And now for somethng completely different: The Lupa Capitolina's not ancient, just really old.

Any of you who have been to Rome surely remember the statue of the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, the founders of ancient Rome according to legend. The statue is a symbol of Rome.

The statue, known as the Lupa Capitolina, supposedly was 2,500 years old and Etruscan. Only it's not:

A statue symbolising the mythical origins and power of Rome, long thought to have been made around 500BC, has been found to date from the 1300s.

The statue depicts a she-wolf suckling Remus and his twin brother Romulus - who is said to have founded Rome.

The statue of the wolf was carbon-dated last year, but the test results have only now been made public.

The figures of Romulus and Remus have already been shown to be 15th Century additions to the statue.

In a front page article in the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, Rome's former top heritage official, Professor Adriano La Regina, said about 20 tests were carried out on the she-wolf at the University of Salerno.

He said the results of the tests gave a very precise indication that the statue was manufactured in the 13th century.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Manekin Piss remains a fitting symbol of Brussels, home base of the EU which continues to attempt to shove a constitution on countries which don't want it.



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The Puerto Rican Pre-Raphaelites, and other Sunday items

The Telegraph has an interesting article about how a lot of Victorian and Eduardian paintings made it to Puerto Rico:
Pre-Raphaelites from Puerto Rico

On the day before he died of a heart attack in 1898, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones was busy at work on The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, a massive oil painting inspired by Malory in which a mortally wounded King Arthur is laid out on a bier.

The artist had been working for 17 years on his unfinished magnum opus, which had been commissioned in 1881 by George Howard, later ninth Earl of Carlisle, for the library at Naworth Castle in Cumberland.

But that was not where the painting ended up. For the past 45 years, the 21ft by 9ft canvas has hung in an obscure museum in the crumbling colonial town of Ponce on the south coast of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

The last time I was in Ponce it wasn't crumbling, and this is what the Museo looks like. The museum is closed for repairs, which is why the paintings are on loan to the Tate in London.



The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon is a huge canvas, and when I lived in Puerto Rico I spent a lot of time enjoying its details. This (and The Avengers) was the start of my Anglophilia. After I had moved away from Puerto Rico, graduated from college and started working, one day I decided I would study one art movement in detail and chose the Pre-Raphaelites which - as far as art movements go - were a small group. I spent my first trip to England visiting the Tate, Lord Leighton's house and other locales related to the Pre-Raphaelites.

Of course some of their stuff is best described as "Victorian monstruosities", but that only adds to the fun.

I have forgotten most of what I studied then. Time flew while I was having fun, for sure.

While not a Pre-Raphaelite, Lord Leighton's masterpiece Flaming June was also exhibited in the same room at the Museo de Ponce. Unfortunately the drama of the painting is greatly reduced by photography and by not showing it framed. Frames are an important element in Victorian and Eduardian painting, especially in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites who included some of their poetry in the frame. They in turn inspired William Morris, the creator of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The Puerto Rican Pre-Raphaelites will be in loan to the Tate in London until February next year.
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The WSJ's Five Best Books, on New York society, selected by Frances Kiernan:




(As a side note, when entering "Washington Square" in the Amazon search, it yielded "Good In Bed", not quite what one expects.)
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Today's shoes:
Ralph Lauren Women's Nadine Wedge Pump in navy,

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Pat has the Carnival of the Insanities. Go check it out.

More blogging later.



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Frozen Grand Central, and other Sunday items

Via The Anchoress, Frozen Grand Central
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The Ronulans are coming
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Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love?

Two words for Nicholas Kristof: 39th
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Laurie gets Morgellon's disease.
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Eric clarifies some Details which give me a splitting hair ache
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Is it real, or is it Mexifornia photoshop?
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Scrambling for Africa: A Conversation with John Ghazvinian
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Left bass player - sort of
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What is “Conservative” In This Republican Race?
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Last but not least, don't miss Jon's huge Blogroll amnesty day roundup.



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Voting in the age of Dr. Phil, hairless or hirsute, and other profound questions

Via Maria, Voting in the Age of 'Dr. Phil'

What Americans really want when they look into a politician's eyes is to see their own images reflected back, like in Narcissus' pool. The presidency in particular has become the highest ground in the culture war. Americans want a candidate who validates them personally. "I'm voting for him because he's a hunter like me." "I'm backing her because she's a woman too." "I'm for that guy because he's angry like me." Such sentiments have colored the presidential contest for so long, they've saturated it like stain into wood.

"Authenticity" - on which voters supposedly place such a premium - is really just a label put on self-validation. Bill Clinton infamously promised he felt our pain. Hillary Clinton similarly sold her 2000 bid for the Senate by arguing that she was more concerned about the issues that concern New Yorkers than her competitor. Question: Would you prefer a blase surgeon remove your appendix or a very concerned plumber?

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Did the Ronulans disappear overnight?

More on Ron Paul here.
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Via Beth, Do women prefer a man to be hairless or hirsute?

All I can say is, gentlemen, don't wax.
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Will the museum get a better door?
Stolen Picasso found in Sao Paulo

All the thieves had to do to get in was to use a hydraulic jack.
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Yes, but did he get grounded?: A Mexican boy glued his hand to his bed because he did not want to go back to school
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WARNING: Video contains the f-word:
Can anyone enjoy watching a movie on a screen smaller than a greeting card??

I agree with David Lynch.


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Are the rich an inexhaustible resource?, and today's items

Are the rich an inexhaustible resource? ask Betsy and Jonah Goldberg.

John Templeton answered that question by moving to the Bahamas and starting his Foundation, which grants The Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research of Discoveries about Spiritual Realities.
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GM Roper posts his Thoughts On The Eleventh Hour, Of The Eleventh Day, Of The Eleventh Month
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Ed Morrissey was on TV, and he looks lovely:


Don't miss yesterday's podcasts when I was Ed's guest, and earlier in the day, and earlier in the day Siggy's.
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Via the NY Sun, Milton Friedman talks about the free enterprise system:

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At Jeremayakovka's, Because The Beautiful Non-Violent Anarchist Revolution Needs A New York Chapter
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Gays should be hanged, says Iranian minister:

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference

Apologists carefully ignore it.

The Oh-So-Cosmopolitan Mullahcracy
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Via Maria,
To Understand the Left, Read this Issue of Rolling Stone. And keep an eye on the foul language, too.


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Hillary, the media and today's roster

Betsy's asking, Has the victim card been played out?
It'll never be played out. There's too much riding on the victimology industry.

It takes a village to tip a single mom
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Jihad on panties
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Siggy writes about Media Dances And Other Forms Of Distraction and this week's Useful Media Idiot of the Week
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Bernard Kerik has been indicted. I agree with Macsmind that "But this is good news in a way for Guilliani the story will be three days old by Monday."

Jammie Wearing Fool has the whole roster of Hillary cronies.

Green Mountain Politics has a good Giuliani impersonation.
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Via Larwyn, Roy Spencer on Global Warming
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As N.Y. Economy Sours, Aliens Plan To Leave for Home, or at least for Newark.
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The Van Gogh didn't sell
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Via Sex and the South,

Catholic Blair? Catholic Pre-Raphaelites?

Tony Blair to become Catholic Deacon?, asks The Anchoress

There's talk afloat that when he leaves office, Tony Blair may not simply become a Catholic, but that he may become a Permanent Deacon, as well

Athos of The Three Massketeers has an interesting new theory about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

But the most important piece of evidence that the PRB was not merely a romantic sigh for a lost Medievalism, I think, is the first point above. It was the Brotherhood's agreement to cloak their identity in a kind of counter-Protestant Reformation mentality, artistry, and loyalty. It was just sufficiently obscure and forthright that a curious investigator could easily connect the historical "dots" but most would not.

He does raise an interesting point. Any art scholars out there?

Planck's Constant's Mosaic

Bernie of Planck's Constant dedicated one of his beautiful mosaics to my blog
Thank you, Bernie.

I was Bernie and Layla's podcast guest last week (May 16).

(And no, that's not me in any of the pictures. Thanks for asking anyway.)

Les enfants du paradis communiste

The title refers to an old French movie but the post has to do with the current propaganda trend in central New Jersey, which implies that the viewer should take it all in, in an attitude of child-like innocence.

First we had the Princeton "Human Rights" Film Festival, now there's the Che show at the Mason Gross Galleries in New Brunswick (emphasis on gross), gloriously promoted in the local paper as,

The continued power of Che Guevara as a symbol of hope and opposition across cultures is examined at Mason Gross Galleries.

I'll give you some data on the "symbol of hope and opposition": here's a list of 216 documented victims of Che Guevara in Cuba, 1957-1959 (pdf file). Here's another list compiled by Dr. Armando Lago for his book,

EXECUTED BY CHE IN THE SIERRA MAESTRA MOUNTAINS
ARUSTIDIO
MANUEL CAPITAN
JUAN CHANG
EUTIMIO GUERRA
DIONISIO LEBRIGIO
JUAN LEBRIGIO
EL NEGRO NAPOLES
CHICHO OSORIO
DOS "NO-IDENTIFICADOS'' EN EL 04/57

EXECUTED BY CHE IN SANTA CLARA CITY
RAMON ALBA
JOSE BARROSO
JOAQUIN CASILLAS
FELIX CRUZ
HECTOR MIRABAL
J. MIRABAL
FELIX MONTANO
CORNELIO ROJAS
ALEJANDRO GARCIA OLAYON
ALEJANDRO ROJAS
VILALLA

EXECUTED BY CHE AT LA CABA�A PRISON IN HAVANA
VILAU ABREU
HUMBERTO AGUIAR
GERMAN AGUIRRE
PELAYO ALAYON
JOSE LUIS ALFARO
PEDRO ALFARO
MARIANO ALONSO
JOSE ALVARO
ANIELLA
MARIO ARES POLO
JOSE RAMON BACALLAO
CEVERINO BARRIOS
EUGENIO BECKER
FRANCISCO BECKER
RAMON BISCET
ROBERTO CALZADILLA
EUFEMIO CANO
JUAN CAPOTE FIALLO
ANTONIO CARRALERO
GERTRUDIS CASTELLANOS
JOSE CASTA�O QUEVEDO
RAUL CASTA�O
EUFEMIO CHALA
JOSE CHAMACE
JOSE CHAMIZO
RAUL CLAUSELL
ANGEL CLAUSELL
DEMETRIO CLAUSELL
JOSE CLAUSELL
ELOY CONTRERAS
ROBERTO CORBO
EMILIO CRUZ
JUAN FELIPE CRUZ
ORESTES CRUZ
HUMBERTO CUEVAS
CUNY
ANTONIO DE BECHE
MATEO DELGADO
ARMANDO DELGADO
RAMON DESPAIGNE
JOSE DIAZ CABEZAS
ANTONIO DUARTE
RAMON FERNANDEZ OJEDA
RUDY FERNANDEZ
FERRAN ALFONSO
SALVADOR FERRERO
VICTOR FIGUEREDO
EDUARDO FORTE
UGARDE GALAN
RAFAEL GARCIA MU�IZ
ADALBERTO GARCIA
ALBERTO GARCIA
JACINTO GARCIA
EVELIO GASPAR
ARMADA GIL
JOSE GONZALEZ MALAGON
EVARISTO GONZALEZ
EZEQUIEL GONZALEZ
SECUNDINO GONZALEZ
RICARDO GRAO
BONIFACIO GRASSO
RICARDO GRAU
OSCAR GUERRA
JULIAN HERNANDEZ
FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ LEYVA (father of Pepe Hernandez)
ANTONIO HERNANDEZ
GERARDO HERNANDEZ
OLEGARIO HERNANDEZ
SECUNDINO HERNANDEZ
JESUS INSUA
ENRIQUE IZQUIERDO
OSMIN JORRIN
SILVINO JUNCO
ENRIQUE LAROSA
IGNACIO LAAAPARRA
JESUS LAZO
ARIEL LIMA LAGO
RAUL LOPEZ VIDAL
ARMANDO MAS
ENERLIO MATA
ELPIDIO MEDEROS
JOSE MEDINAS
JOSE MESA
FIDEL MESQUIA
JUAN MILIAN
FRANCISCO MIRABAL
LUIS MIRABAL
ERNESTO MORALES
PEDRO MOREJON
DR. CARLOS MUI�O
CESAR NECOLARDES ROJAS
VICTOR NECOLARDES ROJAS
JOSE NU�EZ
VITERBO O'RREILLY
FELIX OVIEDO
MANUEL PANEQUE
PEDRO PEDROSO
RAFAEL PEDROSO
DIEGO PEREZ CUESTA
JUAN PEREZ
DIEGO PEREZ CRELA
JOSE POZO
EMILIO PUEBLA
ALFREDO PUPO
SECUNDINO RAMIREZ
RAMON RAMOS
PABLO RAVELO
RUBEN REY
MARIO RISQUELME
FERNANDO RIVERA
PABLO RIVERA
MANUEL RODRIGUEZ
MARCOS RODRIGUEZ
NEMESIO RODRIGUEZ
PABLO RODRIGUEZ
RICARDO RODRIGUEZ
JOSE SALDARA
PEDRO SANTANA
SERGIO SIERRA
JUAN SILVA
FAUSTO SILVA
ELPIDIO SOLER
JESUS SOSA BLANCO
RENATO SOSA
SERGIO SOSA
PEDRO SOTO
OSCAR SUAREZ
RAFAEL TARRAGO
TEODORO TELLEZ
FRANCISCO TELLEZ
JOSE TIN
FRANCISCO TRAVIESO
LEONARDO TRUJILLO
TRUJILLO
LUPE VALDES
MARCELINO VALDES
ANTONIO VALENTIN
MANUEL VAZQUEZ
VERDECIA
DAMASO ZAYAS

Here's one instance of Che's modus operandi:

A Cuban gentleman named Pierre San Martin was also among those jailed by the gallant Che. A few years ago he recalled the horrors in an El Nuevo Herald article.

"Thirty-two of us were crammed into a cell," he recalls. "Sixteen of us would stand while the other sixteen tried to sleep on the cold filthy floor. We took shifts that way. Actually, we considered ourselves lucky. After all, we were alive. Dozens were led from the cells to the firing squad daily. The volleys kept us awake. We felt that any one of those minutes would be our last.

"One morning the horrible sound of that rusty steel door swinging open startled us awake and Che's guards shoved a new prisoner into our cell. His face was bruised and smeared with blood. We could only gape. He was a boy, couldn't have been much older than 12, maybe 14.

"'What did you do?' We asked horrified. 'I tried to defend my papa,' gasped the bloodied boy. 'I tried to keep these Communist sons of b**tches form murdering him! But they sent him to the firing squad.'"

Soon Che's goons came back, the rusty steel door opened and they yanked the valiant boy out of the cell. "We all rushed to the cell's window that faced the execution pit," recalls Mr. San Martin. "We simply couldn't believe they'd murder him! Then we spotted him, strutting around the blood-drenched execution yard with his hands on his waist and barking orders � the gallant Che Guevara.

"Here Che was, finally in his element. In battle he was a sad joke, a bumbler of epic proportions [for details see "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant"], but up against disarmed and bloodied boys he was a snarling tiger.

"'Kneel Down!' Che barked at the boy.

"'ASSASSINS!' We screamed from our window. 'MURDERERS!! HOW CAN YOU MURDER A LITTLE BOY!'

"'I said, KNEEL DOWN!' Che barked again.

"The boy stared Che resolutely in the face. 'If you're going to kill me,' he yelled. 'you'll have to do it while I'm standing! MEN die standing!'

"COWARDS! MURDERERS! Sons of B**TCHES!" The men yelled desperately from their cells. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" HOW CAN ...?!"

"And then we saw Che unholstering his pistol. It didn't seem possible. But Che raised his pistol, put the barrel to the back of the boy's neck and blasted. The shot almost decapitated the young boy.
"We erupted. We were enraged, hysterical, banging on the bars.'MURDERERS! ASSASSINS!' His murder finished, Che finally looked up at us, pointed his pistol, and BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! emptied his clip in our direction. Several of us were wounded by his shots."

To a man (and boy) Che's murder victims went down in a blaze of defiance and glory. So let's recall Che's own plea when the wheels of justice finally turned and he was cornered in Bolivia. "Don't Shoot!" he whimpered. "I'm Che! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!"

Don't expect to find any of that at the Mason Gross Galleries in New Brunswick.

This is what happens to artists in present-day Cuba.

Venezuela and the Human Rights Foundation, and today's other items

Human Rights Foundation Condemns Venezuelan Government Shutdown of TV Station

In a meeting today in honor of Ban Ki-moon at the UN Association, Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen brought the escalating crisis over the impending shutdown of Venezuelan TV channel RCTV to the Secretary-General’s attention, giving him a copy of a letter to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, co-authored by former UN ambassador Armando Valladares

Meanwhile, Chavez wants to nationalize Sidor, Venezuela's biggest steel mill, which doesn't sit well with the Argentinians.
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The Dem's contempt for our great nation continues to manifest itself: now Steny Hoyer thinks we should also have to pay Guam reparations for what Imperial Japan did to Guam.
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Hamas' "Bloody Moderates": Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council:

"Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters," said Bahr, according to a transcript by the Middle East Media Research Institute. "Oh Allah, count their numbers and kill them all, down to the very last one . . . Defeat the Jews and the Americans."

Indeed, he added, Americans "are cowards who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America's nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia and everywhere."

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The Mexicans dropped trou for Spencer Tunick. Tunick's been at it before.
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Scaremongering at the WaPo: On Your Feet: High Heels' Effects on the Body
Nonsense. I just bought these and they are wonderful: they make for great legs, are comfortable enough to wear all day, and they look great with casual and with dressy clothes. So go ahead, wear heels.

Late afternoon blogging: The Shining ... romance

I posted about this song a couple of years ago:

Midnight, with the stars and you,
Midnight, and a rendezvous.
Your eyes held a message tender,
Saying, "I surrender all my love to you."
Midnight brought us sweet romance,
I know all my whole life through
I'll be remembering you,
Whatever else I do.
Midnight with the stars and you.Yes, that's the end of The Shining. However, when I hear this song I think of women in Mainbocher gowns and sixteen-button gloves and men in white tie dancing in Art Deco ballrooms.

Britain, not great, and today's items

Britain Was Once Great Britain

But today, the sun not only literally sets on an extinct British empire; it is figuratively setting on Britain itself.

Two recent examples provide evidence:

One is the way Britain handled the recent act of war against it by Iran. Everything about the British reaction revealed a civilization in decline.

Whether the British sailors and marines should have put up more resistance -- i.e., any resistance -- to the unprovoked Iranian military attack is something for military and other experts to decide. Whether the captured sailors and marines offered more information and more cooperation, and more smiles than was necessary to the leader of their kidnappers, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will also be determined in ongoing investigations. Whether the British government engaged in appeasement of Iran or ineffective diplomacy will also have to be judged.

What does seem clear, however, is that the British government did not confront the Iranians in any way reminiscent of a great country, let alone of Britain's great past. If we judge the British government's reaction alone -- without any reference to the behavior of the British sailors and marines -- Iran was the feared power, not Great Britain, which acted like the supplicant.

But what really makes one weep for Britain's lost greatness is what has happened since the sailors and marines were released.

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The NY Sun has an interesting series of editorials on Antiquities and Patrimony; The New Yorker has more.
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There's a fatwa against the Jawa Report.
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News Flash: People Get Nasty on the Blogosphere!
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Last Fall Harrods was throwing out soldiers in uniform on Veteran's Day. Now the trend's crossed the Atlantic and we have Marines in Dress Uniforms Kicked Out of Target Store
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Obama doesn't know that Congressional ethics rules forbid the use of federal office space for political and campaign activity.

Thank you, Larwyn.
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In a lighter mode, after last Friday's item on bamboo and kudzu - where Siggy said that bamboo is polically correct kudzu - Obi's Sister sent a link to this:

from the author of

I'm sure Ms Balwin will never run out of kudzu to write about, but if she does, she can move North and write about bamboo.

It turns out there are TWO more books on kudzu cooking:

I don't think that even my friend who loves spinach would go for the kudzu.

Later afternoon blogging: Stabat Mater

A blessed Good Friday to all my visitors,