All posts by Steve Stern

Behind the curve

Americana, Politics

“Conceding that his refusal to release tax returns was “a mistake” and “a distraction” that helped cost him a South Carolina primary win, Romney said he would release his 2010 federal return along with an estimate of his 2011 taxes.” from the Los Angles Times. They – whoever they are – say that timing is everything and I am sure that they are right. I have never understood why somebody like Romney, who seems very intelligent, would not just instinctually realize that he can’t stonewall the release of his taxes. But he did stonewall the release until well after it hurt him in South Carolina.

As a Democrat, I am rooting for Romney to hold back on releasing all his taxes because that will be the best way to keep the issue alive. But, good timing has never been my strong suit; when I see that something is going to happen, I am usually ahead of the curve. And sometimes, the curve never gets there. In 1999, I was convinced that the era of the MacMansion in the boondocks was over and people wanted smaller, closer in homes. I missed the trend by almost ten years.

I comfort myself, however, by remembering that General Douglas MacArthur, an often a brilliant general, was also, often, ahead of the curve. It doesn’t comfort me, however, again, that being ahead of the curve caused MacArthur trouble. Several times, he saw that he was going to win a battle and started drawing troops out before the battle was actually won which actually prolonged the fight and, a couple of times, almost lot it for him.

So maybe Romney is right and stonewalling the release of additional taxes will help him, but I don’t think so.

 

 

I’m thrilled that nothing goes away on the web

Photography, Psychological Musings,

The San Francisco Police Department wants to us a couple of my photographs in their annual report and I am shocked. Not shocked that they want to use the photographs – well, actually, shocked about that too – even though I do think that it is a pretty good photo of the police at the 2011 LGBT parade – as they call it – but shocked that they found it. I put the pictures in my blog last June where they – apparently – lurked until the Office of the Chief of Police of the San Francisco Police Department found them. That is pretty extraordinary. Well, I guess, today, not extraordinary: just ordinary.

Still for me, shocking. A couple of weeks ago, I did a post on going to Sequoia Hospital for a daily infusion of the antibiotic daptomycin and two days later, the head nurse said that I should be careful not to show anybody’s name in my pictures. It turns out that Sequoia does regular searches to see what people are saying about them on the webs and then referred it to the nurse in the photograph. I know that whatever I put here is available to anybody, but it was still a surprise. And I had a moment of feeling slightly queasy, like seeing a cop car’s redlight going off in my rearview mirror.

As I finish this, the shock has dissipated but the thrill remains. And here is the other picture.

 

 

 

 

I do think Eisenhower was right

Americana, War

I am not sure what to say about this crazy You Tube video except to say that the armored personal carriers do not seem to be bound for Afghanistan (because of the non-USA military paint job). My cynicism wants to say that they are probably headed to some country that needs more material to keep their citizens in check. What ever the destination, I find this pretty dis-heartening.

Red Tails and the suspension of disbelief

Film, War

I saw Red Tails the other night and was particularly disappointed. I went expecting it to be not especially good but, like Peter Kuhlman, I love airplanes and once had a World War II airplane jones and I expected the air combat scenes to be at least as good as Star Wars I. They weren’t and I am not sure why.  I think that part of it, but only part of it, was that a huge percentage of the movie was CG and – like the picture above – just did not seem real. CG is great when the subject is not real, but when the subject can be real, like a real P51 airplane, CG seems to breakdown.

Even the airport sets that probably were real just seemed too precious to be a real place . They came across as the kind of dioramas that they have at the National Air and Space Museum. They are interesting but they just don’t look lived in. They have all the right parts – exactly the right parts – but they just don’t transcend the collection of parts. I felt the same way about the Imperial Star Dreadnoughts in Star Wars, they just didn’t feel real like the Nostromo in Alien.

Probably what bothered me the most was the hyping of the plot.  In the movie, the first time the Tuskegee Airmen go into aerial combat, we are to believe that they kick ass against a experienced German fighter group including blowing up their airfield. In their first dogfight!  The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is heroic and hyping the story somehow makes it seem less heroic, not more. From everything that I have read, this movie is a labor of love so I am sure George Lucas did not want to diminish the story, but he did.