31 July 2009

talking like a democrat


he also got the leadership to agree to a floor vote on a single-payer system

30 July 2009

nice evening


just loving the rain

70 years together

politics of race

the late lee atwater, another proud son of the big A, major Republican in the 1980s, on the evolution of american politics:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can't say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

follow the link to an interesting analysis of where we are now

birthers, nirthers, and dumb

Authorities are investigating two Atlanta-area police officers accused of using government computers to run a criminal background check on President Barack Obama.

dekalb county, no less----probably just two guys being dumasses, which happens a lot, don't you know

28 July 2009

rhetoric as poetry

if you missed shatner's rendition of palin's speech on conan last nite, here it is---a choice piece of work:



24 July 2009

kennesaw mountain


me and dog went back out to kennesaw and this time it wasn't all covered up with people --- atlanner in the summer haze all across the southern horizon --- the lower end of the blue ridge to the north --- it was the union army's first view of the city, too --- some of the confederate gun emplacements are still there and at least one is getting a face lift or something --- even if you're not all that interested in civil war military campaigns, all the trees and meadows are a large relief from the surrounding area

oh and the flock of giant swallowtails near the top of the mountain was wonderful

23 July 2009

performance art

the great katherine kuhlman in 1974, two years before she died --- she and ernest angley were in a class by themselves

sunrise

from the space station, last friday

cognitive dissonance in iran

so they will kill you if you are gay, but wanna change your sex? fine---the government will even help pay for it



in addition, islamic law prohibits execution of a virgin---but they have a work around for that: they get somebody to rape her first, which is just about the most twisted thing i've ever heard
iran is a very wierd place

19 July 2009

recreating

me and dog were gonna go climb kennesaw mountain today, but we got out there around 10 to find it absolutely packed, no place to park, not even along side of the road---we drove all the way around the perimeter of the park (which is not a short distance), before heading back down to the river --- which was nice and calm --- but depressingly run-down and ill-kempt at the paces mill/west palisades unit where u.s. 41 crosses the river --- trash cans overflowing --- restroom all messed up, missing fixtures --- we've got a long way to go to make the parks what they used to be

18 July 2009

nice night for a soirée

r.ip. redux

walter cronkite (1916 - 2009) ---- he ended the war in vietnam --- "and that's the way it is . . . "

15 July 2009

diversity

i thought the gay daddies in the south tower penthouse were moving out --- but they were just re-arranging the furniture---their daughter now has twin siblings!

11 July 2009

pdc

the driving club is really improving the view in that corner of piedmont park --- the piedmont avenue perspective remains more-or-less the same, but the rest of it has been essentially reconstructed --- it's a long way from walker's farm and the driving club's first race track, now at the park's center

06 July 2009

traveling dog

guinness is generally an excellent travel companion---especially on the way back when he was kinda tuckered out --- the scenic shot is from santeetlah gap, elev. 2660--- and below that is an image of one of the several really fine corn fields up that way

big trees

me and the dog drove up to n.c. today to see one of the only old-growth forests left in the east, part of the joyce kilmer-slick rock wilderness---400 yr old poplars were worth the drive---there are huge eastern hemlock, too, but nearly all of them were dead or dying from wooly adelgid---

05 July 2009

failed structures

according to the ajc, the parking garage, the center bay of which fell down, was only 7 yrs old --- built by the same construction company that was trying to build the botanical garden's "canopy walk," which also fell down, killing one person, injuring 18, last december --- they were fined for that

04 July 2009

the race is on

40th running of the peachtree road race, back in piedmont park --- 55k tired sweaty people --- the last of them will straggle through in early afternoon --- but it's a fine day to run, if you like that sort of thing

03 July 2009

war of the holes


"i guess i'm just a b-hole kinda guy"??????

02 July 2009

spring street

collapsing concrete parking decks squash cars --- even though it was just one out of seven bays that fell down, it's still fairly amazing that nobody was hurt---they weren't able to start retrieving cars until today, including all of those in the rest of the garage that didn't collapse which nobody had been able to yet get at

old structures

we also stopped off to gawk at the covered bridge over red oak creek in meriwether county --- built in the 1840s by horace king (1807-1885), a freed slave who built a bunch of bridges in west georgia, although this is the only one that still exists --- it's also the oldest and longest covered bridge left in the state --- you just gotta hate younguns with spray paint, but better that than matches i guess

endangered spaces

me and dog went down to see spruill bluff state park this morning --- the army corps has wanted to put a dam there for a long time --- the shoals and bluffs west and northwest of thomaston mark the fall line for the flint river as it breaks into the coastal plain --- gov. carter stopped the project in 1974, but once the engineers get an idea like that in their heads, it'll have nine lives at least