* Yeah, we’re still working on the living room. Bought the paint tonight along with some supplies. A new rug. A new toss rug for the foyer.I think we’ve found the shelving we want, though that part likely won’t be for a few weeks, yet.
[1]* The Flash memory for the Powershot A95 finally showed up. Capacity for over 1000 pictures at the highest resolution the thing will put up. Not too bad. Personally, I can’t wait for it to warm up a bit, so I can put it with the tripod and take a run to the trainyards over at Buffalo…. Frontier yard is a favorite, sitting on old Broadway right at the Sloan line. Here’s a shot of the east end of Frontier yard, right from Broadway at Street level, taken in September of 1995 by Chris Webster. The oncoming train is an eastbound van train… a high priority run. It had just started about a mile back, at Old Broadway after re-crewing… and normally, after a standing start like that these high horsepower jobs are already doing 35 or 40. You can drill it for a closer look, if you like. You can see more of the like at Chris’ fine site. [2]
* It strikes me as interesting, this latest discussion as regards John McCain, and his ever changing position on Iraq, and other matters. The democrats are all over Mr. McCain, saying he’s been a flip flopping. Well, it’s true, and I have not trusted them and for some time… Because I thought him more than capable of it.
But what strikes me as the most interesting facet of all of this, is the idea that he has been changing positions in an attempt to mollify the left. Apparently, he figures they’re going to take him more seriously as a presidential candidate, because he says what they want him to say. One would think, that he would have learned from the mistakes of George Herbert Walker Bush, in that regard. You remember that one; the no new taxes pledge? Remember how the Democrats talked him out of that pledge saying that the added income of a tax raising was needful? Remember how they then turned on him, and beat him over the head with the pledge saying he’d broken it, when all he’d done is what they asked him to do?
Facts are, that such a back-stabbing is invariably what happens when compromise with Democrats is attempted. McCain is now learning that lesson. Too bad for him. But that he had to learn the lesson the hard way, in my view disqualifies him from the office of President, as a Republican. He clearly doesn’t have the smarts for the job.
* Speaking of the war, I see Insta-Glenn [3] has a video up you want to see.
* I see a Rush Limbaugh is still on the rag about Barbaro. he questions whether not we’ve been talking about the race horse too much. I think, that he’s missing the point, in this case, however. I think there to be a link between America’s reaction to this story of this racehorse, and the reaction to what Americans are being told about the war on, Iraq, radical Islam, and so on. Ask yourself; does this race horse story, and the reaction to it, tell us anything about the American spirit, and how it might react to other stimuli?
Barbaro the champion, after his fall, took on the status of a fighter.. fighting back from incredible odds. America always loves a fighter ; someone who will pick himself or herself against incredible odds, and looks to stand a chance to win. it was an uplifting story.
(BBCT to KentuckyDerby.com for the pic)
Applying that thought to the war on terror , is a point that I am amazed that Mr. Limbaugh didn’t pick up on. Does the reaction to the story of a resource, tell us anything about America’s reaction over time to the war on terror? Granted, that when you add in influences such as the press the democrats etc., the causes for the swing in changing opinion start getting a little murky. But there’s a link there… and one I don’t think I’ve got a firm handle on.
Limbaugh suggests, that the left cannot survive an American victory in Iraq. And he’s right. So, the question comes, how to harness (pun not intended) the spirit of those reactions, that love of a winner… that have come out so loudly these last two days for Barbaro?
I submit that the person who comes closest to understanding and adjusting to the reality of that spirit stands the best chance of being elected in ’08.