Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cheap, Fast & Easy

    From the always awesome Tofutti Break

Yap

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles
Ambrose Bierce

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Yap

If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.
Emma Goldman

Monday, March 28, 2011

My Pix

    Attica, 1986

Yap

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson

Saturday, March 26, 2011

My Pix

    The Embankment, London, 1984

I think its a monument to the Merchant Marine in WW2.  The point of this picture is the shadows, which seem to almost explode.

Yap

A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?
Oscar Wilde

Friday, March 25, 2011

Yap

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
Dr. John Arbuthnot

Bon appetite Mr. Harper

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Water

Yap

War on the cheap is always a rotten policy.
William Rees-Mogg

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Yap

Ah, better be a poor fisherman than meddle with the government of men!
Georges Danton

Well, it is when you lose.

Radiation

     Finally, a useful comparison of radiation doses.  Watch out for those bananas.




Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Yap

Barack Obama has now fired more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined
David Burge
via Twitter

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Yap

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Lester B. Pearson

Pix

Oh. Oh.  Cold War nostalgia looms.  Nice plane though.  Its just a jet engine with stubby wings and a seat on top. 

Like many Russian weapons of the era, it was cheap, simple, reliable and very good.  Anyone who could mount the infrastructure to maintain the plane could afford one. 

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Yap

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Oscar Wilde

Friday, March 18, 2011

Yap

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody
Richard Nixon

Thursday, March 17, 2011

My Pix


    Everything under control at the Bank of England, 1993.
    Kodak High-Speed Infrared

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Yap

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.
Richard M. Nixon

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My Pix

    Burnside's bridge, Sharpsburg, Maryland, 1996

A deluge of US Civil War books will be upon us as the 150th anniversary passes.  Many will mention this bridge.  I'm not a fan of "what if" when it comes to war.  But many say that had Burnside not become so fixated on this bridge that he forgot about the battle, the Civil War might have ended in on this battlefield in September 1862.  Its a tempting idea, but supposes McClellan would have pressed a decisive victory. This was not in his character.

In any case, to play with such an idea misses the entire point of that war; we had entered an age where it was insufficient to defeat an army, you had to defeat the nation.  Its been the theme of almost every major war since.

Yap

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Pahlay Ball!

    Wrigley Field, Labor Day, 1988

I watched my first baseball game of the season last night.  Boston beat The Yankees in Florida.  I love baseball like no other sport.  I love the balance of the game, the pace, the lack of a clock, the intensity of the individual contests between batter and pitcher.  Most of all, I like that there's no set duration. You play until at least 51 batters are out.  If that doesn't decide it, they just keep playing until someone wins.  No overtime rules or special tweaks to make it more exciting. 

I also love Baseball for the stadiums.  Wrigley Field (above) was a terrific experience, but my favorite is Dodger Stadium.  Nodding off to sleep on a Saturday night while watching a west coast game is my ultimate comfort food.

Yap

"the trouble with quotes on the internet is that you never know if they are genuine" 
Abraham Lincoln