My Facts, My Opinions

Well, I tried to be surrepetitous...it didn't work Originally uploaded by VagabondJim There are some people who will smile whenever you point a camera at them. Even if you try to do it without their knowledge. Sometimes that makes for a nice pic.

'Take our picture" Originally uploaded by VagabondJim There are folks who think that ANYONE with a decent camera MUST be from the newspaper. I'm not.

"Take our picture,please" Originally uploaded by VagabondJim There are apparenty folks who want strangers to take thier pictures. I'm not one of them.

California has the best and worst of the bumper communicators... Stupid Plates Seen on Priuses: OILBGON H8OPEC C'mon people, let's not be so damn trite... Better Bumpersticker Seen: More Cowbell Now, I bet you can't get Christopher Walken out your head.... For the, sadly, uninitiated:

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/feeling_safer_yet_/2007/06/the_910_president_whatever_happened_to_homeland_security.php It looks like there is a pretty good case to be made that we're not safer....

Roadside memorial -- Bailey Ave. Originally uploaded by VagabondJim Sad and stupid. Very, very stupid. Last night Silicic and I were out at the beach/train station taking the nighttime photos posted over at Flickr. On the way back we saw a large aggregation of flashing lights - cops, fire trucks, ambulances - on one of the roads through the fields, pretty close to town. And there was a small car with the front end bashed up on a utility pole . We returned today and saw a memorial there. Evidently, a 16 year old was killed in the accident. His 14 year old passenger survived with apparently minor injuories ("treated and released"). What angers me is the fact that one always has to assume the involvment of alcohol in the accident. But look at the "gifts" left behind -- a can of beer! Somebody just doesn't get it... Like I said: sad and stupid. 6/11/2007 Update News reports are indicating I jumped the gun on the alcohol assumption. So let's rephrase: Sad -- f...

Hey, if you're actually foolish enough to click on the links I get paid. Just keep that in mind. Ok, some of the stuff is realllllllly annoying -- let me know what has to go. JK

Chris Mathews lays it on the line, correctly; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t92f7X-M55E For the record, I generally find Matthews to be irratating and never watch him. Olbermann, when he's not being a shrill shill, I can deal with. O'Reilly - well, just don't go there... A hat tip to TalkingPointsMemo.com for the pointer. Jim

1) New photos up at Flickr -- Los Angeles National Cemetary after sunset. 2) Are we safer than before 9/11? Sen. Clinton says we're safer than before. Senators Obama and Edwards disagree. They're all wrong. The world is a lot less safe than it was back then. But for those of us living quotidian lives, there is no meaningful increase in the risks and dangers we face daily. Mayor Bloomberg gets it right : "There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life....You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist" I believe the real issue is " Are we as safe as we could be -- given all the money and effort we supposedly put into making ourselves safer?" Hell no. For example, do you think the financial suck-hole that is the TSA makes you one iota safer? No, but they sure make flying more fun. It...

Snails on a Cactus Originally uploaded by VagabondJim So yesterday I rose at the crack of noon-- actually 11:30. And, like all of last weekend hopped in the car to head to Taco Loco #2 for some of the world's best breakfast burritos. The camera came with me, as it will pretty often going forward. Whilst waiting for the burritos I wandered to the end of the parking lot. It was filled with prickly pear cactus. 20 bad pictures later I discovered that there were snails on several of the cactus. 1 bad picture later I had a shot of them. I tend to crop pretty severely and that's what made a bad composition into a reasonable photo like this one. Anyway, "finding snails crawling on a cactus while waiting for a late breakfast of burritos" kind of strikes me as representative of one of the gears Lompoc runs in. (The other is the frenetic destruction Janice manages to get me involved in when she tears down a wall to remodel. Me with a pry bar, a hammer and covered with dust ...

Fields of Lompoc -- Evening Clouds Approaching Originally uploaded by VagabondJim Not much to write today. I t was a hectic day at work because we had a manditory "team bulding event". Everybody had to leave the office by 11am. Don't get me wrong, these are fun events -- but they seem to coincide with days that are awful for me. Sometimes they kill my chance at getting ahead of the L.A. traffic for the drive to Lompoc. And, they occasionally involve doing things that I would rather do with Janice -- and then she's bummed too because we either miss something she'd want to do or she hates the fact that I have to re-do something (which leads her to believe it must be boring me -- usually not a true assumption.) So all-in-all I have mixed feelings. Maybe if they weren't always on Fridays. Anyway that made for a busy day. One without much to share with y'all. I did make great time driving tonight; 2:57 including about a half hour stop at Costco....