new year's eve

last night at robert's

clearing

the rain was great:

obama, yesterday in iowa

the 50 most loathsome people in america

9. You
Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism -- it's nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you. You care more about zygotes than actual people. You love to blame people for their misfortunes, even if it means screwing yourself over. You still think Republicans favor limited government. Your knowledge of politics and government are dwarfed by your concern for Britney Spears' children. You think buying Chinese goods stimulates our economy. You think you're going to get universal health care. You tolerate the phrase "enhanced interrogation techniques." You think the government is actually trying to improve education. You think watching CNN makes you smarter. You think two parties is enough. You can't spell. You think $9 trillion in debt is manageable. You believe in an afterlife for the sole reason that you don't want to die. You think lowering taxes raises revenue. You think the economy's doing well. You're an idiot.

Exhibit A: You couldn't get enough Anna Nicole Smith coverage.
Sentence: A gradual decline into abject poverty as you continue to vote against your own self-interest. Death by an easily treated disorder that your health insurance doesn't cover. You deserve it, chump.

holidays

today is boxing day in the british commonwealth

---it's name relates to boxes of food or other gifts or the contents of the church's poor box, depending on who you ask----it's also the feast of st. stephen, when good king wencelas was doing his thing---and, of course, it's a big day for american shoppers----even if we are not out giving gifts to our servants, at least we aren't stoning people---

holy ghost people

http://www.archive.org/details/HolyGhostPeople

merry christmas

viewpoint

metropolis christmas

industrial architecture

this is great: a bus terminal in a suburb of paris---

mall rats

Michael Townsend gives new meaning to the term Mall Rat when he and seven
other artists moved into a 750 square foot space above a storage room in the Providence Place Mall in Providence, Rhode Island. They carried in two tons of construction material, a sectional sofa, a love seat, a coffee table, a breakfast table with four chairs, lamps, a throw rug, a hutch and paintings on the walls. Not having water or a bathroom, they snuck into the mall to use its facilities and the food court, although they did have a waffle iron and some video games. They kept this up for four years.

schadenfreude

huckabee: the republican's mcgovern and the end of our long national nightmare---

This, to me, is the critical distinction between a Christianist and a mere Christian. One wants to infuse politics with religion; the other wants to respect both, separately, and to keep religion private. I should add I do not want to banish the word "God" from the public square. But I do want that invocation to be as thin and as empty and as formal as the Founders intended. The current Republican party has reinvented itself as a force on opposite grounds. The party of Huckabee and Romney, the party of Hewitt and Dobson, the party of Ponnuru and Neuhaus is emphatically not a secular party.

And that is why part of me, I confess, wants Huckabee to win. So he can lose. So the GOP can lose - as spectacularly and humiliatingly as possible. If we are to rid conservatism of this theocratic cancer, we need to start over. Maybe it has to get worse before it can get better. But it is certainly too late for fellow-traveling Christianists like Lowry and Krauthammer to start whining now. This is their party. And they asked for every last bit of it.

obama

The Republicans will have a very hard time attacking Obama on racial grounds without seeming to be overtly racist. So they will smear him as treasonous and use the religion card, however fallaciously. This meme is out there - disgracefully abetted by those now in power. The only way past it is through it. And the only mistake is fearing it. Don't under-estimate it, but don't fear it. And defeat it. Clinton simply cannot do that. But Obama has a chance.

no comment

a recruitment ad for the ukranian army---

they forgot the dunces

The talent pool for these roles is indeed paper thin," says Rob Gonuff, Director of Insta-Temps, Inc. Mr. Gonuff's company specializes in providing unbalanced, incompetent and borderline-retarded staff on an hourly or contract basis, and has been a key staffing resource for Mr. Bush since he was Governor of Texas. "[Giuliani's] right that America is producing more and better crazy people than ever before. But crazy how? To what degree? You can't just take any schizoid psychotic off the street and make them a Director of the NSA. All they'll do is horde newspaper and soil the furniture. What you need is a megalomaniac with a persecution complex and a set of highly specific destructive impulses. Ideally one with a doctorate in Public Administration from Harvard.

cathi's domicile

fair park, dallas

oklahoma

oklahoma actually has some nice scenery, especially if you like big sky

collapsing markets

seven construction cranes in midtown between 12th and 14th----two of those are related to a hotel/retail building----the rest are condos----

grandpa and the baby

andrew had his first birthday thursday----he can't quite walk yet, but he can play a harmonica----that's his best trick to date----

the kitten

main street

as of this weekend, the two upstairs apartments are occupied-----angela and robert are making the insides purty----