Queensboro Bridge and 5Pointz gallery.

Harlem River Drive

The High Bridge across the Harlem River

Across the Harlem River to the Bronx

GW Bridge down 178th Street

GW Bridge across the Hudson to New Jersey from the bus terminal

2013 Calendar - NW Iceland:

Gallery of Charlie and Trixie in Rockleigh Wood after Hurricane Sandy.

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince."
 

Taki's favourite novelists:

Charlie and Trixie cooling off in the dregs of Roaring Brook.

A couple of months later Roaring Brook had dried up completely.

First shot with my Canon 5d mark 3, 12,800 iso in the gloom of my cellar/office - it's like having night vision:

+10 seconds up-tarting in Lightroom:

Him:

This column by David Brooks pretty much sums me up as a voter, though I'm not persuaded to follow his recommendation to vote Romney-Ryan.

Me:

Yes, I don't understand the mindset. The issues are in fact ideological - that's a good thing. It's not "You think this, I think that, let's compromise and move forward." It's "You believe in big government, big tax and killing babies; I believe the opposite." I don't want to settle with not quite so big government, fiddling with tax rates or not quite so many abortions. 

I guess you guys are Brooks's constituency. Conservatives are not.

Him:

I wasn't saying I was David Brooks. I was saying I'm the moderate. He's more conservative than I am. And framing the issues the way you do, I can't imagine why I'm not persuaded to your way of thinking. The problem with you is not that you're too conservative, it's that you're only conservative. It's boring.

Me:

'Big government, big tax, killing babies' is an accurate, unframed description of Dem policy, sorry if you prefer euphemisms. I'm against that, boring or not. A position in the middle isn't less boring because less coherent.

'Moderate' is framing. You self-identify with Brooks's description of the voter. Correct.

My own positions may be more boring or offensive to you, but are radically 'conservative', eg:

• Every voter pays the same tax, say $n/year. No tax, no vote, loss of social standing. No representation without taxation.

• Generally no federal involvement in social issues other than as a backstop to protect children because children are the point of society.

• Instance: marriage is a contract or statement between adults, significant according to its terms and its symbolism, but not imposing duties of recognition, say, on others.

• Preference in government based on individual merit, otherwise left to the individual. You, as a business owner, can fire me because you don't like my face.

• The purpose of government is to enable life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not social engineering or re-distribution.

 

Those are tenets, not detailed policies; boring maybe, but coherent.

Romney/Ryan are way to the left of most of that.