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Category: Commentary

Fox has escaped fines in the past

Fox has escaped fines in the past, but when the dreaded f word appears so often in a segment, hmmm…

On another bent, look at that crowd.  All over the place, scruffy, dirty. No one is going to listen to the rabble, get on message get it together and march for ONE reason at a time.  The Squares don’t listen when you should 10 different things at them, all together all of ya, ONE TOPIC AT ONCE.

US Politics are Sexy: How does John McCain like his coffee?

One would swear that just four years ago, America was engaged in the “laugh at the rich guy” game for about 6 months; but when faced with a NEW rich guy ex-soldier (who was such a poor soldier that he got shot down and caught rather than fighting his way out like the ‘laughable’ rich guy)  he can’t help but do well.

The insane thing is; he’s not even trying:  Look at how he reacts to being called out for being so wealthy that he has no idea how many homes/houses he  owns:

McCain, who huddled with advisers at his desert compound in Sedona, Ariz., said nothing in public. A nine-car motorcade took him to a nearby Starbucks early in the morning, where he ordered a large cappuccino. McCain otherwise avoided reporters.

Not, he retired to his campaign headquarters and ordered in some coffee.  Not, he retired to his home in Sedona and worked on a response.  He took nine cars to get one coffee.    That’s like using 9 gold bricks to kill one fly!  It’s so incredibly ostentatious and austere, I can’t even fathom where the sense of it is.  One could argue that two of the cars were secret service, even four.  There is no way that eight of them were, not if McCain isn’t wasting taxpayer money.  Is he?

So McCain, in his response, comes up with another easy target.  “John McCain needs nine cars to go get coffee”!

There’s another Meme in there somewhere.  I KAN HAZ GASOLEEN WASTES PLEEZ?

Canadian Politics are Boring: Harper remembers that he's a Tory

All bets are off on fixed voting date as PM backtracks on promise to wait until October, 2009; decision expected within weeks

Be ready for fall election, Harper warns

I must have missed this quote:

“Mr. Dion is threatening to bring the government down, again, but we’ve heard that same song for nearly two years,” said Mr. Harper, accusing Mr. Dion of doing “everything in his power to slow the business of Parliament.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=690774

Ah, it’s refreshing to see a Tory behave like one, getting the Liberals to cow to their requests then accusing them of acting as a disrupting force for what they say in the media.  It’s Castigation for Words and ignorance for their deeds.  It’s too bad that Celine Dion is all Hat and No Cattle, since this kind of crap will go (Legistlativly) unanswered.  At least we get to see Harper baring his teeth and reminding the people who do hear it (I missed it too) that he’s a sneaky bastard in the mold of the Neocons to the south.  His near-invisibility in public lets him get away with it.

Now, will Celine Dion get his hand dirty and bring down the Government?  Probably not.  The Liberals really need to stop playing “politics” and start playing POLITICS and get out there and remind people that excepting ONE SCANDAL the Liberals led Canada to peace and prosperity and the Tories continues to Spend and Spend while cutting services and selling out to the Americans.  There is NOTHING wrong with pointing out how often the Tories have cowed to the Bush Admin.

They won’t though, because they are the “New Liberals” and just an organ of the Tory machine.

My Sarcasm Detector is Busted

THE RIAA IS JUST DOING WHAT IT CAN TO MAKE THE GOOD MEN AND WOMEN OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SURVIVE. IT ISNT JUST ABOUT THE BRITNEY SPEARS AND ROLLING STONES. I HAVE A FRIEND WHO IS A SOUND ENGINEER AND LAST YEAR HE ONLY MADE $100,000. THAT IS WAY DOWN ON WHAT HE EARNED BEFORE. IT IS BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE MUXTAPE STEEL EVERYONES MUSIC THAT THIS HAPPENED. YOU WOULDN’T GO INTO A RECORD SHOP AND STEEL A CD SO WHY WOULD YOU STEEL MUSIC ON THE INTERNET AND MAKE PEOPLE POORER. IT IS ILLEGAL AND IT IS CAUSING A LOT OF PAIN. THE RIAA IS JUST TRYING TO SAVE PEOPLES JOBS.
posted by seanyboy at 12:57 AM on August 19 [3 favorites]

I think my Sarcasm Detector got a bit dented up while I read this. Is it a plaintive troll or an honest malcontent? I’m seriously unsure. The cadence suggests troll, but the sincerity screams honest meathead, you know?  The spelling error is also misleading, steel instead of steal… hmm.

What do you think, honest complaint or flame bait?

Tips for your Protest

Protestors at the Monument, originally uploaded by eschipul.

I make no bones about my dislike of the disorganized, messy and chaotic way the Western Left approaches protest.  I’m not a proponent of lock-step marching as protest either; but I’m just looking for cohesion, a phalanx of ideas if you will.

It seems that hippies will decide, as a group to get together to protest “something” but will often show up

Protest at trafalgar Square 24 Feb, 2007
Protest at trafalgar Square 24 Feb, 2007

and have their concepts all over the place.  The Majority will be on line with the main concept “We Quite Like Tea!” and there will inevitably be some spoilers “We like CHINESE TEA! Those INDIAN Tea lovers can get stuffed!”  So the two (or more) factions will be a cacophony of ideals and colors and their chaotic presentation is lost to the “squares” as “Dirty Hippies can’t get it together over their Love of Tea”

They all love Tea, but, you know, can’t agree what brand of Tea.  They don’t fight over it, but they all want their message to be heard.  Ostensibly the protest comes off a cracking success, hundreds of people getting together to tell the world about the Tea and so on; but to the outside it’s just a bunch of students with more time than sense.

Protest over, it’s left to the organizers to either determine if the “Squares” got it; or if the whole thing should have been thrown over for a good game of Ultimate Frisbee or just a funky Drum Circle session.  I think, perhaps, that self-evaluation is not really coming off for the team; since the very next protest is inevitably loud, disorganized and those Chinese Tea bastards are there, working against the rest of the group.  I don’t think the protesters refer to each other as “bastards” but in my head they are all from the UK and they love beer.

So, what to do?  Get REALLY organized!  No outside signs, everyone has signs along the same theme, no sub-protests on the virtue of some other ethos.  Everyone marches, bangs, sings and dances to the same BASIC tune.  Variations on the theme are fine, as long as we are all on the same page, not to mention the same book.

some practical advice for the modern protester

  • If you are protesting “The Iraq War” don’t muddy it up with Palestinian Rights and Reproductive Rights protests in the same group.  Have those marches on another day.
  • No one gets your in-jokes except for the other hippies, ask your uptight relatives for input on your visual jokes to make sure that they can appreciate the message.  Failing that, ask the local College Republican to look at it.  If they get the joke, and appreciate the message, give yourself a Check Plus and hoist that visual metaphor with pride.
  • No Drugs at the Protest, unless the protest is ABOUT DRUGS.  You want to be taken seriously, be straight faced and sober.  Simple as that.  I got a contact buzz from the last protest I was NEAR, not in, NEAR.  If it wasn’t for the stiff breeze I might have had to break out the Phish.
  • Figure out the phalanx, if the police start hauling you away, lock arms and legs and hold tight in groups of 10 or more.  It devastated armies, it can keep you and your friends from being hauled into vans.
  • Stop respecting “Free Speech Zones” – This may sound like an incitement to riot, but please.  Freedom of Assembly (except when we say so) and Freedom of Speech (only in certain circumstances).  Step one in civil disobedience class should be how to take down those damn fences without getting killed or stomped by the police put in place to protect them.

So, there you have it.  The next time you take to the streets en masse to profess your love for all things Tea, you are all set with these simple pieces of advice.  See you on May Day!

You can check out more photographs at: Flickr

Can anything go well when the Acronym in Misused?

A pocket logo with a K is on the front of the shirt with flames and the words “Fire Academy” on the back. Fire is an acronym for Freshmen Inspired by Rigorous and Relevant Education.

Kathleen High Freshmen Must Wear School T-Shirts

If the administrator that thought of the awesome idea of having a bunch of uncertain kids wearing a shirt with a flaming logo on it can’t even get the acronym in question correct, what future can the kids face?  The shirts are fairly dorky (flames? c’mon this is the aughts, not 1982) but the Acronym for the actual motto would be FIRRE, I imagine the phonetic ‘Furry’ didn’t fly with the principal.

Abortion Protestors (Group)

Abortion Protestors (Group), originally uploaded by NiteMayr.

I’m not a big fan of these folks, as they always seem to be of the “I am much more moral than you” stripe and relative morality is a pet peeve of mine. Additionally, they always tote those heavily graphic images of dead babies, right out there with the proverbial bloody shirt.

Usually I hassle them a bit and get on my way; but I had the opportunity to take a few pictures of them before I headed out to the shack yesterday so I snapped a few.

They weren’t sure what to think about me at first, as I got more “curt” I think they got the picture that I wasn’t just some tourist.

I didn’t call them out or insult them (I wanted them to smile ya know) but I really wanted to.

One thing that stuck out for me; there was a nurse there who quickly hid when she saw the camera, she was named “Debbie” Here’s the picture I got of her:

Abortion Protestors (Group Reverse)

If you know a Debbie who works at Victoria hospital in London, tell her to use a Pseudonym when she is protesting if she doesn’t want people to know she is down with the protesters, okay?

The last time I engaged them I asked them why they thought it was appropriate to attack the poor and the victimized, but they feigned ignorance. I think the next time I see them I’ll pull the young women from the group (the ones that look like they can still have kids) and ask them on video what they will do if they (or their daughters) are raped and become pregnant. It’s provocative; but can you look at those pictures of dead babies and not feel provoked?

What about severely deformed babies (no heads and so on) are they going to force women to carry it to term?

I have no idea why they want to get involved and not get involved in more worthy causes, like poverty. It always seems that these Moral types want to get involved in something that is easy, they can condemn and feel like they have done something but it’s an easy something. Babies are easy to protect, most everyone loves babies.

It’s the parents I care about, until a baby is born, Mom and Dad matter more.

I know a bit about their motivation, I was anti-abortion until I was about 17-18. I don’t know for sure when I accepted that being anti-choice was wrong, I came to it when my brain developed the capacity to think critically instead of just emotionally I guess.

Canadian Politics are Boring: The Toothless Harper

Sorry Harper - What am I sorry about today?
Sorry Harper – “What am I sorry about today?”

As I’ve stated before, I don’t think Canadian Politics could get any less interesting. The Big Bad Dog that is Stephen Harper has become almost invisible behind his Minions in the Parliament, he just has to “on occasion” kiss a pig and pat a baby.  Yaawwwn.

Even Canadian Conservative Blogs are boring, true they filled with ridiculous personal attacks rather than substantive discussion about politics; but still boring.   And as for the Liberal or Non-Partisan websites, some haven’t updated since February.

Celine Dion is still not enough of a Personality to drive an election; and lets face it, he isn’t going to help a Liberal win.  It’s time for the Liberals to take a LOUD public stance, dump Celine and move towards a stronger and more NEWSWORTHY position, the scandals of the past are nearly forgotten; but if they can’t put out a series of candidates who can say “Things are good, but we can make them better in this way…” then it’s time to let Harper call another election and bide your time to the next cycle.

Harper’s near invisibility is a stroke of genius, Bush’s biggest mistake in the US was ever speaking about anything, he should have just kept to prepared and written statements and pretty much disappeared behind his political hacks, causing them to fall on their swords as they pulled boner after boner on his say.  Harper’s near complete media non-existence lets his party stay safely in power as there is always a plausible deniability of “it was some other minister” when something goes bad.

Thomas Hawk and SF MOMA or Why I Love my a530

On Equipment

I have a Rebel XT that can take great pictures, It have a couple of Lenses (the kit, a prime 2.8, a 20-70 and 30-300 tele/macro) and I love taking it out on tours of photogenic locations and capturing the world in it’s glassy eye.  I can take pensive, crafted and beautiful pictures with it.  However, it is not the only camera in the world and it is light-years beyond what I may actually need.  Not Long ago someone pointed out to me that Ansel Adams took photos with little more than glass, a box and some film, and it was what he did afterwards that turned a great photo into art.

I love taking photos,  I think Thomas Hawk does too; so it pained me to see that he was being harassed for doing what he loves.  This has led to some discussion online.  I will carefully highlight that it pained me in the past tense, because I am not going to defend either party over here at Local Blogger; it’s not for me to do.  I’m not party to either side of the discussion, save as a photographer, but I’m no professional and cannot fully understand all of the motives and methods that Thomas employs.  Nor am I SF MOMA, large as I can appear, I am no Modern Art Museum, nor am I the curator or an officer of any establishment save the “Kevin Wardrop Museum of Comics and Toys” which has fallen apart as of late, due to my lax administration.  No, I am Kevin Wardrop, Geek.  So I will try to draw a balance in my commentary on all of this.

First some assumptions:

If where you work is covered by CCTV, then being photographed should not be a problem. As I understand things; the reason Thomas was approached was because an employee of the Museum was uncomfortable with the lens of the Camera being on her, possibly pointed down her blouse.  I can’t see why it matters, honestly.  If you are under the lens of a CCTV for 90% of your day, you have had your privacy exploited by a security person at least once or twice this week.  They might not post your picture on the web or sell it to a magazine; but chances are they might.  Why stress over a photographer, at least you can approach them and ask for a card or ask where they might be using the picture.

Buildings built with public money and funded by donation have no right to restrict photography; that being said the SF MOMA is a private not-for-profit entity.  Which means that they can restrict behavior within their walls.  Period.  If they want the negative publicity from ejecting photographers, that’s within their rigths, up until a limit.  Obviously, they can’t be overtly discriminatory against any paying customer.

People assume (wrongly) that a SLR or dSLR means that you are a professional (or a pervert);  I don’t get hassled to often when I go out with my Camera, even when I have the 300mm zoom lens on.  I do get the occasional dirty look though; even “remote hassles” but no in your face confrontations.  If I am close enough, I ask for permission to take photos, but often I like to take candid photos where people don’t know and are unaware of me.  It’s life that I’m photographing, not poses.  To defend myself from the pervert discussion I usually have my family with me when I take photos; people see my daughter and assume that I’m a tourist (which suits me fine).  I assume the same when I see some dude with a kit lens on his far too expensive dSLR too.   To assuage fears I also carry Moo Cards with my name and contact info on them so that people can feel assured that I am not some pervert looking to exploit their image; which then leads to “are you going to sell these?”  I’m not a professional, I would like to make money while taking pictures; but I don’t.  Thomas does; which changes the equation slightly.  If I was a professional and known for my work, I imagine that some people might be aware that I make money off of these photos and should be careful to make sure that I am sensitive to these beliefs when approached by members of the public or worse an authority figure.

As I stated earlier, I wasn’t on hand for Thomas’s encounter and have to go on Thomas’ word and those of other “witnesses” (who may be sock puppets for SF MoMa for all I know); it looks like there was a misunderstanding and miscommunication that led to misanthropy on the both parts.  As a public figure, Thomas should have shown a bit more humility and less self-assurance and simply backed down; Simon, for his part appears to have been overzealous in his defense of his employee/co-worker.  I believe we should chalk this up to misunderstanding and walk away from it.  Mr. Blint may have acted like an asshole; but Thomas should be aware that on Private property, the authority lies with the Janitors before it lies with the visitors.

(I use janitors here as an example of the lowest paid employee or at least least authoritative, not as some statement of their position in society, Janitors are FAR more important than CEOs in the scope of things)

Had Thomas been carrying a point and shoot; would he have faced as much hassle?  All of the signs here point to no; and a short perusal of the discussions of this matter seem to confirm the phenomenon.  People with “good” cameras are hassled where people with “crappy pos” cameras are given free reign.  Why?

Let’s look at my assumptions again; people with dSLR cameras are looked at as either Professionals or Perverts.  In this case, it was Pervert.  Almost always wrong, almost always incorrect, but there it is.  People who are willing to pout money into something like photography are faced with suspicion, where people who just pay a couple hundred bucks for their little pocket camera are treated like “benign dummies”  you can see that in the way people who are hassled talk about the phenomena.  “I had my big Camera… but people with cell phone cameras and little point and shoots were getting a pass”

Clearly there is a kind of class division of photographers that Thomas (and others) have fallen afoul of.  It’s a shame that the proliferation of dSLRs hasn’t removed the stigma of the “big” camera over the the “fun” little camera.  That, however leads me back to my initial point.

As I understand things, Ansel Adams, who is often held up as a standard in photography didn’t have any of the technology that we have on hand today, and that all of his work was technique and style over equipment and luck.  I am forced to admit that I don’t take (for the most part) any better photos with my 800 dollar kit than I take with my a530.  If I take my time and plan it out, my a530 can produce some amazing results, un retouched and uncropped, and it doesn’t set off any warning bells in the minds of most people.  It fits in my pocket and is ready in a few seconds.  Nothing could be easier, simpler and more prone for abuse.  I can easily use my “little” camera to snap candid photos with no one being the wiser, I can control exposure and flash with one hand and don’t even need to put it to my eye to compose a shot.  I love my a530 simply because it is unobtrusive and easy to use.  If anything, people should fear a compact camera more than a big camera because a silent and easy to hide Camera is much more easily used to take surreptitious and exploitive photos than a large camera is.

In the end, it’s not the equipment that defines how a photographer should be judged, its what they do with it, and from what I can tell, Thomas did no wrong with the Camera, but his mouth might have become over exposed.