MOG

jesse's fav'rite paintin'
is the one with the clown
with the daisy in his hand
and the tear runnin' down...

Former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms has given America a great Independence Day gift - he has left the building for good.

Pseronally, i'm pretty sure that Jesse has gone on to hisjust reward, and he is never again going to need to buy any heating oil.

Back in his days in the Senate, when Jesse was proud to be the most reactionary member of that body (outside, possibly, of Strom Thurmond), he campaigned agains abortion and agains gay rights and against civil rights and against most anything that was a good idea.

One of the things that he was against (on which i'm personally ambivalent) was public funding for the arts.

Jesse was against it for religious/"moral" reasons, at least partly, but he was against it because he just didn't think the gummint ought be supportin' a buncha lazy so-called "artists" who oughtta get jobs...

A standard argument against public funding for the arts is that if the artists are any good, they can support themselves on the proceeds from their art and won't need public support.  Uh-huh. This theory overlooks the fact that Vincent van Gogh sold one painting during hislifetime - and that was to someone his brother Theo gave the money to buy it to, in hopes that it might encourage Vincent to become slf-supporting...

And, of course, let us consider the brilliant musicians who never manage to quit their day jobs; John Fahey, say, who, near the end of his career, had to borrow money to get his guitar out of the pawn shop whenever he had a chance to cut another album...

Anyway, Jesse came down hard against funding for the arts.

Which inspired Loudon Wainwright III to write this little ditty in tribute to a great Murrikin: