Absolute Relativism

On the way to work today I overheard a conversation on the train that was rather bothersome. No I really don't make it a habit to listen to other people's conversations but these were the only people speaking in the whole train (it was like 7:30 after all) and they were right next to me.

So now that I've justified my eavesdropping, here's what they were talking about. One was decrying the Louvre (famous art museum in France) saying they would never go there, but oh the glories of the Centre Pompidou! So in one sentence they slammed some of the greatest works of art (Mona Lisa, housed in the Louvre) while showing deep appreciation for the utter crap in the Centre Pompidou.

Ok, ok, bear with me, I know discussing French museums is slightly uncharacteristic but really, elevating the Centre Pompidou over the Louvre? If you haven't seen the Centre, look up some pictures. Not only does it look absurd, but its contents are equally ridiculous.

Modern art is based on the contradictory presumption of absolute relativism. That is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ok maybe you don't think this picture of two colored dots that took zero talent to produce isn't beautiful, but I do. So there is no absolute standard in the light of which art is evaluated, except for that of relativism. Anything is allowed except for some antique notion of quality criteria.
Throw it all out the window and put a urinal on display and call it art.

Ridiculous.

In other (unrelated...well maybe not) news, my favorite green, wet-behind-the-ears Democrat is severely damaging our reputation abroad. My man Obama is now calling for an invasion of our ally, Pakistan. This shows he knows absolutely nothing about a) conducting a war, especially the current one, and b) how to not tick of a sovereign country, especially if we allied with them.

The balance is delicate enough with members of Congress calling for military strikes in someone's backyard because of what you think you know. As this article describes and critiques, we already do that Mr. Obama. In fact recently we have taken out several top Al-Qaeda leadership.

Here is Pakistan's response, effectively putting the ignorant senator in his place. Not my favorite country, but they do a nice job of putting Dems in their place.

This is simply a taste of the incompetency we would experience with a Democrat in office. The perceived diplomatic failures of President Bush will pale in comparison.