country living

drove to coweta county today to visit with cathi, who was visiting with her sister who has an excellent farmlet in the wilds of coweta county---picked a bunch of blueberries and feasted my eyes on zinnias and butterflies

gustav

gustav is huge---we can see its effects in the sky up here

tropical weather

the tropical waves blowing off the west coast of africa are sometimes the genesis of cape verde hurricanes, which can be the worst for the east coast of the u.s.---giant heat engines

atlanta rocking

tech students are back in all their falling-down drunkeness, of which taco mac downstairs gives ample opportunity to witness---dragon-con downtown, one of the nation's largest book fairs in decatur, and black gay pride---there was some enormous party across the street and peachtree was still a big ol' mess at 3 in the morning---and people say there's nothing to do in atlanta over labor day weekend ---class-a people watching if nothing else

palinesque

that's some scary decor there

tornado update

still not cleaned up from the tornado at oakland, but the bag mill is back up, if not entirely finished----

big weather

retardlicans

so he picked a corrupt beauty queen, anti-science, anti-choice, who thinks it's a good idea to teach creationism in the schools and want to drill, drill, drill in anwr and everywhere else---what a dumass if he thinks this is the woman who might draw in the mythical hordes of disappointed hillary supporters----andrewsullivan is scathing:

Think about how the key factor in this decision was not who could defend this country were something dreadful happen to McCain in office but how to tread as much on Obama's convention bounce and use women's equality as a wedge issue among Democrats because it might secure a few points here or there. Oh, and everyone would be surprised. And even Rove would be annoyed.

a lovely day in the neighborhood

juniper street

the city has finally done something it should have done a long time ago: allow parking along juniper except during rush hour----that is a huge addition to available parking, which is sorely needed on the weekends especially

decatur

decatur has turned into such a pleasant little town----what had been that godawful wasteland of w. ponce is now actually a nice and interesting place to walk----

gene pool

Both US presidential hopeful Barack Obama and running mate Joseph Biden are descended from shoemakers who emigrated from Ireland within five weeks of each other, a researcher said Friday.

obamania

pat buchannan, fer crissakes, was absolutely overwhelmed by the speech---they had to cut him off as he was going on and on about it being the greatest speech ever---olberman and the rest of them has their mouths hanging open in sheer shock at what they were hearing from pat

and from chuck todd: "[republicans] don't know how to react to this. They may as well have been speechless. I don't know if the Republican Party is looking forward to following this show."

big weather

the republicans are all freaked out that hurricane gustav is gonna hit new orleans while they're having their damn convention and ruin the vibe---

tech

tech's first game is tonight, against jacksonville state----and dragon con is downtown---will be a fun weekend

living history

i wish i could say that i remember 28 August 1963, but i don’t—---22 November i remember, but not the march on washington and king’s speech, although I’ve listened to it many times—----but from the beginning I’ve understood the civil rights movement, something about being queer does that to you—---and after I started thinking, whenever that happened, the “colored” and “whites only” signs all over and jc niggering all the time just didn’t seem right----one of my earliest memories of all that is standing in front of the water fountains at rich’s and wondering what would happen if i actually drank from a “colored” water fountain----a negro president and people gay marrying each other i never dreamed, and here it is all happening [maybe]

mlk

but who the hell thought it would be a good idea to have fat-ass mlk III and his crazy bigot of a sister bernice to speak---i guess he can't help not having his father's voice, but he's trying to turn this into a king thing, not obama----this is embarassing

denver

john lewis is speaking----old-school civil rights is in total ecstasy right now---free at last . . . .

language

Yuchi is spoken in Oklahoma, USA, by just five people all aged over 75. Yuchi is an isolate language (that is, it cannot be shown to be related to any other language spoken on earth). Their own name for themselves is Tsoyaha, meaning "Children of the Sun". Yuchi nouns have 10 genders, indicated by word endings: six for Yuchi people (depending on kinship relations to the person speaking), one for non-Yuchis and animals, and three for inanimate objects (horizontal, vertical, and round). Efforts are now under way to document the language with sound and video recordings, and to revitalise it by teaching it to children.

the yuchi pre-dated the cherokee in north georgia----

the clintons

bill and hill have more than redeemed themselves as true blue democrats tonight----bill was classic---even sullivan was impressed----

fall's coming

obamania

hillary rocks---after that great speech last night, when it came new york's turn in the roll-call vote, which stood at 1549 obama and 282 for, she moved that he be nominated by acclamation---which just happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you never know . . . .

The man stood outside his RV, yelling and shooting a gun into the air. When Pasco sheriff's deputies confronted him, he ran inside and wouldn't come out.

That started a six-hour standoff late Monday night between the man, whose name was not released, and authorities, Sheriff's Office spokesman Kevin Doll said.

SWAT team units arrived later and surrounded the RV, Doll said. As the situation entered the early hours of this morning, SWAT team members fired riot gas into the man's home. He still wouldn't come out, Doll said.

Finally, about 5 a.m., he exited his RV and was taken into custody. The cause of his displeasure, according to Doll, was Michelle Obama's speech last night at the Democratic National Convention.

Doll said the man will undergo a psychological evaluation.

what happens when hillary comes on?

old development

i was amazed that novare decided to keep the excellent apartment building on seventh street in the first place, but now i'm afraid it may have fallen victim to the crappy real estate market---it hasn't been occupied in at least three years and is starting to deteriorate badly

big weather

the last [probably] storm rolled a while ago and then one of the most magnificent rainbows i've ever seen----

wake up, america

everybody needs to hear the speech kucinich just gave in denver---it was spectacular----the crowd would not stop their applause and cheers even after the next speaker started----wake up, america

midtown

peachtree and eleventh are lookn different---but look back the other way and it's still a dead zone---they tore out most of that block 20 years ago and still haven't done anything useful to the street and nothing in the works as far as i know---with the federal reserve across the street doing its part to make the area lifeless, the block between tenth and eleventh are the key to making this a happening neighborhood again

hit 'em in the n-n-n-uts

read krugman and see if you don't agree:

So the Obama campaign has turned to the politics of personal destruction, attempting to make a campaign issue out of John McCain’s inability to remember how many houses he has. And the turn comes not a moment too soon.

say "hey" to gustav

fay has been and remains a great rain-maker---not the 2+ feet they got in florida, but a lot some places, although there's only been a quarter inch or so in town so far---and it's the first tropical system that's gotten this close in nearly three years---now there's another one

downtown

hinman house

i thought that they were getting to ready to build something on the north half of the big double lot on which sits the hinman house (c. 1895) on piedmont ave---well, they are, but, in spite of having paid what i am sure was a gazillion dollars for the place, the new owners are simply installing some off street parking, because they are turning it into a bed-and- breakfast: stonehurst inn

crazy girls

t.s. fay actually set a record for making four landfalls as it meandered across florida, and now n.o.a.a. has it turning back at the river----we might get some good rain out of it yet

an olympian

matthew mitcham, the only openly gay athlete at the beijing games---his gold medal prevented a chinese sweep of diving

reality check

completely depressingly true:

Much evidence points to racial prejudice as a factor that could be large enough to cost Obama the election. That warning is written all over last month's CBS/New York Times poll, which is worth examining in detail if you want a quick grasp of white America's curious sense of racial grievance. . . . . Choosing John McCain, in particular, would herald the construction of a bridge to the 20th century—and not necessarily the last part of it, either. McCain represents a Cold War style of nationalism that doesn't get the shift from geopolitics to geoeconomics, the centrality of soft power in a multipolar world, or the transformative nature of digital technology. . . . To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise [Obama] represents wouldn't just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation's historical decline.

obama-biden, that's the ticket

check it out --he's got the least net worth of anybody in the senate, his oldest son is getting shipped out to iraq oct. 3, and he's commuted home to delaware for six consecutive senate terms---plus he is smart and wickedly sharp (if he can keep his foot from getting stuck in his mouth)
please, dear god, let mccain pick romney

rock mountain

they called it rock mountain for most of the 19th c. before everybody decided to get all sophisticated and start calling it stone mountain--- this is a view of the north side of the mountain before it was defaced by that crazy confederate memorial--- from a bound report from the state geologist entitled granites and gneisses of georgia (1902)

the book also has a great map by the geological survey from 1886-1887---this is just part of it

building update

looks like the palomar has topped out---

the two buildings at atlantic station are not there yet

old news, but the mosque is done and they had open house a week or so ago

cousin cmcc

cmcc has just informed me of the existence of her blog----- www.motobroad.com ("a 50-something female takes life by the handlebars")----in which she chronicles some of her skeery motorcycle adventures----her postage rate is rather low, but that's ok---she appears to be quite content out there in the exurbian wilds of georgia

paris or somewheres

skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

watch it full screen---

housing crisis

someone asked mccain yesterday how many houses he owns---he fumbled for an answer and then said he'd have his staff "get back to you on that"---listen to the audio

obama had something to say about that:

But the fact of the matter is that John McCain is offering more of the same. He said a while back that he thought that we had made great progress economically during the years that George Bush has been in office. Now, that raised some eyebrows. Great progress economically. Who is he talking to? And it turns out that you get a sense of who he's talking to because some of you saw the Saddleback Forum with Rick Warren. He was asked, well, who do you consider rich? And he thought about it for a second, I don't know. Maybe if you make $5 million. $5 million, then you're rich. Which means, I guess, if you're only making $3 million a year then you're middle class. I guess that's what he meant.

His top economic adviser said the other day that Americans should stop complaining; they’ve become a nation of whiners. That all these economic problems everybody is talking about is just a mental recession. And if you would just change your mind, everything would be okay. Somebody’s been laid off, their plant’s closed and gone to Mexico or China, change your mind. It’s all good. Then, yesterday, he was asked again, what do you think about the economy? He says, Well, I think the economy is fundamentally strong; said the economy is fundamentally strong. Now, this puzzled me. I was confused as to what he meant.

But then there was another interview – this is yesterday, same day – where somebody asked John McCain, how many houses do you have? And he said, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with my staff. True quote. I’m not sure. I’ll have to check with my staff. So they asked his staff, and he said, at least four. At least four. Now, think about that. I guess if you think that being rich means you’ve got to make $5 million and if you don’t know how many houses you have, then it’s not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong. But if you’re like me, and you’ve got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don’t lose their home, you might have a different perspective. And by the way, the answer is John McCain has seven homes.

So there’s just a fundamental gap of understanding between John McCain’s world and what people are going through every single day here in America. And you don’t have to be – you don’t have to be a Nobel Prize Laureate economist. You just have to have a little bit of a sense of what ordinary people are going through to understand that we can’t afford eight more years or four more years or one more year of the same failed economic policies that George Bush has put in place.

actually he and miss cindy appear to have eight homes
tell me again who is the "elitist" in this race?

glass

tornado damage still not all fixed---that curved glass in the plaza has gotta be a problem, but i don't understand why 101 marietta is---

update: cousin paul sez that he knows firsthand that the glass in the plaza is not curved, but flat---

"the rich define the rich"

200k per year is middle class? the fact that teevee people can say that with a straight face is part of what's wrong with this county

YOUR WORLD IN CHARTS: THE RICH DEFINE THE RICH.

One of the more interesting subthemes of this election has been the elite political class's struggle to sync its understanding of the economy -- based around well-educated people who live in New York or DC -- with the national income distribution. Charlie Gibson, for instance, thinks families making $200,000 are "middle class," hence redefining the middle class as the 97th percentile of the income distribution. Just ordinary investment bankers, struggling to make ends meet. On Saturday night, at Saddleback Church, Barack Obama and John McCain were asked what income level made someone rich (give Rick Warren his due: This was one of the campaign's more useful forum queries). Obama said $150,000, which is somewhere around the 94th percentile. John McCain said $5 million, which is about $3.4 million more per year than you need to qualify for the top 0.1 percentile.

burj-dubai

that's gonna be one helluva elevator ride to the penthouse

looks aren't everything

sister-in-law pam felt compelled to call me the other night just to tell me how much i looked like george bush----i almost hung up on her----it's not the first time somebody has said that, which is depressing, considering how much i loath that poor excuse for a human being---a lot of artists have taken him to task

burnt up

so much for the "son-of-a-millworker" stories from john edwards, whose reputation was already shot anyway

cousin cathi

as she has done so many times, ms. horsey has again proven her usefulness as an advocate for old buildings---the latest in dallas where she and a friend wrote an excellent op-ed that was published in the friday morning news, and was one of the more-public protests of the proposed demolition of the home of stanley marcus, of neiman-marcus fame, that was announced last week by its new owner---it's a great house, built in 1938, contemporaneous with her own wonderful house---

When we started receiving phone calls and emails alerting us to the potential demolition of the former residence of late Dallas retail icon Stanley Marcus, we were shocked and saddened. When told of the reason for the request for demolition of the Recorded Texas Historic Landmark we were doubly stricken. Reason for the request — energy efficiency.

so in today's morning-news:

The house that once drew the elite of fashion, politics and the arts to an obscure street in Lakewood attracted one last burst of the spotlight earlier this week when its owner announced he intended to tear it down.

It was enough to keep away the bulldozers.

An embattled Mark Lovvorn said Friday he had changed his mind about demolishing the house built by legendary Dallas retailer Stanley Marcus and will withdraw an earlier notice of that intent to the Texas Historical Commission.

fay

it's just a tropical storm so far, but they're convinced it's going to "impact" florida early next week----
let's hope north georgia gets a good dousing----

Piedmont Park

the bathhouse has been gutted and they have the swimming pool all dug up

bigfoot in georgia

carol and angela better keep their door locked
Some dudes say they’ve found a dead Bigfoot, in Georgia! It is being revealed to The Media in Palo Alto, which is on the other side of the country, in California. We are pretty sure it’s just a dead stoner-hillbilly, maybe from Lynerd Skinerd or something, but what the hell, maybe eight-foot-tall hair-apes really do wander our nation, voting for Hillary.

ancient history

vintage color photographs of american cities, 1938-1969--- including atlanta, 1951, and the state capitol before we gilded its dome----andrew sullivan calls it "urban nostalgia crack"

dog and cat

dex loves him, too, but thankfully the initial round-the-clock playing has slowed down a little

dog

so, day before yesterdy was the four-month anniversary of the arrival of guinness---in that time he has gained nearly 50% of his initial weight, going from a scrawny 22 lbs to 32 lbs---some of that is probably just growing up, since I think he might have been a little younger than we thought----whatever, he's a happy boy

free energy

well, i'm sure it won't be really free, but that's ok

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine. . . . "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."

republicans

Compared to past conventions, lawmakers, lobbyists and candidates aren’t beating a path to St. Paul.
Photo: AP

While excitement is building for a Democratic Party convention capped by Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech before a sold-out, 75,000-seat football stadium, the GOP convention the following week is shaping up to be a considerably more staid affair, marked by the conspicuous absence of many of the usual convention attendees.

Republicans aren’t exactly planning to avoid the convention in droves. But compared to past conventions, lawmakers, lobbyists and candidates aren’t beating a path to St. Paul either.

Of the 12 Republicans running in competitive Senate races — five of whom are incumbents — only three have said they will be attending the convention. Six are definite no-shows, and three are on the fence.

“Nobody likes a funeral,” said a Senate Republican press secretary who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing “the overall climate of general malaise about the party” as the reason for hesitance on the part of Republicans.

plus dobson and his "focus on the family" crowd are praying for rain on obama and the democrats----

"abundant rain, torrential rain … flood-advisory rain.” He adds, “I’m talking about umbrella-ain’t-gonna-help-you rain … swamp-the-intersections rain."

seriously desperate

bush in china

160 days
7 hours
7 minutes

obama, the celebrity

You’re not here tonight to see what kind of outfit I’m wearing or to hear my latest hit single–and if you are, I think you’re probably going to be disappointed. No, you’re here because you want change, you want a government that fights for people like you and not on behalf of powerful special interests; you want a government that keeps you safe by pursuing a rational foreign policy abroad and keeps your family secure by creating jobs, ensuring access to affordable health care, and fighting for energy independence.

That’s why you’re here. That’s why you’re volunteering your time at record levels. That’s why you’re contributing your hard-earned money in record amounts.

So remember, when John McCain and his surrogates call me a “celebrity,” they’re not insulting me; they’re insulting you. They’re insinuating that you are a mindless groupie rather than a concerned citizen, a fan rather than a voter.

no, he didn't actually say all of that, but he should and i hope he's gonna come back from his vacation and start gnawing on mccain hard

midtown hotels