I survived another morning as wedding photographer yesterday, and will be spending much of today sorting through the 500 or so photos for a set that will make the newly weds happy. I’ve only done this for friends, and never for money, but that doesn’t reduce the stress or the work involved. Luckily, the minor disaster didn’t hit until I was getting final shots of the marriage certificate being signed. Without warning, my most used lens stopped working. This had happened the first time back in February while the lens was still (barely) under warranty, and Canon quickly replaced an electronic part, which seemed to do the trick. It had been working fine since, and worked well for several hours yesterday until it finally suddenly shut down again. Ouch.
Karen Waygood in Atlanta sent along this link to a company selling their own style of cat trees–well, cat logs, that is. Very interesting.
Am I the only one crying over the political demolition derby in the presidential campaign that this week presented us with the spectacle of Democrats–yes, liberal Democrats of various stripes, including those posturing as anti-war candidates–all scrambling to distance themselves from the simple proposition that the United States should not engage in nuclear warfare.
Some of this is, unfortunately, media driven. Take the Obama comments that started this week’s buzz.
For the record, on Friday AP finally released a transcript of the conversation:
AP: Sir, with regard to terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan …OBAMA: Yeah.
AP: Is there any circumstances where you’d be prepared or willing to use nuclear weapons to defeat terrorism and Osama bin Laden?
OBAMA: No, I’m not, uh, there has been no discussion of using nuclear weapons and that’s not a hypothetical that I’m going to discuss.
AP: Not even tactical?
OBAMA: No. I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance. Uh, if involving you know, civilians… Let me scratch all that. There’s been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That’s not on the table so…
“Not even tactical?”
What a loaded and irresponsible question that minimizes the horrors and the dangers of nuclear war, and thrown so casually into the line of questions. Who in the world was priming this reporter?
I suppose it’s an indication of how far to the right the country has moved that no one wants to be branded as an opponent of nuclear war, but I don’t think that’s a real excuse. Come on, candidates, step up to the plate and let people know that of course the U.S. shouldn’t use nuclear weapons, for all kinds of reasons, moral as well as political and strategic. Why should any of them be bashful about making this clear?
So it goes on this Sunday in August.
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Ian,
I’ve never blogged before. ‘Sorry for the way I stumble in here, and thanks for every consideration:
After Whole Foods opens their four stores in Hawaii, will local natural food stores be able to compete? Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is in a lot of trouble with the FTC because of his draconian strategies to eliminate the completion. News reports based on FTC’s review of his emails and internal memos say so.
I wonder why the local news media hasn’t picked up on this aspect of the story, as the potential impact on Hawaii is significant. If Whole Foods’ track record is any indication of what to expect, we can assume Mackey has directed his company to massacre local Hawaii competitors in the service of his own company’s interests. Small family natural food stores that have been part of the Hawaii landscape for decades stand to be wiped out as he directs his company to eliminate the competition.
Meanwhile, all the publicity over the few farmers they’ve signed up is disingenuous at best. Hawaii’s natural foods stores have been buying up everything our local farmers produce for decades, regardless of the size of their harvests. Yet, a number of them still must import produce because local farmers haven’t met demand. The fact is that Whole Foods will not buy much from most local farmers because their harvests are too small. Industry news reports say Whole Foods typically buys most of their produce from big farms in California and Chile.
Eventually, Hawaii’s small famers will have no buyers for their crops because Whole Foods will have eliminated the mom ‘n pop natural food stores that typically buy their small harvests. So all those favorable stories about Whole Foods being some sort of hero to local farmers is a huge shibai.
Adding insult to injury, with local natural food stores out of the way, consumers will be forced to shop at Whole Foods and pay top price for it. It ain’t for nothing they got that nick name, “Whole Foods, Whole Paycheck!â€
All this because Whole Foods is a ruthless, ambitious company that has no regard for local interests. Just sales.
In the interest of balanced reporting, it would be good to see the local news media cover this aspect of the story!
Mahalo,
Frank Santana