18 Reasons to fight the War in Iraq

1) Every day American and Iraqi forces kill and capture terrorists.
2) The terrorists are drawn to Iraq and die there.
3) They don't come to America to kill us here.
4) The Iraqis are voting on a constitution, a first in the Arab world.
5) Egyptian multi-candidate elections? Syria out of Lebanon? No coincidence.
6) It is not about being pro-War, but about recognizing a War when there is one.
7) Saddam was a murderer.
8) He had abandoned his WMD program, but wouldn't prove it.
9) Withdrawing will be seen as weakness.
10) Weakness will lead to more attacks by our enemies.
11) Yes we do have enemies, they destroyed the World Trade Center.
12) Yes I know Iraqis had nothing to do with that.
13) But the people we are capturing and killing in Iraq now sure did.
14) When they murder Iraqis it is a tragedy that proves their heartlessness.
15) They don't call it Al-Qaeda in Iraq for nothing.
16) Democratic politics in Iraq will lead to real leaders.
17) The terrorists will have fewer and fewer friends.
18) Democratic countries don't fight each other.

In Memoriam

Hogs and Flags, originally uploaded by efroymson.

I spent this weekend in NYC. I was at the World Trade Center Sunday Afternoon. It is a deeply strange place now, a big fenced off concrete plaza. Huge flags on the surrounding office buildings, and flowers stuck in the fences seem to be the only reminders of what happened there four years ago. As I looked around, I heard a huge roar. Usually loud pipes of motorcycles irritate me, but for some reason on 9/11 it came through as "the sound of freedom". An appropriate response to the outrage, a message that we will not be cowed, that we still have and cherish our freedom. I took a number of photographs of the motorcyles, many with American Flags on them. A second level of meaning came through from a conversation I had with a NYC motorcyle patrolman. It seems a number of the police and firemen who gave their lives four years ago were devoted Harley riders. So the ride was both a celebration of freedom and a memorial.

These bikes reminded me a bit of riderless horses.

inverted

inverted, originally uploaded by efroymson.

Again the Sopot break dancer, this time inverted and airborne. I think this was the picture I was most upset about losing, so it is nice to have it back. I am not sure if this is "the critical moment", but without a responsive shutter this kind of picture is impossible.

Gdansk Shipyard

Gdansk Shipyard, originally uploaded by efroymson.

Took this picture from the intercity train from Gdinya to Gdansk. I like the way the pipes frame the image. I think this shipyard is where Solidarity got its start. It is closed now. There is still a lot going on in Gdansk, it has a pretty center for example

Polish Break Dancer

recovered188, originally uploaded by efroymson.

A bunch of the pictures I took in Poland were damaged when I tried to get them onto a CD. I blogged about this problem before. I manged to recover many (most?) of the pictures With Digital Photo Recovery software . I feel like it was a pretty good deal at $29.95, especially since some of the service places indicated a charge of almost $200 for a 1 gig card.

Pictured is the lead break dancer. You can see his other fellows in the back there. This was in Sopot, which is a resort town on the Black sea.

Cholla

Cholla, originally uploaded by efroymson.

Went to Tent Rocks on Monday. Pretty crowded. The weather was a bit threatening, we heard lightening off in the distance, but the clouds made for some better pictures.

Curb

EPSN2225, originally uploaded by efroymson.

I have been having a lot of problems with my Epson RD-1. The focus is often wrong, the rangefinder patch is misaligned, the framing is off, and now occasionally I get a dark image, as if the shutter is sticking.

It seems however that with my 50 summicron the close focus works, so I can set the lens to minimum distance, and move in for focus. Effectively a 75mm lens, and thus hardly powerful macro, it is capable of some nice effects.

I wonder if the Leica digital will be able to do better. I hope it at least is more reliable.

Mean Deer

EPSN2212, originally uploaded by efroymson.

This mean deer kicked Gus in the head as we were walking around Santa Fe.

Horse bites man

EPSN2228, originally uploaded by efroymson.

Gus was viciously attacked by a giant horse.

pump handle

EPSN2235, originally uploaded by efroymson.

I thought this handle looked pretty cool. Possibly I should have blurred out the background even more. Rust is a good color.

Green Barrel

EPSN2234, originally uploaded by efroymson.

Gus and I were walking around Santa Fe today. After the Georgia O'Keefe museum and a couple of galleries we were bored, but not hungry enough for dinner. So we played around taking some pictures. This is one of my favorites. I am not sure why.

It was more fun than staring into space anyway ...