away

Thirty-two years ago, Dick Nixon went on TV and announced that he would tomorrow become the first president in American history (but surely not the last) to resign.

Impeachment proceedings were grinding away in Congress for his involvement in the
Watergate affair (the cover-up mainly). . .and Nixon was bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House.

"By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America." Just before noon the next day, Nixon threw in the towel. He jumped on a helicopter, and raised his arms in the victory salute, and disappeared from the public stage. Gerald Ford became the 38th President and said "our long national nightmare is over."

The last nail in the coffin: On August 5, transcripts of more White House recordings were released, that contained a conversation in which The President told Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate investigation. Three days later, Nixon quit.
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Reuters yanks the photoshoppng photographer, Adnan Hajj

Reuters withdrew nine hundred photographs by Adnan Hajj, a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after a review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah. Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been Photoshopped [tm] undermined trust in all his work. "There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement. This is old news now, and The blogs have long been all over this one.

I don't know why, but I just can't take it seriously. I find the plagiarism and photoshop stories uproariously funny. . .it's seeing the press take a beating. And then jump into auto-flagellate mode for a few weeks! While the press wear their hair shirt, the protracted hand-wringing begins on the left and the right. Was Hajj, like Jayson Blair, "sticking it to the man, " trying to jazz up some lackluster pictures, or letting his imagination run free and wild? Was he a mad prankster, having fun? Alas, probably not. He was a free-lancer and spec. photographer in an extremely competitive environment. He was in the right place and time to pick up some serious coin.

If I wrote news, or shot news pictures, I'd have to approach the news more as a raconteur than a retailer of facts. The truth never matters as much as The Story. In any case, it can all be true, whether it happened or not. If it's remotely plausible, it will happen sooner or later. By reporting on it early, you're not practicing the liar's craft; you're prescient.



You do have to wonder how many thousands of photoshop jobs we've seen in the news section over the years? Readers of All This Is That know we are not averse to a little photomanipulation ourselves.



This Hajj thing has me a little shaken 'though. I start wondering if some of my favorites have been manipulated.


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Ron Mueck, an amazing photo-realist

click photo to enlarge

Ron Mueck is a London-based photo-realist artist who worked on children’s television shows for 15 years before working in special effects for such films as “Labyrinth,” a 1986 fantasy epic starring David Bowie.

Mueck started his own company in London, making models to be photographed for advertisements. In the early 1990s, still in his advertising days, Mueck was commissioned to make something highly realistic, and was wondering what material would do the trick. Latex was the usual, but he wanted something harder, more precise. He stumbled on a some architectural decor in a boutique and figured out it was fiberglass resin. He has used it ever since. His art is fascinating. It reminds me of Duane Hansen's sculptures writ large. . .but with more painstaking detail. There are a lot of galleries of his work online:

James Cohan Gallery
Boy at the Venice Biennale
Australian Govt site showing Pregnant Woman.
Extensive gallery
Washington Post gallery
Russian website with good gallery
Ron Mueck images on Flickr





Click detail of "Boy"'s foot to enlarge


click the baby to enlarge


click "Boy" to enlarge
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Cindy Sheehan rides again

I don't know what it is about Cindy Sheehan . . .there is something about her/their tactics that seems wrong, including buying acreage in town as a protest base. This is probably not a popular opinion among the earnest lefties, but I wish she'd put a cork in it.

A year after her first protest in Crawford, Cindy Sheehan resumed her whatever-it-is on Sunday with 50 fellow hand-wringers. Once again, they marched toward POTUS's ranch. At the Secret Service checkpoint, Sheehan held up her driver's license and said she wanted to meet with The President.

"I do live here now," said Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., and recently bought land in Crawford for war protests. "My name is Cindy and Bush killed my son." Her band of followers then began to shout: "This is what democracy looks like! This is what democracy sounds like!" After singing a glum folk song or two, they left the roadblock and returned to the protest site.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said that neither Bush nor his staff plan to meet with Sheehan. "I would advise her to bring water, Gatorade or both," Snow said when asked about Sheehan during a press briefing Friday.
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