My Facts, My Opinions

Dan was tagged by Mike and tagged me in turn 4 Places I've lived : On sailboats (The Caribean, the Atlantic, South Africa, the Med); In my car/tent (travelling up and down the east coast); In dormatories (Cleveland, OH); Red States (KY, TX); (bonus 5th place) Blue States (IL, NY, CA); (extra super bonus 5.5th place) -- Purple State (OH) 4 Favorite Foods: Thai Vietnamese BBQ European food in Europe -- French in France, Spanish in Spain, Italian it Italy , and German in Germany. Terroir matters... 4 Jobs Held: Peanut Vendor at the ballpark Deck Hand Commodities Broker Call Center Supervisor 4 Places I'd Rather Be: On a sailboat New Zealand South Africa SCUBA diving with sharks (Cocos Island? Palau? The Bahamas? Las Islas Socorros?) I tag: THEJESSE

Doing my civic duty...details when they can be shared. Judge Roy Beene humor is prohibited until that time.... Jim

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/british-army-ends-operation-in-northern-ireland/ Mostly symbolic or not, this is a hugely vital step. No matter which side you support, a study of The Troubles should be something every modern American undertakes. Doing so would yield insights into: The categorization of prisoners as criminals, political prisoners, or say "enemy combatants" -- exactly why this can matter. The extent to which imprisioned men will go to maintain/acquire the respect/dignity they believe they are due. The damage done to justice by less than standard evidentiary requirements and the suspension of the right to trial by jury -- the Diplock Courts in Northern Ireland are an abomination of justice. When hearsay is evidence bad stuff follows. Exactly how much the concept of martyrdom can incite/motivate/maintain a community that feels repressed or threatened. How truly damn important human intel is and how it, not ubiquitous survellience cameras, is what lea...

I'll be travelling for the next few days. That means even fewer than the already infrequent posts of normal. But, if you're good -- I'm mean really good -- while I'm gone, I'll hopefully have some cool picks to share when I get back. Then again, if you're not good and I have to pull this blog over to the side of the road just one more time then I'm cancelling Christmas!!! (I know, you don't get it. Probably because you weren't there when our fine father quieted 2 very unruly kids with that threat. It was July and legend has it we actually behaved all the way through the middle of November.) Jim

So few people that I don't have contact with daily read this blog that this post is not likely to reach anybody not already willing to do so, but I'd love to start getting comments/critiques on the countless photos I'm putting over at Flicker. Click on the little Flickr montage/coloage thing on the right side of the blog, mid way down the page. Of, go straight to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagabondjim/ Go ahead and be honest, even brutal. I'd like to know what's good and what's not.... Jim

Good lord, the NBC coverage of this thing is simply dreadfull. That's not to say the intent of the day was bad -- just that the presentation of the music and the ideas both truly sucked.

I laughed aloud at this it's the perfect iDea. And it merits the 1st link recommendation for the blog. (Click this post's title.)

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....

More on this later (damn, I hate workin' for livin') but Andrew Sullivan has some of my stuff on his blog. Click over to: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/the_view_from_y_30.html Later Update: So Andrew Sullivan and I don't have a helluvalot in common -- as I wrote to him, it breaks out like this: Andrew vs. Jim * Catholic vs. Lapsed Catholic, Atheist * Gay vs. Straight * Staunch Federalist vs. Not Staunch * Beagles vs. Poodles * American style tea vs. British style (Too long w/ 5 Brits on a very small boat…) * “Conservative” vs. “Liberal” Anyway, in spite of our differences I find his blog to be required reading. He's well spoken, well reasoned, and willing to reconsider his positions. That makes him a great read. So I check in on his site 5-7 times a day. He has an ongoing feature called "The View From Your Window". He posts pictures from readers that show the view fro...