Self portraits

I found this web page to be very interesting.  Nice if you can make yourself to look anyway you want – I mean did Peter Paul Rubens really look that suave and cool?  Much harder to pull off in a photograph.

Citizens United revisited

In early January I wrote this post about the Montana Supreme Court refusing to follow the disastrous “Citizens United” decision rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court . 

It now appears that my hope of SCOTUS reopening the matter could come about sooner rather than later.  Check it on HuffPo now.

The outrage continues…

The other night I was watching the Maddow show when she did a segment on how the odious Gov. Scott Walker was using money that will come to Wisconsin from the foreclosure fraud settlement to help balance the budget.  Of course the reason Walker has a shortfall in his budget is because he cut taxes on corporations and fat cats.  I went poking around on the Internet to find an article about this and found one at Think Progress, which you can check out here.  The upshot is that Wisconsin is getting $140 million, $31.6 million of which goes directly to the state, presumably to be doled out to help victims of foreclosure fraud.  Instead, Walker is going to divert $25.6 million of these funds to “help close a budget shortfall.”  Wow, how much more brazen can these right wing Republican state officials get?  All I’ve got to say is that it is a good the the whole $140 million didn’t go directly to the State!

A quote for today …

"Just because they say action doesn’t mean you have to do something"  ~~ Marlon Brando

Toles nails it as usual…

Today’s Toles cartoon in WaPo is painfully true.

Bill Cunningham New York

I have been trying to watch more film documentaries these days.  Netflix streaming video has a lot of them.  I particularly enjoy finding ones that feature people and/or places I have never heard of and know nothing about.  Most recently I watched “Bill Cunningham New York,” which really delighted me.  I knew nothing of Cunningham until I watched the film.  As a photographer, I was very tuned into the whole thing, and the panoply of colorful New Yorkers turning up here and there was loads of fun.  I enjoyed it all, but there was one thing that stood out for me that most people probably did even think was out of the ordinary: Bill Cunningham still only shoots real film!  No digital cameras for this guy.

I agree with Roger Ebert, who said: "This movie made me happy every moment I was watching it." 

Bill Cunningham New York trailer

p.s.  When you are watching something made a year ago about an 80 year old guy, you wonder if he is still alive now.  I am happy to report that Wikipedia says he is still around.  Cool.

Fallows article

I just got back from taking Spenser to the dog park and running a few errands.  While I was in my car, I heard portions of Michael Krasny of our local NPR station interviewing James Fallows regarding Fallows’ article on Obama, which appears in the March issue of The Atlantic.  The parts of the interview I was able to hear (I was in and out of the car), were fascinating.  I have always considered Fallows one of our great living journalists. 

Now that I am home, I have found the article.  I am going to make time to read the whole thing despite its length -- Fallows mentioned that his article was quite long.  I’m pulling your coats to it so that you have the choice of checking it out or not…