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What perversity of sexual attitudes drives (acting NEA chief) Anne-Imelda Radice and others to search, like adolescents combing a racy novel for the dirty parts, through thousands of grants to orchestras and dance companies and theaters and museums, for a picture of a penis or a vulgar joke?

An expert panel and the usually cautious National Council on the Arts both saw substantial merit in the proposals (they were recommended over hundreds of others). In each case, a scholar at a highly reputable university proposed to examine a serious subject. But Radice, in a curious use of sexual metaphor, said that the proposals “did not measure up.”

Such actions make a mockery of the call for respect of community values. For Radice has set up a central government clearinghouse—worse, set herself up as sole arbiter—to determine the values of all communities.