Maybe those ATVers are all gun-totin’ left-wing progressives

Fri 01/14/11 mjh

The Right whines that the Left is “just as bad” when it comes to threats of violence. OK: Send me a link to a story in which a right-wing group is “wanted dead or alive.” Or, show me that ATVers are leftists and wilderness advocates are right-wingers.

The Durango Herald 01/08/2011 | ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ posters target local conservation group

Under a skull and crossbones are the words: “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Beneath, in larger type, it reads: “Members of Great Old Broads for Wilderness are not allowed in San Juan County Utah.”

“We’ve run into hostility before but never so overtly,” Ronni Egan, executive director of the group, said Friday. …

The apparent reason: their involvement in trying to restore an area rich in archaeological treasures that has been invaded by off-road vehicles.

The Durango Herald 01/08/2011 | ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ posters target local conservation group

!status updates

Back from the Wilderness thinking Patti Smith may be right that “joy shall conquer all despair” (In My Blakean Year).

Fri 01/14/11 mjh

peace, mjh

!status updates

26 years ago, my Mom died on this day, in the wee hours. I’m off to the wilderness to remember the dead.

Thu 01/13/11 mjh

My Mom

Cue Dave Carter’s “When I Go.” (He’s dead, too.)

media, NADA - New American Dark Ages, WTF?!

As a Constitutional Scholar, Harrison Schmitt is a Bang-up Engineer

Wed 01/12/11 mjh

New Mexicans should read Tom Cole’s quotations from Harrison Schmitt, Martinez’s proposed head of the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. I’ll start with the end of Cole’s column.

ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Harrison Schmitt: in His Words

In one posting, he says a "philosophical wedge" has been driven between the government and its citizens, creating a divide that is wider than at any other time since just before the Civil War.

It seems to me that Schmitt has been doing some of the hammering on that wedge.

ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Harrison Schmitt: in His Words

Schmitt on Anthropogenic Global Climate Change:

"There exists no true concern … about the true effects of climate change — only a poorly concealed, ideologically driven attempt to use conjured up threats of catastrophic consequences as a lever to gain authoritarian control of society."

Classic conservative paranoia: It’s all part of the totalitarian movement of the Left. (Just like the “Patriot” Act and DOMA.) I think Climate Change Deniers are part of a power grab by corporations that will destroy anything and everything for profit. Schmitt also supports endless corporate welfare in the form of “Cold War II” with China.

One more quote from Schmitt, who believes the Minimum Wage and Social Security numbers are unconstitutional:

"The Government violates constitutional equal protection most generally by restricting the land-related economic and recreational activities of residents of Western States when no comparable restrictions are possible in most Eastern States. …”

Yup, Western wilderness is unconstitutional because there aren’t comparable Eastern wildernesses. Apparently, engineers make lousy constitutional scholars. (BTW: I’m all for creating equally large wildernesses in the East. It’s only fair.)

A tangent regarding the endless ways in which abqjournal.com frustrates its users. When you select text to quote from the site, text is appended to that quote, such as this:

Read more: ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Harrison Schmitt: in His Words http://www.abqjournal.com/upfront/12215407746upfront01-12-11.htm#ixzz1AphNqDcA
Subscribe Now Albuquerque Journal

Kudos to the Web designer who is so clueless about interface yet able to hack some JavaScript. Now, I know that some media sources object to the common practice among bloggers of quoting from those sources, even though every media source quotes other media sources – somehow, it’s wrong when bloggers do it. Like almost every blogger, I cite the sites I quote from. Still, abqjournal.com insists on tacking on this ugly bit of code. (Note the hideous URL.) I’ll bet this got the coder a pat on the head.

photos

2010 Photos, 2nd Edition – Revised & Expanded!

Tue 01/11/11 mjh

Best of 2010

It was so hard to pare 7500 photos down to 12. Granted, that was a useful exercise. But then I started discussing the short list with Merri and she said, “Did you include the little blue heron?” No. “How about the pelican?” Mind you, I didn’t need much excuse to expand the list. So, I’ll leave my original Top 12 blog entry as is, but I have added more to the album, including some by Merri Rudd. (I cannot admit here how many more photos I’ve added. Still a tiny percentage of 7500.)

photos

2010 in Photos

Tue 01/11/11 mjh

Looking for a bit of closure on the old year, I can sum up my photography in 2010 with a few stats:

I kept about 7500 photos taken in 2010. That means I surely took more than 8,000 photos but probably not 10,000 – I don’t delete 25% of my photos. (Every one I kept has one or more tags for organizing and finding them later.)
With Merri’s help, I’ve rated 221 photos as 4 out of 5 stars; there are 12 photos with 5 stars – the best of the lot. All of these have appeared on my Flickr pages or my Picasa albums.

I take photos every day and the environment around me is my most frequent subject, including roadrunners, hawks, and many other birds, as well as bugs, flowers, sky, and the wonderful New Mexico landscape. However, four trips account for many of the photos I kept, including Florida in May, Colorado in June, and DC in October (for a visit and a wedding). The lion’s share of the best photos came from 12 days in Guatemala at the end of February and the start of March. Among many great subjects, I experienced the chance of a lifetime to photograph a male resplendent quetzal in flight. That may not be the best photo of the year, but it is a shining example of being ready for the right time in the right place – and being lucky.

Rather than tell you more about these pictures, let me show you what I consider the twelve best of my 2010 photos:

Oh, and the second edition of my book, Digital Cameras & Photography for Dummies, came out in November (a couple of the Guatemalan photos made it in the book).