Happy VERY EARLY Independence Day

So, it turns out I'm mostly carrying photo posts over here, as those seem to have more timelessness than my written ones. Though this one is of July 4th fireworks, it seems oddly appropriate at the dawning of a historic new American presidency.

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An annual tradition: The best shot of the night from the Edgewater, NJ fireworks show. While not one of the more spectacular fireworks displays out there, the backdrop makes it a highly photogenic one.

 

Another Ported Photo Post

One of my favorite pastimes is what I like to call "improvised tripoding" with my camera. When taking night shots or dimly lit indoor shots, flash is often either (a) inadequate or (b) inappropriate, or both. In this situation, never prepared with an actual tripod, I like to try to find stationary or nearly-stationary objects on which to balance my camera, in order to enable a steady, long exposure without shakiness and blur. Tabletops and chair arms work well, as do some street signs, windowsills, rocks, and wide fence rails or posts. Sometimes, in more desperate or creative moments ("extreme improvised tripoding"), I will also use tree branches, other people's heads, or the hood of a stranger's car.

Tonight, while ostensibly on an errand to 7-11 to replenish our dangerously low ice cream supply, I decided to take some shots using the aforementioned method. My favorite shot of the evening is below. It is so quintessentially suburban strip mall, it could have been shot in nearly any town in America (in this case, the photo was taken in Fort Lee, New Jersey). My favorite element, though, which I didn't notice until I transfered the photos to my laptop, is the distant manikin in the window, unblinkingly staring back out at the world. There's something wonderfully creepy about it.

 

Snow-Covered Greetings

Hi, I'm Richie (Jay), son of Robert of Too Early To Call fame. You may know me from a few of my guest posts. Well, effective immediately, I've received a promotion from 'guest poster' to 'contributor' on this blog. I've shut down my also-ran blogging operation, and merged forces with the much more established, well-read, and frequently updated pages of my dad's blog.

As I transition over to this blog, I may carry over some old material.

Starting with this: A medley of snow photos from just about one year ago.

 

 

 

Sometimes being out-of-focus means you're a bad photographer. Other times, it means it's snowing buckets and you can call it 'art.'

 

 

 

This one's my dad:

 

 

 

The greatness to dream

the following is what I heard in my mind yesterday:

"Like Dr. King, we must have a dream. We must not view the landscape before us and ask why. We must instead envision the dream and ask why not.

I stand here the product of the dream of people from Abraham Lincoln to Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King and thousands more. I stand here because of people who saw the dream and would not be deterred in their quest. I stand here because we as a people have been for over 230 years, and continue to be, a nation that permits dreams by its citizens. I am here because we as a nation do not let dreams die.

But dreams often do not come without a great price. There are often terrible struggles and difficult consequences. There are obstacles that seem insurmountable and problems that seem unsolvable. But our greatness lies in our willingness to do whatever it takes, to always keep reaching.

We as a nation now see danger and harsh terrain when we look ahead . We as a nation dare not turn back. We are stronger and better than that. We must all do what it takes to keep the flames of our dream alive. Sometimes it may flicker but we will never let it burn out. Sometimes we will be weary but we can never rest. Sometimes we may be knocked down but we will never quit. It is our destiny to follow greatness. It is our destiny to be great."

All that you can be

"Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me"

In reading the Lizette Alvarez article " More Americans joining military as jobs dwindle" I couldn't help but think of Lady Liberty, the Mother of Exiles, as she is called by Emma Lazarus in her poem "The New Colossus". It appears that the armed forces have become a haven for those who have nowhere else to turn for employment. The report of Ms. Alvarez is filled with stories of the unemployed and uneducated, reaching out for Uncle Sam to provide shelter from the economic storm.

It is the worst of legacies from the Bush era. Where we should be seen as the emblem of hope, our military has become the refuge of the hopeless.The numbers in the military are spiking, even as there is a strong possibility that many of these men and women could find themselves in harm's way. When the best that America has to offer many of us is a way out of one mess, and into another, it is a sad time for us all.

We are about to embark on a new journey. We are filled with excitement and thoughts of a better tomorrow. Let the Statue that beckons those from distant shores become, once more a beacon of hope and light. Let tomorrow be a day when our tired, and our poor, can come home from the service to find a new and invigorated country ready to recapture its strength and glory. Let our homeless and tempest tossed find no need to flee. Let the words at the base of the statue find new meaning in new world.

Fingers in the dike

I wait eagerly for every column from Paul Krugman. I find his pieces to be consistently brilliant. However, I think that Mr. Krugman failed to see the most obvious reason for Barack Obama's apparent decision to forego pursuit of Bush and his cronies.

In "Forgive and Forget" , Mr. Krugman speaks of exacerbating partisanship, and not dwelling on past abuses as the predicates given for failure to prosecute the innumerable crimes of the past administration. The reality is that President Obama is about to be inundated with matters of substance and immediacy. He is like the boy with his fingers (and toes) in the dike. I believe he has chosen not to deflect his focus, or that of Congress, on matters regarding past wrongs.

We are in a period of extreme crisis. As important as it may be for us to investigate and incarcerate, now is not the moment. The Bush league misdeeds of the past 8 years have, in their own perverse way, created a shield for those involved. We are now so busy trying to right their wrongs that we don't have the time or energy to do right and pursue them for their wrongs. Their day may well come. However, for the time being, the only finger being raised in regard to this nefarious crew is the middle finger they continue to raise at all of us.

I know it is hard to preach patience but I urge Mr. Krugman to consider the possibility. Justice delayed is not necessarily justice denied.

Freedom fried

"He's Leaving, Really" is a look by Gail Collins at what we may expect to hear from George Bush as we anxiously wait for the day when we only get a view of 43 in our rear view mirror. I think, in looking back, the President should call his farewell address "Freedom Fried".

Over the past 8 years we have watched in horror and disgust as this misadministration veered us to a path marked by freedom from the rigors of the constitution, the demands of diplomacy, the oversight of crumbling financial markets and the protection of our environment. The course taken has found us with less personal freedoms, less foreign credibility, less domestic ability and less air to breathe freely.

We have been reduced in so many ways. We await tonight's speech not for the freedoms of which Bush will speak but for the one overriding freedom we all crave. Let us all be free from the grips of incompetency and and let us all begin a new journey back to the principles upon which this democracy is based. Goodbye President Bush. Free at last.

New TV shows

Here are some of the new shows that are scheduled for the upcoming season:

1. BM- a look at all the lives turned to s___ as a result of the shenanigans of Bernie Madoff
2. Reverse Dobbs- a look at all the illegal immigrants trying to leave the US in search of employment and a better life
3. Follow the money- an in depth tracking of where all the money from the bailout disappeared to
4. I can't start my car- a day in the life of the heads of the Big 3
5. War what is it good for- a study in all the cons (and none of the pros) of being in a war zone
6. Take this job and shove it- Days 1 to 30 in the Obama presidency- a look from the inside out
7. Social insecurity- Following the life of one reaching out for retirement and finding only air
8. The doughnut hole- Reaching into the pocket of seniors, the black hole of health care is examined
9. Jobs- 10 individuals, who suddenly found themselves out of work, look for employment where there is none
10.Fast forward- A look at our lives in 2010 and 2020.
11.Heaven help us- Fundamentalism and everything it brings with it
12.Palin failin- At home and at work with the Palin family through 2009
13.Old paper- Nothing about newspapers are new- an industry on the brink
14.Bushwhacked- Back in Texas, 43 explains it all to us. this is not expected to last more than 1 episode
15.The Clintons- As Bill has had to disassociate with everyone he has ever known, the junior secretary of state examines world affairs with Hillary in a weekly chat
16.Unchened- Dick Cheney opens up like never before- why he should have tortured Bush
17.The Obama girls- The new celebrity kids talk about adjusting to life in the big white house
18.The silent minority- Rush Limbaugh stands mute for 30 minutes each Saturday
19.Turn out the lights- As Broadway shows dwindle each day, we examine the disappearance of art in our lives
20.Yankee ingenuity- How the Yankees manage to spend their way to everything but the World Series
21.The Constitution- A where's Waldo look to find anything in the Bill of Rights left intact by the Bush misadministration
22.The Clampetts- A daily guessing game on the price of oil
23.Indicted- An examination of the crimes committed during the Bush years and whether the culprits will ever be pursued
24.Here comes the sun- Alternative energy sources and whether they will ever see the light of day
25. Seven dirty words- George Carlin's masterpiece updated to the 21st Century by George Bush


Stay tuned for more shows that are now only in discussion.

Perspective

As I survey the landscape in front of me, there are landmines as far as the eye can see. Disaster seems to be lurking in a recession bordering on a depression, a $50 billion scam and an escalation of violence in the Middle East. We all search for historical corollaries to compare and contrast. It is not hard to find other similar incidents in all these contexts. The question that thus arises is what we can take from seeing the same societal shortcomings repeated over and over.

For every Michael Millken, for every Enron, there is a subsequent Bernie Madoff. For the Great Depression, there are certainly many succeeding recessions and now the possibility of something worse. For Israel if it is not 1967 or 2006 it is 2009. Why can't we seem to get it right?

Is there something in our makeup that says for every step forward there must be a corresponding step in the other direction? Can we not build on the lessons learned from earlier misdeeds and create a better, stronger model going forward? Do we come out of the worst times because of our ingenuity or just because?

Downshift

I was entombed for a total of about 25 minutes. Earplugs were supposed to drown out the noise that was all around me. I was told at various points that I was breathing too deeply. Shallow breathing is not really my thing, but I had no option. Unless I wanted to repeat the process, I had to obey orders.

Finally completing the task, I emerged from the tunnel. I was told it would be about 15 minutes before the results of the MRI were read. I got dressed and waited. I soon was informed that the crash landing had caused a partial tear of my rotator cuff. I won't know until next week whether surgery is in my near future. In the meantime, life continues.

I have learned how to dress by putting my bad arm in my shirt first. In taking off my shirt, the good arm leads the maneuver. Rolling over in bed is out of the question. Other daily activities have also taken on unexpected difficulties. The worst of these is that we have 3 stick shift cars, and first and third gears are beyond my reach. I have thus had to call upon the good graces of Joanne to now increase her job description to include chauffeur. Well, at least until late this afternoon.

Richie and I were going a little stir crazy. Jo was out for the day at a museum. We wanted out of the apartment, and talked of making a little trip to Whole Foods, a few miles away. How to get there? Richie's bad back and legs had prevented him from doing driving except on rare occasions. My legs were fine but my right arm would not cooperate. Together, we were either a mess or perfect. We chose perfect as the logical combination.

As I got behind the wheel of the car, we discussed our strategy. "I will let you know when I have depressed the clutch. You can then shift gears, and let me know when you are engaged". It was so simply ingenious.

The trip back and forth went without issue. It was as though this 2 headed, 4 armed , 4 legged being was a well oiled machine. Precision was followed by more of the same. While I do think anyone peering into our car would have been more than mildly surprised to see the drill, that was not our concern. We were on a mission.

They say adversity can sometimes bring you closer. Clearly, for Richie and me, combining the best of each us brought both of us amusement and satisfaction. We try to make the best of the hand we are dealt. For today at least, we succeeded.