This is a picture of one of the Vendela Roses in my crystal bud vase this week. The flower was partially lighted from behind with sunlight through the window above, giving it this nice glowing effect.
Dane Bramage – WOW
This week’s pick for Weblog of the Week is Dane Bramage. Dane is one of the original few websites to display the Never Forget Tribute. The Blog has a great deal of home-grown humor and always something interesting to see. We’re happy to name Dane Bramage as our Weblog of the Week (WOW).
From the Dane Bramage profile:
My name is Kevin. I am a fundamental conservative Christian Republican of African American ancestry. I work for a soap manufacturer in the IT department. I believe the world has gone absolutely insane and will rapidly get worse. I blame the liberals.
Photo egregiously stolen from Dane’s profile.
Presidential Candidates on Gun Control
In case you missed it, the Miami Herald enumerates major presidential candidates’ stances on the issue of Second Amendment rights (Hat Tip to NRA-ILA). Some of the responses surprised me. Here’s my views on the Second Amendment positions taken by these candidates:
Acceptable:
Barack Obama – perhaps this is the ONLY view Obama has that is acceptable
Bill Richardson – if Democrats are to be accepted in the wild west, they approve of guns
Sam Brownback – consistently agrees with NRA positions
Jim Gilmore – tough on criminals but needs to be a bit tougher
Mike Huckabee – supports concealed-carry and most other sane positions
Duncan Hunter – widely supported by NRA-types
John McCain – a Second Amendment supporter but has other ‘issues’
Ron Paul – consistently agrees with NRA positions
Tom Tancredo – right on guns and border enforcement
No Clear Position:
Mike Gravel – (Who?)
Mitt Romney – seems to mostly be at odds with weapon owners rights
Tommy Thompson – no clear signals of support for owners, but supports penalizing gun violence
Unacceptable:
Joe Biden – blames the gun, it’s makers and does not blame gun-using criminals
Hillary Clinton – historically an enemy of Second Amendment rights
Chris Dodd – incoherently opposes guns or something like that
John Edwards – based on senate record, not on grandstanding VT shootings remarks
Dennis Kucinich – What can a Hobbit know about guns to oppose them altogether?
Rudy Giuliani – falls in lockstep with gun-grabbers
See below for a complete rundown on candidates’ positions:
Catalina Interior Sunrise
Last week we posted several panoramic views of the May, 2007 Catalina Island Wildfire that were imaged by the Catalina Interior WebCam. This morning, I took a look at the webcam image, I saw the morning sunrise greeting me as it rose above the marine stratus layer. The webcam, which is on a peak on the island, happened to be above the temperature inversion which often traps the low clouds and fog beneath along the California Coastline. This dramatic image of the rising Sun is the result.
Lighthouse Art
An artist’s sketch? Not really. This is a post-processed picture of the Point Vicente Lighthouse that Damsel took through her telephoto lens just after last Christmas.
I processed it with a freeware graphics program I use called Irfanview. I used edge-detection and inverted the colors (negative) to get this rendering.
Plumeria
This Plumeria, seen in the garden shop today, is supposed to be very fragrant, but I didn’t get much fragrance when I leaned over to smell it. I looked it up on WikiPedia and found this out about the Plumeria:
Plumeria flowers are most fragrant at night in order to lure sphinx moths to pollinate them. The flowers have no nectar, and simply dupe their pollinators. The moths inadvertently pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower in their fruitless search for nectar.
Epiphyllum
When we went to the Cactus and Succulent Exhibition last month, we picked up a 3-inch cutting from an epiphyllum in a small plastic planter. We put it in the patio and this week it produced this beautiful ‘frühlingsgold’ flower. Frühlingsgold translates from German to ‘spring gold’ in English.
