Photos from the LA County Museum complex, an amazing set of museums in Los Angeles, California
http://www.lacma.org/Luckily they allow photos of the Sculptures, but not the Paintings. And no flash is allowed, so the light level was a bit of a challenge for my simple camera
"LACMA is the largest encyclopedic museum west of Chicago and attracts nearly one million visitors annually. Its holdings include more than 100,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. In addition to art exhibits, the museum features film and concert series throughout the year."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Museum_of_Art-----------------------------------------------------------------
I am watching the events in Iran as closely as I can, made difficult by the poor coverage in the media here, as I have several friends there. But events are scaring me now. A representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, said on state television that opposition leaders were “enemies of God” who should be executed.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/stark-warnings-to-irans-opposition/"Iran continued to arrest opposition members on Tuesday in what seemed to be an effort to curb further protests after Sunday’s defiant demonstrations against the government, according to opposition Web sites.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, via Associated Press
Mir Hussein Moussavi, left, in an undated photo with a nephew, Ali Moussavi, who a family friend said had been killed.
Related
The Lede: Stark Warnings to the Iranian Opposition
Iran Arrests Dissidents, Sites Report (December 29, 2009)
The authorities arrested dozens of journalists, students and activists on Monday and Tuesday, the Web sites said. Among those arrested was the sister of the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, who has been critical of the government.
The crackdown appears to be the largest since June, when antigovernment protests exploded after the country’s widely disputed presidential election.
Sunday’s protests were the bloodiest since the summer, and on Tuesday an opposition Web site, Jaras, said the death toll was likely to be significantly higher than previously thought. The site quoted what it said was a leaked confidential report by the official news agency IRNA, saying that 37 people had been killed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/middleeast/30iran.html?_r=1&ref=worldSome of the comments coming from the Iranian government are so ridiculous. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently suggested that the repression of dissent in his country was similar to that in the United States and Britain during protests against meetings of the G-20 in Pittsburgh and London. When asked about the “awful scenes of violence on the streets” of Iran during the crackdown on demonstrators who claimed that his election victory was a fraud, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “the American police beat people in Pittsburgh, they arrest people and use batons and tear gas against people.”
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/ahmadinejad-equates-crackdown-in-iran-to-policing-of-g-20-in-pittsburgh-and-london/