“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." ― Robert HughesGreat artists tend to live life swimming in a vast ocean of self-doubt. It's that special blend of insecurity and perfectionism that fuels their desire to hone their craft and get better with each piece.But that self-doubt can also be paralyzing and prevent potential artists from picking up the pen, paintbrush or guitar.To encourage his mother to stick with her art, Reddit user Gaddafo shared a picture of his mother, Cindi Decker, a school teacher from Florida, holding a lovely painting she made of an egret. “My mom painted this and said no one would like it. It's her 2nd painting," he wrote.Then Reddit user Cacahahadoodoo asked the forum to take the post a step further. “Someone paint the photo of his mom holding her painting and repost it with the same title for extra extra karma," they wrote.Karma is a reward earned for posting popular content on the online forum. Reddit user u/k__z jumped on the task and painted a picture of Decker holding her painting. Then lillyofthenight took things a step further by painting a picture of herself holding a painting of u/k__z holding his painting of Decker holding her painting of an egret.“Took a while and not perfect, but I painted the guy who painted the other guy's mom," she wrote.Then seamusywray stepped in with his contribution and things started to get freaky. “I painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the other guy's mom who painted an egret," he wrote.This kicked off a chain reaction that's come to be known “paintception."To keep things from getting too confusing, another Redditor created an interactive tree to show how they paintings relate to one another.Decker was shocked by the chain reaction and couldn't believe she inspired so many people to paint. “Even though people say, 'You inspired me to paint,' I don't know that it was so much me. I really give credit to the first artist who painted," she told the CBC. “You know, I'm not a painter. I'm just somebody who went out and did a little painting thing, so I got lucky to get caught up in all this fun craziness."The question is: will the craziness ever end?This article originally appeared on 02.02.19

Inequality has gotten worse than you think. An investigation by former "Daily Show" correspondent Hasan Minhaj is still perfectly apt and shows that the problem isn't just your classic case of "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."As much as we hear about wealth inequality these days, one disparity remains mostly ignored: the gap between the wealthy and the ridiculously wealthy.Minhaj spoke to Richard Reeves, an economist with the Brookings Institute, who painted a dark picture:The study Reeves refers to points to the growing wealth of the top 10th of the top 1%:"The rise of wealth inequality is almost entirely due to the rise of the top 0.1% wealth share, from 7% in 1979 to 22% in 2012 — a level almost as high as in 1929. The bottom 90% wealth share first increased up to the mid-1980s and then steadily declined."And no one's paid any attention.Between the cries of the 45.3 million people in poverty and a dwindling middle class in every state, the voice of the average millionaire is all but drowned out.But not all millionaires are worried about growing inequality in the top 1%.In his search for a concerned millionaire, Minhaj met Morris Pearl, a retired investment banking director and member of an organization called The Patriotic Millionaires. Minhaj was baffled by what Pearl had to say:What about trickle-down economics?Trickle-down theory was popularized under Ronald Reagan's presidency. The idea was that clearing a path for the rich to make more money would spur more private investment, which would lead to more jobs and higher wages for all workers.Reagan put trickle-down theory into practice in two basic ways: by lowering taxes for the wealthy and by freezing wages for the poor.In 1981, he cut the top marginal income tax rate — which only applies to the highest-income households — from 70% to 50%. Then in 1986, he more than doubled-down by slashing the rate to 28%. (The current rate is 39.6%.) And under Reagan's leadership, the minimum wage was frozen, even as costs of living were rising.Pearl and other so-called Patriotic Millionaires think top one-percenters like themselves should pay more taxes.Not only that, they believe raising the minimum wage is critical to reducing inequality.OK, maybe not everyone — including millionaires — are convinced that giving more money to the rich will fix the economy. So why do our policies do just the opposite?This article originally appeared on 3.23.15

He is a big fan of The Who. The post The song Eddie Vedder stole from The Who: “I should probably send him some dough” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

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It's hard to beat Little Caesars on price, but if you're looking to elevate your basic pizzas from the chain, these toppings will do the trick.

from Moonbattery: To get an idea of what we are ruled by with Democrats in control, consider that the child groomer and male menstrual product salesman Jeffrey Marsh will be a featured guest at the Democratic National Convention. Watch as Marsh explicitly encourages children to shut out their parents, the better for perverts to corrupt and prey upon them: TRUTH LIVES […]

by Jonathon Van Maren, LifeSite News: In 2021, the Hungarian government passed legislation that introduced stricter laws protecting children from pedophilia and also making it illegal to promote homosexuality or “sex changes” (“gender transition”) in schools and in the press to minors. The Hungarian government made clear that the law did not impact content aimed […]