05
Nov
Open Thread
Comrade Luke, Paris.
Shawn, Stockholm Harbor.
Email me a link to your one or two favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put up favorites in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one.
***Update***
To view all of the photo posts at Balloon Juice, click the ‘photo blogging’ tag at the bottom of the post.
Observer
That first one is vaguely pornographic… just sayin’
asiangrrlMN
Wait, you mean there are countries outside of ‘Murika? Both photos are stirring up the wanderlust in me. Sigh.
cleek
must move to Stockholm.
slag
I must say that Jon Stewart has been on absolute fire this week. The first couple of segments mocking the media on Tuesday had me on the floor. Tears. Tears were streaming. It’s no wonder people in the media don’t like him. Cuts like a knife.
Morbo
@Observer: Ha, my thoughts exactly on first look. Both pictures are cool as usual.
Linda Bacon
Tim:
This is a link to a photo on my Flickr Page. It’s of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a wonderful small colonial city that I visit yearly around Thanksgiving.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/l.....669493439/
Linda Bacon
linda@lindabacon.com
http://www.lindabacon.com
Atanarjuat
Love the framed symmetry of the first shot, and the second shot has that nice vintage postcard look to it.
Shawn, I take it that you did a little HDR, or the photo just turned out that way after postprocessing?
-A
jeffreyw
Oh goody! Another picture thread! Someone give me a food pr0n opening, please!
asiangrrlMN
@slag: But it feels so right….
@jeffreyw: Like you need an invitation. SHARE!
smiley
Very nice. Is the second one a painting or a photo. It looks like a painting to me.
OT but I like #10 here.
R-Jud
The hedgehogs are dying off. I has a sad:
Sgt. Prickle, who lives at the bottom of our garden, is doing fine. But he must be pretty lonely.
Mirthless Chopper - Frmrly TheFountainHead
Really enjoying the first pic. The Eiffel tower just got new LEDs, and I think they are a vast improvement over the old ones in terms of saturation and control.
/lightingnerd
Mirthless Chopper - Frmrly TheFountainHead
Really enjoying the first pic. The Eiffel tower just got new LEDs, and I think they are a vast improvement over the old ones in terms of saturation and control.
/lightingnerd
The Grand Panjandrum
Behold the Doomsday Tea Party:
I think we now have confirmation that TimF was right. We aren’t anywhere near peak wingnut. As a matter of fact I would argue that it doesn’t exist. Not even in theory. I won’t waste your time with my rationale but some of these people are literally insane. Also. Too.
flukebucket
Might I say that I absolutely love these picture threads.
All of you Juicers are so suave and worldly.
That is why I love coming here. For a man who rarely leaves the county this site makes me feel well traveled and damn near intelligent.
asiangrrlMN
@R-Jud: Aw. I like hedgehogs. I do not like them dying off like the bees.
Morbo
That kitten in the Chronic Catnip Company ad is both hilarious and terrifying.
Shawn
@Atanarjuat: Yes, it was an early attempt at HDR, using Photomatix. Handheld with a Nikon D200, because I was walking all over the city and didn’t want to drag a tripod around.
Betsy
Both of these are gorgeous! I am also loving these picture threads. Who knew there was so much photographic talent around here?
Betsy
And I also like how Tim F. has been pairing them by theme. Really fun.
jeffreyw
@asiangrrlMN:
Well, just for you, since you insist. LOL
RedKitten
Gorgeous, gorgeous photos—both of them!
The Grand Panjandrum
@The Grand Panjandrum: I can haz unmawderayshun of my comment at ll35 plz.
Joel
stockholm is a beautiful city, especially around christmas.
i have pictures stashed somewhere, but it’s mostly of me and some friends drinking in public and making vulgar poses with the statues around town.
Just Some Fuckhead
Am I the only one that wishes these were jigsaw puzzles?
jeffreyw
@flukebucket:
Or as an old girlfriend used to gush: “Oh jeffreyw, yer so swave and deboner”!
GregB
Do we have any similar beautiful pictures of US architecture? Perhaps a strip mall or a a series of stucco fast food restaurants?
-G
R-Jud
@Just Some Fuckhead: No. I was thinking that a puzzle of Comrade Luke’s shot of the Eiffel Tower would keep our crowd busy at Thanksgiving.
My current favorite landscape photo: Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan.
Current favorite offspring photo. Butter wouldn’t melt.
Tim F.
@R-Jud: Jeebus, talk about cute overload.
jeffreyw
@R-Jud: What a cutie-pie! And the coast shot is purty, too.
WereBear
@R-Jud: Adorable! Lovely eyes.
gwangung
@R-Jud: Awwwwww!
R-Jud
@Tim F.:
@jeffreyw:
She has literally made people trip over themselves in the street. We’ll have to hire a bodyguard before long.
catclub
OT: tropical storm Ida is likely to be Obamas Katrina.
And you thought his mismanagement of H1N1 vaccines
was bad!
Maybe God’s wrath for Gene Taylor (D- Blue Dog, MS)
(Federal flood insurance is fine for houses, but federal health insurance for people? That’s crazy talk.)
jeffreyw
@R-Jud:
This lil feller has done the same thing. But the usual outcome is a mad pedestrian shouting “curb that damn dog!”
R-Jud
@jeffreyw: Awwwww. He’s totally playing the cute card there. “Yes, I ate all your shoes and widdled on the heater, but lookit my BIG PUPPY EYES!”
BombIranForChrist
I think I am opening myself up to ridicule here, but here’s a question:
Let’s say HCR goes down in flames.
If it does, I think one reason would be due to the disproportionate voice that people in rural, low population states have in the Senate. Essentially, a small bad of Blue Democrats from small places can derail the needs of millions upon millions of people.
I wonder if there is a way to bypass all this mess and use the power of numbers to get what we want (assuming you want HCR). Namely, could a confederation of states (insert ridicule) like California, New York, the Northeast, the Northwest, etc. come together and create a sort of loose partnership where they all pass similar laws reforming healthcare, and due to the size of their markets, most everyone else either follows suit or gets some of the benefit?
And yes, I am from the South, but I am not suggesting the blue states secede …
jeffreyw
@BombIranForChrist:
A perfect description! I called a fella a badtard one day, and rather than fix the spelling I just added a hyphen: bad-tard.
gnomedad
@Mirthless Chopper – Frmrly TheFountainHead:
OMG OMG must go!
/another lightingnerd
Royston Vasey
@R-Jud: What ever happened to Spiny Norman?
Trinity
Ha! Dick Armey throws Doug Hoffman under the bus.
smiley
The teabaggers must be so disappointed. Even Fox news is only covering today’s event in D.C. intermittently. You have to go all the way to CSPAN3 to see it live.
R-Jud
@Royston Vasey:
DINNNNNS-DAAAALLLLE.
ellaesther
@R-Jud: O.M.G. That is one insanely adorable child! And I say this as someone whose own offspring used to stop traffic, too, so I know of what I speak! (Sadly, now they’re too big to be truly adorable. I occasionally ask them why the heck they aren’t cute anymore? Then they laugh at me). I very rarely get that “golly, wouldn’t another baby be nice” feeling, but your wee one could be the poster child for human reproduction.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: Yeah, twist your arm! As usual, your culinary delights have me salivating.
asiangrrlMN
@Trinity: How about we throw Dick Armey (literally) under a bus?
asiangrrlMN
@R-Jud: So freaking adorable. Bean makes me want to spend an hour with my niece and nephews!
And yes, I’m posting three times in a row because I haz no edit function.
linda
capitol hill teabaggers keeping it classy – via tpm:
On the other hand, in the crowd Boehner is speaking to, there’s a rally poster with images of corpses from Dachau denouncing “National Socialist Health Care.”
ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: Iz ok. Makes you look verbose.
Trinity
@asiangrrlMN: I’m in!
asiangrrlMN
@ellaesther: Look verbose? I IZ verbose! You should know that. You’ve seen my blog!
asiangrrlMN
@Trinity: Cool, now we just gotta lure him to the public transport area. I doubt he knows where one is.
Dreggas
According to TPM AARP is now a supporter of soshulism and has endorsed the Dem’s healthplan hoping to decrease their membership since republicans say it will kill seniors.
ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: Iz tru! In the best of senses (sensez?)!
But, in an aside, may I say: Better to have had an edit function and to have lost it, than to never have had an edit function at all. I know not of this “edit function” on Balloon Juice of which you all speak with such fond memory.
Not, of course, that I’m bitter.
Ash Can
@R-Jud:
::dies and iz ded from cute::
ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: (Mind you, on the “verbose blog” front, for the two of us, it is kind of a case of the pot calling the kettle black…. Or, you know, verbose. “You’re verbose, you pot!” “No, you’re verbose, you kettle!”)
asiangrrlMN
@ellaesther: No. Is better not to have at all because I now long for the sweet, soft caress of my missing edit function. Alas.
jeffreyw
@asiangrrlMN: Was that you commenting here?
Buttermilk cornbread! The story is here.
asiangrrlMN
@ellaesther: Let’s just say we both are eloquent and gifted with gab. That sounds much better to me.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: Yes, that is me. I should affix my BJ moniker when I post over there, but eh. That buttermilk cornbread looks simply scrumptious.
ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: “Eloquent and gifted” – done!
Shell
I agree. That second photo looks like a Flemish painting from the 17c.
Tom Hilton
Both lovely. And I love the addition of these photo threads to break up the tedium of politics. I myself have been focusing much more on the photoblogging than on political blogging, and I’m having a lot more fun at it.
ellaesther
Dudes. Don’t know if you know, but apparently “Health care reform is the “the greatest threat to freedom in the last 19 years.”
So says John Boehner, a man who was no doubt once a little concerned about the threat to freedom posed by al-Qaeda and/or Saddam Hussein.
So, to sum up: Health care reform? Worse than 9/11 and WMD.
Ash Can
@ellaesther:
What he was thinking.
jeffreyw
@Tom Hilton: Nice pics at your blog, and I agree that these open threads break up the monotony of all politics all the time.
Tim F.
@Tom Hilton: Send some pics my way.
Colette
@linda: yes – for the strong of stomach, you can see it here.
There is no depth of ignorance to which they have not sunk, and no height of hypocrisy and falsehood to which they do not aspire.
RedKitten
@R-Jud:
Sam highly approves of his affianced. He was bawling his eyes out, and then upon seeing that photo, just stopped. His eyes got big, and one corner of his mouth went up in his “aren’t I charming?” grin.
licensed to kill time
I am loving these photo threads, and thanks for the tip on photo blogging tag. I also secondy thirdy eleventybilliony the sentiment “Open Threads Good” as a relief from the political swamp. I really rely on this site for sanity in wading through the gas emitted from said swamp.
@ellaesther: I have heard so many similar comments, like Rep. Virginia Foxx who thinks ” health care is more of a threat than any terrorist right now in our country” and the usual gasbags Beck and Limbaugh. WTF is WRONG with these people?!
Purely rhetorical question.
SiubhanDuinne
@R-Jud: Givz me a sad, too.
I love hedgehogs. I’ve collected them for years (ceramic, glass, carvings, pinecones, etc.—not real ones). Something I would love to do on my next trip to the UK is visit Saint Tiggywinkle’s http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/ which takes care of abandoned/orphaned/injured hedgehogs and other small creatures.
arguingwithsignposts
I am sick of the constant fundraising e-mails. Already today, I’ve received e-mails from DFA, IAVA and BoldProgress. Yesterday it was Chris Dodd. STFU people. I am not an ATM.
kommrade reproductive vigor
According to Kaplan, Bernie Kerick has pled guilty.
Comrade Luke
Thanks for posting my pic, and all of the compliments in the comments. Except for the one that said it’s vaguely pornographic. I’ll never be able to look at this picture the same way again :)
This was taken around 10:30 or so at night, after having walked all around town (about 10hrs at that point) with a Nikon D700 kit. It was really heavy and I don’t know if I’d do it again, but it was worth it.
I’d been in line to get into the Tower for 2+ hrs, then came back down and was walking way when I happened to look up. I thought it was a pretty amazing view, so I bent way back and took the picture. No tripod, just handheld. I damn near fell over :)
I ended up taking almost 2000 pictures on my trip (Croatia, Rome and Paris) and my favorite is one where I just bent backwards, snapped it and left. Go figure.
Anyway, thanks again for the mention.
auntieeminaz
@Just Some Fuckhead: No. I especially love the Stockholm picture and think it would be a great puzzle.
Mario Piperni
Sesame Street mocks Fox news. Finally!
Fergus Wooster
Can’t resist posting offspring photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4.....078864890/
jeffreyw
@Fergus Wooster: Wow! We are blessed with pretty babies today!
Fergus Wooster
Thanks! I keep trying to focus on landscapes and textures, but she’s such a good muse, I can’t resist.
Tom Hilton
@JeffreyW: Thanks! There are lots more at the photoblog I share with Ahab and Generik (both more accomplished photographers than myself).
@Tim F.: Done.
gex
Not for nothing: I accidentally ended up on a Brett Favre article over at the American Spectator. Please don’t ask me to explain. I do think it interesting that some of the commenters believe that problems in the NFL are caused by ACORN and social ism. Incredible.
Origuy
I haz no Flickr site. When I come up for air after this weekend, I’ll set something up. I’ve been meaning to for a long time. Until then, for some dramatic USA architecture, google “sundial bridge redding”.
getsmartin
Chanticleer Point on the Columbia River Gorge. The Gorge “rocks”!
aarrgghh
maybe i’ve seen just one too many goatses, but i’m forced to concur with observer @ 1 …
Jay C
Horrific news from Texas:
Bloody shooting at Fort Hood Leaves 12 dead, 31 wounded
Anyone for an over/under on when somebody tries to pin this on Obama?
Shawn
Thanks for all your kind words and comments. Never thought about making that Stockholm picture a jigsaw puzzle, my mom would love it.
General Winfield Stuck
Terrific photos
Mr. Bee in-flight