When I saw that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was hanging posters of classic art in the Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street subway station, I knew that New York’s artistic art defacer couldn’t resist the temptation.

“Poster Boy,” an elusive street artist, remixes subway posters by cutting and pasting different ones together to create original work. It’s technically vandalism (the NYPD recently claimed it had arrested him), but it’s also humorous and inventive. Above, from his Flickr account, is one of my favorites: a kind of self-portrait using the poster from Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail.

All those classic art pieces hanging there, all bright and freshly pasted, turned out to be irresistible to his irreverent sensibilities. He took the piece of art from the MoMA poster collection on the left and turned it into this.

It was so obvious that people wondered if MoMA actually authorized him to do it, especially when Doug Jaeger, the marketing executive who created the campaign, tagged along and took photos. Jaeger told New York Magazine’s blog:

“Early on we saw Poster Boy’s work, and we realized it was inevitable that if we did this project, his crew would likely see it as an opportunity. Whenever you create something, you want to make sure you’re prepared for that. . . . What I would hope is that it would cause debate and generate some argument, at a minimum.”

MoMA denied that it authorized the slicing, and by the time I got there, the posters were restored to their original humdrum glory.

I’ve never been much of a political activist. OK, scratch that—I’ve never been a political activist, period. About all the protesting I’ve ever done has been in front of the TV, and with the crazy amount of money being sanctioned as OK to spend lately, I’ve been doing my fair share of yelling at the television.

That’s why, when I heard of the Nationwide Tea Party Protest and that there would be a version of it in St. Louis, I knew I had to go. My girls and I have been studying American History this year, and since we learned about the Boston Tea Party, I knew I would be a homeschooling idiot to not take advantage of this prime teachable moment.

According to the #TCOT Report, I wasn’t the only one: Citizens in 50 cities participated in the nationwide protest against government (over)spending, and more than 25,000 people showed up at the tea parties yesterday.

Bill Hennessey, author and a conservative blogger in St. Louis, heard about the tea parties and organized one for our city. Word went out through local blogs and light television coverage. Bill expected 50 people to show up; estimates are that 1,000 did.

As my husband is a full-time teacher, I went with my girls. The main thing I wanted them to experience was that, though we disagree with the direction the government is taking us right now, we live in a country where we have the right to assemble regardless. We can meet together, we can voice our complaint, and we can try to do something—anything—about it. I made sure my girls knew there were places around the world where this right isn’t guaranteed, and after seeing those thousand people, the lesson wasn’t lost on them.

After the rally at the foot of the Arch, we went over to the river and “dumped” tea into it, symbolic of the colonists of 1773. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I imagine the original one was in 1773, but the spirit was certainly the same.

Do I think anyone in Washington really cares what we did yesterday? I don’t know. But I saw how easy it is to actually do something instead of sit at home on my duff waiting for someone else to do it for me. Maybe one day, instead of yelling at the television, I’ll be on it . . . or my kids will be . . . fighting with the freedom others fought for on our behalf.

Here it is, Rants! & Raves!, your weekly chance to sound off about the week past. Remember the rules:

1. A Rave! is something that happened during the past week that you’re pleased about and is signified by the word “Rave!” and/or an appropriately peppy emoticon.

2 A Rant! is something that happened during the past week that you’re ticked about and is signified by the word “Rant!” and/or an appropriately grumpy emoticon.

3. You may Rant! about something a person said, did or wrote, but you may not Rant! about generally disliking a person.

Have fun!

Good morning!

Today’s quote is from a work by an Irish playwright: “I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle class morality.”

Sen. John McCain, à la David Letterman, put out the “top ten porkiest projects” in the upcoming appropriations bill today on twitter:

#10. $1.7M “for a honey bee factory” in Weslaco, TX
#9. $475,000 to build a parking garage in Provo City, Utah
#8. $200,000 “tattoo removal violence outreach program to could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past” REALLY?
#7. $300,000 for the Montana World Trade Center – enough said
#6. $1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah – is that the species of cricket or a game played by the brits?
#5. $650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi
#4. $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York – quick peel me a grape.
#3. $332,000 for the design and construction of a school sidewalk in Franklin, Texas – not enough $ for schools in the stimulus?
#2. $2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii – because nothing says new jobs for average Americans like investing in astronomy
#1. $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa

McCain has over 100,000 people following his tweets, making him one of the most popular twitterers (twits?) among lawmakers.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., wasn’t happy with some of the spending either. She tweeted:

So wrong they put another Missouri River Study in the approp bill. Costs $25million.Just did one 4 yrs ago that cost $35mill.Complete waste

The packed ballroom erupted when the first bars of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” blasted through the loudspeakers:

Risin’ up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

With everybody up on their feet, the man of the moment entered from the back of the room rather than from the curtains behind podium, like every other speaker.

He mingled among the people during his slow walk to the stage. Fans reached out to shake his hand or clasp his shoulders as others—too far away to touch him—clapped in unison to the song. But the source of all this adoration was not Rocky Balboa marching up to take on Mr. T’s Clubber Lang in Rocky III. It was Newt Gingrich arriving at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference with a mission to teach his fellow GOPers how to survive.

It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the cream of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all in the eye of the tiger

For many in the audience it seemed that the question of whether conservatives are “risin’ up to the challenge of our rival” will depend on “just a man [named Newt] and his will to survive.”

Easily speaking to the largest audience of the convention so far, former House Speaker Gingrich was clearly the celebrity of CPAC’s Version 2009. Those who could not get inside the standing-room-only Regency Ballroom just stopped in their tracks and watched on the TV sets scattered throughout Washington’s Omni Shoreham’s convention area.

Gingrich showed right away that he knew his audience by launching his speech with a brief diatribe against The New York Times. Then he discussed what the future of America looks like in the midst of the “rise of the left-wing machine.”

To Gingrich, the key adjective in his speech was “bad”: bad government, bad policy, bad ideas, bad politics, bad bureaucracy.

Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin’ tough, stayin’ hungry
They stack the odds ’til we take to the street
For we kill with the skill to survive

Gingrich’s biggest target was new Attorney General Eric Holder and his recent comments that America is a “nation of cowards.”

“I’d love to have a dialogue with you about cowardice,” said Gingrich. “Anywhere. Any time.”

He called the Obama administration “arrogant” and “foolish” for cramming through the House this week the latest omnibus spending packed with thousands of earmarks despite promising an end to such target-spending practices.

“If his attorney general thinks we are a nation of cowards, his administration just thinks we are plain dumb,” Gingrich said.

So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

But Gingrich did not spare Republicans, who—he intoned—had lost their own grip on the Reagan past and changed their passions for the glory of spending. He said the era of big spending has proven to be bipartisan in nature.

“The Republican Party became the right wing of the party of big-government political elites,” he said.

Saying the conservative movement is bigger than the Republican Party, Gingrich called on the gathering to transcend party and focus on principles that would lead to economic growth and more jobs.

He dubbed the 2010 election the most consequential in history and even told the conservative crowd to recruit and support moderate Democrats in competitive primaries of liberal districts.

Risin’ up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I’m not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive

An Associated Press source says President Obama is on the verge of killing the 11th-hour Bush administration order that strengthened rights-of-conscience protections for medical professionals who morally object to abortion and don’t want to participate.

The news that he was doing so drew praise from abortion-rights supporters and condemnation from groups opposed to abortion.

“It would be a horrible move. These regulations were a long time coming,” said Tom McClusky, a vice president at Family Research Council. “What they seek to do is protect patients, nurses, doctors and other health care professionals from being forced to violate their consciences.”

Pro-abortion congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) called Obama’s planned rollback of conscience protections “a wonderful step.”

Christian Medical Association (CMA) CEO David Stevens says, not so much.

In a statement issued today, Stevens said the president’s anticipated move “exposes the myth of moderation in Obama’s abortion policy.”

The Obama administration claims, without offering a shred of statistical evidence, that the regulation has ‘created confusion’ and will somehow hinder access to healthcare. What can be clearer than not using federal funds to force healthcare professionals to violate longstanding principles of medical ethics like the Hippocratic Oath, which guided medicine for over two millennia? The real threat to healthcare access is driving out every healthcare professional who conscientiously practices medicine according to life-affirming ethical standards.

Word is, Obama will early next week publish notice of his intention to be ”wonderful” and force medical professionals to kill unborn babies against the dictates of their own consciences. (Can you say First Amendment?)

The announcement will trigger a 30-day public comment period. Let’s get a head start.

The word “carnival” is not represented in the acronym CPAC, but at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, a festive atmosphere prevailed despite the current state of America’s conservative movement. The fact that Democrats are currently in charge of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue seemed to revitalize the record gathering of more than 8,500 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, just a few miles from D.C.’s National Zoo.

Some animals must have registered for the three-day event, as a white panda (maybe a polar bear?) could be seen roaming the convention floors holding a sign reading, “No More Bailouts.”

A grey bulldog walking on two legs, dubbed the “taxpayer watchdog,” also attended. Thankfully no fights broke out between the panda, the watchdog, or the “Benjamin Franklin” seen strolling around with the help of a cane.

A “Pork-mobile” parked outside had a backseat crammed with jumbo-sized pink pig balloons. Whenever the convertible took off, they fluttered behind an extra car length in the wind.

But the most popular creature at the convention’s spiraling exhibit hall was Joe the Plumber. Joe is still enjoying his 15 minutes of political fame more than three months after the election. About 20 fans lined up for a chance to chat with him and get his Joe Hancock on his new book Fighting for the American Dream. Joe, in case you forgot, skyrocketed into the national consciousness after questioning then candidate Barack Obama about small-business tax policy.

“It’s about the people,” Joe tells one fan.

Joe (aka Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher) is now a former plumber and I guess should now be referred to as Joe the Author.

A striking element of this years’ CPAC was the amount of youth present. College administrators across America must have Amber Alerts out this weekend for the conservative elements from their campus.

“I can’t believe how many young people are here,” exclaimed TV personality Joe Scarborough, who used the throng of 20-somethings in his midst to proclaim that the future belongs to the conservatives.

Back at the exhibit hall, a few booths down from the Muslim’s for America booth, CPAC attendees could learn how to “travel with leaders of the conservative movement” through Conservative Cruises. Or learn about the Poker Player Alliance. Or even take target practice with a red plastic rifle at the NRA booth. Dick Cheney was nowhere to be seen around this booth.

Still, this was a place for the serious minded. At how many other conventions can you hear the words “Federalist Paper Number 21” shouted during a two-person heated argument about tax policy?

There also was a booth where you could learn about plans to help rebuild the party for the future. But it was empty when I passed. Too many people still in line for Joe the Plumber/Author.

But you might have already read about all of this on other blogs. “Blogger Row” at CPAC had more than two dozen bloggers huddled around a long table typing all at once like a laptop orchestra tuning up for a concert. Hopefully they left their computers long enough to walk around the sprawling convention to see all the pandas, watchdogs, Joes, and Bens.

James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, announced today that he’s stepping down as the organization’s chairman of the board. His resignation is the latest step in a succession plan, which began when he relinquished his president and CEO roles six years ago.

According to Focus’ current President and CEO Jim Daly, Dobson, 72, will continue to host the Focus on the Family radio program, write a monthly newsletter, and be a spokesman for the organization on moral issues.

Last week, WORLD hosted a dinner in Houston, where Joel Belz, Marvin Olasky, Mindy Belz, Andrée Seu, Publisher Nick Eicher, and others broke bread with some of our loyal readers.

Reporter Emily Belz mingled with the crowd, asking several subscribers what they thought about WORLD’s news coverage. Hear what all they had to say by clicking here.

To listen to all our latest podcasts, click here. Next week we’ll be posting more audio from the Houston event.