Chamblee54

The innertubes turned up a couple of good quotes. The first one is from a page about Georgia History. The other is from Lawrence of Cyberia. The pictures are from The Library of Congress
October 25, 1885 By a margin of just over 200 votes, voters of Atlanta and Fulton County approved a referendum providing for prohibition. [For a background to Georgia’s prohibition movement in the 1880s, click here .] The vote to prohibite the sale of alcoholic beverages would result in one unintended–but very important–consequence. At the time, a French wine named Vin Mariani was popular in America. The Bordeaux wine was distinct because it was treated with coca leaves. This inspired Atlanata druggist John S. Pemberton in 1884 to capitalize on the craze by developing what he initially called Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. However, with prohibition now in effect in Atlanta and Fulton County, Pemberton turned his attention to developing a non-alcoholic, cola version of his French Wine Coca. He decided to call the new beverage Coca-Cola, which he then promoted widely as the ideal temperance beverage. Atlanta’s experiment with prohibition only lasted two years, after which Pemberton returned to producing his French Wine Coca. But it was his carbonated cola drink that would become the most popular soft drink in the world.
The theory that the Jews are to come into Palestine and oust the Moslem cultivators by ‘equitable purchase’ or other means is in violation of principles of sound policy, and would, if accepted, arouse violent outbreaks against the Jewish minority. It would, moreover, arouse fierce Moslem hostility and fanaticism against the Western powers that permitted it. The effect of this hostility would be felt all through the Middle East, and would cause trouble in Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India. To this might be ascribed by future historians the outbreak of a great war between the white and the brown races, a war into which America would without doubt be drawn.
Zionist Aspirations in Palestine , by H. Anstruther Mackay (Military Governor of Ramleh, Palestine); The Atlantic Monthly, July 1920.

Jails can be confusing. The story began when “P” got to spend a weekend as a guest of the county. He was supposed to get out at 6pm Sunday, and PG was going to take him home.
PG had to hold his hand in front of his face when making the turn onto Camp Circle to keep the sun out. He could not see the sign, and was hoping this was the right road. The word was that “P” would be released from the Bobby Burgess building, a lowrise down the hill from the fortress like big jail. The only place for parking was marked for county employees only, but it was mostly empty. PG found a spot in the corner, and started to read about fixer up houses in backwoods Georgia.
At 6:15, PG decided to look around. He walked to the other side of the Burgess Building, pushed the button the intercom, and got no reply. He did not see “P”, or anyone else. It was time to walk up to the big house and ask some questions.
The sign on the door said Sheriff’s office, and PG decided to look for the proper entrance. He wound up walking all around the building. The Jail is a huge building, towering over Memorial Drive like a fortress. In another life, PG had worked in an architect’s office where this facility was designed. Finally, the 360 degree tour was over, and PG walked in the door he had passed by the first time.
There was a sign, indicating that no cell phones were allowed in the building. PG turned his off, and talked to the guard running the metal detector. Yes, all detainees would be released at the jail, not the Bobby Burgess building. That lady over there can tell you whether your friend is here. PG went back to put his cell phone away, and move his car to the approved parking lot. He had missed the entrance to this lot the first time he came in.
PG drove around the block, and went by the front of the Burgess building. That was of no use, and he went to the parking lot. Going up to the big house from there, with the metal detector letting him in. The next move was standing in line to talk to the information lady. She had never heard of “P”.
This was very confusing. Going home without “P” was not a pleasing option, but it looked more and more likely. Another walk down to the Burgess Building did not yield results. Finally, walking up the hill to the parking lot, there was a skinny man walking down the hill. “Hey”. It was 7:05. By justice system standards, this was not bad.

HT to the fun lovers at Peach Pundit for this video. It is tough to say who is more in the wrong here. The white guy should not have interrupted, but when the black guy came back with “I’m not in the cotton field”, he left himself wide open for what followed.
In more media news, Wikileaks has released a truckload of documents thumbdrive about the war in Babylon. Appearing on Democracy Now, Daniel Ellsberg made a comment that resonated with former document shuffler PG.
“DANIEL ELLSBERG: Four hundred thousand documents, allegedly. It is, of course, a leak on a scale that I couldn’t have done forty years ago without scanners and digital capability. I used the most advanced technology at that time, Xerox, and I couldn’t have done what I did ten years before that. AMY GOODMAN: You xeroxed 7,000 pages? DANIEL ELLSBERG: Yes. It took a long time, one page at a time. So I’m quite jealous of the current capabilities.”
Another segment of Democracy Now featured a dialog between Lt. Dan Choi and “Lesbian activist” mattilda bernstein sycamore. Mattilda wonders if including queers in the killing machine is really a good idea. Lt. Choi countered with this: “war is a force that gives us meaning. War is a force that teaches us lessons of humanity and allows us to realize something about our society and teaches us the lessons that we probably should have learned before we went to war.”
Black and white pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” . The screen shots of Mattilda and Lt. Choi are by PG, who thinks that Lt. Choi would look good wearing a pink tie.

This is a repost . Not much has changed in the last 365 days. The killing of women and children by robot planes continues. The war criminal President has not returned the Nobel Peace Prize. The latest news is that American citizens who are labeled terrorist will be murdered.
The New American Foundation has a report on the drone attacks on Pakistan. These attacks have increases dramatically under BHO, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize. HT to Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic Magazine, and The New Yorker.
Drones are unmanned aircraft operated by remote control. There is no human at risk (to us) in these operations. These reports do not mention how many drones have been shot down. These attacks are going on in Pakistan (which theoretically is not at war with the United States), and in secret operations around the world.
Drone attacks are like abortions. In a typical procedure, the doctor and mother are at little risk, and the baby dies. Abortion is safer than childbirth, just like drones are safer than aircraft with human crews. Safer, that is, for the human crew. Drones are just as deadly for the women and children on the ground as manned aircraft.
The issue of civilian casualties continues. Estimates range from 6% to 85 % of the deaths are civilians. This is going to be impossible to verify, with militants exaggerating and Americans denying. The lowest estimates are from the long war journal. It should be noted that if these operations were happening in America, and white citizens were being killed, a 6% rate of civilian death would be an outrage. However, when you are talking about dark skinned Muslims eight time zones away, a human life if worth less, compared to the military advantage gained.
One thing from the NAF report caught the eye here. “As a result of the unprecedented 41 drone strikes into Pakistan …about a half-dozen leaders of militant organizations have been killed–including two heads of Uzbek terrorist groups allied with al Qaeda.” What are Uzbek terrorist groups doing in Pakistan? Are we making attacks in Uzbekistan now?
Another eye popper is in the appendix. This is from a list of drone attacks.
24. June 23
Location: Makeen, South Waziristan (funeral of militants killed in earlier strike)
Al Qaeda/Taliban leaders killed: Unknown
Al Qaeda/Taliban killed: At least 45
Others killed: 45-83 (including militants)
We are attacking funerals. This is what gets POTUS the Nobel Peace Prize.
In addition to the moral disaster of killing women and children with unmanned aircraft, there are some strategic issues. The fighters have been staying in the mountainous frontier of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is the area being attacked. There are indications that the fighters are moving into more populated areas of Pakistan. They will be more difficult to fight there, and can radicalize the population.
When you drop a bomb on an outpost, you destroy cell phones, computers, and paperwork. These items can be of value for determining the future plans of the fighters. Also, dead men tell no tales. Remember the ticking time bomb in the torture debates? What is someone knows where that ticking bomb is, but we kill him? He is not going to be able to tell us where that bomb is, torture or no torture.
If the goal of the war in Stan Land is to destroy the terrorists, then we should question whether killing leaders is going to do the trick. Drone attacks are a tactic, not a strategy. (Like terrorism is a tactic, and not an enemy.)The anger that fuels these terrorists is not going to go away, and the leaders that are killed are going to be replaced. These attacks may slow down the resistance, but they will not destroy it.

Juan Cole has a report on terrorism in the European Union. The centerpiece of this report is the EUROPOL TE-SAT 2010 EU TERRORISM SITUATION AND TREND REPORT. The report was produced by Europol , the European law enforcement agency.
The study will be surprising to those who listen to talk radio. Most terror incidents in Europe are from separatist movements. In 2009, one terror incident in Europe was connected to Islam.
Europe is still aware of Islamic terrorism. The Detroit underwear bomber began his journey in Amsterdam. The 911 attacks were planned in Germany.
The Muslim story in Europe is different from America. There are many more Muslims in Europe, and many are poor. There is more freedom to practice religion in America, and few attempts to outlaw Muslim clothing.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. They were taken by Dorethea Lange.





PG started some trouble in a comment thread last night. The comment was in response to a diavlog at BloggingheadsTV (spell check suggestions:Wrongheadedness,Footslogging) featuring Mona Eltahawy & Claire Berlinski. The two ladies discussed the problem of being “moderate” Muslims in a world where moderation was not appreciated. PG started the fuss with this comment:
This is a great conversation, with good sound quality. If it is not painful to listen, then you can focus on the content.The thought occurs, that if you were to substitute “Christian” for “Muslim”, that many of the same points could be made. Moderation is well thought of in almost all fields except religion, where the more radical a person is, the more likely he is to be accepted.
This is a problem with Jesus Worship in America. The more extreme your views, the more likely you are to have a following. Moderation is not seen as a virtue. There are probably some Bible verses ( be hot or I will spit you out, or something like that ) that go along with this concept. This attitude can make it difficult to work together with people with whom you have much common ground, but a few differences of religious opinion.
One hour and fifty nine minutes later, this reply was made.
whburgess wrote on 10/21/2010 at 12:59 AM
Quoting chamblee54: This is a great conversation, with good sound quality. If it is not painful to listen, then you can focus on the content.The thought occurs, that if you were to substitute “Christian” for “Muslim”, that many of the same points could be made. Moderation is well thought of in almost all fields except religion, where the more radical a person is, the more likely he is to be accepted.___Yes, the thought occurs almost immediately in brains infected by the politically correct virus.
Don Zeko wrote on 10/21/2010 at 01:08 AM
Quoting whburgess: Yes, the thought occurs almost immediately in brains infected by the politically correct virus.___Fortunately for whburgess, this sort of rhetoric indicates that he is free of both the “politically correct virus” and the “factually correct virus.” Phew.
whburgess wrote on 10/21/2010 at 01:09 AM
Quoting Don Zeko: Fortunately for whburgess, this sort of rhetoric indicates that he is free of both the “politically correct virus” and the “factually correct virus.” Phew.___Somewhere an example would be in order, wouldn’t it?
Don Zeko wrote on 10/21/2010 at 01:13 AM
Quoting whburgess: Somewhere an example would be in order, wouldn’t it?___Well I’m sure I could provide one if you’d made an argument, but instead I’m stuck extrapolating from the absurd phrase “politically correct virus.” I’ve tried to imagine some sort of reasonable argument or correct statement about the world that I might reasonably expect to follow such rhetoric, but I just can’t.
whburgess wrote on 10/21/2010 at 01:14 AM
Quoting Don Zeko: Well I’m sure I could provide one if you’d made an argument, but instead I’m stuck extrapolating from the absurd phrase “politically correct virus.” I’ve tried to imagine some sort of reasonable argument or correct statement about the world that I might reasonably expect to follow such rhetoric, but I just can’t.___Yes, just as I suspected.
Don Zeko wrote on 10/21/2010 at 01:18 AM
Quoting whburgess: Yes, just as I suspected.___Glad to live up to expectations. If you’re unhappy with the fact-deficient nature of this exchange, how about you share some of your thoughts on the DV? Do you think that Eltahawy or Berlinski’s brains are infected with the politically correct virus?
whburgess wrote on 10/21/2010 at 01:27 AM
Quoting Don Zeko: Do you think that Eltahawy or Berlinski’s brains are infected with the politically correct virus?___Certainly not Berlinski. I liked her and what she had to say a lot. Eltahawy–I’m not as sure of. She seemed about to say some of moral equivalancy nonsense so indicative of the virus, but Berlinski wasn’t having it.

It is perhaps the most famous photograph from the depression. . The semi official title is Migrant Mother. The Library of Congress says “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California.” The exact date is unknown, and was either February or March of 1936. The photographer was Dorothea Lange (pronounced dore-THEE-ah lang). The model was Florence Owens Thompson .
Ms. Lange was born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn May 26, 1895 in Hoboken, N.J. When she was seven she had polio, and when she was twelve her father left. Both events affected her deeply. ( Lange is her mother’s maiden name, chosen for use after the father left.) She became a photographer, and had a successful studio in San Francisco. By 1936 she was with her second husband, her sons were in boarding school, and she went to work for the Farm Security Administration.
The Farm Security Administration hired a number of photographers to document the lives of Americans between 1934 and 1944. ( During part of this time, it was connected to the Office of War Information, and the Resettlement Administration.) Since they were working for the government, the photographers were not entitled to copyright protection. The majority of these pictures are in the public domain, including the famous pictures of Florence Thompson.
This feature started with a google search for the correct way to pronounce Dorothea Lange. ( Readers of this blog have seen the fondness for Library of Congress historic pictures. Ms. Lange is one of their stars.) This search led to a teacher’s guide from Yale University. This guide is about Dorothea Lange and the Migrant Mother. It tells the story as well as PG could. Bless his pea picking heart.
The day that Dorothea Lange photographed what would become her most famous photograph, Migrant Mother, has been retold by Lange in numerous sources. She was on her way home from a trip documenting the living and working conditions of the migrants to California. She followed their schedules, getting up at sunup and working until sundown, which made for long, sixteen-hour days. She was tired, and she was ready to see her family.
With about seven hours of driving left ahead of her, she passed a homemade sign that said Pea Pickers’ Camp. She knew that a late frost had ruined the pea crop, and was concerned about the people who might be at the camp. It nagged at her to turn around, to go back and visit the camp, another opportunity to document. About 15 minutes (20 miles) later, Lange did turn around and went back to the camp.
Right away she saw the woman who would be the subject of Migrant Mother. Some sources say she took 5 shots, but she really took 6; in any case each shot focuses in on the woman a little more, and the final shot is the one that would become the “timeless and universal symbol of suffering in the face of adversity “ ( The search at the Library of Congress for “Migrant Mother” only has five of the shots.)
Early the morning after she got home, instead of spending time with her family Lange rushed to develop the photographs and submit them to the FSA and The San Francisco News. She thought that these photographs could help bring attention to the plight of these American migrant farmers. She was right; the story was printed in newspapers around the country, and the federal government immediately sent 20,000 pounds of food to the camps. The U.S. public couldn’t believe that the people who provided them with food were starving … (The Thompson family had left for Watsonville by the time the food arrived)
The Dust Bowl refugees were of European descent, and were migrating to California because they were displaced from their farmland by drought. Florence Owens Thompson, though from Oklahoma, was a full-blooded Native American, and her family had been displaced from tribal lands by the U.S. government. (By 1930, Native Americans had lost more than 80% of their lands this way).
The day Lange photographed Thompson, she and her family were driving towards Watsonville, hoping to pick lettuce in the Pajaro Valley. The timing chain on their car broke just outside Nipomo, and so they pulled into the pea -pickers camp to fix it. While fixing the chain, the radiator was punctured; Thompson’s two boys (and likely her male companion) (Wikipedia says it was husband Jim Hill) brought the radiator into town to be fixed. While they were gone, Lange arrived with her camera…
The choices Lange made in terms of shooting the scene are very telling in light of our discussion about documentary photography. Most strikingly, the woman’s teenaged daughter is purposefully excluded from the photograph. She appears in the first two photographs of the series, but Lange thought that including her would cause the viewer to speculate about how old the mother was when she began having children (Curtis p. 55). At the time, the ideal family contained no more than three children; this woman’s family of seven could have detracted from the matter at hand, and maybe caused people to feel less sympathetic towards her (Curtis p. 52).
In the third shot, all you see is the mother nursing her youngest child. Migrant Mother is often referred to as Migrant Madonna… Lange thought that her subject looked too anxious and uncomfortable with the camera, as Lange seemed to have triggered in her what she called “that self-protective thing” (Curtis p. 57). So, despite being uncomfortable with how unpredictable children were to photograph, to calm the mother she added one of the children back into the frame for the fourth shot. She had the child rest her chin on her mother’s shoulder, which, though somewhat unnatural, served the purpose of anchoring the child still. She was also asked to remove her hat, which would have obscured her facial features. This resulted in a good photograph, but Lange “thought she could do better (Curtis p. 58).
The fifth shot was the same, but from a different angle, which illuminates an empty pie tin, heavily symbolic of the hunger the family was facing. It also highlighted a warm and loving relationship between mother and child, as the child is leaning lovingly on the mother’s shoulder, which is comforting to the child.
For the sixth and final shot, (the one which became famous) Lange brought another child in, but she had both children face away from the camera, so that her shot would not be jeopardized by their unpredictability, and they would serve as a loving frame for the mother. Lange asked the mother to bring her right hand up to her face, and that resulted in exactly what Lange wanted and knew was there (Curtis p. 65). It softened her anxiety about the camera into a mother’s concern for the welfare of her family. The mother was worried about letting her sleeping child slip, so in the original sixth shot you could see her thumb grasped around the pole for support. In her excitement Lange did not see it. She eventually altered the original photonegative because she “did not want a small detail to mar the accomplishment (of overcoming her subject’s defensiveness) (Curtis p. 67).”
In this feature, the second image from the session is missing. The pictures in this feature are as follows. 1- The famous picture, cropped. 2- The first shot from the session. 3- A detail from the first shot. 4- The Migrant Madonna. 5- Child on the shoulder. 6- Child on the shoulder #2. 7. The full length famous picture. 8- A portrait of Dorothea Lange. 9- Another photograph by Ms. Lange, taken on the California-Arizona border in the summer of 1936.

The is a repost One year, and a hundred billion dollars later, little has changed in Afghanistan. The merchandise at Lenox Square has been updated, to keep up with the current fashions.
The USA is losing in Afghanistan. We cannot leave, for fear of chaos left behind. We are losing if we stay, with the vast amounts of blood and treasure we are paying. The invasion of Afghanistan was a knee jerk affair, a reaction to 911. A post at Obsidian Wings speculates that this may have been the design of the 911 attack.
The post is “Wanna grow up to be a debaser“, written by Eric Martin, and published October 6, 2009. The first part is a history of al-Qaeda, it’s roots in Egypt, and adolescence in Afghanistan fighting the Soviet Union. After that conflict was over, bin Ladin and company were looking for another battle. At first they went after moderate Muslim regimes, but that did not work. Then the concept of focusing on the United States came into play.
” The linchpin to this strategy was to provoke the US into invading a Muslim country (Afghanistan) and thus tie it down for several years of futile – and excessively costly – warfare, while Muslims from throughout the world poured in to join the cause. Then, with the US weakened, bankrupt, fatigued and unable/unwilling to project power and provide resources to its Middle Eastern allies, a reinvigorated al-Qaeda would launch its “near” campaign anew, with its army of new recruits already mobilized.”
The conventional wisdom is that we had the bad guys on the run in Afghanistan, but let up on them to focus on Iraq. PG has his doubts on this. The Afghans fought the Soviet Union off, and they were next door. Even if we were to conquer their armies, the challenge to establish a stable government would remain. Meanwhile, we are stuck, broke, and hurting.
In the 1996 Olympics, the men’s marathon went a mile from PG’s residence. He walked up to Peachtree Road, and stood in front of Oglethorpe University as the runners went by. All but one of the racers was in a pack. The exception was from Afghanistan.
The runner from Afghanistan had been injured, and was running fifteen minutes behind the pack. He had a large bandage on one leg, but continued to run. The marathon runner from Afghanistan finished the race that day, despite his injuries.

A fb friend posted that he was tagged by someone wanting to know 25 things about you, and then you tag 25 more people. This is a total of 650 things about people. If you find a 27th person with only 16 things to say, you will have 666.
PG was looking for some text to put between the pictures, and he thought a quiz would be fun. (Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” ) Google supplied a heavily commercial site called sparkpeople. If you read this and want to answer the questions, consider yourself tagged. Otherwise, do something useful with your time.
Today is 10-19. In trucker radio code, 10-19 means you are checking in with the dispatcher, you are caught up, and you want to know what else to do. If the dispatcher says 10-24, then you have no more chores and should return to the base. What does this have to do with playing twenty questions on steroids? 1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My Father//2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I don’t remember//3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? No//4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Cold pizza pepperoni//5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No// 6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Good question///7. DO YOU USE SARCASM ALOT?Only when needed//8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes//9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No//10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cheerios// 11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Boots yes, sneakers sometimes//12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I try to wash on a regular basis//13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Peach//14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Do they look like their pictures?15. RED OR PINK? Quit talking about my neck// 16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Lack of achievement//17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Judy( don’t know the last name)//18. WHAT IS THE PAUL MCKENNA TECHNIQUE THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE MOST? Who?//19. WHAT COLOR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?Tan//20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Steamed potatoes// 21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Nick Drake//22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Broken//23. FAVORITE SMELLS? reefer//24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? A robocall about credit cards//25. MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY OR BEACH HOUSE? Both// 26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? NFL//27. HAIR COLOR? White//28. EYE COLOR? Green//29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Sometimes//30. FAVORITE FOOD? Curry// 31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Fewer commercials//32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Fight Club//33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Red//34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter//35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs// 36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Brownies//37. STRENGTH TRAINING OR CARDIO? Walking over steady paths//38. COMPUTER OR TELEVISION? Computer//39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? A biography of John Lennon//40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? A trackball mouse// 42. FAVORITE SOUND? A vintage telephone bell//43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Brian Jones//44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Berlin//45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? No// 46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? On credit//47. WHERE ARE YOU LIVING NOW? ITP//48. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR HOUSE? Brown//49. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR CAR? Green//50. DO YOU LIKE ANSWERING 50 QUESTIONS? This is enough

Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:28 AM
Subject: FW: National Disturbed People Day – enjoy!
Today is International Disturbed People’s Day
You have to read the stuff at the end for your laugh!!!!!
Please send an encouraging message to a disturbed friend… just as I’ve done.
I don’t care if you lick windows,take the special bus,
or occasionally pee on yourself..
You hang in there sunshine, you’re frigging’ special
Every sixty seconds you spend angry, upset or mad,
is a full minute of happiness you’ll never get back.
Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly,
Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.
Even if it makes someone else cry, never regret it, because you are
the only person who matters!
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.
Send to all the people you love and don’t want to lose in 2008, even me.
If you get 3 back, you are a great friend.
This is a repost. It was originally posted two years ago, and based on a chain email. It is post number 1000 at the blog. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Inclusion of these pictures with this feature does not imply that the people displayed are disturbed. The were taken between 1860 and 1880.

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.He acquired his size from too much pi.2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.17. A backward poet writes inverse.18. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine.21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.’22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says ‘Dam!’23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’ The other says ‘Are you sure?’ The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.27. Pictures for this entertainment are from The Library of Congress. This is not supposed to be funny.

It is just a few weeks before Halloween and Election Day. They get tougher to tell apart every year.
There was a disclosure today from the Karen Handel campaign. It seems as though over 100k was spent on a rally with Sarah Palin, the day before the runoff. $92k went to a charter jet company, and the expenses for the Buckhead hotel were over $13k. The rally paired the dynamic Palin with Karen Handel, who has the charisma of a doorknob. The next day, the Georgia voter chose a notorious crook as the Republican nominee.
In the 81st district, silly season is in full flower. Elena Parent is sending out ads promising, er, a, something. She has a plan to bring jobs to the district, and make the schools better. At least her mailers look nice.
As for the “false smear campaign against Jill Chambers”, all PG can see is that Mrs. Chambers supports raising taxes. “She already has plenty of bills to pay. Thanks to Jill Chambers, she now has more taxes to pay”.
The truth is, the State of Georgia is broke, and scrambling for every dime they can get. If Miss Parent is elected, she will probably need to support tax increases. In the popular “pants on fire” division, Miss Parent should keep an extinguisher handy. (Are your pants on fire if you are wearing a skirt?)
Did someone say pants on fire ? If they did, it was about Jill Chambers . She is hitting hard and often at contributions, to Miss Parent, from lawyers at Southerland Asbill. (Miss Parent is a former employee of the firm.) According to Mrs. Chambers, this money comes out of operating revenue for the schools.
A group called politifact listened to that robocall. (spell check suggestions:robotic,rockfall,aerobically) (Jill Chambers makes robocalls.) They had a few things to say.
“But those contributions to Parent’s campaign don’t come directly from Sutherland, as the robocall suggests. Its employees made individual donations with their own money…None of the school system’s board members was named in the indictment. A schools spokesman said it is therefore inaccurate to call the board “corrupt.”
And saying campaign contributions to Parent came from money intended for schoolchildren tests the bounds of logic. Using Chambers’ reasoning, if a Sutherland lawyer bought a candy bar at a Wal-Mart, you could accuse the retailer of taking money intended for schoolchildren.”

The facebook friend said “Today is Dead Poets Remembrance Day, Oct. 7th, the day Edgar Allan Poe died. Be sure to visit a graveyard and read some poetry today”. PG didn’t have anything better to do. Pictures for are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
The first obstacle was finding a book of poetry. PG is not a poetry person. A look at the shelf turned up a paperback, “125 years of Atlantic “. Poetry was to be found between those covers.
The book had two stickers, both saying 69 cents. At the old Book Nook, this meant that the book was half the price on the sticker. With tax, that would be 38 cents.
125YOA had stayed in PG’s car for a few years. Whenever he was stuck somewhere with time to kill, this book was waiting. One afternoon in 1998, there was a slow day at work. PG read a remembrance by Gertrude Stein, about life in France at the start of World War II.
The cemetery of choice was connected to the Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church. PG has driven by this facility thousands of times. He walked past the graves until he found a fallen tree to sit down on.
The first poem was “Looking for the Buckhead Boys” by James Dickey. PG began to read out loud, and soon could smell the drug store air of Wender and Roberts. The author bought fifty cents worth of gas at a Gulf station. Today, fifty cents might buy a tablespoon of gas, and Gulf was long ago bought out by BP. Wender and Roberts became a bar, which was torn down, to make way for a  shopping destination.
Buckhead is not what it used to be. When Mr. Dickey was the bravest man in Buckhead ( he took a shit in the toilet at Tyree’s pool hall), PG was not even thought of. The traffic jams on Peachtree Street are still there, as the blue haired ladies follow poets into the ground.
When PG finished reading Mr. Dickey, he put a teal postit in the book, where the poem stood. PG looked up, and the graveyard seemed different. Maybe the sun had sank a bit in the sky, and maybe the poem had changed PG in a way he could not put into words. Maybe another poem was the answer. Take the glasses off, open the book at random, and turn the pages until a poem shows up.
On page 404…the historic Atlanta area code…was “The Wartime Journey” by Jan Struther. The 1944 work was unknown territory. A group of people are traveling on a train. The wounded vet, the untried recruit, the salesmen shared the space with a lady, taking a baby for her soldier husband to meet. The theme of the rhymes was that America was totally at war, and that war is different from peacetime. Today’s war in Babylon is not like that.
Halfway through the reading, a freight train pulled by. Today, passenger trains are a novelty, and freight rules the rails. The shipment today was double decked containers, ready to pull off and slap on an eighteen wheeler.
Deaths are said to come in threes, and reading poetry in a graveyard should be the same. PG went on a random search for a Moe, to go with the Curley and Larry already digested. A page of poems by Emily Dickinson was the result. These pages left PG unmoved. It was as if he was back in the sixth grade, with a horrible English teacher forcing him to memorize Hiawatha. It was time to go home.