Sunday, March 25, 2007

Photos and More

Clovis tornado damage…photos here; pictures and narrative here. The damage appears to be more extensive than yesterday’s initial article in the Clovis/Portales News-Tribune seemed to indicate. I haven’t been over to the Big(ger) CityTM since the tornado and likely won’t be over that way until the middle of the coming week. So…no personal reports. I prefer to stay out of the way while people clean up and get their lives back in order.

There are more t-storms in the forecast today. Let’s hope today’s storms are more of the garden variety than the exciting variety. Excitement doesn’t rank high on my list of favorable emotions these days, especially when it’s paired with weather.

Speaking of photos: Iraq, thru the eyes of an American Soldier. Excellent photography, and a well-done site. (h/t: Chap)

George Will has a column in today’s WaPo that’s drawing a lot of comment throughout the ‘sphere: Anger Is All The Rage (nice play on words, that):

Many people who loathe George W. Bush have adopted what Peter Wood describes as "ecstatic anger as a mode of political action." Anger often is, Wood says, "a spectacle to be witnessed by an appreciative audience, not an attempt to win over the uncommitted."

Wood, an anthropologist and author of "A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now," says the new anger "often has the look-at-me character of performance art." His book is a convincing, hence depressing, explanation of "anger chic" -- of why anger has become an all-purpose emotional stance. It has achieved prestige and become "a credential for group membership." As a result, "Americans have been flattening their emotional range into an angry monotone."

Anyone who’s ever visited any of the prominent Lefty blogs recognizes the truth in Peter Wood’s statement about anger as “spectacle,” and the appreciative audiences the spectacle attracts. Not that the Right is immune or refuses to play the anger game. There are several prominent Right-Wing blogs I rarely frequent because I don’t like their tone…and my key reasons are anger and its close associate, insult. Both are counter-productive to rational discourse and (in my opinion) are off-putting.

So. I’ll give you three links to further thoughts on Will’s essay…the first being EIP fave Ed Morrissey, the second is moderate voice Joe Gandleman, and the third is moonbat extraordinaire Maha. All three are worth the read. And it’s no coincidence I listed them in order of my personal preferences. Captain Ed made me think, as did Gandelman, and Maha just made me laugh. But Hey! Laughter is good, nu?

Today’s Pic: More from the archives. This time it’s YrHmblScrb and his great-grandmother standing next to Dad’s pride ‘n’ joy: The Fabulous Hudson Hornet.

During 1952 Hornets driven by Marshall Teague, Herb Thomas and Tim Flock won 27 NASCAR races driving for the Hudson team. In AAA racing, Teague drove a stock Hornet that he called the Fabulous Hudson Hornet to 14 wins during the season. This brought the Hornet's season record to 40 wins in 48 events, a winning percentage of 83%, a remarkable feat for a six-cylinder car.

I come by my gear-head tendencies naturally, or put another way, “it’s in the genes.” My father was a BIG Hudson fan, owning three of the things. And he drove them hard. So much so, in fact, that the words I remember most from my childhood motor outings with my parents are these: “Buck! Slow down!” It’s amazing just how varied in tone that simple admonishment could be…ranging from a dry statement to a cry of sheer terror. Meanwhile, in the back seat, my sister and I just held on…

(Yeah, Dad was Buck, too.)

Sacramento, CA. Circa 1951.

9 comments:

  1. Today's paper has a little more information than yesterday's (I have issues with our paper. I even write for the darn thing and I won't buy a subscription).

    Thanks for the links. Hard to believe still that it happened here. I plan on going to the Big(ger) city Tuesday and may try to see some of the damage if I can. The dairy that was destroyed was brand new.

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  2. The tornado pictures were pretty awesome. Although there are lots of tornados in the Lubbock area, I have never heard of one in Clovis. In fact, I wondered if that was why you chose to live in Portales rather than, say, Wichita Falls, Lubbock or some other Texas city.

    Great Hudson pic with your Great-grandmother - car pictures were all the rage and they certainly give testimony to the day and time in which we lived.

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  3. The Clovis tornado made the national news roundup on our local news here in Iowa. Caught it on the big screen in the Rec before PT this morning.

    Funny you should mention Maha...myself and several of my fellow contributors over at The Liberty Papers (shameless plug) were treated rather disrespectfully and ultimately permanently banned over there after we got into a little dustup after choosing to (gasp!) respectfully disagree with Maha's point of view.

    The place is filled with grown-up Kos Kidz and run by a < del > washed up 60s protest hag < /del > lovely older woman.

    Sorry, had to restrain myself there. Was getting a little too angry. :-p

    (Sorry for the visible html; Blogger wouldn't let me use that particular tag, but I still wanted the effect.

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  4. Jenny: I have issues with our paper, too. Just after I started blogging I discovered the editor of the C/PNT had a blog, billed as the "official News-Tribune blog." One of the posts was a discussion about a syndicated columnist and whether or not she was apprpriate for the community. The editor had quoted several Letters To The Editor, both pro and con. Noting there were no comments on the subject, I left one (comment).

    I go back the next day to see if there's any discussion and find (a) my comment was deleted and (b) comments had been disabled on the blog. I never went back. Some blog...just another one-way communication vehicle, like the newspaper itself. The guy "don't get it..."

    Lou: You're pretty perceptive, Girl! While I'm still trying to kid myself that my stay in P-Town is only temporary, weather is one of the reasons I stay. EVERY place has its drawbacks, whether it's hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, earthquakes or what-have-you. P-Town is remarkably free of natural drawbacks.

    Mike: Occasional reader Bec and I met at Maha's place. We got into a friendly discussion and had a little back and forth until such time as Maha stepped on our exchanges, threatening me with her "twit filter." I used to think she ran a different sort of Leftie blog, but I was wrong -- disagreement is NOT tolerated. Your description of her is VERY apt, in fact she's put up several posts about "how to protest effectively." Experience, and all that.

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  5. I tried posting yesterday, but it didn't take for some reason. I haven't the faintest idea what I wrote. I'll try again today.

    I tiptoed over to Maha's after reading your post, Buck, and I shuddered for the rest of the afternoon. Never again! (Mike, LOL!)

    Here's a terrific Canadian blog I happened upon while searching for something for work.
    "In a statement that is presumptuous and arrogant, Layton has painted the Canadian nation as a unified group opposed to the war in Iraq. Nothing, could be further from the truth. Canada is a country of diverse free thinking individuals, and on the question of Iraq, the viewpoints represented across Canada run the full spectrum, even though a majority may be opposed to the war in Iraq."
    Celestial Junk
    It's a nicely reasoned essay. His son serves with the Canadian armed forces and, judging from his links, he looks like our kinda guy.

    One of the things I remember from my attempted post yesterday was to tell ya, yes please, Buck. Go to the hospital with your book next time.

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  6. Great link, Bec! I continued reading on down and got my laugh of the day with...

    The Complete Religion and Philosophy Shit List

    ...some of which I hadn't seen before, like:

    Feminism: Men are shit.
    Chauvinism: We may be shit, but you can't live without us...
    Impressionism: From a distance, shit looks like a garden.

    ...and...

    Rastafarianism: Let's smoke this shit!

    Not to take away from the meaning of your original link, of course. The above was just a bonus. And a good one!

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  7. I thought you'd find that and appreciate it! :-)

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  8. One of my problems with the paper is this: I have a column in the paper for the Floyd News and another for the Floyd School News. I work on it, send it in. Sometimes they never put it in. Then sometimes the editor chops it up so much, deletes what he wants here and there, re-words things sometimes so that it doesn't even make a coherent sentence. If they do all that, why not put their own name on it? Now I'M the one that doesn't look like I can write a sentence. They also seldom mention our sports going on out here (same with Dora and Elida). I have been told by a couple of people that the editor has said "nobody cares about those country hick communities". They don't care, so I don't support them.

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  9. Jenny said: I have been told by a couple of people that the editor has said "nobody cares about those country hick communities". They don't care, so I don't support them.

    I understand a lot better now. That's an interesting quote coming from the editor of a paper in communities that could be (and are) looked down upon by the residents of other, larger, cities. And it certainly goes a loooong way towards explaining why the guy doesn't want comments on his blog. I'm reminded of that ol' cliche about business: "This business wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the customers."

    Never, ever, forget who pays the bills...and your salary. And if you're in the newspaper biz, don't treat your stringers like dirt. Especially the ones who work for free!

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.