Harry´s Blog

Herbert Kuhner

A contorted “manikin piss,” with the stream directed orally, symbolizes man’s capacity for self-nourishment. It was set up at the Salzburg Festival as art, but its practicality belies that categorization. And the act depicted is not an innovation; Gunter Brus, the actionist, has been doing precisely that for decades.

A platinum skull studded with diamonds - the materials alone valued at 12 million - is another matter. Although the object is modestly estimated at a hundred million, it has been termed extravagant junk by some. They are wrong!

It will be worth every penny of its final price, whatever that may be.

Since cans of Campbell’s tomato soup and comic strips have been declared art, art has been moribund, and now it has been in its last throes.

The diamond-studded skull is its last gasp and symbolizes the death of it.

 * * *

Shenanigans in the Secession and “Freedom of Art”

In February of 2010, the hallowed halls of the Secession were transformed into a Swingers’ Club with audience participation. This is complementary to an exhibit by Swiss artist Christoph Büchel, which includes models exercising in sado-masochistic contraptions.

Yes, ladies and gents, that’s the state of art today.

Gerald Matt, Director of the Vienna “Kunsthalle,” answers the critics of the exhibit: “That’s exactly what was said about the Actionists in the Nineteen-Sixties, and Actionism has long since been established as art.”

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Herbert Kuhner

Father Gerhard Maria Wagner of Windischgarsten, Upper Austria, posits:
“They are God’s punishment for man’s sinful behavior.”

“Hurricane Katrina was a result of spiritual pollution. It is surely not an accident that all five of New Orleans’ abortion clinics, as well as nightclubs were destroyed. It’s not just any old city that has gone under, but a dream city with the best brothels and the most beautiful whores.”

Sounds like it was a great place. Sodom and Gomorrah must have been nothing in comparison. But I guess the Deity didn’t like it much. He’s always been a wet blanket.

Concerning the earthquake in Haiti, Father Wagner ventures: “God does not show us his cards.” And he goes on to say, “It is interesting that in Haiti, 90 percent are followers of voodoo cults.”

I’ve always wondered why such catastrophes occur. I’m grateful to Father Wagner for cluing me in.

In Feb 2009, Pope XVII appointed Wagner as auxiliary Bishop of Linz, but after a storm of protest, Wagner decided to stay in Windischgarsten. What a loss for Linz! - and for Austria.

The people you should know
are the people you wouldn’t want to know.

Herbert Kuhner

CNN lags behind Fox in the polls. Why?
The answer is simple: Fox puts on a better show.
Malice always sells well. Morality - less so.

Some say that CNN has an assortment
of carney barkers and kindergarten teachers
that would be more appropriate for Sesame Street
and that the news is presented as a spectacle.

Those detractors are as wet as can be.
Has there ever been a more austere set
of deliverers of bad tidings and gossip?

But no matter what criticism is leveled,
no one could even dream of taking umbrage
with the star of stars, the friendly explainer
whose manifold explanations and exhortations
are not merely delivered orally,
but with sweeping rhapsodic hand gestures
and appropriate facial expressions.

She is so convincing and well-meaning
that you simply just have to agree with her.

Cynics have called her Goody-Two-Shoes,
But they’re merely envious of her following.

She wagged her finger at the Moslem Brotherhood,
those paragons of machismo and misogamy,
as well as advocates of indiscriminate violence,
rebuking them for their attitude towards women.

Morality is her business.
She’s fighting for a better world,
and she’s a paradigm of all good things.

No matter how bad the situation,
she’s in command, enunciating solutions
in her yummy-plummy manner.

Way to go Christiane!

Newscasters

I wondered about the decline in announcers. I thought that it was just part of the deterioration that is occurring in giant strides on all fronts. But there seems to be method to it. A BBC man in Vienna explained it this way: Previously newscasters talked down to you, but now they talk directly to you.

The old-style announcers spoke mellifluous English of either the British or American variety. They had information to convey to you, their descriptions had a literary quality and they brought a warm sense of humor into play. And God knows, humor is needed to make this strife- and war-torn world bearable!

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Herbert Kuhner

The Tenth Anniversary of the Schüssel-Haider Tandem Is Upon Us

Here They Are Taking Positions on Bygone Days:

Wolfgang Schüssel: Austria Victim not Perpetrator

Question: Does Austria consider itself as a perpetrator or victim 60 years after the war?
Wolfgang Schüssel: I believe that this question has been decided. The country (Austria) was a victim of aggression, specifically a military aggression. That was proven in the night after the occupation when thousands were arrested. If the Nazi leadership thought that all of Austria was cheering, these arrests would not have been carried out. The entire political elite was de facto cancelled out. There was resistance in all political groups. The allies recognized this…I will never permit Austria not be viewed as a victim. Our country was the first military victim of the Nazis in its identity. But I do not want to create the impression that we intend to minimize or erase the individual guilt of perpetrators in any sense
Question: Does the People’s Party intend to have post-war history researched, as the Social Democratic Party has done?
Schüssel: The entire leadership of the People’s Party (ÖVP) was in concentration camps and were victims.
- Wolfgang Schüssel, Austrian Chancellor, Neue Züricher Zeitung, Feb. 15, 2005; Austrian Federal Chancellory Online.

Otto Habsburg Comes into the Picture:

“Again and again there are shameful discussions concerning Austrians having been accomplices or victims. This makes it imperative for me to say that there is certainly no country in Europe that can more adequately describe itself as a victim than Austria!…When there’s a great commotion somewhere, many people will come to cheer. If you mention the
crowd of 60,000 at Heldenplatz (Heroes’ Square) - there are 60,000 fans at every soccer game.”
- Otto Habsburg, the Austrian Parliament Commemorates the „Anschluss”, March 11, 2008

Kurt Waldheim Presents His View:

Saying farewell to the concept of having been nothing but a victim is essential, yes that is a necessity for Austrians. It was the basis of our spiritual equilibrium after 1945, as well as for our reconstruction and our post-war identity.
- Kurier, March 5, 2006, p. 3

Jörg Haider on Our Soldiers:

“Our soldiers weren’t perpetrators. The perpetrators were elsewhere…. I have said that the Wehrmacht soldiers made democracy, as we find it today in Europe, possible. Had they not afforded resistance, had they not been in the East, had they not been in a confrontation, then we would have…  (Haider is interrupted by two astute Profil editors.)  (1)  I have stated that the struggle soldiers were engaged in helped stem the communist menace, and that is an undeniable fact.(2)   Their sacrifice must not have been in vain. Without their valor, we would not have the freedom in Western Europe that we take for granted. (3)   In these unsettling times there decent individuals with character, who stick to their beliefs despite strong opposition and remain true to them today as well. That is a good basis, my dear friends, for us younger people to inherit. (4)   Your sacrifice for the Europe of today, men and women of the military generation, should not have been in vain.(5)    It is incomprehensible to me that our grandfathers and fathers should have been criminals… I espouse this generation, the dead as well as the living. (6)  The Third Reich had managed to implement a competent employment policy.” (7)

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Tony Blair to Iraq Inquiry, Jan. 30, 2010:
“Frankly, I would do it all again….Blair’s cockeyed logic: “If Saddam hadn’t been removed “today we would have a situation where Iraq was competing with Iran both in terms of nuclear capability and in respect of support of terrorist groups.”
 

Thumbs Down on Blair!

Opposition to Blair (as President of the E.U.) centers on his support for the war in Iraq. The war was mishandled and misbegotten - but if Blair had abandoned the United States, there would be little left of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance that was the rock on which the E.U. was built.
- Roger Cohen, “Giving Europe a Voice,” New York Times, Oct. 19, 2009

Bush, Cheney and Blair liberated Iraq and tens of thousands of Iraqis from life, as well as thousands of American and British soldiers. They invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, thus removing the buffer to Iran, making the United States and Israel more vulnerable. After pushing the Taliban back in Afghanistan, Bush & Co. let the country go to pot, increasing the danger to the Western World.

Blair did not simply go along with the invasion of Iraq. He passionately and eloquently made the case for it. He claimed that secular Saddam Hussein was in a tandem with sectarian Osama bin Laden, which was pure and unadulterated mendacity.

Those responsible for the senseless deaths of thousands belong in the dock in the Hague.
 

Buying from Blair

When Bush and Blair declared their aims concerning Iraq,
I wasn’t buying anything from Bush, but I lent my ear to Blair.
Blair’s eloquent casus belli was a rousing call
that brought King Harry’s Agincourt speech to mind.
I didn’t quite accept it, but I couldn’t quite reject it.
I was more than sceptical about the affiliation between bin Laden and Saddam
which Blair claimed was tightening.
But all-in-all, I could fathom the MPs voting for Blair’s resolution.
It would be hard not to.
Robin Cook’s resignation from the government got me thinking.
His actions look good in retrospect, and they look even better
after death silenced his voice.

At any rate, Blair threw me off track.
I sat on the fence.

I had Bush, Cheney and Condi figured out,
but I still didn’t have a handle on Blair.

He looks well meaning and sincere,
and he hasn’t tripped himself up with his own quotes.

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According to “Profil(e)”Austria is in the lead.
You’re Number One on the European Tally of Smokers.
Austria, you may be runner-up to Hungary on Suicide,
but you’re two up on Hungary in Smoking.

Harry Congratulates the Champion!

from The Grey Haze/Der blaue Dunst

There are thousands, millions, billions of chimneys
polluting the atmosphere of the world
that are producing nothing but inane expressions on faces.

The Man in the Windbreaker
The man in the Windbreaker became the symbol for the new activity. The cult poster showed James Dean walking through a Broadway puddle on the Boulevard of Broken Wind. The hit tunes were Wind is in the Air; All You Need Is Wind; I Can’t Give You Anything but Wind, Baby and Wind is Sweeping the Country. The Anthem became Today the Nation, Tomorrow the World. Men insisted that breaking was masculine and was part of the tough guy image. But women, not to be outdone, made it their own. Feminists declared that breaking represented liberation. Women not only smoke at kaffee klatsches but did is openly on the streets.

The new craze displaced chain-smoking, gum-chewing and -snapping as well as screeching walkman headphones. It simply became the thing to do. Intellectuals would look at you serenely and dreamily as they broke. It seemed to inspire high flights into the cerebral stratosphere. Workers broke on the job, claiming that it improved their speed and efficiency. In restaurants, breakers would come to sit at your table and break without asking, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do (which it was). Some would even go as far as to break in your face.

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