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French funny

Got a kick out of Rush Limbaugh yesterday. He was reporting that France announced that authorities safely dealt with a bomb on the French rail system.

As a result, Rush said, the French had upgraded their terror alert from "Run" to "Hide."

Mainstream media as usual

I saw part of the ABC special on Rumsfield tonight. They referred to the "steady stream" of body bags coming back from Iraq, trying to pin that on Rumsfield. I have the greatest respect for the men and women who have laid down their lives in Iraq on our behalf, but this isn't Vietnam. It's 500+ soldiers in a year's time.

Compare that number to the nearly 3,000 that died in NYC on 9-11. I'm glad we have leaders who see that sending our troops into harm's way will help keep another 3,000 innocent civilians (or more) from dying on U.S. soil. I saw the towers burning that day, and I don't ever want to see that happen again.

After all, it seems that the media and the Democrats (yes, I'm making a distinction for some reason) seem to have forgotten that one of the federal government's main reasons to exist is to protect its citizens.

I take that to mean no more dying in your office building when a crazed terrorist flies into it. Not making sure that someone in Rio Linda doesn't get their feelings hurt.

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Maybe it's time for CBS to air the 9/11 documentary again. People need that awful reminder what we're fighting for and trying to prevent.

Politics as usual

I'm struck with the transparency of the current attacks against Bush and 9-11. How can Richard Clarke hammer at Bush's defense policy? Obviously, the Democrats see that Bush has the advantage on defense--especially after 9-11--so they are acting pious and self-righteous. ("How could he allow the 9-11 attacks to happen? He'd had 100 days in office.")

What about 8 years of Clinton allowing terrorist attacks on U.S. interests without answering? To say nothing of his depleting the military's personnel and equipment. Blame Clinton and Madeleine Albright and crew--not Bush, Powell, and Rice.

Photojournalism

Joy at Karagraphy tipped me off to AmericanPhotojournalist.com some time ago. I like the concept, but it seemed that it needed more planning before getting off the ground. Their focus (no pun intended) is too broad. Anyone with the money can join, and post their photos. So you have Pulitzer nominees and Joe Blow's family photos coexisting.

Through American Photojournalist, though, I found a similar site that seems to do a better job. Sportsshooter.com concentrates on sports photography, which ties in well to my work, but they also include other photojournalists. They have a process whereby potential members are screened by their portfolio.

Take a look at both. (I'm not responsible for content--or a member--of either site.)

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
petals on a wet, black bough.

~Ezra Pound

I'm not a big poetry person, but this has always been a favorite of mine. Check out its rhythm.

Thanks to Ubertati's link to the poetry search engine.

Fun job

Working at a weekly newspaper gives me the chance to do a range of journalistic jobs. In the past month or so I've covered (in no particular order)
• several structure fires
• post-season (albeit high school) basketball games
• Remember the Bulldogs
• power company crews installing power poles with a helicopter on a rugged, wintry mountain
• an accident (no injuries) on a mountain road where a prefab building came off a truck. Ran a photo of driver's ed passing the scene. Title: Driver's Ed crash course
• the state of Va. closing down our local landfill. This is only the second time the state has closed down a landfill (by revoking the permit). I went as the staff photographer and got some pics I'm pleased with. Our daily sister paper ran three of them today. Covering this event was so draining b/c there were a lot of potential outcomes.

Wheelin' and Dealin'

A week ago we made the largest purchase of our young married life so far. We picked up a 1999 Ford Ranger, extended cab (4-door) to become a 2-car family. We bought the truck from a guy who sells repossessed vehicles, so we got a good deal.

I had owned a truck in high school and college and loved it, but it was neither long-lived nor practical after leaving school.

Now it’s practical again, and I join my parents, father-in-law, and uncle in owning extended cab Rangers.

Click on the image below to see a slightly larger version.

Double blessing

For the first time in our marriage--which is approaching 3 years--both my wife and I have full-time jobs. When we first married, my wife worked temp jobs while I freelanced. Then she was hired full-time while I continued freelancing.

In August, we moved so that I could take full-time job in Virginia. And my wife came to an extremely poor job market without any job lined up. Finally after a couple of unfruitful interviews, she was hired full-time in January for a position in the business office at my newspaper. This came about in a manner that was completely unexpected.

So now we’re both working full-time jobs, and we’re in the same building. It’s a double bonus.

I’m glad that after she left a great job with advancement possibilities, she can have this job, which will allow her to use her skills more--even if it’s not as cushy.

Blogging community

I came across this neat blogging community of NYC-based bloggers. I'm intrigued that you can search the bloggers by subway lines and stops or by borough.

There are a few bloggers at our old subway stop. And one guy not too far away from our old haunt has a cool photography site. Haven't yet had the time, but you can also go to a page that links to 9/11/01 blog entries. They look interesting, but I haven't had time to check them out.

Be warned: there is a lot of junk on a lot of the blogs. The concept is cool and I wonder what Bensfriends could get out of it.

Design of everyday things

There's a book (The Design of Everyday Things) that discusses functional design of items we use everyday (door handles, faucets, etc.) A lot of these items frustrate us, and it's because they are poorly designed. (Ever get fooled by a push bar on a pull door?)

My brother, father, and I often mention the book when we talk about poorly designed items. It's a good read.

Anyhow, that's just background for me to say that my current pet peeve in the realm of (non)functional design is the diagrams that *explain* how to swipe your credit/debit cards.

The art is bad, so you can rarely tell what to do. Usually, figure out what you think it says and do the opposite.