efroymson

How about some Micro-blogging?

2011-04-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

This blog has been sadly neglected of late.

You can find me on a variety of other places online, including twitter, linkedIn, facebook and some others I can't think of now.

My user name on the ones mentioned is pretty easy to remember: efroymson.

One of the advantages of having an uncommon last name is that it is usually available on these things. The downside is that sometimes my gmail gets emails for other Efroymsons.

I don't tweet that much either, but it has been a lot more than what shows up here!

Carbon Tax

2010-10-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

A friend pointed me to a blog post about Energy taxes, and asked what a Tea Party response might be. While I am not a Tea Partier, I've followed them a bit, and will give it a shot.

First, the Tea Party would have no philosophical objection to Energy Taxes, provided they are revenue neutral, or revenue negative. In other words, if Carbon tax increases are offset by Income tax reductions, no problem. The issue is not the source of tax revenue, but the amount, and more importantly the spending.

Anyone advocating Carbon Taxes without a reduction in other taxes is essentially advocating that the government receive a larger share of the national income, which may or may not be a good thing, but it has nothing to do with "Green". Some of us feel that the government is too large already, which is why we like to call ourselves "Small Government Conservatives".

It is important to note that understanding that Carbon taxes are a good way to reduce Carbon consumption is an important lesson. It is not clear that the lesson has been completely learned though. If taxing something reduces it, what means an income tax? That we don't like Income? The Friedman article approves of Chinese investment in Battery powered cars. Presumably the entrepreneurs building those businesses will make a good income, as will many of their employees. Do we wish to discourage that? If so then why are we talking about raising taxes on income?

The Left has an even bigger problem with a Carbon tax though: it is quite regressive. What has been noted about food is surely true about Carbon also, it is a bigger proportion of a poor persons budget than a rich one. Rich people may drive bigger cars and fly abroad more often than poor people, but the ratio will still be less, when compared to income.

Green voters who supported Obama and then watched him splurge his political capital on an unpopular Health Care bill while Cap and Trade lies dead in the water may wonder if the Green-Dem alliance is paying dividends. Republicans tend to be interested in security, and eliminating the need for oil imports plays well there. It is a matter of framing the debate, not a matter of policy.

In sum I agree, if you want to be Green, you should think about these things before you vote.

Alma

2010-05-23T19:52:00.001-07:00

Alma Danielle
Born 10:21 am
6 lbs 2 oz
Mom and baby doing great.

Infiltrator?

2010-04-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

I don't think this guy is a real tea-partier. If you can read his sign, you will understand my suspicion.

Half Mast Flag

2010-04-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Went to the Post Office today to buy some stamps, noticed that the flag was at Half-Mast. Searched to recall if anyone important had died recently. Couldn't think of any. My brain came up with the Icelandic Volcano, but while 100,000 stranded travelers is certainly a big deal (especially for them and their families) it didn't seem to rate lowering the flag.

The folks at the Post Office said "we lowered it because our computer told us to" which is a pretty good answer.

It turns out the real answer is that:

President Barack Obama has proclaimed April 19, 2010 as National Day of Service and Remembrance for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism, 2010.

This is in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of terrorism.

Give me my country back

2010-04-19T12:41:00.001-07:00

Like the earlier photo, this is from the Tax Day Tea Party here in Albuquerque. As you can see, it was a family affair, and there were a fair number of Doug Turner supporters in evidence.

Tech: again with the 25mm lens, this time at F8 or so.

Tea Party Poster

2010-04-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

The sun was pretty harsh, so photography was difficult.

Clarence Reading

2010-03-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Tech details: 24mm f1.4 1/125 sec. focussed as close as possible.

The Health Care Bill is Unconstitutional

2010-03-25T15:16:00.001-07:00

The recently passed Health Care Bill violates the US Constitution. If the Government can force people to buy a highly regulated item (health insurance) under the guise of "regulating commerce", then what can they *not* force someone to do? In a year and a half or so Justice Roberts will ask a government lawyer this question, and there will not be any sort of reasonable answer forthcoming.

Just so you don't think this position is heartless, it is important to note that there is a lot that could be done to make access to health insurance easier without violating the founding document of our nation. For enthusiasts of single payer, even that could be achieved within the bounds of the constitution, by using the Federal power to tax. Of course the reason this was not done was that the amount of tax to be levied would have been so high as to make passage of such a bill a political impossibility.

A better solution is to introduce competition into the insurance market. If Health Insurance that qualifies to be sold in any state could be sold in every state, there would be real choice, which would put downward pressure on prices, allowing more people to be covered. Equally importantly, the employer tax credit should be eliminated, and replaced with an individual credit capped at a reasonable amount (i.e. that would not cover so-called "cadillac plans"). That way regular folks could look at different plans, see what was covered, see how much they cost, and decide how much insurance they wanted. A bit of tort reform, some funding for health clinics, and (perhaps most importantly) a shifting of costs back to consumers, and we'd be on our way.

Potato Insurance. Imagine if the potato market worked like the Health Insurance market. You wouldn't buy potatoes at the grocery store. Instead, your employer would provide you with potato insurance. Depending on your company, that would qualify you for a couple of pounds a week, or maybe only ten pounds a year. When you wanted potatoes you would ask for them, never quite knowing how much they cost.

What would that do to the price of potatoes? Of course it would dramatically increase it. The consumer would never notice, after all, just the HR department. Potato farmers might grumble about all the paperwork, but they would enjoy the high prices. Now imagine that everyone was required by law to buy potato insurance. How the farmers would rejoice!

Think about that the next time someone tells you this bill was about "standing up to the insurance companies". Wouldn't you love to be selling something that everyone is required to buy?

Near Ojo Caliente

2010-02-17T20:52:00.001-08:00

Northern New Mexico sunset. Coming home from ski trip this weekend.

Edvac, or Engineers will be engineers

2009-12-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

""""
As work under the contract progressed, it became necessary from time to time to freeze logical planning and design characteristics in order that the project should result in the completion of the EDVAC. If this were not done the result would merely have been the establishment of the specifications and techniques then representative of the existing state of the art. Certain design characteristics of the completed machine represented the state of the art two years previous, others of one year previous, while some were current characteristics. As often happens in development projects of this nature, the freezing of design occurred later than had been anticipated, partly because early design decisions had been unsound and partly because it is never possible to prevent research-minded personnel from continuing to incorporate desirable improvements which result in a better instrument but are accompanied by a later completion date. In the case of EDVAC a delay of about one year occurred, but the machine possessed a capability far beyond that envisioned in the preliminary report or in the contract and its supplements.

""""

From:
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/61ordnance/chap3.html

Sound familiar? If not, you've never worked with engineers.

California Desert

2009-12-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

On the way to LA after Thanksgiving saw this from the hiway. Had to pull over. The iPhone is no Leica, but the 3gs has a decent camera. Enough so that you might not need another "little" camera that you can take with you when your "real camera" is too much to bother with.

The "touch to focus" is also "touch to set exposure" which is why you can see the mountain, but the sky is blown out. I touched the mountain.

King Obama and Queen Palin

2009-12-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Want to create a stir with your left-wing friends? When they are trying to figure out what Palin is, tell them that you think that she is the Republican Obama. By which of course you mean that she embodies the virtues most prized by Republicans, just as Obama embodies Democrat's. He is sophisticated, thoughtful, nuanced. He embodies in a literal way the racial tolerance we all strive for. She is forthright, tough, independent, and nobody's fool.

It is really too bad that we do not have an elected Royalty in this country. I thought when Obama was running that he was a perfect example of the sort of person that we should point to as an example of what it is possible to achieve here, but that I would rather he did not have much of a role in determining our nations policies. I feel pretty much the same way about Palin, though I like her positions on some things better than his. But she too has come up from humble roots, and can perhaps function best as an example of what it is possible to achieve.

Can't we elect them as King and Queen of America, a purely ceremonial role? They can give speeches and cut ribbons, and someone who loves America as much as she does, and thinks about it as much as he does, can actually run the place. If we do it right, it won't even require a constitutional amendment.

Amanda Knox

2009-12-06T18:22:00.000-08:00

My take on it: Don't smoke pot. Why? Because you never know when you are going to need to be sober.

I mean that I suspect she was not guilty, but being stoned at her boyfriends left her in no condition to explain herself, or behave normally at the police station.

Milk

2009-12-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

In Los Angeles over the weekend we got some ice cream at this place. Since everyone loves food blogging, it seemed a good place to get an entry. The ice cream is very good, but there is something strange about it. Until tasting theirs, it would not have seemed possible to me for ice cream to be too smooth. But this is? Perhaps.

It is so smooth that we were discussing how they did it. Was it mixed more thoroughly as it was being frozen to make the ice crystals smaller? Was the cream different?

The chocolate was not as strong as you might prefer, but the coconut was delicious.

It made a fine conclusion to a meal that started at the Indian place a few blocks away, which probably deserves a post of its own, since the Bhaigan Bharta was fantastic, and the okra was cooked to a dryness that made one forget there is such a thing as slimy okra.

The Obama Fallacy

2009-12-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

There was a book review in the WSJ recently. The book described how the Ottoman empire was able to survive for so much longer than the Roman empire, despite its many disadvantages. The author attibutes it to the Ottoman's strategic vision. But to say that there was such a thing as an "Ottoman strategic vision" begs a number of questions. After all, how did such a thing get preserved over the hundreds of years the empire survived?

I suspect one way is to summarize strategic insights in an easily remembered way. If America is to survive as well (or better?) than the Ottomans did, perhaps we ought to be able to do the same. One simple to remember insight is that there are such things as "enemies" and that we can't just explain away our differences. Some countries are at odds with us, and must be out-manouvered. We cannot simply persuade them that they are wrong.

This fallacy that we can talk our way out of all difficulties is popular, perhaps because it presents us with a world in which we need not make hard choices. Sitting down with our adversaries is so much easier than confronting them! So to avoid falling into such a dangerously enticing trap, we need a good way to remember to avoid it. Perhaps we can find a particularly vivid and charismatic exemplar, and name it after him?

2009-11-24T23:53:00.001-08:00

Blogging from the iPhone. Shorter than a tweet.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fourth of July Fireworks

2009-07-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

Saw some fireworks last night, coming back into town on I-40 Westbound. They added a colorful element to the normal explosion of lights you experience on cresting the rise that blocks then reveals the city spread out in the valley below you. Always a nice welcome home.

Earlier in the evening my feminism was tested by the sight of two of the least ladylike young women I have seen in a while. Well, they were not at their most ladylike perhaps because they had to get prepared to fight. Both had their hair braided and pressed tight to their heads, like Swiss milkmaids, but no dirndl and no cow.

They fought a bit less aggressively then the men, but only a bit. It seemed that they would often pick the exact same moment to strike, and then clash. One was from San Francisco, and the other from Albuquerque. You might have given the first couple of rounds to the local girl, but since the fight ended with them on the canvas, with SF smashing her elbow into the side of ABQ's head over and over, I thought SF had the fight. But the officials decided otherwise.

A piece of advice to out-of-town fighters: make sure you get a knock-out or a tap-out if you are fighting a local here. Even if the result of that fight (and another that I thought went the wrong way) was correct, and my judging was flawed (as well it might be) I suppose the advice is still good for a fighter, and from the perspective of a fan too I think.

When ABQ thanked the crowd she acknowledged that her opponent hit hard. While we think of the ability to withstand punishment as a "macho" and manly virtue, it is one inbred in women. These days epidurals and what-not are so common that perhaps we forget, but women are entirely capable of delivering a child without painkillers. Possibly going out on a limb here, since I have neither given birth nor been smashed repeatedly in the face by an elbow (though I have been hit in the face more than once) but I suspect the former is considerably more painful than the latter.

There were a number of occasions last night when I thought "if I hit someone that hard, and they kept fighting, I'd be really worried". There was only one fight in which a single punch proved decisive. The two fighters were pretty evenly matched, the local boy had landed a couple of good blows, but then seemed too determined to press his advantage, and began swinging wildly. The visitor took full advantage of the opening presented by the separated arms, and landed a straight left on an uncovered chin. This being MMA, after the local fell down to the mat the visitor moved to cover him, but was quickly swept off by the diving ref, who then ended the fight by declaring a knock-out.

Another educational bout was between a local striker and the former Arizona State wrestling champion. One would think that the lesson should have been learned long ago, namely that to compete in MMA striking is not sufficient, but it was taught again last night. The crowd was frequently calling on the ref to "Stand them up!" which might have made the fight easier to see, and would have given the local some advantage, but it was clear that the wrestler was controlling and working the situation. Unless I am confusing it with another bout, this one ended with the wrestler working from the mount to the back of his man, and ending in a rear naked choke.

Fittingly enough the night ended with a clean cut New Mexican who serves as an Infantry officer in the National Guard winning his bout with a wrist lock and tap out.

Addendum: I put no names in because there were no programs, and I only just found some of the information on the Casino's web site. Is there a good online source for fight information in Albuquerque?

Federation Annual Meeting Speech

2009-06-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

Thank you for that generous introduction. First I want to thank my wife Jeana, without whose support I would not be here tonight. I would also like to thank all of you for coming, and also give special thanks to the members of the Federation board. Could all the members of the board please stand up to be recognized? Thank you.

Last years annual meeting seems to have been from another era now. While there were definitely signs of the coming storm, few of us were predicting the situation we are now in. Just a few months after our meeting, the economic environment of our nation changed dramatically. What seemed to be a spot of bother with some obscure securities that had something to do with mortgages turned into a conflagration that devastated the stock market, and left many people throughout the country and in our own communities jobless.

This economic contraction had severe effects on the Federation, both in our ability to raise money, and in the needs of those for whom we raise it. To deal with the reduction in funds, we undertook several steps, including cutting staff. Another painful choice was to cut out the paper version of the Link, a choice that as you know was not well received in the community, and was reversed. We are looking forward to working hard with the Link staff to get it on a sound economic footing, by increasing both advertising and subscription revenue. We are counting on your support in this effort.

We are holding our campaign goal flat for next year. After growing used to increasing agency allocations year over year this is disappointing. It is especially so since we are hearing from several of our beneficiary agencies that their needs are increasing, even as other sources of funding are declining. Ideally this will be a temporary setback, and when the economy recovers, perhaps late this year, we will be able to plan a return to increases.

Times of economic distress have historically been bad for Jews. People inclined to hate us are capable of believing entirely contradictory things at once, such as that we control the banks and support the rich, and that we are communists intent on destroying our country. The only unity between these slurs is that both deal with money. Perhaps it is a legacy of the Middle Ages when the field of finance was the only one open to our European forebears. It hardly matters, except that we have seen some troubling signs, both in internet messages posted on economic bulletin boards, and even worse in violent attacks such as the recent one at the holocaust museum, in which Stephen Tyrone Johns was murdered while guarding the entrance.

It is not my intention to needlessly alarm anyone. New Mexico has a long history of tolerance for diverse cultures, and that is one of the things we love about this place. But we can not ignore security concerns. To stop an armed gunman, the best thing is an armed guard. We do not have the funds to have a permanent security presence at all (or indeed any) of our Jewish institutions. We do however have an option available to us that is not available to Jews in New York or Washington DC.

My friend Jill Bulmash discussed this in a recent article in the Link. She has applied for and received a license to carry a concealed handgun. I am confident that should any “lone wolf” gunman attempt an assault on any place she happens to be visiting, she would do what she had to, to stop him.

The police can't be everywhere, and with a solitary attacker the important thing is to have a fast response. Armed citizens have proven to be very effective in countering these kinds of attacks. Carrying a gun is a tremendous responsibility, but in an emergency you could save many lives.

On a more positive note, one of the things we are most excited about this year is that we have begun to make the Jewish Federation of New Mexico live up to its name. That is, we are going statewide in a real way. We made two tours of New Mexico communities. To the North we visited Los Alamos, Taos, and Las Vegas. In the South we visited Ruidoso, Roswell, Carlsbad, Las Cruces, and Silver City. The Link has had detailed articles about this outreach effort, so I will only mention that in each of the communities we found real needs, and real opportunities. I want to especially recognize our new board member Howard Katz who will be the voice of the Carlsbad community. Carolyn Sidd, a leader in Roswell, had agreed to be on our board, but could not due to health concerns. Our thoughts are with the Sidds this evening.

One of the challenges of any organization is to ensure continuity. In Federation speak, we say “Leadership Development”, which means programs that teach the next generation about Federation, and encourage them to get involved. How can we do that, and reach out to all the Jews in New Mexico?

Jewish Leadership New Mexico is our answer. New Leaders will engage with communities around the State, listening to their needs, coming up with programs to address those needs, and raising the money to fulfill them. In short, the group will do everything that Federation does, albeit on a different scale. As a beneficiary of Federation leadership programs at the local and national level, I can attest to their value in building educated and committed leaders. This program is a unique, and very exciting one.

I want to thank John Friedman for taking charge of it, for further information you can contact him or Sam.

Meryl thank you for your fine leadership at the JCC. It was a pleasure working with you. Likewise I am looking forward to working with incoming JCC President Marcy Powers. And finally, thank you Sam, for all of your hard work. You have been a tremendous partner in all that we do.

Tesla talk

2009-06-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

I will be speaking tonight at the Pajarito Environmental Education Center about the Telsa roadster, and electric cars in general. The Los Alamos Sustainable Energy Network is hosting, and I believe all are welcome, so if you are in the Los Alamos area, and are interested in the subject, please stop by.

Nick Kristof is an idiot

2009-06-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

Op-Ed Columnist - Cum Laude in Evading Bandits - NYTimes.com
When a friend of mine put on his Facebook page recently that he was a fan of Nick Kristof, I knew for sure that he had been marinating in the Upper West Side for too long. Then I decided that perhaps I was being too harsh, since I don't really read that many of his articles.

Several days ago, while traveling in Europe I saw a copy of the International Herald Tribune that had the linked article in it. At first I thought maybe my distaste for Kristof was misplaced, since he was advocating something I strongly believe in, which is travel to other countries and interaction with other cultures. I haven't made it to Bolivia yet, but I have been to Bombay, and stayed with friends there, and even walked through slums, as he recommends.

His advice on how to avoid being robbed is also practical and sensible.

So what was the problem? His last line:

And even if everything goes wrong and you are robbed and catch malaria, shrug it off — those are precisely the kinds of authentic interactions with local cultures that, in retrospect, enrich a journey and life itself.

Remember the old line "A Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged"? Apparently Nick Kristof is Liberal who stays a Liberal after being mugged. How? By telling himself that being mugged, like catching malaria, is a life-enriching experience. What an idiot.

Smoking is good for you

2009-05-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

I started watching this video (thanks Instapundit!), and had to laugh when Gutfeld talked about being in Berkeley and becoming a Conservative because he was hanging out with Liberals. Had to laugh, because that is the same thing that happened to me, and in the same place. Okay, Rockridge is just south of Berkeley, and I was not in school there, but otherwise the same.

Apparently I have not spent enough time with Conservatives to become a Libertarian as he has, or maybe I just don't drink enough.

Why the title? When Gutfeld was at Men's Health magazine he actually put out an article on the health benefits of cigarets. Something to do with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's apparently. I won't be adding much to my two or three annual cigars though.

Lots more at the link, including how people who claim to be the most tolerant are actually the least, and so on.

Obama

2009-05-17T16:44:00.001-07:00

Got a ticket to see Obama at Rio Ranch High School last Thursday. Big crowd, most of whom seemed to be bigger fans of the President than I am. A few times during his speech I was muttering "that's not true" to myself.

At one point he was talking about the deficit, and how earmarks are not a big deal because they are only one percent of the budget. I thought:
1) 1% is equal to the entire foreign aid budget, so it is not that small.
2) since most of the budget is non-discretionary, i.e. medicare, social security, and interest on the debt, earmarks are a lot more than 1% of what Congress can actually choose to spend,

And most importantly:
3) With earmarks it is not just a matter of the amount of money as the appearance (and in many cases I believe the actuality) of corruption.

Look at the ugly triangle of PMA, Congressman Murtha, and the earmarks. Lobbyist raises huge money for a Congressman, who in turn funnels no-bid contracts to the lobbyist's clients. Of course it is hard for a Prosecutor to prove the existence of a quid pro quo, but the implication that there is one is irresistable.

A few other notes:

The woman who introduced Obama had a sad story, but there were a few details that seemed odd. First, she complained that her card company authorized a charge that put her over her limit. Now I can see other cases where this would be exactly what was desired, but she was angry about it. On her next point, she had more to go on, since they did raise her interest rate from about 10 to 30 percent. 30 is awful high, we can all agree on that, but she was getting a pretty good deal before that. In fact, she was paying less for her unsecured debt than GE has too!

When Obama came up, he sort of bounced up the three steps to the stage, as if just walking up them was too ordinary. Looked good though.

I had prepared a question, but Obama skipped over me to another fellow, who asked Obama to institute martial law. Actually, the fellow mentioned that there were some problems with Congress, and asked if something could be done, I interpreted that as mentioned.

My question was:
Mister President, given the bullying of Chrysler bondholders to give up their rights to benefit the UAW, are you concerned that private investors will avoid situations with the potential for government interference, such as lending to industries with powerful unions?

I still don't know the answer.

Telsa to the Crest

2009-05-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I took the Tesla up to the Crest and back. Thought I would go at night, so there would be fewer other folks on the road. Advantage: fewer other folks on the road. Disadvantage: it was really dark. The regular lights are pretty useless at night, but I thought the brights were good, until this run. Maybe it is just the nature of a twisty road in a forest, but every curve was frightening. The lights covered the asphalt straight ahead quite well, and I could see the reflectors in front of me, and had no problem telling if I needed to turn right or left. The problem was that it felt like every turn was into total darkness.

Perhaps eating more carrots would help?

There was another novelty to the drive, a new warning. The motor got too hot on the way up, and just a bit before getting to the Crest the computer put the car into low power mode. If you are not heavily on the throttle, you will not notice this, but I did let up a bit for the last quarter mile or so. After cooling off in the parking lot for a few minutes it was back to normal.

Of course on the way down there was no repeat of the problem, since the motor had to work nowhere near as hard. From the valley to the peak and back, plus an extra six miles since I missed the exit (didn't see it coming, there was construction) and the Tesla still reported a further 80 miles of range. Nice!

Señor Precioso

2009-04-21T15:27:00.001-07:00

Crowd Shot

2009-04-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

Someone asked for a crowd shot, but I really don't have any. It was more like a visibility event, with people spread all up and down the street. Here is the closest to a crowd shot that I got, it was taken pretty close to the Independence Grille where the Tea Party organizers had asked everyone to gather.

It would have been nice to be in front of them instead of behind them, but then I would have had to stand in the street to take the picture. Traffic was moving pretty slow, but it still did not seem a good idea.

Albuquerque Tea Party

2009-04-15T20:57:00.001-07:00

The Tea Party here in Albuquerque was spread along Montgomery Boulevard for some distance. I took pictures from San Pedro to Louisiana, here are some of them. I heard estimates of 10,000 people attending. The response from the drivers along the route was quite positive, lots of horns honking.

The mood of the crowd was cheerful. Rather different from the RNC protests in Minnesota this summer. Not getting any teargas was another advantage.

Tesla at home

2009-03-09T22:30:00.001-07:00

Since some of you have been asking for more pictures, here is one with the car in front of the house. I am still enjoying the car. There is something about the immediate acceleration you get from an electric motor.

Tesla

2009-03-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday was pretty exciting. The FedEx truck arrived! I did not know that FedEx delivers cars, but they do. This one had three Teslas, a little sprint car and an early Lincoln Continental aboard. I asked the driver if he loved his job. He told me that it was the best one he could imagine.

The silver Tesla in front of mine on the truck was on its way to George Foreman. The driver's wife had suggested that they get an autograph on their grill, I don't know if that worked out.

The car is perfectly amazing. The throttle response is unbelievable. Have not figured out the best way to take it around corners, but at speeds beyond what I would do in in any other car I have driven, it just goes. The traction control is relatively non-intrusive, generally I only know it is operating because I see the indicator light in my peripheral vision. Generally it seems to want to keep me from getting too hard on the throttle in the middle of a curve.

The one-speed transmission sounds all wrong, but it is great. Electric motors have an essentially flat torque band, which is the reason I put my money down all those years ago. It is always ready to go, there is no need to wait for it to wind up. The sensitivity to right foot movement is exquisite.

Was it worth the wait? When I put down my deposit, I had not yet met Jeana. We have now been married more than two years, and Clarence is sixteen and a half months old! Since my name is not DiCaprio or Schwarzenegger I did not get any special treatment. So was it worth it? I have to say yes, if only because this is by far the coolest car I have ever seen. Not to mention that having the first one in the state is neat.

As William Gibson said, "The future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed".

Practical Joke

2009-01-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

I recorded an a cappella version of the Alice in Chains "Man in the Box", partly as a test of a a B-stock Blue Baby Bottle mic we got a good deal on, and partly to play a lovely practical joke on Gus. After burning it to an mp3 (click above for a remastered, though still awful, version) I put it on the home stereo, telling him just "listen to this". The topper on the joke was Jeana walking in the room to ask me a question, then listening and saying "Oh, Alice in chains. I like it". She had a bit of difficulty keeping a straight face, as you can imagine.

We are quite sure that the expression on Gus's face was priceless, though he had so thoroughly fallen apart that we could not see it. That means he was slumped over so far in the chair that his face was practically pressed against his chest.

You might not be able to listen to the entire song, and it may not be the version you remember from the Radio, but I did google the lyrics before recording it. Look for an entire album of a cappella versions of 90s hard rock classics to be released ... oh never.

Peace Rally

2008-12-31T12:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening we had a rally to support Israel. There was some news media there, and you can see a bit of my speech, if you click above.

Here is the text of my speech:

Thank you all for coming this afternoon. I am delighted that so many of you were able to join us today.
My name is Robert Efroymson, and I am the President of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico. Welcome.

The Federation partners with Jewish organizations to meet the needs of Jews in New Mexico , Israel and throughout the world
through leadership, philanthropy, education, and social action.

Since its inception, Israel has faced a series of profound challenges.
Today, it is grappling with an adversary who bases its political strategies on the principle of terrorizing civilian populations.

Israel loves peace. Israel wants peace. Israel wants peace!

Does it sound strange to say this while Israeli planes are bombing targets in Gaza? Perhaps so, but it must be said. This was not a war that Israel wanted. Israelis would love to have a peaceful neighbor in Gaza. The withdrawal from Gaza was intended to create a space for such a neighbor.

Two years ago, Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip without conditions and without a peace treaty.
The land was left to its Palestinian inhabitants, for their benefit. It was hoped that this action could help improve relations.
Instead of the situation getting better, Gaza became a refuge for terrorists.
Hamas became a democratically elected government, and developed close ties with Iran .
Rockets began to fall upon the Land of Israel with ever-increasing intensity.

The civilian population in the Western Negev, Sderot, and the area surrounding Gaza has experienced daily attacks for eight years. I don’t think that we can quite imagine what this situation might be like. Well, if we were to suspend reality for a moment, (G-d forbid) imagine Las Cruces and El Paso being hit by rockets originating from Juarez .
How many rockets would it take for the US Government to retaliate? One, two, perhaps three?
Now imagine, thousands upon thousands of rockets hitting Las Cruces and El Paso .
How long would it take for the US Government under any administration to retaliate?
One week, one month, one year? What about two years? Not likely.

This past summer, Barack Obama visited Sderot as a presidential candidate. During his trip, he said: "I don't think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens.
The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. And so I can assure you that if -- I don't even care if I was a politician -- if somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at
night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
Six months ago, Egypt brokered a cease fire between Israel and Gaza ’s Hamas leadership.
During this ceasefire, 6,000 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel .
Hundreds have fallen in recent days, and we learned that 40 fell yesterday morning alone.
Between 500 and 700,000 Israelis are in the direct range of these rocket attacks.
That’s the same number of people who live in the Albuquerque metropolitan area.

Yesterday, Israeli Ambassador to the US , Sallai Merigdor said that: “ Israel had no other choice then to take action to defend itself.”
Today, we gather to stand in solidarity with the State of Israel and with its people.
Today, we renounce the weeks of sustained, daily attacks.
Today, we show our support during this uncertain, but very critical, time.
Today, we say that Israel , like any other nation on earth, has a right to protect its citizens from a constant barrage of rocket fire
and mortar shell attacks.
But, today, also we pray for peace, for Israel and for its neighbors.
May the day come when nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation, and neither shall we learn war any more.

Thank you very much for joining with us.

Conservation Science in New Mexico

2008-12-14T21:34:00.000-08:00

The New Mexico branch of The Nature Conservancy has a new website, where you can access scientific papers that the state branch has been working on. There are reports on the effect of Climate Change on New Mexico, among others. The "Ecoregional Assessment" also sounds very cool, and the graphic is intriguing. Can you tell that I am really not that kind of Scientist?

In a just world this would all be available at nm.nature.org, but for now you just have to remember nmconservation.org, or click on this blog posts title. While you are at it, maybe you could blog about it too. I promised the staff there that google would learn all about it once I put it here, but maybe I could use some help.

Clarence Walking

2008-11-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

In Mesilla, which used to be a Mexican village just south of the Border, but became part of Las Cruces after the Gadsden purchase. Note the Jeep in the background, you can't see how dusty it is.

In Las Cruces

2008-11-17T19:08:00.000-08:00

We decided to take a road trip. Thought it would be fun to go the back way into Mogollon from Magdalena. We took 52 to 169, and then had a bit of trouble. One part of the road was closed for construction, but a fellow using a gigantic backhoe to separate rocks from dirt (he was dumping the mixture onto an angled steel cage, so the dirt would fall through, and the rocks would roll down into a pile) told us we could go ahead. The most exciting part of the trip then ensued.

We had at one point to wait for a grader to smooth out a recently dumped truckload of dirt. That was the one time the Liberty had to go into 4wd, though there were plenty of other occasions that the clearance came in handy. As we were leaving the construction area, we noticed a fellow on a quad who was rather deliberately in the middle of the road. Perhaps his friend was the foreman, at any rate he asked us if we had any business there. Of course the answer was no, but I did mention that although I did not want to get anyone in trouble, we had been told that since we had 4wd we could go through. He said "That would be Jim" (IIRC) and then asked us not to come back that way since the road was closed.

There is a cute little hotel in Magdalena that we stopped at the first night, figuring that it would be a long way through Mogollon to Silver City. The High Country Lodge is rated #1 of 2 hotels in Magdalena, which is saying a lot. But when you are there you should definitely ask if Mike is around, because he has an amazing mineral collection in his room. Most of it came from the ridge above Magdalena, where he has partners with mining claims.

Spent the night in Silver City, then drove here, stopping in Rockhound State park south of Deming long enough to collect a few rocks of interest. If you are in that part of the state it is worth a visit, there was a great deal of Jasper and obsidian about, some of which seemed to have some other minerals mixed in. Lots of Geodes too, but we didn't find any, unless a couple of unlikely looking rocks are in fact full of crystal.

Just south of our hotel is old Mesilla, which used to be part of Mexico until the Gadsden purchase. It is not an old old town, it was founded after the Mexican-American war, because it was on the border at that time. There is some history there for all that, Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to die there. Of course he escaped from Jail later, and was hunted down by Pat Garrett, but those things happened in another part of New Mexico.

Did some shopping today, there is a good knife store in town, and the Mesilla Valley Mall has a Western store that is running a sale. Shopping was definitely not what we had in mind for the trip, so that was a sort of a surprise.

Today we went to some of the agricultural towns further south of here, saw cotton fields (outrageous given the limited availability of water here) and pecan orchards. Took some pictures, will have one or two up later.

Cautiously Optimistic

2008-11-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday Morning, the day after the election, I went outside to get the paper. The sky was overcast and a few drops of unseasonable rain were falling. The Wall Street Journal was not in its accustomed place at the end of the driveway, and a Raven cawed at me mockingly. Turning to my iPhone I discovered that the Market was down 125 points. By the end of the day, it was down over 400 points.

Later Wednesday I went by Ron Peterson guns, figuring that would be an interesting place to visit. There was a big crowd there; I had to wait for a space to open up in the parking lot. As I left I noticed a woman with a big camera and a notebook. She had a Press Pass from the Journal around her neck. Figured there would be a short piece on the store in the paper in a day or two. Yesterday that article was on page one! There were some rather scary quotes from customers who fear that Obama will outlaw guns and ammunition both. The market was down another 400 odd points yesterday.

Despite all that I am Cautiously Optimistic. During the election campaign it was distressing to me the way people would paint Obama in the colors that they wanted to see him. Liberals were excited about Left-wing Judges, and his anti-war stance. Moderates and social conservatives pointed to his words on parental responsibility. I felt obliged to support McCain because he was a known quantity, and much of what I knew I liked. It seemed irresponsible to pin so much on Hoping that Obama was what I wanted.

Now he is President-Elect, so like the rest of the country I must hope so, or despair. Figuring out his core values has been for me a bit like reading tea leaves, or like the good old days of Kremlinology. Obama's choice of Rahm Emmanuel and other Clinton administration veterans has given me much of the real support for optimism, given the Clinton era's Balanced Budgets and Free Trade Agreements.

Here's hoping!

McCain for President

2008-10-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

Why John McCain? First, because his health care plan would end the absurd linkage of health insurance with employment. There are hundreds of thousands who can't quit their jobs to take a better one because they will lose their insurance. Also, the factor mentioned in the previous post, of government subsidies creating inflation, will be reduced. The subsidy currently is a percentage off the top, no matter how expensive the insurance. The McCain plan is a fixed amount, which will encourage shopping around. Also his plan allows consumers to buy an out-of-state policy, which may be a better fit in terms of coverage, or be more affordable.

McCain is one of the few politicians to take on the Farm Bill. This wasteful program funnels huge amounts of taxpayer money to agribusiness in this country, while it makes it hard for poor farmers elsewhere to sell their produce to American consumers. The Farm Bill is harmful to Americans as taxpayers and consumers, and should be massively cut. Obama continues to pander to Big Corn and supports it.

McCain was a member of the "Gang of 14" Senators who worked out a compromise on Judicial appointments. It seems clear that his appointments would be sensible conservative jurists, who would not gut the Second Amendment or graft new laws into the Constitution because it seemed like the right thing to do. Obama's program is a frightening contrast. He would appoint Judges who view the law as a tool to remake society in their own image, bypassing both the legislature and the considered judgement of our Founding Fathers as contained in the Constitution.

McCain supports the Second Amendment. McCain will not punish success with "spread the wealth" taxes. McCain supported the surge which has basically won the war in Iraq, while Obama wanted to surrender to Al Qaeda.

Okay you say, but what about Choice? Aren't you pro-Choice? If there were an election to outlaw abortion, I would probably vote against that. But this is not that election. McCain will face a Democratic Congress, and a Democratic Senate. There will be no Federal Laws limiting abortion in his administration. His Judicial appointments will be sensible Conservatives. Even if they feel Roe v. Wade was incorrectly decided (as I do, there is no clearer example of "legislating from the bench", though Breyer's dissent in Heller comes close) they will honor it as Stare Decisis. It may be bad law, but it is the law of the land.

Finally some of you may ask, "what about Israel?" I am a proud supporter of the America-Israel relationship, and I know that John McCain will continue it. I heard Obama's speech to AIPAC this past June, and it was a fine one too. Of course he made an error by mentioning an "undivided Jerusalem" which he had to back away from the next day, showing that Obama is not quite the policy wonk some say he is. In any case the difference is a matter of confidence. We have seen McCain for years and years, but have only a short record on Obama. Obama's relationship with Rashid Khalidi might be of some concern too of course.

Obama and Fear

2008-10-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

Obama is running on fear. It took me a while to figure this out, because the CW is that he is running on Hope, and the Republicans are the ones who run on Fear. Now there is an element of truth to the CW, in that Obama talks a lot about Hope, and McCain has suggested that Obama is not ready to protect America. But there is more to the story.

People in America are afraid of many things. Not just terrorism. Not even primarily terrorism. They are afraid of losing their job. Losing their home. Not being able to send their kids to college. It is these economic fears that Obama is playing on.

Obama's plan is to "spread the wealth" around, to help the folks who can't afford groceries, or gas, or their mortgage. The problem with this is that unearned money is like morphine, it dulls the pain, but it also reduces the incentive to work. Even worse, subsidies for specific goods will raise the prices of those goods. If the government offered people money to buy eggs, and you sold eggs, wouldn't you raise your prices? Of course you would! And people wouldn't complain, because the government was footing the bill.

The same thing happens with college tuition. Why has tuition risen faster than inflation for so many years? Because the government subsidizes it, with low-cost loans and grants. Why did we see in the past few years a huge run-up in home prices (followed by a crash of course)? Because the government was encouraging, via the CRA and Freddie and Fannie, low-down and no-down loans. More money coming into the market makes prices go up, this is inflation 101.

What does this mean? The fears Americans have are real. There is no question that the economy is suffering. What we need is Hope. Hope for a better America, in which we can work hard, and reap the rewards of our work. Not Obama's Fear America, where success is taxed.

Clarence and Candle

2008-10-14T19:23:00.001-07:00

Hard to believe tomorrow makes a year.

Taken with the iPhone.

510-757-3183

2008-10-14T18:55:00.001-07:00

I got a new phone number, so the above number no longer works. If you like, you can email me for the new one, in the 505 since I live in NM now. My email is myfirstname@mylastname.com. Well, not that exactly, but if my name were John Doe my email would be john@doe.com. Well, that is not really true either, since if my name were Doe I would probably not have been able to buy the doe.com address, whereas my actual last name was a bit easier to get hold of.

In any case, if someone is frustrated trying to call my old number, perhaps they will google it, and then they will see this, and then they will be happy!

Angry old man

2008-10-06T20:03:00.001-07:00

This fellow called me a fascist for taking his picture. Is that typical, confusing freedom of expression with fascism? Does he own a dictionary?

Angry young woman

2008-10-06T20:01:00.001-07:00

Note she is standing by the stolen yard sign sign.

Obama is theft

2008-10-06T19:55:00.001-07:00

There were some protesters outside the Student Union. They shouted at the rally attendees as they walked out. I noticed this sign, but it took me a while to realize that it is made of stolen yard signs. I guess it is all part of a trend, Obama supporters are for free speech, as long as it is pro-Obama speech. Any criticism of Obama is racist, so presumably the free speech act of putting up a McCain yard sign has no protection.

The scariest bit is that they seem to be proud of their act of repression, flaunting it in this way.

Cindy McCain

2008-10-06T19:52:00.001-07:00

Cindy introduced her husband, and stood by him as he spoke. Afterwards they both shook hands of people in the crowd. I was able to get this picture, but I did not get a handshake.

Happy Warrior in Albuquerque

2008-10-06T19:43:00.001-07:00

Went to see McCain speak at UNM this afternoon. He definitely lived up to the "Happy Warrior" moniker today. His speech was very tough, and got a lot of applause. He did it all with a smile on his face too. I was especially happy to hear him point out that Obama has close ties to the execs at Fannie Mae who benefited from the loose lending practices encouraged by the Democratic Congress. The loose lending practices that created the current crisis. If you heard someone yelling "That's right!" when McCain said it, that was me.

Tomato

2008-09-23T18:24:00.001-07:00

Pomegranite

2008-09-23T18:15:00.001-07:00

This was part of the advertising display of a Juice vendor in the Carmel market. The juice was incredibly delicious by the way. Much easier to drink it than to deal with all those seeds.

In Israel, even the rust is beautiful

2008-09-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a quick trip to Israel. Albuquerque established a sister-city relationship with Rehovot, and as President of the New Mexico Federation, I came to support the program. After the various business meetings and signing ceremonies there was some time to wander Tel Aviv with camera in hand.

Instead of feeling guilty for never using it, I put the 90mm lens with the Macro adapter on, and took a bunch of pictures of little things. This one came out well, though the depth of field is rather slight. There are so many beautiful things and people in Israel, you can find good pictures everywhere.

The Rioter and the Tourist

2008-09-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

And the cameraman and the demonstrator and ...

This one captures something of what it was like in front of the Capitol on the last day of the convention. It was really hard to make a coherent picture, one that included just what I wanted and nothing else. In the end, it was easiest to give up any notion of that, and accept that the pictures would reflect the rather chaotic situation in which I found myself. Choosing a wider lens than usual forced me to work closer to the subject, which helped this one also perhaps. The look in the masked fellows eye appears in several of the shots. I was told that the bandanna brigade does not like to be photographed, but it was a hopeless wish, given that everyone in the crowd had a camera of some sort.

The ubiquity of gear made me feel a bit superfluous. Looking at the images in Capture One though (such an improvement over the make-do on the Linux laptop I took along!) makes me think otherwise. The beautiful color and detail that the M8 provides must set these shots apart from the others. At least I hope that the cell-phone cameras are not this good yet!

some shots at the riot

2008-09-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

I liked the everyone poops t-shirt. I did not so much like the part a little after all of these when I got a bit of tear gas in my nose. It was just a whiff, but quite unpleasant. Then I had to walk all around the capitol to avoid blockading lines of police, and was so disoriented that I missed where my car was, and was a bit grumpy by the time I found my way back to the Xcel center. The protestors were trying to disrupt the convention, and in a way they succeeded in my case. Of course I knew there was a high likelihood of a riot, and sought one out.

Should mention that despite the word "riot" the whole thing that I saw was relatively peaceful. Saw a few arrests, and one guy getting sprayed with something. Think I saw a CS grenade fall into a crowd (that quickly started running away). The first main confrontation was when the marchers were stopped on a bridge, then sat down. The cops just watched them.

Later a different intersection was blocked, and that is when the gas was used. More effective than the gas were the police tactics. They would use horses and bicycles and men in the riot gear to split off different groups of protestors, and block them in. Once they had a small group sitting down they started to arrest them one at a time, although even then they were very patient. I did not wait to see the entire group taken in.

I left about 7:00, but when I came back at around 11:00 there were still a large number of protesters being arrested. Only found that out because they were blocking the on ramp I was trying to use to get back to my hotel. Rolled down the window of my rental car to ask a cop if there was any way to walk over to take pictures, was told no, and just to look on yahoo. Told him I was planning on putting mine on yahoo (I know of course that blogger is a google thing). He laughed.

Great Plan, Good Speech

2008-09-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

Everyone says that John McCain is not at his most comfortable in giving a speech from a teleprompter. He does better in less formal settings, such as a Town Hall. I was hoping perhaps that tonight would be an exception, but in many ways it was a confirmation. The themes he touched on were all good ones. Perhaps it is difficult to make an exciting speech about making sure government gets out of the way of the American people. It is a challenge. Much easier to right a speech that rips into your opponent, the way the ones yesterday did.

McCain's speech was not helped by a couple of interruptions. After the last one I could clearly see a code pink woman being carried from the convention hall. It may be that the shouts of "USA! USA!" from the crowd were not helpful. It was also a bit odd the way the speech ended, with the entire hall screaming, and McCain continuing to talk, with the sound system unable to generate enough volume for him to be heard over the crowd. Probably those of you watching on TV were able to make out what he was saying, I could not.

My last criticism goes to the way the comparison of McCain's plans with Obama's went. It was odd that the pauses were after mentioning what Obama would do, such as raise taxes, which naturally led to booing by the crowd. It seemed that there should have been a way to do it the other way around, so that there would be cheering after McCain's plans.

Overall though the speech was a success. The bit about learning to love America in another country's prisons was very touching. It was particularly difficult for me to listen to because I remember visiting Hanoi and seeing the "Hanoi Hilton" undergoing demolition. I was told that they were building a modern hotel on the site which was hard to believe, but is apparently true.

The part about school reform also went over well, and I was surprised to find the entire hall cheering with me when he mentioned Judges who will not legislate from the bench.

The woman next to me was a black lady from New York City. She was very pleased by the bit about school reform, and told me that she is doing the best she can to bring black people into the Republican party. One of her chief weapons is letting them know that Martin Luther King was a Republican. I wished her good luck.

Rudy

2008-09-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

I hope this comes out alright. Rawstudio is not giving me thumbnails, so I have to load a picture to see it at all. Technical details: ISO 320 90mm f4 at f4 and 1/60th.

Palin kicks a##

2008-09-03T23:07:00.001-07:00

Okay. First off this was the first time I have ever been to a National Convention. For a lifelong D it is odd I suppose that I picked an R convention, but hey, Joe Lieberman was the D nominee for VP in 2000, and he spoke here in St Paul last night. In any case there is something tremendously energizing about being in a stadium full of excited people. Those of you who are sports fans may know something of this.

The last time I walked out of an arena with my throat hoarse from yelling was the Rahman-Maskaev fight I blogged about some time ago. This was similar in that I had no idea I would get so wrapped up in it. I was very curious to see what Sarah Palin would do, since like a lot of people who like McCain I was worried that she was a mistake.

She wasn't.

Before I get to that, I should mention that Giuliani did an amazing job. I remember a New Yorker cover from several years ago, when it looked like he would be running against Hilary for the Senate. The cover depicted her as an innocent wide-eyed tourist in Central Park, and Giuliani as an unshaven thug about to mug her. Well, this time Obama was the tourist, and Giuliani laid into him with a lead pipe. Whupped him so hard I am likely to be surprised the next time I see a picture of Obama and he is not in a body cast.

Some folks on the internet have complained about it, thought it was too rough. Maybe so, but for the crowd in St Paul, it was perfect. Giuliani looked like he was having fun too, which took some of the edge off. In the old westerns they would always say "smile when you call me that", and Rudy was sure smiling. Made me glad I voted for him for Mayor back in the day, even though I was doing it out of professional solidarity -- we were both prosecutors.

Palin seemed to get off to a slow start, but she picked up. Talking about her family in a calm, proud way. Took the attacks and turned them completely around. If anyone wants to make her family matters into a political issue they will lose. You probably have heard some of her lines already like: what's the difference between a hockey mom and a Rottweiler? Lipstick.

That one proved true. If the traditional role of the VP is to be an attack dog, then McCain made a great pick. She went after Obama with one of the best lines yet. Mentioning that she was Mayor, she said "I guess that is kind of like being a Community Organizer. Except with responsibilities." It was not just the great line, but her calm and self-confident delivery. Obama comes across like a man who has thought a great deal about an issue, and then come to a conclusion he believes to be correct. Palin is a woman who has seen enough to know what is what. She did not think her way into her positions, she lived her way there.

What is it that politicians do besides make speeches? They have to make decisions. Obama never stood up to the corruption in Illinois. Palin stood up to the corruption in Alaska, took down a Governor from her own party. It was strange to be in a convention hall, normally the home of the party stalwarts and hear so many speakers talk about taking on the Republican establishment. We have all no doubt noticed that the Republican brand is rather damaged from the last eight years so there is no doubt a measure of smart politics involved here. But more importantly is the sense that for McCain, and perhaps even more for Palin, it is true.

Mitt and even Huckabee had some good lines, but the bottom line is this: Palin deserves her place on the ticket.

"Country matters more than Party"

2008-09-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

Heard Lieberman talking to an AIPAC group this morning, he told some lovely stories from his most recent to trip to Israel with John McCain. When people ask me why I support McCain, I usually tell them that like Lieberman, I am an Independent Democrat for McCain. Certainly no one can argue against the notion that country matters more than party. Well, except for those who call Lieberman a traitor I guess.

Like Lieberman, it became obvious to me that the Democratic party decided to allow partisan attacks on the President to take the place of serious engagement in the fight against Islamofascism. A good argument can be made that we ought not to have gone into Iraq, but I can see no argument for losing the war we are fighting against those who cut off heads and blow up school children. That is what I told a reporter for the Washington Post today, so I suppose it is safe to mention it here.

It is indeed ironic that on the day of the anti-war protest (the one I was photographing Monday) the US handed over control of Anbar Province to the Iraqis. The same Anbar province that not too long ago we were told had been "lost" to Al Qaeda. The same province that would indeed have been lost to Al Qaeda had we given up, as so many of Joe Lieberman's colleagues in the Senate wished us to do.

Two of those Senate colleagues are running on the Democratic ticket this year. It is true that Sarah Palin has not had much experience in foreign policy. But she never advocated for the US to lose this war, and that puts her head and shoulders above Biden and Obama.

Fascism in the Streets

2008-09-02T20:35:00.001-07:00

In the comments I see someone has noted that there was an element of Fascism present here in St. Paul yesterday. That of course is true, though I did not write much about it. As indicated previously, the marchers I saw and photographed were mostly good natured and peaceful. The only fascist chant I heard was the famous "Whose streets? Our streets!" which of course is relatively mild.

Not so mild were the efforts of some to put that slogan into practice in a violent manner. Since I am not really much of a photo-journalist I was unable to provide any pictures of window breakers. In fact, I was just out in downtown St. Paul in a fruitless effort to find this evenings riot. By the time I got down there all the cops were taking off their gear and packing it up in the rented minivans they had driven down in, or were eating sandwiches while awaiting the order to pack up. I might put up such a picture, since it is the sort of work you might not find elsewhere, but perhaps that is because a picture of a cop in riot gear eating a plastic wrapped sandwich is not terribly compelling.

The Fascist movements of the early twentieth century had a component of street fighting youth. I don't think Horst Wessel ever called out the "Whose streets?" chant when he was getting in fist fights with young Communists, but maybe he did. The spirit of the call was certainly present, in that the youth have a special claim on the public space, which they will take by violent action. Breaking windows to intimidate political opponents is of course classically fascist.

The best defense to a charge of fascism against the bandanna clad window breakers of 2008 in St Paul is that window breaking is also a popular form of teenage hooliganism. In other words, the mobs in the street are not fascist only if they are not political. That defense could very well be a good one. While it has not been easy to engage the bandanna crowd in conversation, my sense from one snippet was that the individual did not understand the difference between anarchism and communism. In my view, they are essentially opposites, since communism requires central planning, and hence a central government. Perhaps they view anarchy as a brief phase after which they will establish some sort of control? Or perhaps as I said, they find acting out somewhat thrilling, and are looking for an excuse to be violent. The counter-argument is that there must be some political element in a protest outside the Republican National Convention. If the protesters don't know what they are for, they at least know what they are against.

In truth many of the followers of the fascist movements of the last century were probably at a similar level of political consciousness. The current movement lacks a charismatic figure, like a Mussolini, to organize the youthful and the violent. Fortunately the economic situation in this country is not so severe as that obtaining in post-WWI Europe. Also fortunate is the cool competence of the police that I spoke to, who have been doing a pretty good job of not allowing the anarchists to achieve much in the way of anarchy.

All American

2008-09-01T20:12:00.001-07:00

The colors at least are all american. These ladies also seem to be enjoying themselves. Note the Minnesota Capitol in the background.

Radical Rooster

2008-09-01T20:08:00.001-07:00

Almost as cool as Clown guy, and this one did not attack.

Miss Justice

2008-09-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

The famous Code Pink puppets. The women with birds would periodically circle the large puppets during the march. They were missing Democracy and Clean Air also, not just Justice.

American Clown

2008-09-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

This was one of the more ebullient protesters. The lizard helmet is an interesting touch I did not notice until looking at the jpeg. Just so you know how many risks were taken to bring you this shot, you should know that shortly after this picture was taken, your intrepid photographer was hit on the head with that Flag-colored bat. In truth it was just a balloon, but it counts as harassment as well I think.

proned, or "we always get the slow one"

2008-09-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

After taking a bunch of pictures of protesters in all their glory I sat down to eat and have some beer. The camera was off, and the day was almost over. Until this. I really don't know what the situation was, but there were a group of folks dressed about like the guy on the ground walking down the street, followed by the cops you see here. The anarchists broke into a run as they entered the pedestrian plaza, and the cops started to shout and run after them.

The other anarchists made good their escape, as they were not as heavily laden as the officers. One of the cops quipped "we always get the slow one" which counts in some circles as police brutality (he *humiliated* me, man!), perhaps. After about 20 minutes they let this fellow go again.

The crowd reaction was interesting. Lots of people cheered the police when they made the arrest, but then some people cheered this guy when he came back. A different group of people probably.

No Bama No Way

2008-09-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

Made it to St. Paul, and to the protests. Went to the start of the Parade route, followed them to the eXcel center, and then stopped to eat. I guess my mistake was in not following the anarchists around after the main parade broke up, because I did not get any action shots of windows being smashed. I do have a cool arrest photo though ...

I took a lot of pictures today, but this is the only t-shirt I bought. Maybe it was just because it was the end of the day, and I was very tired, but it looked funny to me and I got one. After I paid, a woman with RNC credentials came up, and said that everyone on the inside was complaining because they wanted to buy stuff, but there were very few vendors inside the eXcel center.

Certainly if the stereotypes have any validity there should be plenty of commerce inside a Republican convention. Maybe that one doesn't? After all the best shopping in the country is in reliably blue places like NYC and Los Angeles (yes I know Houston has the Galeria, but I said best).

I will try to post some more pictures shortly.

Orrin Hatch and me

2008-08-31T23:09:00.001-07:00

So I am on my way to St. Paul, on a mission to take pictures of protesters at the Republican Convention. For some reason Delta thinks the best way from Albuquerque to Minneapolis-St. Paul is through Salt Lake City. Waiting for the plane to leave that airport, I look up from playing FreeCell on my laptop to a familiar looking gentleman who has just sat down by me. Sure enough, it is Senator Orrin Hatch.

We had a nice chat. When I asked if I could take his picture he suggested that I get one with him. This was taken by another Convention attendee, a lawyer who had been talking about the various changes that the Republicans were making in light of Hurricane Gustav (no relation to Gustave). The Senator seemed surprised that there was no flash, but he pretty quickly figured out that I am a bit of a camera buff. I hope to have more pictures up tomorrow.

We shall see in a bit if I can avoid being arrested as a demonstrator while I try to mingle with them. Of course if the RNC welcoming committee (anarchist group) is really doing its job, I might not be able to get anywhere near the eXcel center.

I thought they were the same person

2008-08-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

I guess that is one of the problems with not having a TV. How does one tell all these folks apart?

Clarence without a Binkie

2008-08-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

This one is from Montreal, although there is not much in the frame to suggest that, other than the sweater, which is not needed here.

Clarence with a Binkie

2008-08-18T17:57:00.001-07:00

This picture is actually from a little while ago. Clarence hasn't had many opportunities to crawl around on the grass, it was not long ago that the blades were too scratchy for him. As you can see (if you look close), he is now taking his revenge by uprooting as much as he can manage.

Graffiti

2008-08-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

Some cool graffiti here in Montreal. I really like the angry birds, and the zombie worms are a nice touch. This one was pretty big, I maybe should have taken out the wide angle.

small car

2008-08-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Walking back from the Art Museum along Sherbrooke I saw this small vehicle. It is definitely not representative of the typical Montreal vehicle. In fact, while Montreal has a lot of European characteristics, the cars are generally of American size.

Montreal Cathedral

2008-08-05T10:06:00.001-07:00

Arrived from Phoenix in Montreal Sunday night, did some touring yesterday. Visited the Cathedral, as you can see. I did not acquire the video on sale in the gift shop. It was very moving, with Celine Dion's wedding, Pierre Trudeau's funeral, and Pope JP II's visit. A little girl with her eyes filled with tears kisses him on the head, and then he wipes away her tears. Somehow I can't imagine Pope Benedict having the same effect.

Apparently the American Protestant Architect who built the Cathedral was so moved by the experience that he converted to Catholicism. It did not have quite that powerful an effect on me.

Update: In case it was not clear, the wedding, funeral, and papal visit were in the video, and not all during my visit. Thanks for asking though!

Hotmail account hacking

2008-06-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Jeana's hotmail account was hacked by spammers. They promptly blasted everyone in her address book with spam directing them to a Chinese ecommerce site that looks distinctly shady. If you use hotmail you should definitely be sure your password is up to snuff, and perhaps you should consider switching to another provider (though for all I know yahoo and gmail are also vulnerable). One hotmail annoyance, when Jeana tried to send out an apology email to people on her contact list she was told that she had sent too many message for a 24 hour period! Fortunately she was able to get the emails out.

The other good news is that the spammer site seems to be out of service; someone reported it perhaps.

P.S. A shout out to all my loyal readers on RSS!

Who was Tim Russert?

2008-06-17T11:28:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I had a TV, and back then used it mostly for DVDs and Nature shows. Usually this is not a big deal, I can get the news from a paper (Love the Wall Street Journal) or the internet. Between the weather and politics there is plenty to talk about besides what is on TV. Occasionally the New Yorker has an article about current shows with enough information not to be completely out of touch. So it seems that nothing is lost by not watching.

Then Tim Russert dies, and everyone is talking about it, and all I can remember is that he asked Obama a tough question once, and that I think he wrote a book about his Dad.

Avoid 88 minutes

2008-04-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

We take a break from our regularly scheduled blog programming to alert you to one of the worst movies of all time: 88 minutes. You might think it sounds cool: Al Pacino has 88 minutes to live, and has to figure out who is trying to kill him. You are right, it does sound cool, but the movie is awful.

I feel so guilty that my dollars might have been toted up and will somehow encourage more viewers (are there folks who don't read reviews, but do check the gross?) that I feel compelled to post on this gynophobic mess. It is intended to be a Psychological Thriller (one assumes) but it is neither Psychological nor Thrilling. The action is dull, the characters unmotivated, the red herrings and loose ends too numerous to mention.

Perhaps if you are interested in what makes an awful movie awful, you can wait for it to show up in a Red Box near you, and pay $1 for the "experience". In closing, it is so bad that I started to wonder if Pacino was wearing a wig. He sure has a lot of hair.

Clarence in Spain

2008-04-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

Clarence and I are standing on the Roman Bridge in Cordova. This from our trip a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

We just returned from Spain, where they really know how to do Semana Santa (holy week). We saw processions in Granada, Cordoba, and Toledo. This picture from Toledo gives you some idea of what it was like, though it does not show the folks in pointy hats who lent a very peculiar (for an American) atmosphere to the proceedings.

Gus playing Rugby

2008-03-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Gus in a Rugby scrimmage against crosstown rivals Eldorado. His team won all three scrimmages last weekend.

Clarence eating cereal

2008-03-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

Baby Clarence enjoying his first spoonfuls of rice cereal.

Clarence with a toy

2008-01-10T20:12:00.000-08:00

Jeana took this video of Clarence playing with his toy. He has just started paying attention to it in the last couple of days. The video came from a little Flip Video gadget. The original video looks better, but I suppose Google does not want to host a 23.8mb .avi file.

Boque del Apache

2007-12-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

This gives you some idea of the incredible number of birds at the sanctuary. Truly jaw-dropping. Having grown up in NM, you might think I would have more memories of this place, but birding was never high on our priorities I suppose. Clarence will perhaps have more, but I doubt yesterday will be one, he was sleeping in the car seat while I was taking this.

I like this image because the birds are so dense they form a pattern. Took it with the 80-400 VR Nikon on my D70, as the Leica is not suited for this type of photography. The VR seems to work, I did not want to deal with a tripod. One of the side-effects of a visit to the Bosque will for some people be a severe case of gear envy, you will see many many huge lenses there.

The 80-400 is not so bad, though when I was testing it out near the house a group of school children noticed it and started shouting that "a camera man" was there. Possibly because with the hood on it is over a foot long?

Clarence in a Hat

2007-12-12T09:38:00.001-08:00

Fall Colors

2007-10-31T20:48:00.001-07:00

We drove out past Tajique to look at leaves. The time was well past peak, but there were some colors to be seen. Another side benefit was that the bouncing on the dirt road seemed to help my low back pain.

Packed several lenses, but only used the version IV Summicron 35. So-called "King of Bokeh".

Baby Power

2007-10-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

In Grandpa's arms

2007-10-23T19:39:00.001-07:00

More Clarence

2007-10-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Clarence says "Oh!"

2007-10-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Clarence Efroymson

2007-10-22T19:15:00.001-07:00

By popular demand, more pictures of Clarence.

Clarence

2007-10-16T21:35:00.001-07:00

Clarence Ezekiel Efroymson was born on October 15, at 4:15 AM. He came in at six pounds, thirteen ounces, and measured 20 inches long.

Closeup

2007-10-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

The propane gives it a nice glow.

Should be rotated though. Flickr lets you rotate your pix when you upload, but not blogger. Oh well.

Smokey the Bear

2007-10-12T14:02:00.001-07:00

Went to the balloon fiesta again this morning, and took some pictures. This one with the 90mm f4.

Wicker Basket

2007-10-07T10:53:00.001-07:00

A wicker basket is not high tech, but it is light and reliable. This balloon is about to lift off.

Lift off!

2007-10-07T10:52:00.001-07:00

Lift off!
Originally uploaded by efroymson

The balloon fiesta used to be sponsored by Kodak, but not more. At least my camera has a Kodak sensor in it!

Balloon Fiesta

2007-10-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

Attornment

2007-09-07T15:00:00.001-07:00

I recently signed a commercial lease for some space. Never having done that before, I decided to read the entire document. I was puzzled by the word "Attornment". My landlord graciously had his secretary look it up, and it means that I agree to be a tenant to the new landlord, should the property be sold. Three years in Law School, and I never heard of it.

New Mexico is Cultured

2007-07-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I heard on the radio about the concert last night in Santa Fe. Bach and Boccherini, guitar and strings. It sounded really terrific, but by Friday afternoon it was already sold out.

Instead we went down to the Route 66 casino. Tickets for Fighworld 15, a cage fighting match, were available at the door. Missed a few of the fights because of the line at the box office, but most of the rest of them were very good.

Saw a lot of rear naked chokes, one guy knocked down by a right cross to the jaw, and a few choke outs where the fellow on the ground worked his legs up until they were around the other fellow's neck. I would use more correct terminology, but am no expert in these matters.

Hermione turns death-eater, kills Harry

2007-07-24T11:37:00.001-07:00

Have you finished the book yet?

Machine

2007-07-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

Earthmoving equipment is pretty. Especially when it is red.

Amsterdam door

2007-07-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

Doors are photogenic.

Pitcher

2007-07-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ein Kerem has many artists. This is a view of some items one of them had outside of the studio.

Cistern

2007-07-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

This is where they stored water on Masada. You can see how it was possible to have swimming pools even in the desert.

So that is what dehydration feels like

2007-07-01T13:43:00.001-07:00

After visiting Masada there was some spa time. The Meridien hotel in Ein Bokek has a very reasonable spa. One of the interesting things about Dead Sea spas, as opposed say to L.A. Spas, is that there are people there who really need medical treatment. The Dead Sea waters are known to be beneficial for skin diseases and so on.

The massage therapist I got seemed to be good one, and the soak in the Dead Sea waters afterwards was a nice addition. We later went to another Spa, the one at Ein Gedi, where we went into the Dead Sea itself. The water was even saltier than in the treatment pool at the Meridien, it was almost viscous with salt. Ein Gedi has do it yourself mud treatments as well.

A high point was walking back from the beach to the mud area after taking the tractor pulled cart. The water from the showers I used to get the salt out of my eyes was quickly evaporating as I walked along. It felt rather primordial to be in the desert sun with nothing but trunks on. Ignoring the paved road was actually possible, if you concentrate on the hills in the distance.

I had not counted on the cumulative effect of all of those dehydrating things though, the hike, the massage, the time in the sun. On the drive back to Jerusalem I drank a liter and a half of water, and at dinner a bit later a similar amount again. It was hard to believe that one could be that low. The dinner at Marrakesh was excellent by the way, probably the best Hummus we have ever had.

Since then we have gone to see the Chagall windows, the village of Ein Kerem (very pretty), flown to Holland, wandered Amsterdam, eaten Indonesian food, and just today visited Haarlem.

Masada

2007-06-26T01:27:00.001-07:00

Climbed Masada this morning. Watched the sunrise from the top. Magnificent.

The stones are gorgeous in the morning light.

Tiberias to Bet Shean

2007-06-26T01:21:00.000-07:00

Bet Shean is magnificent! You must visit there. It is located just
north of the West bank on the main road through the Jordan Valley. We passed through on the way from Naharia to Jerusalem, via Tiberias. If you check your map you will see that the direct route is not that. The idea was to see some of the Galilee region, and maybe visit some historical sights along the way. We had hoped to see Jericho also, but time and temperature concerns did not allow that.

Tiberias is not much to see, although we did see some ruins that are still visible after the floods and earthquakes and invasions that have devastated the city over the years. Maimonides tomb is there as well, but we did not make a pilgrimage to it.

Just south of Tiberias is a hot spring that has a great mosaic as well. There was a synagogue there, and it was decorated with what is apparently the oldest surviving depiction of the Zodiac. The signs are labelled in Greek, which gives you an idea of what "Hellenised" means. The upper portion of the mosaic, nearest the Bimah, was less Pagan, having a candelabra, and a representation of the temple. Nearby are the remains of the old city walls, and the source of the hot spring, which we verified was in fact quite hot. We did not verify the powerful laxative properties of the water that were attested to by several Rebbe's whose quotations were on display in a
reconstrucion of the old spa.

Bet Shean! The Tell where once stood the city walls on which Saul's body was displayed after the defeat of the Israelites. The remains of a Byzantine city destroyed by earthquake, whose columns you can still view, having been stood back upright as part of the restoration work that seems to be ongoing. The house where the Egyptian ruled the place, when it was Egypt's to rule.

Tel Aviv Art Museum

2007-06-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

Going a bit back in time now, this is a picture of a glass lamp from the collection of a Holocaust survivor who built a large business in Vienna after the war.

This was an exhibit at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, which was open late on the day we visited, and was even free!