A case for drones

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Yesterday, I was driving along, listening to NPR’s All Things Considered, and they started  started talking about the famine in Somalia. It turns out that a group called al shabaab is blocking people starving to death from getting food. According to the New York Times more than 500,000 children [are ] on the brink of starvation.

It just enrages me. For nothing more than the personal gain of some of their leaders, and by using Islam as a justification, they are starving people to death. They are even killing NGOs that are trying to help. My first thought – and I probably yelled it out loud in  the car –  was Just kill the sons of bitches, we ought to go over and just shoot em! Then, I realized that is exactly what we are doing with our drone program. We are just killing the sons of bitches! In Afghanistan, in Pakistan, Yemen, and now Somalia.

Of course we are not positive that they are the right sons of bitches and the whole point of International Law – hell, any law – is to prevent people from killing who ever they want. But that is besides the point.

 

 

In defense of Obama or the advantage of being crazy

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics, Psychological Musings,

Yesterday – maybe the day before that, by now – James Fallows who is usually a voice of reason, answered his question about President Obama’s negotiating stance during the (unnecessary and abusive) debt-ceiling “showdown.” Was he thinking eight steps ahead of the opposition, playing multi-dimensional chess while they were playing tic-tac-toe? Or was he a fatal step or two behind, playing patty-cake while they were playing Mixed Martial Arts? Chess master? Or pawn?”

I think we know the answer, at least about this encounter. Pawn, and captured pawn at that.

It has been very discouraging, it just seems like Obama has been head faked out of his jock. My big complaint, I think most of my fellow lefty’s big complaint, is that he should have seen this coming. Additionally,  he seems to always start the negotiation by giving the Republicans half of what he thinks they want.  He is a little like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football, except in this case, he is pulling the football out first to try and placate them.

In Obama’s defense, the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party just seems to be crazy. The advantage of being crazy is that the sane people have to do all the accommodating. Something like twenty five years ago – I remember it like it was only five years ago – I was waiting in the ten items or less line, when I realized the person two or three people in front of me had an over-full cart being pushed by a crazy looking teenager. Just then, her mother came running over very embarrassed saying something like Oh! no, dear; it is not nice to put a full cart in this line. The crazy teenager just looked at us like somebody yelling in the street and said They don’t care. She probably wasn’t drolling but I do remember as looking slightly dangerous in a ready to go berserk way.  We all looked at our feet, including the checker, and she went ahead.

If it looks like the other person is nuttier than a fruitcake and could do something really dangerous like shut the government down, then they have all the power. Especially with somebody like Obama whose persona is the cool, calm, sane, only adult in the room. That is great that he is the only adult in the room except he has no power. The Tea Party is getting its way by being crazy.

That actually doesn’t sound too crazy to me.

 

 

Travel photography: Portraits

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Every couple of days, I get an email from the Digital Photography School that has links to photography tips. I often don’t completely agree with the tips, but what I do agree with is the overriding principal of mindful photography. While we might not always agree on how to accomplish something, we always agree that it starts with knowing what we want to accomplish,. Recently, in an article on Street Portraits, I read Before approaching a person to ask him or her if you can take a photo, have your settings spot on. When they say yes, lift your arms and snap snap snap, say thank you, and walk away. Easy.

I have learned to take a different approach. Years ago, I signed up for a class in Portrait Photography at  the Omega Institute. The course was cheap, but getting there was  – with airfare to New York and then driving to Rhinebeck  – too dear and I never got to the class. But the sub line, A portrait is an artifact of a relationship., has transformed my travel photography.

Ever since, I have slowed down. When I see an interesting local, rather than try to grab a shot or shoot as fast as possible, I stop to ask. I try to to banter back and forth a little bit, even if it is only with sign language. I establish a mini relationship. Counter intuitively, when I used to be as quick as possible, it was often an intrusion, I was obviously trying to steel a photo; by having a relationship, even if only for five minutes, I honor the person. This is especially true when traveling in countries where people normally don’t like their picture being taken.

I have gone from a fifty tries and three successes – using the term success very loosely –  to ten tries and ten successes. I know that the woman above is named Maria and she comes from Nebaj, Guatemala, that she was raised in an orphanage and her sister orphan is also named Maria. I know that they find humor in calling themselves sisters and both having the same name.

Here are several samples:

 

What IS it with Red Bull, anyway?

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By way of confession, I have never actually drunk a Red Bull, a condition I don’t plan on changing very soon. I did have a sip a couple of years ago and didn’t much like it. I read in the L.A. Times that ordering a Red Bull and Vodka is a sure sign that you like to party and, Oh!  they also seem to have an amazing sports program. They have two Formula11 teams, one of them, was last year’s most successful Formula 1 team. This year they are so far ahead, many people including myself have quit keeping track.

But they also sponsor motorcycles and motorcycle racing, and motocross, and air races. A couple of years ago, when I went to see the Blue Angles

with my Little Brother, Edwin, I was amazed at how big the Red Bull presence was. Now they are sponsoring a race that is both extra nutty and very cool. To quote their website, Athletes race non-stop through the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea, with just a paraglider and a pair of hiking boots to help them…Fly. Hike. Conquer. The athletes can either fly with their paraglider or hike, carrying their equipment with them. The race goes on day and night, sun or snow, until the first pilot reaches goal. ,

in fact, they are sponsors of all kind of nutty races, like Red Bull Crashed Ice, a combination of ice hockey, downhill skating and boardercross! I don’t even know what bordercross is. It just seems amazing that they can sell that much sports – or whatever – drink. Not necessarily in a bad way, just amazing.

1. And speaking of Formula 1, where Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel is way out in front so as to be not very interesting except that each race has been interesting with lots of racing.  Louis Hamilton  beat Red Bull in the last race, the Grand Prix of Germany, partially because his pit stops were so fast: he drove in, they jacked up the car, removed four tires and put four new tires on, and then lowered the car and he drove off – all in 3.2 seconds.

 

“60 Awesome Portraits Of Gay Couples Just Married In New York State”

Americana, Current Affairs, Psychological Musings

 

The title is ripped off the website  BuzzFeed and so are these two pictures. The full 60 -actually, 59 – pictures are there, also. Check it out! It is more than 59 wedding pictures, it is 59 pictures of people who have just been told they are as good as anybody else.