Love and Fear in Arizona

On my Phoenix commute, I recently saw a couple of bumper stickers that just shook me to the core.

The first said:

Elect Obama=Elect Osama
It’s no coincidence his middle name is Hussein

This was flanked by pictures of the smiling faces of President Obama (on the left, naturally) and Osama bin-Laden (on the right).

Of course! Barack Obama must be a terrorist because his middle name is the same as the last name of a deposed Iraqi dictator who wasn’t involved with attacks on America despite what some people still believe, and his first name is just ONE LETTER OFF!!!!!!!!111eleventy!! from that of a terrorist who would love to kill him along with all the rest of us Americans that he and his followers missed on 9/11.

Obviously.

The other bumper sticker that really got to me had stylized white lettering on an ominous black background. It said:

I love my country
I fear my government

This bit of love and fear was plastered on the Arizona registered bumper of that most American of vehicles, a full-sized, extended cab, V-8 powered pickup truck.

Yes an all-American classic, the… um… Toyota Tundra.

I love my species
I fear for our future

“I See Snow”

That’s what PJ said while we were on a photo safari around the Salt River in central Phoenix today. I thought she was just seeing clouds, but after looking through binoculars, I saw she was right.

A couple of days after some nasty winter storms blew through Arizona, Four Peaks east of Phoenix do indeed have snow on them. Despite living in the warm desert, we’ve got snow on the mountains within eyesight of downtown Phoenix.

Also just a couple of days after the storms, as you might notice from this photo, we’ve got our crappy air back.

Can’t have everything, I suppose.

New year, new site

I made one resolution for this year, and one resolution only. I will take at least one photo a day and post it on the web.

To that end, I now have a new blog called Steve’s Daily Pics. Three days in to the new year, and I haven’t missed a day yet. Just 362 to go.

Why am I doing this? Mostly, it’s an exercise for me to get used to my camera and get used to taking a more critical look at the world. There’s always something interesting going on. Time I actually took the time to see it.

As Neil Innes once said, “Ladies and gentleman, I’ve suffered for my art. Now it’s your turn.”