Voice Of Power: 06/01/2006

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Getting Smarter?

If you're interested in commenting, please sign up at Blogger to do so. The spammers have yet again found a way to ruin something, so I've configured this blog to accept only comments I've read first.

Iraq War Ends

For the 2526th time...

Iraq War Ends Silently for One American Soldier

In the darkness, as the sound of the helicopter faded, Colonel MacFarland addressed his soldiers.

"I don't know if this war is worth the life of Terry Lisk, or 10 soldiers, or 2,500 soldiers like him," Colonel MacFarland told his forces. "What I do know is that he did not die alone. He was surrounded by friends.

"A Greek philosopher said that only the dead have seen the end of war," the colonel said. "Only Terry Lisk has seen the end of this war."

Bush vs. Clinton

I've recently begun reading blogs again on a more regular basis — particularly The Rude Pundit. This post gives a nice comparison on the differing styles (not to mention concern over Constitutional rights of Americans) of the two most recent administrations.

Hometown Yay-hoos

I had to chuckle at a recent letter to the editor in my hometown newspaper that cast former Vice-President Al Gore as a political opportunist. This in the era of a miserable failure of a president who has done nothing (as in "not one thing") to improve the quality of life for people in this country since having taken office, but who has spouted out "9/11" at every opportunity.

There are over 2500 dead American soldiers (over 18,000 wounded) and over 50,000 dead Iraqi people because of George W. Bush's political opportunism, and this nation is not one iota safer than it was on September 11, 2001.

I'd say that unless you're employed by Halliburton or one of the oil companies, life in these United States is much like having a front row seat around the rim of a gigantic toilet bowl.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

EXPOSURE.Detroit

EXPOSURE.Detroit © Patrick T. Power

I am pleased to say that I've been invited to be part of a group photo exhibit to take place in Detroit at Karras Bros. Tavern. The show, dubbed EXPOSURE.Detroit, is an offshoot of an idea of a group of photographers in Pittsburgh, brought home to Michigan by Detroit native Bobby Alcott.

Here are the details... if you're able to get to the reception Friday night, please come and say hello.

EXPOSURE: Detroit
Opening Reception
Friday, June 23 at 7:00pm
Karras Bros. Tavern
225 Joseph Campau
Detroit, Michigan

Karras Bros. Tavern website
Phone: 313-259-2767

Participating Photographers:
tEDgUY49 (Ted Fines)
kiddharma (Sam Mills)
Images Of Elbows (Ian Tadashi Moore)
Detrart (Chip Carroll)
O Caritas (Patrick Power)
Allan M (Allan Malchieski)
gsgeorge (Geoffrey George)
UrbanTiki (Bobby Alcott)

Exhibition runs until July 21st, to be followed by a solo exhibit by Bobby Alcott (UrbanTiki) beginning July 28.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Ann Coulter: Whore

Yeah... so in my second straight post, I've sunk to namecalling.

In light of the Coulter's latest publicity shenanigans, I've thought about what it is that would drive a person to say such stupid, hurtful, mindless things, and, of course, I can only come up with one reason: She'd do anything to publicize a book that appears to be a model of plagiarism; a book that likely has no real substance to it if any of her media appearances are an indication. Coulter the whore is simply scoring big on the "liberal is bad" wave. That's all, really, that she has to say... isn't it? And for whatever reason, she has a built-in constituency of buyers who apparently don't seem to care (or, more likely, don't have the brains to realize) that this nation was founded by liberals, and that our Constitution is a liberal document.

But, of course, that's of little to concern to the whore and her johns, because it's all about selling — and paying for — what amounts to one big circle jerk.

Shit For Brains

There simply is no better description for Bill O'Reilly.

Except this perhaps...

Friday, June 16, 2006

3:19am

3:19am © Patrick T. Power

I went out for a very late stroll last night (this morning, actually)... My son works the midnight to 6am shift at Beaner's, so I walked over to see him and hang out there for a little bit. I had a latte and a blueberry muffin and watched the scene there... probably twenty people or so were studying or making use of the wireless internet.

This was taken closer to where I live, on my way home... It's amazing how still and quiet East Lansing can be at that hour. Of course, there are considerably fewer students around during the summer and — I think — not as many of them live on the southwest side of campus.

This construction is at the intersection of Harrison Road and Shaw Lane and as I was taking the five to ten shots of this (all eight second or so exposures), not one car passed, and Harrison is a pretty busy street most hours of the day. I half-expected a police car to pull up and ask me what I was doing, but I didn't even see one of those!

At some point during the walk, I was thinking about my mortality (as one might) and as I am not a religious person, I thought, "If there is an afterlife, and I end up in hell with George W. Bush, I'm going to be really pissed off!"

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Idle Chatter

I posted this at flickr a week or so ago and only now the thought hit me that this could be a metaphor for me and my brothers.

I'm the third of four and — depending upon how you look at it — either slightly askew or just a little different. I don't know how it is that I grew up to be so different from them, but I did.

If you were to ask me what the four of us have in common, I don't know that there would be much more than a handful of things I could cite. We all pretty much liked the same things as kids, but that surely changed in our post-high school years. They all like to say that I'm my mother's favourite, and perhaps I am. If indeed it's true, I wonder sometimes how that might have come to be. I don't think that I was really any different in the way I acted towards her as a kid than did my brothers. I didn't really excel as a student or anything. Might it have been that I was more productive in the Mothers Day cards and such than they were? Probably not.

I have also wondered many times about why I was the only one (that I can recall) to get piano lessons. Also, I was the only one to have received encouragement with my knack for drawing, having received a "How To Draw" kit which was based on a television show we would watch.

As for the piano lessons, my mother used to tell me that I could be the next Liberace. He was somewhat popular at the time (so that was her motive, I guess) and turning classical music on its ear a bit with his penchant for flamboyance, and the manner in which he injected a modern pop-ish edge to classical tunes. An ever-present candelabra was his signature, as were his gaudy diamond rings and sequined tuxedos.

Hah! You don't know how relieved I am now that that wish didn't happen to come true!

I dropped piano lessons after a couple of years as I had other things on my mind, I think. Baseball was still my activity of choice and I was beginning to notice girls with a bit more of an interested eye (distancing me further from the Liberace mold! Heh!) and while I liked my piano teacher, Pat Perlaky, a lot, I just didn't have the ambition to continue. I think that I performed one recital at Pat's home along with a couple other of her students. I don't recall much about it, except that it wasn't anything exceptional.

Back to the brothers...

For some reason, I took more to social causes (anti-war, pro-environment) during high school than my brothers did. Jim, the youngest, didn't really experience the angst about going to Vietnam, but the rest of us did. Bob, the oldest, joined the Air Force at some point. I Believe he enlisted. Thankfully, for whatever reasons, he never had to serve on active combat duty. His life then took turns that have pretty much been shrouded in mystery (for me) ever since. At any rate, Bob was the only one to serve in the military and actually face the possibility that he'd be sent into a war zone.

Mike also was of age with regard to the draft but lucked out. I recall watching one of the Selective Service's lotteries as it was broadcast on television, and his number (they used birthdates, if you're not familiar) never came up very high. Neither did mine, but by the time I was old enough to serve, Nixon had finally pulled the troops out. Mike tried to enlist, but Mom decided to get him braces for his teeth, thereby also getting him a deferment. Sneaky.

Considering that we're within three years of each other, and went to high school at about the same time (I was a freshman when he was a senior), it's beyond me how he never developed much of a social conscience. Many of his friends were peace activists to some degree, and environmental activists, but he didn't follow that path. Years later, when talking politics (he's a "Reagan Republican"), I posed the question (with regard to the environment), "Do you want your grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in such a polluted environment?" and he essentially dusted it off with, "What the hell do I care? I'll be dead." I suppose that's the typical libertarian response.

I never really knew Bob(by) that well growing up, to be honest. He's nine and a half years older than I am and I'm guessing that he left the house for the Air Force before I was even ten years old. I still recall a night which I recall him being around but we didn't really live in the same house for that long of a time. Oddly enough, I feel that I'm more like Bob in certain ways. He's always been a dreamer, I think... always having his sights set on something that would eventually be out of reach. And I think I have similar tendencies at times. I tend, however, to keep my dreams reined in a bit, closer to the vest and a little bit more within reach.

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