Sunday, October 28, 2007

For Lolife


found this on a blog, thought you would appreciate it.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Continue the journey

In my never ending quest to find passion that cost money rather than make money, I have found ..rather re-discovered a new one. After years as a freshwater enthusiast, and then years and thousand of dollars, as a saltwater enthusiast...I have now come 360 degree's. About three years ago a friend "turned me on" to the work of Takashi Amano.....I was in the middle of my saltwater period, quite happily spending hundreds of dollars a week on the hobby....one glance at the work of Takashi and I sold all of the salt systems and am now, finally, going to realize where my aquatic vision lies.

Tomorrow I pick up a 125 gallon tank. Monday a 55, possibly a 90 octagon...to add to my 29 and multiple 10's...hopefully one day I will produce a photo of my own aquascape that holds as much beauty as those posted below.

Takashi Amano


Photographer,Aquarist, Genius

Takashi Amano

Takashi Amano

Monday, October 8, 2007

Student Protests in Iran


An amazing site
Several hundred students protest in Iran today. Hopefully the media will cover as much of this as is possible.
Hind sight is, of course, 20-20...I am just finishing "Imperial Life inside the Emerald City"
Author Rajiv Chandrasekaran stated that it was highly likely that Sadam was about 12-18 months from being over thrown before the US invaded. He also stated that his "bravado" and antagonistic behavior in the court of world opinion was to try to remain in power at home...
That being said...with all the threat of war with Iran,
I am hoping that the US has the right intelligence. Ahmadinejad is not the "leader" of Iran, more of a figure head and front man for the Supreme Leader,Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Students have long been active in Iran and are potentially what will force the ultra radical muslim extremists to recognize the youthful majority in Iran. (something like 70% of the population is under the age of 30) I would hope that we are "on our game" this time...and do not get sucked into a situation that could be avoided with proper intelligence.

The Graphic at the top is actually Ahmad Batebi. His 1997 protest condemned him to death only to have the sentence commuted to 15 years by international pressure.

I believe there is much, much more to Iran than we know....I believe there is a boiling underground protest of Iranian youth seeking a more democratic Iran.

Jon Stewart

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Carter in Darfur...hmmm what will GW do?

We all read about Jimmy Carter in Darfur. I wonder what GW will be doing after his Presidency?

Will he build the GW Library?
Will he write a book?
Will he read a book?
Will he heal the sick?
Feed the hungry?

What will GW be doing in 18 months, 2 years, 5 years?

Such a legacy he has left behind for this country.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

bullshit war for bullshit principles

I have been watching as much of the Ken Burns series on WWII. In visiting with my parents (mid 70’s) spoke of the rationing of gas, sugar, etc… and the fact that you couldn’t by rubber, silk, meat…
There were collections of scrap metal and fund raising for the war effort…

We now find out that while there were significant shortages that some of what was happening during WWII was done to ‘involve’ the American public…

This war (Iraq) is very expensive. The cost is real and will not just go away. What was the quote? “The cost of one day in Iraq would have funded the un-insured childrens health bill”?

This much debt, this much deficit makes America weaker, not stronger. No one will conquer us militarily. Fiscally we are sinking our own ship.

The Cold War was won, in part, by making the Soviets spend themselves into collapse....

This Republican party is not fiscally conservative, nor are they for smaller government. The Dems. are a ball-less lot that is incapable of dealing with the worst administration in the history of the country.

The American populace needs to wise up, band together and get a grip on the direction we have been heading for the past six years....you can not wage a war for this long at this expense, enlarge the size of government and give tax cuts....

We have close to 30,000 wounded vets and if history repeats itself (apparently we do not learn) we will go from “loving our soldiers” to “not supporting our wounded Vets”....There is and will be a growing on going expense to this pointless war that does not have an attainable end. (we have the might but not the diplomacy skills)

We are not even capable of securing our borders, yet we think that what we are doing in Iraq is fighting a war on terror?....Give me a frickin break.