NEA and the Budget

My sister posted the stuff in the image file originally, but given the posts weren't public I won't link to anyone.

 

I think it may be important to remember that Trump isn't destroying art (though who knows, maybe he thinks he is)... he's just cutting government funding for it. While I don't like it, and I think spending the money on that sort of thing is a long-term benefit, it's hard to make the case for it being "essential" spending (but why must all federal spending be "essential"? an argument for another day). But yes, I'm much more concerned about the effect of the budget on the elderly and the poor while we pointlessly shift more money into the military, continue to let the ultra-wealthy enjoy pointless tax-breaks, and pointlessly freak out over the debt and deficit over some misplaced "think of the children!" logic.

Shane (1953)

Prompted by Logan, I finally made a point to see Shane. Great movie, one of my new favorite westerns. It's right up there with Unforgiven. However, there's one painfully bad part when the character Marion (Jean Arthur) is complaining to Shane who's showing her son how to shoot, "Guns aren't going to be my boy's life!" and then... in the most painful, condescending, mansplaining way that has ever been filmed in the history of Hollywood, he replies: "A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." Apparently this is a famous, well-liked line.

It's the last part that got me..."Remember that". It wasn't, 'here's my perspective on the matter' or 'allow me to offer a counter-argument' ... it was 'here's the facts dumbass, don't make me repeat myself'

Anyway. Minor gripe, I wouldn't expect most westerns to have any sort of anti-gun message. Then of course in Logan (very minor spoiler ahead), there's Laura's final words of that film, which she heard from Shane's final words "Joey, there's no living with... with a killing. There's no going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother, and tell her... tell her everything's all right. And there aren't any more guns in the valley."

If you liked Logan, see Shane. I'm not saying the stories exactly parallel each other, but it does offer some context, and it's just a really good effin' movie.