The Politics Of Disgust

“It’s an aversion to being sullied by something one views as degrading or foreign,” says philosopher Martha Nussbaum. “The things that inspire that idea are typically reminders of our animality and bodily nature.” And it’s ultimately what lies behind everything from resistance to women’s suffrage to Jim Crow laws to opposition to same-sex marriage.

Humanities Funding On The Chopping Block In Virginia

“The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities stands to lose $290,000 in state funding in the next fiscal year and have all remaining support — more than $1 million — withdrawn in 2011, according to a proposed budget. The foundation runs more than 20 statewide programs on literature, history and culture, including the Virginia Festival of the Book.”

US National Medal Of Arts To Dylan, Eastwood, Stella, Maya Lin, MTT

The honorees include singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, actor/director Clint Eastwood, designer/artists Milton Glaser and Maya Lin, singer/dancer/actress Rita Moreno, soprano Jessye Norman, painter/sculptor Frank Stella, conductor/composers Michael Tilson Thomas and John Williams, and Charleston (SC) mayor/Spoleto Festival USA champion Joseph P. Riley Jr.