Do you guys at least troll during photo ops? Catch some Ulua?

Cheers
James

Yes I agree – I think a lot of Americans are feeling helpless right about now. What can we do anyway, you know? If our trigger-happy-gung-ho-for-war administration wants to go to war in less than 48 hours, then they’ll do just that, with or without anyone’s approval. Kinda ironic though – we keep proclaiming that Iraq is a country of terror…seems like we’re the ones doing all of the terrorizing though.

Also funny that over half of america (66% from the last poll I read on the news) supports the war, but those who oppose think that the administration is acting in a bubble.
Also funny that the Iraqis who fled the country and have spoken openly about the war are in favor of it.

a valid point. however, if we all conformed to the majority, we would all be obese, divorced, and fucking stupid. remember — we live in a country where they had to re-center SAT scoring because the average was LOWER than 800. also, it’s not necessarily that liberals are against war itself. it’s that they are against it in the form that we are pushing it.

I said nothing about conforming or being liberal. Rather, I pointed out that the idea that Bush is ignoring the population of the US is not true. He is ignoring a significant portion of the population, but not the majority.
But as you say, the majority is not always right. (This is the principle reason we are NOT a democracy and are instead a representative government. It would be horrible, for the reasons you mentioned and many others, if every matter was left up to the voters.)
I don’t, probably obvious by now, have a problem with that stated reasons and evidence for this war. I do have a serious problem with the ‘diplomacy’ (and I use that term loosely) of many of the high up republicans. Calling dissenters names (France and Germany in particular) is not a very good method of debate/communication/argument.
anyway… this is probably not the right forum for this. Let’s go back to looking at pretty pictures. I get enough of the real world when not at echeng.com.

:)

Norm, it is indeed fortunate for Presidents Bush and Cheney that the majority of the American population does not critically analyze the news; that the majority of Americans believe the “Saddam gassed his own people” mantra (even though a chief analyst for the CIA during the Iran-Iraq War has publicly stated that it was most likely the Iranians who released the deadly gas on the Kurds at Halabja); that the majority of Americans do not consider it a scandal that Colin Powell presented falsified documents to the UN Security Council as evidence of Iraq’s continued “nuclear programs”; that the majority of Americans consider it acceptable to thumb our noses at those in opposition to unilateral American military action (the french have LOTS of company on this position, although the nonsense about freedom fries has successfully obscured the fact that Russia and China also opposed the American UN resolution which was never put up for a vote); that the majority of Americans don’t realize that during the Gulf War, the US violated the Geneva Convention by bombing power stations, dams, water purification plants and food depots on which civilian lives were dependent; that the majority of Americans don’t realize that the arrogance of US international policies is the substrate on which anti-American terrorism feeds and that the reckless rush to war by the Bush administration truly puts more Americans at risk of injury or death than Saddam Hussein ever could have. Whether the majority of Americans support this war or not is irrelevant to those who seek the truth.

On a lighter note: your pictures look breathtakingly beautiful as always!

8mm. Oh my. Must be a fun toy.

hehehe. Chester — am I causing you too much lens envy? :)

i feel like for any one of those fish-eye pictures the caption would be something like: “the world is my oyster”. i feel so inspired and at peace while looking at your wonderful photos.

since there’s nothing you can do about what’s going on (just like the rest of us), you might as well relax and enjoy, while you can. cheer up, mate! :)

I like your sunglasses in the self portrait. What kind are they and where might I aquire a pair? Great pics as always.

Thanks! :) I bought them at the Gilroy outlet malls.

They are one of the Oakley Wire series glasses:
http://www.oakley.com/ostore/e.....ed_a_wire/

… but it’s virtually impossible to tell from the photos on the web site. I believe it’s the “a Wire Carbon / Black Iridium Polarized,” except that the woman at the store told me that it was a spring hinge.