Sometimes a fat pencil is just a fat pencil

Every so often Photoshop pulls a fast one. This morning, as we were fine tuning and cropping this picture of the Babe with his eye on a bit of chicken from our breakfast sandwich being dangled before his eyes, Photoshop suddenly would no longer allow us to crop. We semi worked our way around it by using the "trim" feature but still couldn't get exactly what we wanted. We rebooted and tried again and still were no longer in control. Anybody out there know what this is all about?

"The totalitarian temptation is not confined to Nazis and communists; it can rear its head in any society and gradually destroy it," writes Dennis Prager in Townhall:

As a graduate student in international affairs at Columbia University, I specialized in the study of totalitarianism, especially, though not only, the communist variety. I found the subject fascinating, but I never for a moment imagined that any expertise gained in this field would prove relevant to American life [Apparently he never read this blog. --ed].

Sad to say, it has turned out to be the most valuable subject I could have studied . . .

One quick way to identify totalitarian threats to liberty is to identify those who falsify the historical record on behalf of their cause.

The two faces of Baby? He would never falsify. It's up to the beholder to discern the spirit of the face.

Prager continues:

The attempts by the ACLU -- and the Left in general -- to expunge the Judeo-Christian roots of America from American history [akin to the official removal of reference to such roots by the EU in its still unratified Constitution] are mirrored by the attempts of America's anti-smoking organizations to expunge the history they object to -- images of Americans smoking . . .

In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp depicting the famous abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock. The most famous photograph of Pollock, who loved to smoke, was a Life Magazine photo of him with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. The Postal Service used the photo, but digitally removed the cigarette.

As a columnist in the MIT student newspaper wrote at that time, "To strip Pollock of his cigarette would be like taking away the character-defining cigar from Sigmund Freud. Would you replace Freud's cigar with a fat pencil?"

The question is not rhetorical. Of course, the Postal Service would.

As we wrote here recently, the totalitarian impulse runs deep and dark in our species.

Update: Sebastian and Yaffa are hosting the 110th Carnival of the Cats at the delightfully named Furry Paws.

Comments

[Teresa]

Photoshop problems - sadly I have no photoshop. Was it only the one picture or was it happening with any picture? If it's only the one pic - did you try uploading the pic to a new name? Even opening it whatever Apple has that might be the equivalent of Windows "paint" and resaving it?

If it's more than one pic - could you be maxing out on space? How much do you have left on the disk you're currently working on? You do tons of pics that's why I thought of that one.

Otherwise I can't help. *sigh*

As for photoshopping pictures - do you ever feel you just can't trust any picture you see now days? It's so easy to change things.

The cigarette is a tiny change - it doesn't effect Pollock, he's long gone. But it begs the question, "What else might you be changing for our own good WITHOUT our knowledge?"

I no longer view pictures as evidence of anything - video either for that matter. There must be other corroborating evidence to go along with them.

[enrevanche]

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."

- Robert A. Heinlein

[goomp]

My nature, if it is human would that I were dictator to put an end to the exposition of ideas that I feel are wrong or lacking in what I decide is common sense. Naturally I know in my heart that I am right. Unfortunately those clowns feel the same way about me. Therefore we have to suffer democracy and hope that as Winnie said it is the worst form of government except for all the rest

[Brian]

You could try...
"After selecting the crop tool, but before dragging out a crop rectangle, click the clear button on the options bar and the tool will behave normally again."

[Sissy Willis]

Brian: It worked for the crop tool but not the marquee tool . . . sigh.