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Instead of our federal government mandating that everybody pays for the NEA through taxes wouldn't it make more sense if we could VOLUNTARILY pay for it by individual or corporate tax deductible donations? I understand it's important to support the arts, but what is considered art is a matter of SUBJECTIVE opinion. I'll bet that if there was an option on every tax return where people could volunteer a tax deductible donation they would actually collect more money for the NEA. Some of the "art" exhibits that have been supported by the NEA don't qualify as art IMO. For example a cross soaking in urine (that was in a museum somewhere believe it or not) isn't art. I don't want my tax dollars going to the NEA. I DO want my tax dollars going to keep up infrastructure, taking care of our troops, the military, and what protects us. Art and music is subjective. If you're a struggling artist there's probably a good reason for it. People aren't BUYING it and/or you are not marketing it properly. You shouldn't be bailed out by tax dollars if your "art" isn't redeeming enough that people aren't buying it. As far as supporting art & music in our schools that should be a local and state matter. I believe that art and music education strengthens the learning process, especially mathematics, but it's NOT the job of the federal government to make that decision. The recent elections showed that the majority of Americans want the governement to get leaner and meaner. One place to start is the NEA.

fisherman bob wrote:Instead of our federal government mandating that everybody pays for the NEA through taxes wouldn't it make more sense if we could VOLUNTARILY pay for it by individual or corporate tax deductible donations? I understand it's important to support the arts, but what is considered art is a matter of SUBJECTIVE opinion. I'll bet that if there was an option on every tax return where people could volunteer a tax deductible donation they would actually collect more money for the NEA. Some of the "art" exhibits that have been supported by the NEA don't qualify as art IMO. For example a cross soaking in urine (that was in a museum somewhere believe it or not) isn't art. I don't want my tax dollars going to the NEA. I DO want my tax dollars going to keep up infrastructure, taking care of our troops, the military, and what protects us. Art and music is subjective. If you're a struggling artist there's probably a good reason for it. People aren't BUYING it and/or you are not marketing it properly. You shouldn't be bailed out by tax dollars if your "art" isn't redeeming enough that people aren't buying it. As far as supporting art & music in our schools that should be a local and state matter. I believe that art and music education strengthens the learning process, especially mathematics, but it's NOT the job of the federal government to make that decision. The recent elections showed that the majority of Americans want the governement to get leaner and meaner. One place to start is the NEA.

A better place to start is the military.

http://dailycensored.com/2010/03/30/there-is-a-thing-about-opinions/

I know it offends people to fund anything they don't support. Bad art is on the bottom of my list, though. It is a drop in the bucket. Also, there are some ventures worthy of support that wouldn't survive the market. But, they serve the public interest and it may be worth taking a loss to keep them.

I am a supporter of the military, don't get me wrong. But the budget for it is out of control. Wasn't there a story last year where the generals said they didn't need one type of plane anymore, but the senator from kentucky or somewhere forced them into the budget anyway? That kind of stuff is just f**k ridiculous. I'm willing to bet less than half of the pentagon's budget goes towards keeping the troops alive and helping them get the job done, and the rest is crap.


The "administration" one pisses me off as well. I wonder how much less that would be if the gov't went paperless?

and what the f**k is "X"?

It's simply hard to cut the military spending when we're at war. At the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor I believe the United States mmilitary was on a par with Rumania's military (roughly 24th biggest military?). I agree there's probably tremendous waste in the military but I'd rather go to my enemy's funeral than they go to mine. In order to freely promote and sell your music, and that includes free of censorship, it's kind of necessary for example to keep the Taliban from ruling this country. I dare say Mike that if you were located in some fundamentalist Islamic nation your head would have been severed from your body a long time ago...

dizzizz wrote:I am a supporter of the military, don't get me wrong. But the budget for it is out of control. Wasn't there a story last year where the generals said they didn't need one type of plane anymore, but the senator from kentucky or somewhere forced them into the budget anyway? That kind of stuff is just f**k ridiculous. I'm willing to bet less than half of the pentagon's budget goes towards keeping the troops alive and helping them get the job done, and the rest is crap.


The "administration" one pisses me off as well. I wonder how much less that would be if the gov't went paperless?

and what the f**k is "X"?

X= IRAQ

That is most skewered pie chart that any one has ever had the balls to put up.

Medicare and medicaid are chewing up tax dollars faster than the feds can print money. Wait till the provisions for healthcare kick in. SS, so far in debt but we just keep putting plugs in a sinking ship.

That site is the biggest bunch of socialist crap I have ever seen. IF anyone doesn't like it , go join the RIOTS in Greece ,Spain ,Portugal, and now england when people are learning the hard reality that NOTHING IS FREE.

MOVE , STOP STEALING , MY tax dollars to pay for , as that site put it "EVERYONE"

Mike you have been trying to mend some bridges but DON'T TREAD ON ME.

TRANSLATED.... DFWME!!!! Yeah I am a real hard ass and yeah TRY ME.

fisherman bob wrote:It's simply hard to cut the military spending when we're at war. At the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor I believe the United States mmilitary was on a par with Rumania's military (roughly 24th biggest military?). I agree there's probably tremendous waste in the military but I'd rather go to my enemy's funeral than they go to mine. In order to freely promote and sell your music, and that includes free of censorship, it's kind of necessary for example to keep the Taliban from ruling this country. I dare say Mike that if you were located in some fundamentalist Islamic nation your head would have been severed from your body a long time ago...

A Christian Fundamentalist nation wouldn't fare much better.

I am not scared of Muslims the way our fear-mongering dear leaders WANT us to be. You're more likely to die in a car wreck than ever meet an Islamic Fudamentalist.
Of course it is hard to cut military spending when an undeclared endless war is foisted upon us. That's why they have no incentive to stop it. If you've read the plan drawn up by The Project For A New American Century to have a "New Pearl Harbor" and the declassified Pentagon plan drawn up in the Sixties to stage a false flag attack on our own citizens you'd put 2+2 together, with the inconsistencies of the official story, to realize 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB.

It isn't THAT difficult to manipulate masses of people, especially stampede them with fear.

Israeli-Arab six day war 1967-Inside job Munich Olympic terror attack 1972-Indside job Bislan School terror attack-inside job Lockerbie Scotland Jet Bombing-Inside Job Mumbai hotel attack=Inside job Madrid and London commuter train and bus attacks-Inside job Moscow theatre terror attack-Inside job Bali bombing-Inside job U.S. African embassies attacked simultaneously-Inside job Entebbe Airport hijacking-inside job Countless suicide and rocket attacks against Israel-inside job Lebanon suicide marine barracks attack-Inside job U.S.S. aircraft carrier (Cole?) attack-inside job 1993 World Trade Bombing-Inside job Does anybody see a pattern here?

Inside job theorists crack me up... I mean hell, not even wikileaks can uncover substantial REAL empirical evidence that it was. Have any idea the level of logistics and material that would have to be moved to get an artificial effect like the one seen after the jetfuel heated oxidized iron met high quality aluminum for an extended time? Or am I the only one here with a thermite formula?

As for the endowment for the arts, I have no sympathy. I should not be forced to support someone elses expression.

The military on the other hand is a constitutional requirement. We have to have a force both on the federal and state side to protect ourselves.

We do not have to have monkeys with paintbrushes. (Literally.... not figuratively.)

Medicare and Medicade as well as social security are unconstitutional. So is the current Obama-care. So is the IRS.

sh*t... I started and now I am applying the brakes before this turns into a 5 page rant I am so tired of sharing. Suffice it to say, the federal government needs an enema, and the NEA would be a great place to start.

The inside job theorists don't understand or can't believe there are actually people, some very intelligent people, who want to destroy us, primarily because we support Israel. It's hard for 1 billion Moslems to stomach the fact that a few million Israelis still have their country right smack dab in the middle of the Arab world over 60 years after Israel was created. In the Moslem mind there has to be external reasons for the Israelis existence and that reason is the U.S.A. As long as Israel exists there will be terror attacks against it and the supporters of Israel. We just have to get used to a dangerous world because terror will not stop. It's truly sad that people really believe 911 was created by us. Just like the U.S. is responsible for all the other terror attacks in nearly every country on planet Earth...

I have to agree with Mike on this... and Bob!
BB I have to disagree with you.

Societies without the arts never survive. The government employs more Americans than the manufacturing industry since NAFTA began.

1 million Americans have top secret security clearance. If you add the line and staff attached to those clearances, you now have the largest single sector of the population...
Thus we have become a military state with an insatiable appetite for more, and more, and more.

50cents of each of our dollars go directly or indirectly to the military industrial complex.
25% of the GNP goes to black opps with no accountability required for spending... NONE!

We are supporting a military state. Period!

Oh, and I support the arts, but don't like the way the funds are spent.

I have read nothing but the title of this thread, cuz I don't want anything to color my response.

Is the NEA ncessary?

YES! Any culture that doesn't promote the arts is lacking something, imho.

You may not like what those artists render, but - remember this - their work has been made available to you by a gov't that doesn't intrude upon their free expression. That gives me far more hope for our chances to advance, as a society, than anything else I see, in this country.

All we ever hear about are the horror stories of what this guy or that has done with his funding - the porn, the anti-American sentiment shown in horrid ways, & the like. We never get any news coverage of those who actually produce the best work that there is out there, cuz our media is always seeking the worst in us.

I say that we should leave NPR, public TV, & the NEA alone, to do as they will. They are a HUGE part of what makes this country great. Just because you disagree, or find fault with SOME of what they produce, doesn't mean that everything they do is wrong for us all.

In every case of great civilizations in the history of mankind, there was subsidization of the arts. When this stops, the civilization loses its soul. When it is overly intervened with, the society becomes fascist in nature.

If it bugs you all that much, get good enough at your craft that you may apply for your own grant, & create your own works that should uplift us all.

no.

I support the arts ... every time I buy a new guitar.

Hell just send the money to me.

Government was never intended to " support " everything.

Only to provide a safe and free environment for it to grow.

Besides, which bureaucratic dipshit gets to decide what is ART.

Speaking of endowment, you guys should have seen the boobies I came across today

sanshouheil wrote:Speaking of endowment, you guys should have seen the boobies I came across today