Categories
politics

A Facebook group I just joined

It’s called 2008 third party movement. There are some significant differences between the various so-called third parties, but here are some things they have in common:

“The Republican/Democrat duopoly has, for far too long, ignored the most important issues facing our nation. However, alternate candidates Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader agree on four key principles central to the health of our nation. These principles should be key in the considerations of every voter this November and in every election.

We Agree

Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders.

The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation.

The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds.”

I only have some small quibbles with the foreign policy, but overall I agree with everything. In addition, I think that all of these things are much more important than anything the big two have been talking about. I wish more people were concerned about this stuff instead of indulging in rooting for and/or against a “side.”

Categories
christianity culture

Compassion fatigue (crossposted with Yemen Blog)

I caught a bit of an interview on NPR today. Terri Gross was interviewing a former Episcopal minister (also a woman) and the ex-minister was talking about how she noticed “compassion fatigue” when she got out of the ministering business. It was a huge load off of her, and she didn’t even realize that she had it!

I identified with that. Not so much with compassion, but with some other things while I was in Yemen. It occurs to me that while I was there, I was always trying to be the model American and the model Christian. For many of the locals, I was the only one of either that they had ever met, and I might be the only one they ever meet. I was always conscious of having to set an example. I felt that if I did something to upset them or offend them they would most likely generalize that experience to include all Americans and Christians.

After a while, it became routine for me, but it was always there. When I got back, I knew I had to recuperate, but I couldn’t really put my finger on what I was recuperating from. I think a big part of it was getting used to not sticking out anymore. I’m just another guy here, I’m not the Christian, the American, I’m just another person… The anonymity is really nice, all the pressure is gone. I don’t think I realized what kind of strain that put on me until I got used to the idea that I wouldn’t have to be an example any more. It was a huge weight off of me, and I feel much better because of it.

Categories
photography

Some studio work

I continue to dig through the archives… Here’s a type of work I did in school but really haven’t done since. Working in a studio is a lot of fun, it’s a totally different type of workflow. The models hated working with me, I would give them very little direction. I usually found the best expressions and poses when they were bored to tears. I got some decent shots, but I rarely got people to sit for me more than once… Anyway, as usual, you can find them here.

earing

Categories
culture

We have met the enemy and he is us…

Along with Doonsbury and Peanuts, Pogo is the definition of comic art. Walt Kelly was a master political satirist and artist. His strip, Pogo, ran for 3 or 4 decades and was perhaps the pinnacle of the comic art form. He is especially famous for his take on the dealings of the House Un-American activities committee. Unfortunately, the strip stopped in the 70’s so many people aren’t as familiar with it as some of the others. If you’ve never seen or read any of the strips, you can go here to get a taste for the humor and art that the strip represented. With any luck, Fantagraphics will get the total collection off the ground so we can appreciate this treasure of American literature that way it should be.

kelly_pogo1.gif
Categories
politics

My favorite negative ad.

Despite everyone’s supposed dislike of negative ads, they can be instructive. My current favorite one is from the RNC. In it, they detail how in bed Obama was with both Fannie and Freddie. It talks about how he supported them and how this whole financial collapse is due to people like him.

Of course the RNC can’t trumpet McCain too much. Here’s my favorite part… You see, McCain may not have accepted as much money from Fannie and Freddie as Obama did, but he has his own skeletons to worry about. McCain was, of course, a star in the whole Keating five messiness. The RNC is walking a fine line and hoping that people’s memories don’t go back that far. God, politics is dirty…

Categories
Uncategorized

More scans

I’ve dug up some things from years past. These haven’t seen the light of day in quite a while. There’s some I took in Ithaca, some in Binghamton, one in Cheektowaga, and one I took near DC. You can see them here.

fall1

Categories
odds and ends

Job stuff

I’ve been looking around and trying to figure out what I want to do. I had mentioned before that I’d like to go to Turkey in the spring. I’ll do that too, unless of course I can find a job that I like before then… Starting a regular life has some appeal, but it has to pay decently and it has to be something I enjoy. I have some applications out, we’ll see what happens…

Categories
politics

Great, now Syria….

Bush is only in power for a little longer, did he have to go and piss off Syria? There are already a lot of countries that won’t allow Americans in because of our foreign policy, is Syria going to be next? How on earth am I going to get to Damascus now?

What? There was more than my travel plans at stake in that? Pssh, what could be so important? I kid….

Categories
technology

New Apple laptops

My father got a new laptop the other day. He has FINALLY gotten a Mac, now all I need to do is get mom switched over and I’ll have my computer troubleshooting life taken care of… Anyway, I moaned and groaned a bit about the new macbooks because they dropped the firewire port off of them. I still don’t like that, but my father had never heard of firewire, so the new one was fine for him.

I gotta say, the new macbooks are pretty sweet. I shouldn’t really be surprised, Apple keeps doing this and it should be expected by now… It is noticeably zipper than mine despite having the same clock speed and amount of RAM. There have been enough improvements that the overall speed has noticeably improved. I didn’t really care about the new manufacturing process, but the result really is nice. This is the first computer I’ve felt that I like to touch, the aluminum has a very nice tactile feel to it. The screen is nice and bright, and the keyboard is fine. I do like the trakpad, I already miss some of the multi-touch features. In short, I imagine that I will end up owning one of these sooner or later. I’ll get around the firewire limitation somehow (damn you Steve Jobs). I didn’t think my computer was all that bad until I used the new one…

He also got an internet thingy for his computer. Since he’s out in the sticks, cable and DSL were out of the question. Satellite is just too expensive. This thing uses the phone company’s network, a 3g one I suppose. It’s not bad. It’s not quite up to a cable modem type of speed, but it is a huge improvement over the dial up he was on before. So those of you out of reach of cable modems might want to look into this, it’s an easy way to get into the 21st century…

Categories
religion

Are churches "feminine?"

I was chatting with my friend Dana last night and I mentioned that I was going to start going to a book club in an Episcopal church. She said, “Good, we need more men.” By “we” she meant the Episcopal church. I’m not going to become one BTW.

I’ve never felt right being in church and I’ve never figured out the appeal. I’m not alone either, churches are predominantly attended by females. Would you believe mother’s day is the day with the highest attendance? Not Easter, not Christmas, mother’s day… It seems that that is the one day that women can reliably drag their husbands off to church.

I wonder why this is? I mean, I don’t know why anyone goes to church, but why are more women drawn to it than men? Is there something inherently feminine about church? Or is there something that inherently appeals to women? I don’t really know, think I’ll do a little digging around and se if anyone has any theories. But first of all, I have to get some sort of idea as to why people go to church in the first place…