Dedicated To Ronald Reagan 20 Years After The Wall Fell

Tea Party Express

Of course the "sign wars" lead to some hyperbole. I must admit I liked the Astroturf lady quite a bit. The Stop Illegal Immigration lady suffered surprisingly inventive invective. What a shame.

Gay Marriage Advocate

This was a man who had some class, spirit motivation and decorum. Not a single angry phrase. Just a man with a point to make. Classy.

Buffer Zone

LAPD separated the Tea Party Express from the counter protest with a wide buffer zone. I used depth of field here to show the contrast between the sharp line LAPD drew across the grass and the far more blurry distinctions of opinions present on each side.

Angry Counter Protesters

The man pictured above was a foul mouthed embarrassment to his side of the issues. He kept pushing the borders of decency and the LAPD zone. I saw him gently reminded to step back several times. A group of people in opposition the the Tea Party Express were quite angry in tone and insulting in verbiage. They were firmly in support of a big public option and gay marriage.

This attitude was in stark contrast to the fiscal conservatives they were there to protest against. Anytime any tea party participant approached the buffer zone they were instantly rewarded with taunts and insults. Racist and fascist were the kinder and gentler insults offered. To their credit the Tea Party people would have none of that sort of argument. Every conservative calmly walked away from the insults.

If class and conduct matters the day went to the tea party people.

Welcome Lizards

A hearty welcome to visitors from Little Green Footballs, my fellow lizards! To explain to my regular visitors-Charles Johnson has his big "anti-idiotarian" blog. That is a blog for serious discussion of issues deemed worthy by the attentive host. LGF was first famous for exposing the Reuters "fauxtography" or fake shots of phony atrocities by Israel in the summer war in Lebanon. I grew to respect it then.

Charles later earned the anger of the left when he outed the false documents about then President George Bush. This ended Dan Rather's career in network news. Later it turned out his assistant knew the documents were fake, and Dan lost his lawsuit against CBS. Lately the blog has angered the political right by attacking the extremely shrill tone and foolish substance of many pundits, politicians and Republican operatives. Charles calls these things as he see them without regard to partisan ideologies. Now that's what I call an independent thinker. Use the link on the right to explore Little Green Footballs for yourself.

Making Gold Alloy

That blast furnce holds 600 ounces or so of the alloy that gets mixed with gold to turn 24kt into 14kt yellow. The man behind the mask is Jose Diaz, a man with a decade of experience. All the light in this shot is from the furnce. No flash, no fill.

Poetry added By Alyson Degnan

Everyone goes to work... but those that love what they do and have a burning passion and look forward to what the dawn brings... those people never work... they go to play in the sun's rays or in the moon's light mysterious glow... for they are the ones who have truly found nirvana...

Emotion

I have rarely seen such emotion raw and genuine as in these two shots of Bryan Hopkins. He had not seen his daughter for some time, and she was in the house. Bryan sang the song he had written about her. He sang it to her that night at Citywalk. Words just fail me.

A piece of Angels Flight

Angels Rail-Los AngelesTrapped within a time capsule. Even though the world around me refuses to stop changing. I shall stay the same. Aged and withered... this road less traveled shall remain unchanged...

Beethovens Countenance

Anonymous said...

Even though I may look so serious and in vain, I really am not. I just wish there was some way I could show the world how it feels... To be deaf and unable to hear the most beautiful noise of all... the music within my heart....

Steel Highway

"Life's a Journey"

Out West a Railroad Roams
Rusty Red, Dry, Chained to the Ground
Nothing Travels on its Cold Hearted Steal
but the Cold Salty Rain
It Says Nothing to the Animals that Pass
It Looks on Ignoring an Opportunity
to Escape from its Past
It Will Just Sit in One Place,
never to Move, or Shift...
Out of Fear of what may come
As it Will Continue from Sunrise to Sunset
Watch its Life
Go Right By.