“Bush says leaders are looking to Congress to take action.”

No, Mr. President.  We are looking for you to take action.   Lead or get out of the way.  Don’t blame others.  You’re the one who has failed to create a long-term sustainable energy policy for this country.  You’ve catered to your cronies in the oil industry with closed-door meetings.  You’ve ignored the pending economic crisis and now blaming Congress.   You’ve lied to mislead this country into an untenable conflict in Iraq.  Your borrow and spend policy has seriously weakened the dollar.  For a republican, you spend like a democrat. 

Be responsible.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words ….

In the Spring, absolutely gorgeous.  There are plenty of flowers in bloom and acres of paths to explore.

However, in the spring, be prepared to see plenty of scenes like the one below.  I lost track of number of engagement sessions, bridal shots, and even first communion (assuming) shots over the course of a couple of hours.  And this was from from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm – definitely not peak times for photographs.

First off, I want to post that quote by itself.   Dicken’s writing is a masterpiece and I can’t bear to belittle it with my meager rants.

Some of the recent items in today’s news brought this quote quickly back into my mind.

During Pope Benedict XVI’s mass in D.C., showed us all the power, majesty, humanity, and spirituality of the Roman Catholic Church.  And, yet, at the same time, we had to confront the worst of the Church’s with Pope Benedict’s apology for the abuse scandal.

I can’t even begin to imagine the pain and suffering the victims had endured.  Unfortunately, I think a lot also had to do with the culture.  Both sets of my grandparents would never have believed a priest capable of these heinous acts.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens

Here’s presentation stumbled on through another blog.   From Macworld 2008, Chris Orwig gave this prentation -

http://www.macworldencore.com/online/presentation.asp?id=251&sessionTypeIdVideo=4&trackIdVideo=18&movieVideo=US902.mp4&yearDate=2008

Abotut 75 minutes, it’s worth the time hearing and seeing his thoughts on both sides of this wonderful subject.

One of my favorite activities is taking pictures of my 2 year old son.  It’s an absolute joy to watch and record his young life.

One of things I quickly learned with him is to get down on his level when taking pictutes.  It makes a huge difference in the quality and impact of the resulting image.  Otherwise you end up with this kid with a big head and tiny body.  Try it.  Get on your knees/butt and shoot.  The results will be worth it.

And actually, one of recent disappointments in photos of him from a “professional” shooter they had at day care for Easter.  Problem was my son’s pose in every one of the stinkin’ snapshots where he was sitting on his butt with his “big” feet two feet in front of him.  Everything just look odd.

Well, the Olympic Torch “sneaked” its way around San Francisco today. (ESPN’s headline, which I think nailed the overall situation.)

The positive: US avoided ugly demonstrations like those seen in London and Paris, while still allowing free-speech.

The negatives: The torch relay was more like a torch crawl.  If you are going to be dynamic and fluid with the route, then be faster.  They could have covered much more than 2.8 miles.  It was almost embarrassing to watch.  Disappointment to those who lined the original route in hopes of seeing the torch and what it stands for.  In the end, these changes still added up to the protesters winning another battle.   The changes appeared cowardly.

Also, if you’re going to end the route just at the bridge, why not run it across?  Get 8 strong track athletes, stop traffic for 15 minutes and keep pedestrians off of the bridge for a couple of hours.  The image of a solo runner going across the bridge with the flame held aloft would be have been priceless.   Then just take it down to the marina on the other side and take it back SFO from there.  Traffic was already a disaster in the city (which is fairly much normal, anyways).

What was supposed to have been a world-wide celebration of the Bejing Olympics has quickly turned into world-wide fiasco.

I’m not sure whether to be encouraged or discouraged by these events.  I’m encouraged when I see people protest for their beliefs and have the mettle to show it. (I’m ignoring the “professional” protester [who is a disgusting animal] in this thought.)  I’m discouraged because the Olympics are not meant to be political – they exist to bring out the best in us.

I don’t think Pontiac will use this hood ornament any time soon.