FRIDAY FOLLIES: Maine again. Gospel Teens, Homeless Artists, and all that's Rich

Oh, man! Maine's rookie Tea Party governor, Paul LePage can't get a break.  He's still getting all kinds of flack for taking down those nonessential murals showing nothing but the damned hoi polloi, but on top of that, he got word that 63% of the  mural was paid for by a Federal grant and the Feds aren't looking kindly on his hotshot actions.  Seems  he broke an essential clause in the contract that clearly stated he was supposed to notify people and give them a good reason for pulling those murals from those walls, and then those essential people would have to agree.   So if the Feds demand their money back at current market value, which would be higher now with all the attention, it's the taxpayers who would have to foot the bill.

But once again, Big Business demands the action and the taxpayers get stuck.  Life just keeps imitating life.

(Reuters) - Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

Where's the funny, you say?  I don't know. . .you know how some jokes just hit your funny bone and you can't explain why?  This was it for me.  I laughed till I cried.

Did you hear about the guy who got glued to a toilet seat in WalMart?  Yes, somebody squirted glue onto a toilet seat in a men's bathroom and the guy didn't notice (more about that later) until he tried to get up.  The fire department came to the rescue and all was well except for a red face and an even redder arse.  But it seems this wasn't the first time a man's behind was glued to a toilet seat. It happened in the UK in 2008 and it happened at a Home Depot in 2005.

Notice something interesting about all three of those stories?  They all happened to men. That's because no woman would sit on a toilet seat without looking first.  We have boxes on the walls with disposable toilet seat covers, but if they're not there we lay TP on the seat.  Or we squat without touching.  We don't just drop and hope for the best.  Jeez!  Hard to feel sorry for those guys, isn't it?

But speaking of toilets, there's a toilet museum in Weisbaden, Germany where you can pee on Hitler.  Really.

But enough of that stuff.  On to the sublime:  I loved this story about a homeless shelter in a 1920s building on Atlanta's Peachtree Street becoming an art studio where artists down on their luck have a place to work. 

When Anita Beaty decided to start painting in the storefront window of a homeless shelter, people were soon looking in and asking to join."It seemed to me that there were lots and lots of creative people among folks who were experiencing homelessness," Beaty says.
And she would be familiar with their needs -- Beaty is the executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. She'd been looking for a way to combine her love of art with her passion for eliminating poverty.

And I really loved this 60 Minutes segment on the Harlem Teen Gospel Singers.  If you haven't seen this before, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.   This story and the one above tell me we have not given up on joy.  It's out there, and when we find it, let's pass it on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLXGSpQV7e4  (Sorry, can't get video to show.)

Cartoon of the Week:

By way of "The Political Carnival" * (Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices)