The Rome, Ga. News posted an uncredited editorial on their website on the Gordon Lee trial, which illustrates how ludicrous the whole thing is. It even has some comic references, but this was probably my favorite part:
INDEED, THE SETTING in which all this is taking place turns it into a comic farce. A couple of blocks from where this courtroom “drama” goes on endlessly, and right in front of City Hall in full public view, stands a statue of a fully anatomically endowed Romulus and Remus being suckled by the famed Capitoline wolf. They don’t show a thing that the Picasso picture didn’t also show.
Photos of that statue adorn untold amounts of official brochures, are found on city Web sites and so forth. Indeed, along with the Clock Tower, those undressed little male humans are considered to be the “symbol” of Rome.
So, a question: If a child sees that statue, or such a brochure, or bumps into it on a Web site, should all local officials be prosecuted for distributing harmful materials to minors? Should the Justice League of America be sent in pursuit of these evil doers?
The defense rests … or would, if it weren’t doubled over in the aisles laughing.
EDIT: Thanks to Bully for this photo of the above-referenced statue:
November 29th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
This can’t be true, can it? I mean, it makes sense. It’s totally believable that a town named Rome would have statues like that. But… but… my brain just melted.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Photographic proof.
November 29th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
There is a degree of absurdity here that is almost cosmic in scope. And the newspaper editorial in question would seem to have sealed that absurdity in whatever media that statuary was created in.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I , for 1, can attest to the statue being there. I live about an hour from Rome myself.
I used to buy my stuff from Gordan when I lived in Rome but have since moved closer to Chattanooga, Tn. Gordan has always been a great guy and very helpful to myself , as well as others that come into the shop. He has really built that place into 1 of the best LCB shops in the area from when I 1st bought from him back in the 80′s.
This whole thing is a great big witch hunt and nothing else. There is definately things that need addressing in our country as far as indency goes, but this is NOT 1 of them.
I sure hope this thing finally blows over for him. Blew me away when I 1st saw it.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I have followed the Gordon Lee case for awhile. In fact, at one point, I interviewed CBLDF’s Brownstein for SBC. This is the first time I’ve noticed this bit about Lee’s previous case: “Police also seized hundreds of allegedly ‘obscene’ comic books but had to give them all back, plus the city and district attorney’s office had to pay a $18,000 judgment, after the store owner sued them and won.”
Maybe this has been pointed out before, but I have to say, if this is prosecutorial misconduct fueled by a previous $18,000 judgment, that’s just pathetic.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Imagine the hubbub if Italy’s capital had been named after Remus instead of Romulus!
November 30th, 2007 at 6:18 am
If a city had been known as Remus or “Reme” for over two and a half thousand years, I think we’d all pretty much be over the hubub by now, but yet, still nerdily wondering when Disney will finally release “The Adventures of Uncle Romulus” on DVD…
November 30th, 2007 at 8:58 am
As a Rome native who left there to attend UGA (and settled down in Athens, Georgia afterwards), I can also throw in that for awhile the statue did sport diapers on rare occasions involving events with out of towners.
http://www.romega.us/index.asp?NID=223
“The statue’s first years (the early 30′s) in Georgia’s Rome were not without controversy. While most people appreciated the statue and considered it a work of art, many others were offended by it and felt it was shocking and not something to be viewed by ladies and children. Often, when important events were scheduled in the City Auditorium, the twins were diapered and the wolf was draped.”
Also…
“War left its mark on the Capitoline Wolf and her adopted human babies. When Italy declared war on the Allies in 1940, threats to dynamite and destroy the statue became so numerous that the Rome City Commission ordered the statue removed and stored for safety. In 1952 a movement was started by citizens and art lovers to restore the statue, and on September 8, 1952, after an absence of twelve years, the 1,500-pound statue of the Capitoline Wolf was placed on its pedestal in front of City Hall.”
And who gave Rome this wonderful gift? None other than… Benito Mussolini!
November 30th, 2007 at 10:51 am
The substance of the editorial is great–in particular, I love the new (to me) info about the senseless inconsistency of trying this case within blocks of that statue–but man, the writing is awfully clumsy. You’ll see plenty of other examples if you read the whole thing, but there’s a really blatant error in the excerpt above: the whole point is that the COMIC doesn’t show anything the STATUE doesn’t show, not the other way around! I see that I should appreciate the fact that I live in a big city, where the talent pool is larger and the standards can be higher…
November 30th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
HAHAHA!
God damned, this is absurd
November 30th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The case is absurd but unfortunately the amount of money being spent and the consequences if Lee is found guilty are all too real
November 30th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
“This can’t be true, can it? I mean, it makes sense. It’s totally believable that a town named Rome would have statues like that. But… but… my brain just melted.”
The funny part is the statue was a gift from Mussolini.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Oops, someone already mentioned it.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I’ve got some more pix of the statue in my blog if anyone’s interested:
http://billmyerscreations.com/blog
The photos must’ve been taken on a rainy day, making it look as though… well, you look and you be the judge.
Speaking of judges, the very existence of this statue sitting right in front of City Hall in Rome, along with the prosecution’s misconduct in this case, leads me to wonder why the hell this case hasn’t been tossed out of court.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
What’s more ironic is that down the street next to the old Carnegie Library is a naked statue Pablo Picasso with his dong hanging out in the wind and a paint brush in one hand, presented to the city of Rome in 1938 by Picasso himself as he wished us well and threatened to break the city into leetle cubes should anyone try to censor it.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
“What’s more ironic is that down the street next to the old Carnegie Library is a naked statue Pablo Picasso with his dong hanging out in the wind…”
WHAT??? You’re KIDDING me! Are the prosecutors in Rome idiots, liars, or both?
November 30th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Wait… you were just kidding, weren’t you, Patrick.
OK. I’ll blame my gullibility today on the fact that I have a massive head cold. When I get well, I’ll have to find something else to blame it on. But for now this is my story.
December 1st, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Every once is a while, it’s great to see someone else get suckered in by a wild story. I didn’t fall for this one, but I’ve fallen in the past. Head cold, beer, bad weed, it’s always something. I blame mine on migraines.