I know this is probably a stupid question to ask of a city whose signature monument is a 550-foot-tall phallic symbol but could there possibly be a more homoerotic piece of public art than the statue outside the Federal Trade Commission?
As it marks roughly the halfway point between Capitol Hill and my office at the National Press Building, I pass this Mapplethorpe-like display on a near daily basis, and am continually amazed that John Ashcroft never tried to throw a sheet over this half-naked figure, who is clearly hopped up on roids. And given what we all know is the most notorious part of a horse's anatomy, why, it's just about enough to make Spartakus blush.
The intended subtext, of course, is quite a bit different, as the piece strives to convey -- with all the subtlety of a fart in an elevator -- the notion of the wild, charging, irrational market being constrained and harnessed by the handsome central planners.
Personally, I think it betrays quite a bit about the regulatory mindset that, upon seeing a horse, the first instinct is to strangle it to the ground -- at great peril to both the man, and the horse -- rather than, oh, say...learning how to ride.
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