Another national jewel loses its luster - Thanks George .... you fuckwad.

[Stinky The Clown]

This time it is the national Arboretum, one of the real treasures in Washington that no one knows is there, let alone visits.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24320070/

It seems funding is being cut yet again, by a paltry few million, which to bush is nothing but which to the Arboretum is huge.

Funding has been declining for .... tada ...... eight years.

Funny how that works, huh?

Just like the arts.

If it it don't blow its gotta go.

[grasswire]

1. I love that place

Beautiful old thing, it is. I've spent many a happy hour there. This is a sad day for Washington.

What's next? Blocks of marble falling off the Washington Monument?

[MADem]

3. Well, chunks of the facade DID fall off the Supreme Court. Rather fitting, that, though...

A walk down memory lane, to 2005: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10238765/

WASHINGTON - A basketball-sized piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building. No one was hurt.

The chunk of Vermont marble was part of the dentil molding that serves as a frame for nine sculptural figures completed in 1935. The piece that fell was over the figure of Authority, near the peak of the building’s pediment, and to the right of the figure of Liberty, who has the scales of justice on her lap.

A group of visitors had just entered the building and had passed under the pediment when the stone fell at 9:30 a.m. EST.

A dentil molding, top center, on the facade of the Supreme Court is damaged after a piece of the marble detail fell from the building on Monday.The marble chunk, above the allegorical figure representing "Order," fell about an hour before the court opened. No one was injured.

[XemaSab]

7. Nice fasces

:thumbsup:

[lonestarnot]

9. WOW, Lady Justice must be pissed.

[Warpy]

10. No, he'll preserve anything that looks phallic

[Stinky The Clown]

12. My favorite thing is the bonsai collection the Japanese gave us in 1976 for the Bicentennial

Some of those trees are over 500 years old. That just blows me away.

A blue cedar
http://www.bonsai4me.com/Gallery/GALNatArbJohnQuinn/Blue%20Atlas%20cedar%20from%20John%20Naka,%20in%20training%20since%201950.jpg

An ezo spruce
http://www.bonsai4me.com/Gallery/GALNatArbJohnQuinn/Ezo%20spruce%20from%20Mr%20Tokuei%20Tanaka,%20in%20training%20since%201925.jpg

A pomegranate
http://www.bonsai4me.com/Gallery/GALNatArbJohnQuinn/Pomegranate,%20in%20training%20since%201963,%20from%20Alice%20Naka.jpg

A bald cypress (not one of the trees form Japan)(note the training wires)
http://www.bonsai4me.com/Gallery/GALNatArbJohnQuinn/Bald%20Cypress%20from%20Guy%20Guidry,%20in%20training%20since%201987.jpg

An amazing azalea
http://www.bonsai4me.com/Gallery/GALNatArbJohnQuinn/Eleagnus,%20in%20training%20since%201825,%20from%20Mr.%20Takahashi.jpg

A trident maple
http://www.bonsai4me.com/Gallery/GALNatArbJohnQuinn/trident,%20in%20training%20since%201856,%20from%20Mr.%20Isozaki.jpg

A grove of tridents


A newcomer, created from several bonsai, each initially from plain old nursery stock, in 1984, this has become the gem of the collection


These are just a small part of the whole collection. To my mind, they represent true beauty and true works of generational art, some of them having outlived their initial crafters by tens of generations.

[mediaman007]

2. You've got to understand Bush*. Put more money into Iraq, so

we can protect the National Arboretum over there, then they can't attack it over here!

(sarcasm, just in case)

[kestrel91316]

5. Hm. More like "spend all our money over there so we don't have to

spend it here"......

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. DUzy!

:thumbsup:

[peekaloo]

4. if he can't pronounce it he won't fund it.

[housewolf]

8. No doubt his intent is to cause it to fall into such ruin

that it will need to be "privatized" in order to "preserve" it.

Isn't that his strategy????

[orleans]

11. if he can't pee all over it in person he'll do it by way of cutting funding n/t