new years eve

all fogged in

the driving lifestyle

not me:

The generation that gave birth to suburbia and the two-car garage is reaching the age at which driving, for many, no longer seems like such a swell option. As Americans grow older -- one in five will be 65 or older by 2030 -- many are finding that the world that lured them away from city life is losing some of its appeal. "The concern is that when they no longer can drive, they will find themselves trapped in their homes in suburban neighborhoods where there are no sidewalks, or, if there are sidewalks, there's no place to walk to," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

bamboo architecture

in vietnam

ain't that cute?

from the vanishing-[thank god]-georgia collection

wonderland

tim burton's alice in wonderland oughta be great:



thnx robt

assessing the decade

The End of the 00s: Horrible Decade of Constant Terror Doesn't Officially End Until the World Does, In 2012, by Ken Layne

 

the loyal opposition

they will campaign next year calling for the repeal of whatever health-care legislation gets passed

i have a morbid fascination with that face

has the 1979 revolution run its course?

if you are not keeping up with the "green revolution" in iran, which has been ongoing in fits and starts since june, you should check out andrew sullivan, who has been following it closer than anybody i know about---the mainstream media has hardly covered it at all

things that shouldn't be there

The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.

30 years now voyager has been going on

obsolete in the 21st century

fax machines, land-line phones, the yellow pages . . . .

the return of airport hell

flying had actually gotten fairly bearable with few endless delays or security-check lines out the doors, but no more, i'm sure----

Among other steps being imposed, passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane, and domestic passengers will probably face longer security lines.

happy kwanza/boxing day

architecture of excess

a 2.3 gigapixel image of burj dubai, the tallest building in the world, opening in a few days---

merry christmas everybody

madison square, nyc, 1913

all is definitely calm

i wonder who's riding the martha bus up peachtree this christmas eve

dayum

she done took down her xmas lights on account of them passing socialized medicine

real leaders

it is sometimes very hard to maintain this perspective, but . . . :

I think of Obama that way. Great change comes at glacial speed. George Washington didn't become a king but he still owned black slaves. So did Jefferson yet that didn't stop him from expanding democracy with the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln waited two years to free the slaves and did so only in the South, exempting the border states still fighting for the Union. Even the New Deal, arguably the most significant change in our government since the revolution, didn't include healthcare, didn't desegregate the schools, etc. Only a George Bush thinks that the one-man "decider" gets to change things at once, at his whim. What a fool. Obama understands what the Bush's of the world and even Bill Clinton fail to grasp. A leader is only as great as her or his contributions to the flow of historical progress.

can't have nothin' nice

it's a traditional straw "yule goat" in gävle, sweden --- but almost every year, vandals torch it

¡hurra por los gays

MEXICO CITY — Mexico City lawmakers on Monday made the city the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, a change that will give homosexual couples more rights, including allowing them to adopt children.

roswell

saw barrington hall and smith plantation today for the first time---interesting architecture but covered up with christmas doo-dah---typical tour guides that you just wished would shut up and let you walk around and look, which i did, which they didn't like---thnx cathi

winter solstice 2009

vas genitch den liebenhauser?

the holiday spirit , continued

it is very cruel the way we treat our animals


thnx mr. wood

come out, come out, wherever you are

a few more like him and we could all give it a rest

the holiday spirit

two of my favorites for the season:

robert's christmas tree

his first one of his very own

ebenezer

finishing touches now --- they were finishing installation of the organ when i was there --- and the neon sign is back up out front

american philistines

saddam hussein built a giant palace at the ruins of ancient babylon, but did relatively little damage --- not so, our army who 

flattened a large area for "hard standing" for heavy vehicles and  helicopters which themselves caused considerable damage both to the underlying site structure and to some standing buildings. Worse still, a helicoptor landing zone led to the destruction and removal of the ziggurat debris left by alexander's troops and hephaestion's funeral pyre, both of immense archeological importance. Tanks and heavy vehcicles ere also driven along the processional way, destroying forever the well-preserved street surface on which nebuchadnezzar, dariuis, and alexander had once walked and whose bricks preserved their names.

the army knew what it was doing, but just didn't see what the problem was until it was too late --- this is kinda old news but it still makes me sick to read about it

swiftboating acorn

acorn has been vindicated, but not before their reputation has been thoroughly trashed --- meanwhile the court issued an injunction against enforcement of the law passed by congress denying them funding --- the law will surely be declared unconstitutional as a bill of attainder

silent monks do the hallelujah course

demise of a landmark

it's been condemned for numerous code violations and has to close by the end of the year---same group owns it that owns the old DAR on piedmont as well as other historic buildings that are falling down

a new big cheese

The Georgia House Republican Caucus has elected state Rep. David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, to succeed Glenn Richardson as the House Speaker. “First of all you’ve made a country boy real happy,” Ralston said in a short acceptance speech after he was elected by secret ballot. “And you’ve honored me and I thank you very much for that.”

i guess everyone is mighty proud up there---it's been a while, if ever, that there's been a speaker from the mountains---but it proves there are bubbas everywhere

glory

jesus has called another shyster home

kasim

great loaf cover story on the mayor-elect---i'm glad i voted for him, i think, even if he is a corporate lawyer:

During his 11 years as a state lawmaker, Reed was widely considered to be accessible, fair-minded and forthright, but you'd hardly say he was jolly. Where some politicians win over a room with glad-handing and friendly asides, Reed strives to reach people through the strength of his argument. Even in private conversation, he seldom strays from the formal, deliberate phrasing that's served him well as a corporate attorney.

unless he turns out to be a secret muslin like obama --- his first name is mohammed after all

he's also pushing the belt line in a way i'm not sure shirley was doing ---

fog

from cousin bill t.----nice

lieberman [expletive deleted]

that sure was a friendly move of Joe Lieberman yesterday, on dance-y silver monster David Gregory’s Meet The Press, to go back on his pledge to support the Medicare buy-in proposal without telling the Senate leadership first

you just gotta despise lie-berman --- have you ever googled "lieberman" and "turd"? exactly 491,000 results, which of course doesn't prove a damn thing, but still . . . .

neptune and triton

anniversaries

four years ago today, i moved --- it was an excellent change

texas surprises

houston has elected an openly lesbyterian mayor---

allocating resources

so two miles north from fayetteville and the nearest sidewalk, surrounded by mostly fields and woods, they have installed handicapped-accessible curb cuts and pedestrian walk lights on all four corners of the intersection of hwy. 314 and kenwood road --- i don't think i've ever seen anybody on foot around there, unless they've run out of gas or something --- "dumb" is all i can say

eat it

The question is, if we don't say no to this, what do we say no to? If we don't say no to something that systematically abuses 50 billion animals, if we don't say no to the number-one cause of global warming, and not by a little bit, but by a lot, if we don't say no to what the UN has said is one of the top two or three causes of every significant environmental problem in the world, locally and globally, if we don't say no to something that is clearly - not clear to me, but clear to the World Health Organization - a prime factor in the generation of Avian and Swine flus, if we don't say no to something that's making our antibiotics less effective and ineffective, if we don't say no to something that causes 76 million of food-borne illness every year, just what do we say no to? This is not a case where we need to go to war with another country or spend a trillion dollars or elect a new government. We just need to say no to it.

blooming things

i've never had an aloe to bloom, but this one sure is blooming ---- it's a newer, more sun-tolerant variety that was out on the balcony all summer ---

zombie freeways

The AJC’s Ariel Hart sends a shiver down our spines this morning, reminding us that a proposed toll tunnel under east Atlanta — an underground road that’s similar to what GOP gubernatorial hopeful John Oxendine discussed earlier this year — is still very much a possibility.

he's right, too, given the overall retardedness of our legislature --- if they do push forward with that, the whole process ought to generate some truly awesome public meetings --- in any case, no matter the design, it would be a colossal waste of money that could have been better spent a gazillion other ways

mayor-elect

Fulton County election officials say a recount of votes in the Dec. 1 Atlanta mayoral election show Reed beat opponent Mary Norwood by 714 votes. Reed received 42,549 votes while Norwood received 41,835.

remembering good government

here's a fascinating take on the health-care brouhaha, reflecting on the country's efforts to control food costs a hundred years ago----

None of this is as satisfying as a master plan. But there can’t be a master plan. That’s a crucial lesson of our agricultural experience. And there’s another: with problems that don’t have technical solutions, the struggle never ends. . . . Getting our medical communities, town by town, to improve care and control costs isn’t a task that we’ve asked government to take on before. But we have no choice. At this point, we can’t afford any illusions: the system won’t fix itself, and there’s no piece of legislation that will have all the answers, either. The task will require dedicated and talented people in government agencies and in communities who recognize that the country’s future depends on their sidestepping the ideological battles, encouraging local change, and following the results. But if we’re willing to accept an arduous, messy, and continuous process we can come to grips with a problem even of this immensity. We’ve done it before.

another lousy anniversary

dirty politics

this must take the grand prize for meanness --- refusing to break for a woman needing to pee or for another commissioner to take his insulin --- jeez

the joys of air travel

one of them is not sitting next to a fat ass --- but this is just unbelievable

divers and whales

just listening to these critters is a wonderful thing

it's a cat's life

kitty cams on fifty cats and you learn something:

Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.

watching a train wreck

i've been checking this guy's blog (charles johnson's little green footballs) off and on for two or three years, less so in the beginning when he seemed just like any other raving-right blog, only extra muslin-hating, in 2007 --- but then he began posting more and more that went counter to the orthodox rightist blogosphere in particular --- now there's been a huge hoo-ha in some quarters over his post yesterday of ten reasons he's "parted ways with the right"---- which he concluded with this:

"And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff. I won’t be going over the cliff with them."

requiem for a tree

the elm on 11th street is a goner --- it adapted, sort of, to nearly everything in the vicinity getting paved over, mainly because it never had much that wasn't paved over or built on in the first place (that's an aerial view of midtown in 1949 down there) --- but it was too much when they dug up all the pavement and graded as they realigned 11th street

dee-catur

here's a preliminary look at the city's just-completed historic resources survey

testing the 14th

two straight lawyers, one of whom defended bush in bush vs. gore in 2000, are going for broke in the contest for gay civil rights ---

The stakes are high. If Perry v. Schwarzenegger reaches the Supreme Court and Boies and Olson are successful, gays and lesbians nationwide would not only have the right to marry, they stand to gain many of the legal rights they have sought for decades. Don't Ask, Don't Tell would be invalidated, as would employment discrimination against gays and lesbians. In the eyes of the law, gay people would be equal to straight people, and any legislation that discriminated against them could be challenged and easily struck down against this precedent. However, defeat could legitimize such discrimination against LGBT Americans, making it far more difficult to sue for parental or housing rights. The door to any federal litigation on marriage equality would be shut for decades. . . . This is risky because Boies and Olson are entering a legal no-man's land. . . . Despite Martin Luther King Jr.'s assurance, the arc of history does not bend in any direction -- much less toward justice -- on its own.

what's really skeery?

everybody has gotten all wigged out about nuttin, if you get to thinking about it --- 'cause as usual they got us looking the wrong way

the great eggo famine of 2009

one of the major producers of eggo is here in atlanner, out off fulton industrial blvd --- they got flooded out in september and the company is also in the process of "equipment enhancements and repairs in our largest waffle bakery" (in tennessee), and now there is a great want for eggo waffles throughout the land --- don't expect full production until the middle of 2010

it's like a third-world country, i guess, when you can't keep eggos on the table

moratus milans

only 4 mm long

and the black dude

the white lady

interpreting mrs. dull

apples and cranberries:
1 pint cranberries
1 cup sugar
4 or 5 apples
¾ pint water






potato salad:
4 cups cold diced potatoes
2 cups chopped tender cabbage
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup chili sauce
⅛ cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons grated onion
salt, pepper and more lemon juice if needed

build it and they may not come

sprawled across the mojave desert are miles and miles of empty streets, part of california city, which is not evidence of this century's boom and bust in real estate --- but evidence of another overly optimistic real estate developer from fifty years ago!

only a fraction of it was ever built out but northwest of that little core is a surreal landscape of cul de sacs

thanksgiving blessing

a palinoid primer

Olbermann missed the point. There are no lies in Sarah's book; nor in her life, nor in her heart. Utterances that seem untrue are not lies, because Sarah believes them true. If she says one thing, then later forgets what she said and says the opposite, Sarah Palin is neither lying nor mistaken, nor forgetful, because at each moment, she believes what she has said. And a minute later, she will believe something else, if she says it. Whatever she says, if she says it, will be true. But if it's not, so what? It's words, only words.

Sooner or later, words fail everyone. This goes double for Sarah and her faithful. Sarah Palin is the voice - and the embodiment - of the inarticulate.

When Sarah Palin says something that doesn't seem to make sense to most of us, her people - the tongue-tied and frustrated - understand perfectly, because that's exactly what they would have said, if only they could.

scary stuff

what is wrong with these people?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

bioplastics

seriously:

Sinskey can’t do much about the plastic that’s already polluting the Earth’s oceans, but he is trying to help keep the problem from getting worse. Next month, a company he founded with his former postdoc, Oliver Peoples, will open a new factory that uses MIT-patented technology to build plastic from corn. The plant aims to produce annually 110 million pounds of the new bioplastic, which biodegrades in soil or the ocean.

that would be better than sliced bread, one would think --- the supply of plastic crap could then be, theoretically, endless

(speaking of which, my doggie-excrement management system includes biodegradable plastic bags that i think come from corn)

coming down

the tower crane at 12th and midtown, that is --- they're repairing the parking garage that fell down over on spring street, but otherwise, midtown is built

end of an era

both the southern voice and the washington blade closed today after the parent company filed for bankruptcy --- sovo had been publishing since 1988; the blade since 1969 --- we don't need them like we used to, but it's still too bad ---

building

the bad economy hasn't ended the tear-downs --- this was a perfectly good (and large) 1920s house on taft, a block off the park --- the roof, floor joists, and some of the wall framing is there, but not much else

















meanwhile the driving club's gazillion dollar addition already has issues --- aside from the crappy stucco, the whole south end is settling, so much so that the granite foundation has started to crack (near center of this image) --- methinks the lawyers are involved at this point

let's hear it for the bugs

Mayflies may seal the fate of mountaintop mining in the Appalachian hills of the eastern U.S.
bloomberg, of course, refers to them as "hills," not "mountains"

sleepwalking

theocrats

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

i never would have thought that we as a country would regress so far from the ideal jfk put before the baptist ministers in houston in 1960:

putting up xmas at the fox

it needs to get cold before we see too much more of this sort of thing

u.s. deports lou dobbs

"No one here knew anything about Mr. Dobbs' past, and to be honest, we never asked," said a source within CNN, who asked not to be identified. "All we knew was that he was willing to take the job most American newscasters didn't want—namely, speaking out hysterically against immigration at every turn to help us gain ratings points against Fox News."....

mayoral politics

roy barnes and jim martin have endorsed kasim --- buckhead coalition endorsed wan for the sixth district council seat ---

a victory for the kitty cats

berkeley is the sixth california town to ban declawing of cats --- i've never done that to one of mine and aarf made me sign an agreement not to do it to dexter --- although if i had done it, i might still have a fine leather sofa