Chamblee54

This is a repost from a year ago. Things have gotten worse in Stanland. More US troops, more drone strikes, corrupt governments that few trust, two timing allies, and on and on. On the home front, the county painted over the graffiti on the old rail tunnel behind the Waffle House. The pictures below are all that is left.
The United States has killed Baitullah Mehsud. He was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. He is blamed for a lot of things, including the murder of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Mr. Mehsud held together the factions of the TTP.
Mr. Mehsud was at the home of his father in law. He had an iv in his arm, for what is reported as a kidney ailment. He was also known to be diabetic. His wife and others were killed in the raid.
The missile that murdered Mr. Mehsud was from an unmanned US aircraft. The Pakistan government is playing both ends against the middle here. On the one hand they denounce the US raids on their soil, but seem certain to be cooperating with America in these actions. The Pakistan government has issues with the Taliban. This is ironic, since the Taliban was the creation of Pakistani intelligence. This was when the Soviet Union was fighting in Afghanistan.
The raid has gotten little press in the United States. A conservative website was more concerned about a report that BHO (wisely) does not want to use the phrase “war on terrorism”.
PG has a few questions. How many raids have been launched in the search for Baitullah Mehsud?How many people have died in these raids? How many of those to die were women and children?
Are these raids legal, both either American law and International law? The United States has not declared war on Pakistan. For that matter, unless PG missed something, the USA has not declared war on anybody in the Iraq-Iran-‘Stan country region. This question does not cover the morality of killing women and children from unmanned aircraft, but rather asks if it is legal.
Is killing women and children with unmanned aircraft terrorism?
What are our goals in the ‘Stan country war? We have long ago punished Afghanistan for 911. We are stuck in Iraq. We are playing with nuclear fire in Pakistan. What do we hope to achieve from all this killing? How long will it take, and how much will it cost?

Watching BHO speak to a convention of disabled veterans, the thought hit…BHO is the first post military President in modern history. He was born in 1961, and would have hit draft age in 1980, when America was not at war. The draft ended in 1973. BHO never had to make the decision that has scarred so many older men. ( Even though the military now has lots of women, compulsory military service has historically been for men.)
The two presidents before BHO certainly had military issues. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush came of age during Vietnam. Mr. Clinton played games to stay out of the draft, while Mr. Bush was in a reserve unit. ( There is some controversy about his service.) Mr. Bush defeated Vietnam Vets in both of his elections to the White House.
A look at the Presidents going back to World War 2 shows all of them serving, some more than others. The only World War 1 combat veteran to become President was Harry S Truman. Mr. Truman led a senate committee investigating wartime waste in World War 2, which may have been a profound service to the war effort. We could use a Truman Committee today.
Several of the post WW2 POTUS were in the Navy. Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and G.H.W. Bush all served in the Navy. (Carter went to the Naval Academy. He resigned from the Navy in 1953, after serving six years.) Kennedy and Bush saw life threatening duty, and were lucky to survive.
BHO is presiding over two wars ( that we officially know of). He has opposed the war in Iraq, while supporting the fighting in Afghanistan. The use of drones to kill has been increased, and the conflict continues to spread into Pakistan.

At 8:15 am, August 6, 1945, Hiroshima got nuked. It was the start of a new era. Since Japan is 13 hours ahead of Georgia, and standard time was used, the literal anniversary is 8:15 pm, August 5.
The device dropped on Hiroshima, the Little Boy, had an estimated force of 13 kilotons of Trinitrotoluene, or TNT. A kiloton of TNT is roughly a cube whose sides are ten meters. This device is fairly tiny compared to many of the warheads developed since. Many of the modern appliances are measured in megatons, or millions of tons of TNT. The Soviet Union had a bomb with a capacity of 50 megatons, or 4,000 times the size of the Little Boy.
The largest weapon tested by The United States is the Castle Bravo. This device destroyed Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The two piece swimsuit was named for this island. The Castle Bravo device had a yield of 15 megatons of TNT. This is roughly 1,000 times the power of the Little Boy.
The decision to drop the bomb has long been controversial. There are a lot of factors and gray areas, and the issue does not lend itself to sound bite solutions. The conventional wisdom is that Japan surrendered because of the nuclear attack. This meant the war was shortened by at least a year, there was no invasion of Japan, and many lives were saved. PG is scared by the moral calculus involved in a decision like this….do 100,000 civilian deaths prevent the deaths of 500,000 soldiers? PG suspects that even G-d herself would lose sleep over that one.
There is also evidence that the bomb was not needed. Japan was whipped in August 1945. The air raids were conducted in daylight with little resistance. A debate was going on in the Japanese government on whether to continue the fight.
An event happened the day between Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, which influenced the Japanese decision to surrender. The Soviet Union had agreed to help the United States with the war against Japan. On August 8, The Soviet Union invaded Japanese occupied Manchuria. There are indications that Japan knew the fight was hopeless at this point, and would rather surrender to The United States than The Soviet Union. This is one of the gray areas that never seems to be mentioned, in debates over the use of the atom bomb.
The United States wanted the war to end quickly for obvious reasons, and a few subtle ones. America did not want to share the spoils of Japanese war with The Soviet Union. There were already tensions between the two allies, and the cold war was not far off. Many felt The United States used the Little Boy as a warning to The Soviet Union.
When you get your moral software out, you might want to figure in the effect of opening the nuclear Pandora’s box. Would the nuclear bomb have been developed by other countries if America had not led the way? The science is not that complicated…after all, America hit paydirt with the Manhattan Project fairly quickly. Nonetheless, there is karma involved in using a terrible new device on a civilian population. The United States started the wind of the arms race, and has yet to feel the whirlwind.
This is a repost from a year ago today. The pictures are from The Library of Congress. Ansel Adams took pictures of Japanese Americans, in a World War Two internment camp. The ladies in the bridge game are Aiko Hamaguchi, Chiye Yamanaki, Catherine Yamaguchi, and Kazoko Nagahama.

A few days ago, chamblee54 posted a story about a construction camera in Midtown. He sent an email to the friend (and redo blue survivor) who told him about this camera.
Last year, you sent me a link to a construction monitor camera on Peachtree Street. Today, I was looking through my archives, to see if there was anything I wanted to repost. I like to look on the same day, on a previous year. I have over 900 posts in my archive, and a copy paste repeat is easy work, like a rerun on TV.
Anyway, the construction camera is still in operation. The job it was tracking appears to be completed, at least the exterior. I wonder how long this camera will still be up. There is a frame in the bottom of the screen. This was not there last year. My guess is that this was under construction last year, and has been finished. This is a clue as to the location of the camera. Is there a hi rise where the stein club used to be?
I hope things are good for you. This is a hot, boring summer so far.
I thought the Stein Club was over at Peach and 85. This is definately 999 Peach (Heery Bldg). Because they added that rooftop deck thing there now. Thats odd the camera is still there. I know they are thru and looking for tenants. I wonder if Brasfield forgot about it??
Things are “fair” with me. Could be better.
I think you are confusing the stein club with the beer mug. The stein club was on peachtree around 8th. It was behind a radio shack, that was later the original cheetah. Somewhere in there was a storefront, that held an APD precinct. There was a huge painting of a pig, with the words “pride integrity guts”. Good times
You are correct…The Beer Mug was what I was thinking.
I think i am going to recycle our email exchange from the other day as a blog post. The references to the repro industry are boring, and will be deleted. This is a great excuse to post some pictures. I found a video about the stein club which is a hoot. .
If you have any objection to this, please let me know.
Feel free. Unfortunately, I dont think I had ever gone to The Stein Club but have been telling people for years that I had (thinking of the Beer Mug). Take note of the new patio atop 999 next time you are down this way and you’ll see what I’m talking about

In a recent survey, 78.7% percent of the respondents agree with the statement “Statistics can be trusted to give an accurate description of the facts”.
Statistics are a part of modern life. Numbers tell us who is expected to win, who is expected to lose, and how many men wear a tie. Statistics are often misleading, or an outright lie. And yet, people believe statistics. ( The middle three letters of believe are lie).
Talk about statistics is little better. Mark Twain gets the credit/blame for popularizing the phrase, “lies, damn lies, and statistics”. According to Wikipedia , Mr. Clemens may have been mistaken. “Twain popularized the saying in “Chapters from My Autobiography”, published in the North American Review in 1906. “Figures often beguile me,” he wrote, “particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'”…”The term was popularised in the United States by Mark Twain (among others), who attributed it to the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881): “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” However, the phrase is not found in any of Disraeli’s works and the earliest known appearances were years after his death.”
Mr. Twain was in the twilight of his career, and angry at aggressive militarism. Why would he would give credit/blame for a phrase to a conservative Prime Minister of England, dead twenty five years? Why would Cream title a popular LP “Disraeli Gears”?
When PG took English101, the teacher was an inspiring lady named Ann Peets. Between stories of Faulkner and comma splices, she contributed this gem. ” The best way to win an argument is to use statistics. The best way to use statistics is to make them up. ”
In 1954, a bestselling book came out, “How to Lie with Statistics”. The premise was that the pros knew the tricks, and the public has a right to self defense. There are numerous examples of the ways that you can lie with numbers just like you lie with words. Calculator lips don’t move.
One word to watch out for is average . The three most popular types are mean, median, and mode. Mean is the one most people think of as average…you add all the figures up, and divide by the number of entries. In median, you line up the entries in numeric value, and choose the entry in the middle. In mode, the number that the most entries identify with is the average. Any one of these three can be called average, and yet none might describe the typical entry.
HT to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub for attributing the LDL&S quote to Mr. Disraeli. MFB was talking about global warming denial, a cesspool of lies and statistics. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. . Pictures of Mark Twain were recently posted.

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The first of four divas for today is Joni Mitchell. Born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, she is famously Canadian. The wife of Chuck Mitchell is very much alive today, despite years of chain smoking. All four of today’s divas grace the earth with their presence.
One night in 1976, PG took a study break. (He scored 100 on the test the next day) Joni Mitchell was playing at the UGA coliseum a few blocks away, and the door was not watched after the show started. PG found a place to stand, on the first level of the stands. The LA express was her band that night, and created a tight, jazzy sound. The one line PG remembers is “chicken scratching my way to immortality” from “Hejira”.
The next diva is Etta James. She was born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938. PG has no clue how the stage name came about. She was portrayed by Beyonce’ in a recent movie, and Miss James was not pleased.
The next voice on the cd is Francoise Hardy. Francoise Madeleine Hardy was born 17 January 1944 in Paris. There are probably some good stories, but the lady has the grace to keep them out of wikipedia.
This is a four diva thursday, and the last part is Carole King. She was born Carole Klein in Brooklyn February 9, 1942. Three of the four divas today were War Babies, with one born under Nazi occupation. They went on to be popular in the sixties, when the saying was make love, not war. According to Pat Paulson, in France our soldiers did both.
Carole King has had an interesting life, sometimes in the chinese curse sense. There is a book, Girls Like Us, about Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. All three knew James Taylor. When Mr. Taylor made a tour, after hitting the bigtime, his piano player was Carole King. She sang a couple of songs, and was what people talked about the next day.
Soon “Tapestry” was released, and sold an obscene amount of copies. Miss King was never able to duplicate that success. She still performs sometimes, and still has the power.

There is a nifty webcam up now. It shows the progress of a high rise going up now at 12th and Peachtree in midtown. The location of the camera itself is not certain, with the speculation centering on 999 Peachtree, two blocks south on Tenth Street.
A glance at the image reveals a curve in the road, between the two glass boxes under construction. Atlanta does not have wide, straight boulevards extending to the horizon. It is said that Atlanta did not build roads, but paved the cow paths.
People of a certain age will remember this area as the strip. The tenth street district was a neighborhood shopping area, up until the mid sixties. At some point, the old businesses started to move out and the hippies moved in. For a while, it was a festive party. Soon enough reality returned, and the area went into a crime filled decline.
The 999 complex is the neighborhood story in a nutshell. Before 1985, it was a block of small businesses. There was a hardware store, with the peace symbol set in tiles in the sidewalk. On Juniper Street stood the Langdon Court Apartments. They were named for PG’s great uncle Langdon Quin. Ru Paul used to stay there. He would sit out on a balcony, and wave to the traffic going by.
Across the street was a chinese restaurant, the House of Eng. A staircase on the side led to the Suzy Wong Lounge. Behind the building was an apartment building. It was one of the residences of Margaret Mitchell, while she wrote “Gone With The Wind”. She called it “the dump”, which was fairly accurate.
PG went to the House of Eng for lunch one day in 1985. He noticed that he was the only customer in the house, at 12:30 pm on a weekday. After finishing his lunch, PG knew why.
At some point, it was decided to build a high rise there. Heery was one of the equity partners, along with a law firm and an ad agency. The building was designed by Heery (duh).The ad agency folded before the building opened, followed within a couple of years by the law firm. Heery was sold to a British company. PG does not know who owns the building now.
Thank you Atlanta Time Machine for many of the photographs in this feature.
UPDATE: This is a repost . The camera is still operating, even though the exterior of the building looks finished. There is now a frame in the bottom part of the screen. This might be a clue to the location of the camera. This location seems to be the same today as it was a year ago.

The perpetrator of a facility called Peekinthewall has left a couple of comments at this waste of pixels chamblee54. As it happens, PITW has a feature about the english language, which had a link to this feature about homophones. Homophones are not how Ellen DeGeneres listens to her ipod. They are words that sound alike, but have different meanings.
The problem with the linked list is a fondness for cusswords. In the interest of promoting good grammar, with fewer dirty words, here is a list of homophones. There is a note about financial double meanings, for any capitalist dropping by. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Affect/Effect Affect is a verb, effect is a noun. The effects of your medication affect your ability to drive safely.
Bare/Bear Bare means exposed. A bear is an animal, or a Chicago football player. The verb means to “bear with” or endure. By using improper grammar, you are laying bare your ignorance. I cannot bear this sloppy grammar any longer.
Capital/Capitol This one is a doozie. The two words have lots of meanings, and you just have to know which one is which. The A capitals include capital punishment, capital letters, and financial capital. The state capitol is spelled with an O. Remember, the state capitol has a rOtunda, which is round. It also has rotund people hanging out there.
Complement/Compliment Brandy Ryan complements me because she is everything I’m not. I compliment Brandy Ryan on her transcendent beauty incessantly. Remember, when you say “I think you look nice”, you are putting I into compliment.
Discreet/Discrete People fall into two discrete groups. There are those with no shame, and those who are discreet about their activities.
Dual/Duel Dual refers to two of something, like a dual use. A duel involves two people, two pistols, and one of the people typically dies. Alexander Hamilton had a dual career, before he died in a duel.
It’s/Its Usually, when a word has an apostrophe and s, it means possession. This is an exception. It’s is short for it is. Its is the possessive form. This makes no sense, but is how languages work.
Loose/Lose The extra o makes a word that is loose as a goose. With only one o, you are going to lose the game. Tighten up…if you play loose you are going to lose. Ellen is going to lose her loose change.
Principal/Principle This is another head scratcher. The boss at your school is the principal, who is your pal. Ditto the man in the corner office, who is a principal of the firm, and may or may not be your pal. If you invest money in this firm, then the money you draw interest on is the principal, again with an a. This is a guiding principle (with an e) of investment… you should never touch the principal, but use the interest.
Then/Than By making mistakes, you show that most fourth graders have better grammar than you. If you can’t write properly, then don’t write at all.
Their/There/They’re The grand daddy of trouble, a profusion of confusion. You should know this, but then why you are reading? Their is possessive, there is a location, they’re is a contraction of they are. They’re going to take their ice cream and go there with it.
To/Too/Two/Tutu I’m going to smite thee. I am laughing at you, too. It takes two to tango. Don’t mess with my tutu.
Verses/Versus Songs have verses, which is a noun. Versus is a preposition, and it implies a conflict between two opposing parties. Verses are sung in harmony, while versus implies competition.
Your/You’re This is another possession and contraction quagmire. Your is a possessive word.You’re is a contraction of you and are. It’s your language, and you’re going to speak it properly. If you don’t, you’re going to sound like an idiot, if you don’t learn how to speak your own language.

“We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?..”
John Kerry said that in 1971. In 2004, he tried to take on that chore. George W. Bush, who spent Vietnam in the reserves, beat Nam Vet Kerry in the election. W kept the war in Babylon going four more years, and dumped it on his successor.
BHO brought the POTUS parade to town yesterday. In a speech downtown, he said the last US combat troops will be leaving Iraq at the end of August. BHO did not comment on Mr. Kerry’s question.
Juan Cole sums things up: “The US did not ‘win’ the Iraq War. It simply outlasted it. It was strong enough to remain, during the Sunni guerrilla war and the Sunni-Shiite Civil War, until the Iraqis exhausted themselves with fighting. But the massive violence provoked by the US occupation so weakened the Bush administration that it was forced to accept a withdrawal timetable dictated by the Iraqi parliament, in part at the insistence of deputies loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and others connected to Iran.”
Pictures for this bit of cheer are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” .

MusingsonIraq has a story about the history of WMD in Iraq. This was an often cited reason for the invasion. It was later revealed that WMD was an excuse rather than the reason for the war.
The story is fascinating. Iraq lived in a bad neighborhood, and started to develop chemical weapons in the 1960s. Saddam Insane took over in 1979, and invaded Iran a year later. An eight year bloodbath was the result, leading to the wars of 1991 and 2003.
It should be noted here that this was while Iran was holding Americans hostage. There was a great deal of ill will in America towards Iran at this time. Iraq was seen as the ally of the USA during this was, and the initial invasion may have been encouraged by the USA.
Chemical weapons (CW) were a key part of the war against the larger Iranian army. CW was used against the “human wave” attacks, that sent hundreds of thousands of Iranian youths to paradise. When Kurds did not support the war effort to Saddam’s satisfaction, CW was used on them.
The question is often raised, Who sold chemicals to Iraq? . UN investigators are reluctant to name sources. A company in Singapore was a major supplier, as were a variety of European companies. At least two American firms ( both now defunct) …Alcolac International of Maryland and the Al Haddad trading company of Tennessee…sold CW supplies to Iraq. Remember, up until the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Iraq was an ally of The United States. ( Actually, the Iran contra affair also happened. In this business, Israel served as the middleman for American weapon sales to Iran. This is highly ironic, considering the eagerness of some in Israel to nuke Iran recently.)
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and became the enemy of the United States. This invasion was partially a result of the enormous debt that Iraq incurred as a result of the war with Iran. This war debt led to a scaling back of the WMD program, which now included biological weapons.
In 1991, the US led coalition drove Iraq out of Kuwait. Many of the factories and warehouses of the WMD program were destroyed in American bombing raids. After Iraq was driven out of Kuwait, many felt the US army should push into Baghdad and evict Mr. Hussein. Stories have emerged that Saudi Arabia did not want a Shiite state on it’s border, and preferred to take their chances with Saddam. In Baghdad, the belief was that the reason the American army did not advance to evict Saddam was the presence of chemical weapons. Mr. Hussein thought this was the second time that CW had saved him, the first being the war against the larger Iranian army.
After the 91 war, the heat was on Saddam about chemical weapons. He secretly destroyed most of the remaining WMD. However, he was still afraid of Iran, and wanted Tehran to think that he had WMD. The cat and mouse game continued throughout the nineties .
After 911, the American war machine had the excuse it needed. Whether concerns over WMD would have led to war is a question that will never be answered. It is an old saying, that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. Saddam Hussein was convinced that having WMD had saved him on two occasions. The appearance of having WMD was a factor in his downfall.

Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub brought a bit of Internet nonsense to our attention recently. It seems that someone posted a picture of BHO with lighter skin ( the Micheal Jackson effect) and a really bad haircut. The caption read “Do You Like Him Any Better Now? No?? Then You’re Not A Racist.”
There was a comment to this episode, which was the part posted by MFB. There was a series of 14 statements, that all started with “you didn’t get mad when”. Each of the 14 was something that happened in the last few years. The end was when you DID get mad because of health care reform.
PG sees himself as a thinking independent. He has been seeing things that anger him for a long time. After a while, he sees that nothing is going to change because of his anger…the powers that be are going to do what their bosses pay them to do. He also sees that some people are manipulated by others who exploit this unfairness, and stir up anger. Often these people do not have the best of motives.
In broad brushstroke polemic, there is also the question of who “you” is. It is possible to imagine a person who this list describes. It is also possible that there are people who were angry about things on that list, but who are resigned to the fate of living in a flawed society.
In the spirit of independent thought, lets take a look at this list. The original list will be in blue. The Chamblee54 commentary will be in green.
You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President. No, but we didn’t know how bad W would be. Al Gore was not an inspiring alternative. With the electoral college, people in Red Georgia don’t get a vote in Presidential elections anyway.
You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy. This happened behind closed doors. Most did not know it was happening until too late. We have known since 1973 that we need to end our dependence on oil, and the carbon industry has kept us addicted, using a combination of PR, lobbying, and outright thuggery.
You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed. In the late seventies, a few CIA operatives were exposed. ( Out as a verb was a few years in the future.) At the time, the Repubs were furious. This latest episode of CIA agent trashing was convenient to the powers that be. Since the CIA is an instrument of oppression, incompetently executed, this bit of  nonsense does not generate anger.
You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed. A few people were upset at this. They were also upset at the citizen rights that were lost during the War on Drugs except alcohol.
You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us. A lot of people were angry about the war in Babylon. They were ignored.
You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war. A lot of people were angry about the war in Babylon. They were ignored.
You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq. Just 10 billion?
You didn’t get mad when you saw the Abu Grahib photos. This was not surprising. PG’s reaction was amazement that our own soldiers were putting out pictures like that.
You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people. A lot of people were mad. Not everyone believes the ticking time bomb scenario. When you torture people you get a lot of bad information. But, people want to show how bad they are.
You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans. Which war are we talking about? This went on during Vietnam, and the war on drugs.
You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden. Catching Bin Laden wouldn’t stop the anger that drives the insurgencies in Babylon. Also, if we caught Bin Laden, there would be no need to maintain this profitable war machine.
You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed. Yes we were. But what good would it do? The war machine does not care.
You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown. This is the item that will draw the lengthiest response. As for Katrina, the government was incompetent.
The issue here is Atlanta, which has the opposite problem of New Orleans. Over the last forty years, there has been a development binge here. And none of the developers have any clue where the water is going to come from.
Atlanta gets its water from the Chattahoochee River. The river is an overgrown trout stream, whose water must be shared with Alabama and Florida. ( There is a nuclear power plant on the river in Alabama, which is the largest user of water on this river. ) The developers have gone crazy, bought politicians, and built a metro area of five million people on the smallest watershed in Georgia.
In 2007 there was a drought. The fishwrapper was printing charts every day, showing how many days of water we had left until Lake Lanier ran dry. Finally, the rain came, and disaster averted. One day, we may not be so lucky. The development has slowed, but that is a function of the overall economy rather than ethical concern about supplying their communities with water.
There is a personal angle, which may explain some of the muted anger over these other issues. PG worked for many years printing building plans. He profited from this rape of the land. When you work for the emperor’s taylor, you admire his fashion sense.
You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark. During the Reagan years, the overall national debt went over a trillion dollars for the first time. A few nay sayers complained, but many were just happy to have a job.
You finally got mad when.. when… wait for it… when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all ok with you but helping other Americans… well f*ck that. That about right? You know it is. Health care reform could have been a lot better. A public option insurance company would have lower premiums than the private companies. If the repubs had cooperated with BHO on this issue, instead of fighting him every step of the way, we would have a much better plan.

The fun lovers at obsidian wings had a special edition yesterday. All of the commenters (regular and constipated) were invited to introduce themselves. PG did not see this until late in the afternoon, when fifty people were already on record. He started to read the intros, and kept a running list of points to mention for himself.
It is tough to put something like this together. There is so much you could mention. Many people are mongrels, both in the family/ethnic sense and the intellectual sense. The labels used to describe groups of people become ridiculous when you get to an individual who thinks.
In keeping with point 7 on the list below, here is the introduction for Chamblee54. In an ironic twist, I received a sharply worded letter from Obsidian Wings. They do not approve of commenters inserting links into comments. The comment was posted, in an all black font, with the links taken out.
1- I was directed here by Andrew Sullivan. Whatever his flaws, his staff reads a lot of stuff, and will point you in some good directions.
2- I write my own blog… https://chamblee54.wordpress.com. This blog is usually written in third person, and does not use the word “I”. Chamblee54 features multi colored fonts, and lots of pictures. The pictures often have nothing to do with the text.
The slogan is “pretty pictures and ugly opinions.” The slogan used to be a quote by Hunter S. Thompson, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro“. I used this for a while until someone pointed out that I was misspelling weird. Talk about nit picky…I was quoting Hunter S. Thompson about weird! However , I learned my lesson…you can’t have weird without we.
3-I come to ObWi looking for ideas to write about. I always give credit. ObWi has lots of links.
4- Chamblee54 is a pseudonym, which is different from anonymous. I was born in 1954, and live just outside Chamblee, GA. This is off Peachtree Road 2 miles outside the Atlanta city limits. If you look at the pictures on my bio page, you get more clues to my “real” name. If you see me on facebook, you see this drivers license identity.
5- I am a native Georgian. My mother grew up in Atlanta, my father was from North Carolina. Both families have been in the United States long enough to lose all claim to ethnic identity. I am Caucasian, single, college educated, and looking for a job.
6- I started Chamblee54 in 2005. It was on blogspot at first, then something happened, and I could not access google. By this time I was posting lots of photo shopped pictures, and writing in fonts other than black. In February of 2008 I moved to WordPress, which is a superior product to blogspot/google. I toy with the idea of getting my own domain, but am too slack to make much progress in that direction.
7- I recycle material shamelessly. This will probably be a post, and maybe a page later. I haven’t decided what pictures to put up with it, but it will have nothing to do with me.
8- One of my hobbies is photo editing, using an open source program called GIMP.(Thank you Scent) I have three main sources…my own photographs, “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” and The Library of Congress. If I live to be 100, and work full time at photo doobering, I could not exhaust these resources. (This is an ongoing process, with changes all the time. I just added the word “The” to the link for the GSU archives.)
9- Politically, I am skeptical of all moving lips. My religion is none of your business. The Wars in Babylon and Stan land are total disasters. These Wars are part of a triple whammy…the other parts are the banking meltdown, and the deepwater horizon…from which America may never fully recover.
10- I am a retired drunk. I decided in 1988 that it was the easiest way to live. That just might be the reason I am alive today. I detoxed from reefer in 2005, and don’t miss it that. I resent the laws against the benign weed. The war on drugs, except alcohol, is one of the core problems with America today. As for pills and powders, I never did develop a taste for them. This is due as much to social retardation, and cheapness, as virtue, but it has the same effect.
11- It was once said that if a man is not liberal when he is twenty, he does not have a heart. If he is not conservative by forty, then he does not have a brain. That was said a while back, before the meanings of the L and C words got to be so distorted. Maybe I don’t have a brain or a heart, but I do have a gut. When a skinny man gains weight in mid life, that is where the pounds go.
Photo Notes The first two are, from left to right, Helen LaFlaur (my aunt), Mattie Vance Moffat (my grandmother), and Jean Dunaway McKinnon (my mother). These pictures were taken in the back yard of our house on Wimberly Road, probably by Chuck LaFlaur. What Gran said is not known. The third picture is Jean Mckinnon. The last picture is Luther McKinnon, Sr. and Jr. Other pictures are from The Library of Congress