Fully Articulated Productions

The Definition of "Success" In Iraq?

Excellent observation (with visual) from the Left on the Lake blog:

The Definition of "Success" In Iraq?

I don't know for sure, but it starts with your Secretary of State not having to wear body armor between the plane and her motorcade.

Link: The Definition of "Success" In Iraq?.

Debating the spoiled-brat tax - The Boston Globe

By Ellen Goodman:

The Death Tax? In 2009, only estates worth more than $3.5 million (or $7 million for a couple) would be taxed. That's three out of every 1,000 estates. After exemptions and deductions, the effective tax rate on average is estimated to be 17 percent. Why exactly should the money handed down to super-rich heirs be tax-free while the money earned by your children be taxable income?

Link: Debating the spoiled-brat tax - The Boston Globe.

Death—the Ultimate Free Lunch� By Michael Kinsley

Inheritance Tax - A "problem" for rich reople

[Economist Martin] Feldstein, undeterred, tries a new twist: The estate tax, he argues, encourages people to make deductible contributions to charity, so abolishing the estate tax will make them stingier, which will mean fewer income-tax dollars lost to the charitable deduction. Possibly true, but I'd like to see the Republicans this fall campaigning on a call to increase tax revenues by discouraging donations to charity. And, as a special treat, Feldstein throws in a similar argument that abolishing the estate tax will encourage rich parents to hoard their wealth until the end, rather than helping out their children in lower income-tax brackets. Another good one for the campaign trail.

Link: Death—the Ultimate Free Lunch� By Michael Kinsley.

Smithsonian TV Contract Spurs Panel To Cut Funds

From The Washington Post:

The secrecy around the production contract between the Smithsonian Institution and CBS/Showtime Networks prompted lawmakers yesterday to cut $5.3 million from the museum's proposed budget. In addition, a leading Democrat said the leadership of Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small was seriously flawed.

The Smithsonian says the contract requires commercial filmmakers who want to make extensive use of the institution's collections to reach an agreement with Showtime. Smithsonian officials have refused to make the contract public, and members of Congress said they were surprised to learn of the deal through the media.

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Boing Boing: Smithsonian becomes Showtime's exclusive first-refusal archive

Can this possibly be true - a deal like this between a public institution and a purely commercial entity? Anyone who is in the business of nonfiction has to be deeply concerned about what something like this alliance means.

Link: Boing Boing: Smithsonian becomes Showtime's exclusive first-refusal archive.

Also noted on Boing Boing: Brown University's Steven Lubar points out a similar agreement with HarperCollins that effectively wiped out the Smithsonian Institution Press.

From an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

SMITHSONIAN LIMBO: In October 2002, the Smithsonian Institution Press released Picturing the Past: Illustrated Histories and the American Imagination, 1840-1900, by Gregory M. Pfitzer, now a professor of American studies at Skidmore College. Mr. Pfitzer was initially pleased with the way the press treated his book, which explores how 19th-century mass-market paintings and lithographs expressed ideas about America's early colonial history.

But things soon went sour. Mr. Pfitzer's book was published at the beginning of a profound transition at — and some say, the collapse of — the 160-year-old press. In the summer of 2002, under orders to become financially self-sustaining, the press hired a new director, Don Fehr, who had extensive experience with trade publishers in New York. Between 2002 and 2004, Mr. Fehr put together a new sales-and-distribution deal with W.W. Norton. He also steered the press away from scholarly titles toward trade projects with potentially broad appeal. (Along the way, the press's name was shortened to Smithsonian Books.)

Early news reports suggested that Mr. Fehr's efforts put the press on the path toward solvency. But at the beginning of 2005, under continued pressure from the Smithsonian's chief bean counters, the press radically scaled back its Washington operations and entered a new era as an imprint of HarperCollins. Mr. Fehr moved into the New York offices of HarperCollins last February.

Link

Boy, 12, Sticks Gum on $1.5M Painting

A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of gum to a $1.5 million painting, leaving a stain the size of a quarter, officials say.

The boy was part of a school group from Holly that visited the museum on Friday, officials say. They say he took a piece of Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's "The Bay," an abstract painting from 1963.

The museum acquired the work in 1965 and says it is worth about $1.5 million.

Funny because on the blog where I first saw this (boing boing), post-er David Pescovitz was sure to note that "image seen here is the painting, not the gum."

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