The shot today is, quite apparently, of the Capitol Building in D.C. I took this in January, two or so weeks before President Obama’s inauguration. If you look at the columned dome, you can see what appears to be freedom emanating in the form of light. It’s not. That’s actually liquified tax dollars being jettisoned into the atmosphere. Pretty soon, people will be able to get a free breakfast and lunch at their local public school (this is an existing program in El Paso, TX mind you), march on down to the neighborhood McHospital with full tummies and get free health care, then gallivant on down to the supermarket and use their welfare and food stamps to buy dinner. Oh well… we can afford it. It’s not like we have a national deficit.
Today a bunch of extreme bikers and skateboarders came to FOB Hunter and did all sorts of wacky things. It was quite entertaining. I’ll have photos up of that in the next couple days.
HDR, Washington D.C.
So I was thinking about religion the other day. The impetus? I wish I could say it were something divine or otherwise spiritually moving, but, it was in fact an episode of ‘The Tudors’ wherein Thomas Moore, a devout Catholic during the reign of King Henry VIII, was persecuting and burning Protestants. Or Lutherans. Either way they weren’t Catholic and were therefore heretics. Then came my revelation. This revelation was also inherently a product of my current surroundings; the land of Islam. My revelation goes thusly: People are always wondering who’s right. Is it the Christians, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the (insert religion here)? Everyone, of course, thinks their particular religion is the end-all-be-all and that everyone else is wrong. What if, instead of wondering who and which religion is correct, we instead assume that almost every one is? It would seem that God, being omnipresent and all knowing, would be smart enough to know that people of different cultures, in different global regions and with differing morals and familial values, would, as such, need different religious catalysts. So, being omnipresent, he sent/appeared to/spoke through/etc. various different mediums over the course of history, and, continues to do so today. He has to reach everyone somehow and one guy or one vision or one book simply wouldn’t get the job done. How could it? The problem of religious based conflict and persecution is, of course, inherently human, and that being said, as far as I know, none of the aforementioned religious mediums even approve of, let alone solicit, violence in their names. So there you have it, my religious revelation by way of Showtime.
On a side note, I pose this question: Is there anything more patriotic than celebrating the 4th of July in Iraq? I submit to you that there is not!
This is an abstract shot I took in DC. Can you guess what it is? The answer is hidden as a link somewhere in this post.
Abstract, Washington D.C.
This is a textured HDR shot of a creepy sign near Eva’s Mom’s house in Woodstock, MD. It once welcomed you to an amusement park of sorts, all with rides and mazes and attractions and such based on old childhood nursery rhymes. Eva swears it was quite fun. Eva’s Mom agrees. I’ve seen it and it looks creepy. Granted it’s quite dilapidated and out of business now, but still… look at this dude. Creepy. And he’s not even pointing towards the Enchanted Forest. He’s pointing at a Chinese restaurant… maybe that’s why it closed.
HDR, Washington D.C.
I saw this guy standing guard at the Washington Memorial. Not the Washington Memorial in DC, but the rather unknown scale replica in a small Amish settlement just outside Detroit, Michigan. The settlement is actually lesser known than the memorial there, which is in itself impressive. An Amish settlement in Motor City… the irony is palpable. The structure is actually called the Washington Memorial Memorial. Only Detroit would have a memorial to a memorial. You should visit it. I did.
Washington D.C.
meaningless title. thought it up, thought it was witty, posted it.
HDR–Washington Memorial
HDR, Washington D.C.
Norman Gentle is magnificent.
Washington D.C.
The squirrel’s in D.C. are quite daring as is evident. This little bugger was snacking on a wayward piece of bread someone had discarded. I saw him snacking away, minding his own business. What was the first thing that came to my mind? Obviously, “Hmm, I wonder how close I can get to that squirrel.” So I crept. Slowly…deftly…silently. He stood fast, snacking and peering at me through his glassy black squirrel eye. I un-shouldered my camera, ever so silently removed the lens cap, focused and snapped. He didn’t move. Neither did I. Could I have gotten closer? Yea, I could have stepped on his face. But I didn’t. There you go… the meaning of life.
Rick, Washington D.C.
Another shot of the Lincoln Memorial. Snagged this HDR on my D.C. expedition. I like the title because it’s funny. Of course she hated the play. Tom Taylor never wrote anything worth a durn.
HDR, Washington D.C.
As the days of uniform and predictable, unending and faux-moderate discourse wane, a new vigor–that distinctly of change–is being intravenously pumped into the life veins of Washington. The future of a once fledgling republic, one which spurned and bled over the ancestors of the very person now entrusted with its destiny, lies in the gracious and accepting embrace of a party and man of change. A man of incomparable and uncompromising integrity, affable and poetic…
What the fu… sorry. My dentist’s office only has copies of The New York Times and Newsweek. And hardcopies of the Huffington Post. And the TV plays Countdown with Keith Olberman on loop. And there’s a radio that strangely plays talk radio from Air America which technically doesn’t exist. And he chaged his name to Markos Moulitsas. Oh, and also that’s what I would imagine much of the mainstream media would write under a picture like that.
What I actually thought was: “The ice looks really cool in this picture. So do the clouds.” Isn’t that pleasant?
HDR, Washington D.C.
I’m not going to patronize you by explaining where I took this. I will tell you, however, that the monument was PACKED with people the day I took this. I was wandering around frustrated by pics filled with tourists and stepped back for a while to just watch. Suddenly the crowds parted and the only person near Lincoln was this one lone mystery girl. I thought about showing the girl the photo as I was so proud of it; I immediately opted against this as it seemed overtly creepy. I’m posting this in commemoration of the Presidential Inauguration… I might not agree with his party, I might not agree with his policies, and perhaps I didn’t vote for him… but… I can’t argue with the historical significance.
Washington D.C.