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Contraception leads to more babies born out of wedlock.  The exact same way fire extinguishers cause fires.
Stephen Colbert

The War That Wasn't Still Isn't

    Crazy cool shades, bro                                                                                                 Photo from Speigle

There is a lot of talk about a war with Iran.  Faithful readers will recall that I said the best chance for a US strike passed when Tony Blair resigned.  But let's spare the tortuous history,  here are a few points that have mostly been consistent since this started.

• Israel cannot, with conventional weapons, knock out the Iranian atomic program. They simply can't deliver enough ordinance at that distance.  Their problems are most recently outlined here.

• Likewise, the US can do a LOT more damage than Israel, but things may be past the point where they could deliver a knock-out blow either.  At least with conventional weapons. 

• A nuclear attack on Iran is not an option.  The weapons would have to penetrate deeply into the ground before exploding in order to get at buried facilities.  This would result in massive radioactive fallout over Eastern Iran, Pakistan and India. With attendant casualties.

• No action by the US and/or Israel can bring about regime change in Tehran.  So the essential problem can't be solved by military means.

• No matter what, an Iranian bomb is not a threat to the US, Europe, China, Russia or India.  If the world can live with a nuclear Pakistan, then we can live with a nuclear Iran.

Besides these points, there are some new ones.

• Relations between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are terrible.  Neither likes or trusts the other.  Obama will go out on a limb for Israel, but he won't lift a finger to help Netanyahu.

• Jerusalem and Washington are talking the same language, but the words don't mean the same thing.  Obama doesn't want the Iranians to build a bomb.  Netanyahu doesn't want them to be able to build a bomb.  For him, the red line has already been crossed.  For Obama, the line won't be crossed for years, if ever.

• Lastly, the most pressing issue in the Mid-East is Syria.  Syria sits on just about every fault line in the region and is now in civil war.  It won't end well and the implications are both far reaching and difficult to predict.

When you add all these factors together, it looks like war will be harder than peace.  I don't expect an attack by Israel or the US anytime soon.

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They don't think it be like it is, but it do
Oscar Gamble

I just have to add this photo of the inimitable Mr. Gamble

A Noteable Valentines Day Post

 

I guess its worth a try.  Source: the Internets.

Pix

A protest sign from the Colbert/Stewart rally in Washington last year.

YAP

"Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?" asked Gingrich, "Because it saves them time" replied Bob Dole.

Pix

Supernatural photo of an Elephant by Nick Brandt

Mexico

I went to Mexico with the kids in the 1st week of January.  Good food, good weather and this was the view from our room.  Nuff said.

Happy Birthday Muhammed Ali

He's 70 years old today, and still one of the most famous people on the planet.  People love him and respect him, but most don't remember when he used to matter.  And he mattered a lot.  This Esquire cover dates from his amazing refusal to serve after being drafted by the US Army during the Vietnam War.  He was stripped of his title, sent to jail and damned by almost everyone.  He was widely hated as a threat to all manner of tradition (i.e. keeping the niggers down).  The system tried to kick the shit out of him.  They lost.

Edit:  They didn't really lose.  He won.  And he won with style.

Sheeple

    I don't know what's going on here, and I don't want to find out.

21st Century Blues

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A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.
Henry Ford

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We cannot absolutely prove, that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us, and with just as much apparent reason
Thomas B Macaulay

June 24, 1812

On this day in 1812, Napoleon crossed the Neimen and invaded Russia with 480,000 troops.  Things went well for the French, until winter.  The retreat was a horror and by the time Napoleon returned to the Neimen in early December, he had less than 25,000 troops left.  At least 300,000 died of cold, hunger or battle (the difference being mainly deserters).

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An alliance with the powerful is never to be trusted.
Fedrus

My Pix

Finished version of the Gehry building in Las Vegas, April, 2011
All of my photos are on Flickr.

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Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer.
W.C. Fields

Faves

    Bay of Baiae, JMW Turner, 1823, Tate Gallery

Turner is often said to be a precursor of the Impressionists.  There is some truth to this, but not much.  The Impressionists were literalists.  They did not paint what they could not see.  Turner, on the other hand, while perfectly capable of the most literal interpretations, loved injecting imaginary figures, geography and events into his paintings.  In the exquisite painting above, that's no fashionable picnic party on the left, its Apollo and the Sibyl.  You don't see classical Gods cavorting across the canvases of Monet or Renoir. The idealized landscape was what they fought against.

Turner was one of a kind.  His early work was very much in the tradition of Claude, but after he visited Italy in 1817, Turner struck out on his own path. 

In any case, Turner doesn't really reproduce.  I've seen the painting at the Tate and it has a lightness and color you don't see here.

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Finality is not the language of politics.
Benjamin Disraeli

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Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you really want to test his character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln

More Funny Money

Vegas Pictures

Here are a bunch.  I'm pleased with the quality overall, given my recent lack of experience and the consumer lenses on the camera.  There certainly is a lot of stuff in Las Vegas.

 No cultural icon or era is safe at Caesars Palace

 The Bellagio

Lake, Bellagio

 Trumpets at Caesars

 
 Flowers #2

 Frank Gehry Building #1

  Frank Gehry Building #2

 Desert flowers

 Binion's

 Neon Gold

 Clark County Offices

 Reflection on the Strip

 Flowers #2

 Flowers #3

 Flamingo #2

 Flamingo #3

Gehry #3

Flamingo

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The dream to kill me will never be completed
Osama Bin Laden

Guess he was wrong on this one.

More Vegas

Las Vegas

     click on image for huge

I went to Las Vegas last week for a vacation.  Here is a quick and dirty panorama showing the view from my room.  And to answer the question everyone has asked, I finished the week down $100 after playing craps and blackjack.

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Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Winston Churchill

Funny Money

Funny Money

My Pix

 

Mirror, Kew Gardens, 1993
Kodak High Speed Infrared

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Never in the House did I use the word which comes to mind. The nearest I came to doing so was when Sir Winton Turnbull, a member of the cavalleria rusticana, was raving and ranting on the adjournment and shouted: "I am a Country member". I interjected "I remember". He could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides.
Gough Whitlam

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumpter, April 14, 1861

The other anniversary this week. The photo was taken 150 years ago today and shows the Confederate flag flying over the newly won fort.

Fukushima Daiichi

    Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1 -4 March 18, 2011.  Photo by Digital Globe.

The press reports about the disaster at Fukushima have been fragmentary and occasionaly hysterical.  This article from the BBC is the best one page explanation of what happened and what needs to be done.  Highly recommended.

50 Years in Space

    Yuri Gagarin in the capsule before launch.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the 1st human to orbit the earth.  It was a stunning achievement that took the world by surprise.  As the tides of history flow and our own age is forgotten, they will still remember Yuri Gagarin.  Nobody else can ever be the 1st man in space.

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In politics, nothing moves unless it's pushed.
Morton C. Blackwell

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If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.
Rod Serling

Pix

    One of the amazing photos from Japan showing the power of a tsunami.