[COTW]

From HERE

One example among many.


(Houghton Mifflin, 2007)

Now, we know that some corporate marketeer did not randomly choose this image from some conveniently available digital sampler of fine European portrait art. But I admit that my first reaction to it was not, as one might assume, to be angry or irritated, but rather to burst out laughing. The earnest "diversity" proselytizing packed into this choice of image, in this context, is so comically ham-handed, so imbecilic in its dishonesty, that it left me feeling rather cheery about an over-confident sloppiness, a real incompetence at the craft of propaganda, that could be a wee indicator of bad weather ahead for the guild of nation-wreckers.
This cheeriness is unwarranted, I know. Rule by imbeciles--and they still rule--does not end comically, and it's just a single textbook cover. Still, one takes one's laughs where one can.
- end of initial entry -

I'd like to see anybody justify this as appropriate.