Wednesday, October 9, 2013

And Now For Something Completely Different

Music has charms to soothe the savage breast...

 Or to getchur groove on!


Is there anybody here who can imagine Andy Hall gettin' down with the Dramatics? Or Brooks Simpson groovin' to Gino Vannelli? Or Kevin Levin swingin' to Edgar Winter? I write fiction, but that takes more imagination that I've got....



Oo, oo, ah, ah..

It doesn't hurt yer eyes to look at this guy...
 

An' some metal, just 'cause....

Photoshop Fantasies or Photoshop Lies ... Which Is Worse?

1. Photoshop Lies
           2. A Tale of Two Photos

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Landscapin's Not All You Can Do With Photoshop

It can make almost anything look better ... well ... sort of....



Answerin' Andy (and Neil)

Since Andy Hall is too skeered to let me post comments at his blog, I'll have to do it here.

Neil Hamilton sez, "For myself, after all of this, the only thought that comes to mind is,'That’s all?' Well, at least the company/nation/outfit that made the flag got something out of it."

You were expecting more, Neil? Thank the floggers. They're the ones who created the brouhaha about it. I mean, Simpson made a blog post nearly EVery SINgle, FLIPpin' DAY after the I-95 project was announced.

And then there's Hall's misconstruing Grayson Jennings' comments on following a news story at the Times-Dispatch.

"Yup," Hall writes, " Even Grayson Jennings, A-List Virginia Flagger, isn’t trying to explain this, over at the Richmond newspaper in the comments. Apparently it was not intended to be seen year-round:"

And he pastes this comment from Grayson: "... and….did someone glue those leaves on the trees? Best I can recall,leaves generally fall….. in the fall…"

Hall continues, "Or for that matter, why do drivers on I-95 need to see it at all:" about this comment from Grayson: "The soldiers can see it….that’s all that matters."

Hall still can't seem to get it through his head that more trees will be coming down, but since it is a volunteer project, financed with donations (rather than, say, being financed by the Commonwealth or the feds) it will get done when it gets done.

He and Simpson are both like lttle kids. If they don't know about it, it hasn't happened ... and when they want something, they want it NOW. Their patience isn't as long as their p--pinky....

Update Oct. 3...

And he just keeps on carping...

Hall sez, "After seven weeks of interviews, calls for donations, YouTubes, Facebook — even posing on the Capitol steps with their new flag — all for the stated purpose of raising a flag to be seen by visitors driving into the city, one of the lead Flaggers now says it doesn’t matter if people on the freeway can’t see it."

For the stated purpose of raising a flag to be seen by visitors driving into the city? Let's test Hall's comment here against what Susan Hathaway told the Times-Dispatch....
“Basically, the flag is being erected as a memorial to the memory and the honor of the Confederate soldiers who sacrificed, bled and died to defend Virginia from invasion,” she said.

“This will tell people that everyone is welcome,” Hathaway said. “Why do we have to be a place where Southerners who are proud of our heritage are not welcome?”

“The flag will serve to welcome visitors and commuters to Richmond, and remind them of our honorable Confederate history and heritage,” Virginia Flagger Susan Hathaway wrote in a post on the Flaggers’ website.
Oops. He steps in it again.  Yes, the flag will welcome visitors traveling I-95, but the stated purpose of the flag is serving as a memorial to the memory and honor of Confederate soldiers....

Actually, the seven weeks was filled with more crap from floggers than it was any sort of communication from the VaFlaggers...   Since the flag went up? The Flaggers have been clipping along like normal --  celebrated their 2nd anniversary picnic, flagged the VMFA, and enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, a flood of emails and other communications of praise and congratulations.

What about the floggers?  The brouhaha in the floggosphere since it went up (comprising bellyaching, crap-slinging and ridicule, and generally showing floggers to be shallow, mean-spirited and hate-filled, not to mention jealous) seems to be much harder on the floggers than it is on VaFlaggers.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Deconstructing Flogger Ridicule

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
                                                                ~Oscar Wilde


One of the things I've enjoyed most about watching the flogger melt-down over the Virginia Flaggers I-95 project was the build-up of hate-bile they frequently spewed out disguised as questions like ... "Did the flaggers get a permit?" ... "Do they know how long the flags will last flying 24/7 in all kinds of weather, next to a busy roadway?"   Blah, blah, blah.

Floggers are so unsure of their own intelligence, they have to invent stupidity* and plaster it onto complete strangers so they'll have somebody to feel intellectually superior to, and assuage their cognitive embarrassment.**

Floggers are so unsure of their own ethics, integrity and honor that they have to invent dishonor and corruption to plaster onto complete strangers, so they'll have somebody they can feel morally superior to, and assuage their guilt.

Floggers are so unsure of their own decency, caring and concern (and they should be unsure, since they never demonstrate [with very few exceptions] decency, caring and concern) that they have to invent meanness to plaster onto complete strangers so they'll have somebody to feel righteously superior to, and assuage their shame.

Floggers are so devoid of the enjoyment of life, they have to invent sourness and plaster it onto complete strangers, so they can comfort themselves with the thought that people they hate are as miserable as they are.

So, they've picked the Virginia Flaggers to portray as incompetent, dishonorable, callous, and unhappy ... when this is actually the perfect description of floggers -- while the Virginia Flaggers are just the opposite.

Mackey's list of Virginia land-use requirements takes the cake, though. You don't start, build and own a successful specialized construction business in Virginia -- as one of the Flaggers has done -- without knowing the law, ya know? 

You'd think, the way the floggers pored over everything that appeared in online print and video about the flag project, they'd retain some of what they read. But if they did that -- or admitted to doing it -- they couldn't hurl the insults that give them such pleasure.

For example, that list of "land use" requirements.... I guess Mackey missed this in the Times Dispatch (or he's pretending he did): "Chesterfield spokesman Don Kappel said the county has no regulations or ordinances that would prohibit the planned display." And if there were state regulations that would prevent it, somebody would have used them much earlier -- in time to prevent the project. That lawyer, Cannon, maybe, who had the big US flag put on the construction equipment (which, of course, require no work on his part, as the construction company has already acquired all the necessary permits).

So you gotta wonder what Mackey gets out of that exercise in futility.

For another example, LibertyLip wants to know: "...what about this paranoid induced need for fencing, lights and … security cams? Who is going to pick up the electric bill for these big flood lights and 24 hour camera surveillance? How are they going to get the wiring done and make it weather proof?"

Big flood lights? Wiring? LibertyLip, who seems woefully technologically ignorant, apparently missed this quote from Susan Hathaway: "We definitely do plan on lighting her at night, most likely with solar lighting."

I can just hear the gears going in his head. Solar lighting? The sun shines in the day, you dipsticks! What's gonna light it at night, without wires and electricity?

Well, something like this, probably.

As for surveillance cameras, they can go solar, too, and transmit images wirelessly. Like this.

Wow, who'da thunk it? If an astute, with-it hip guy like LibertyLip doesn't know about solar power, who knew a bunch of people from VIRGINIA would know about it, huh.... 

But, hey, let the Floggers continue to think the Virginia Flaggers in particular, and Southern heritage folks in general, are a bunch of morons. It's good when your opponent underestimates you. That's why there's a flag flying beside the Interstate just outside of Richmond, Virginia, and LibertyLip, who wins against things like that -- always has and always will -- sits in defeat at the Crossroads comment thread.

Loser....

I must say, though, I'm still surprised Andy Hall stepped in such a big pile of intellectual crap. He saw the same pictures as everyone else. He saw how big the clearing was for the Dedication. He knows there is now just a perimeter of trees around the clearing -- thin enough to see chunks of the surrounding area -- and he knows there is still tree-cutting to be done, because he was told so. But he ignored that in favor of making that crack about "moving the overpass", because that sort of mean-spiritedness is what's in his heart, and that is much more important than acknowledging truth.

And he still  pretends the obsolete Google Earth pics showing a fully wooded lot are accurate.

Anybody who can concoct on-screen 3-D models like he does can follow and project the VDOT fenceline in the Dedication photos and see that most of the big trees still standing are on the private property side, not the right of way. He can see that most of the trees that need to be removed for visibility of the flag to northbound traffic have already been removed.

He can see it, but he can't admit to seeing it. Just like I'm sure he read this, in the Times Dispatch: "The flag will fly on a 50-foot pole, and will be visible from the northbound lane, said Susan Hathaway, founder of Virginia Flaggers,... Hathaway would not say where exactly the flag will be located, adding that it’s not yet clear if the flag will be visible from the southbound side of the highway."

I'm sure he also saw this quote from Susan, "Much of the site work will be by volunteers," and people who know anything about that understand that volunteers work on a project when they can -- but their primary responsibilities to family, job, school, church, etc., take priority.

But when you look at the photos of the Dedication, and see how much work has already been done clearing the site -- enough to get the truck in to set the pole, and accomodate the Dedication attendees -- that's quite a feat for volunteers to have accomplished in only a few weeks, particularly considering rain days, heat, humidity and other conditions to contend with.

But of course, when you hate (and hating is okay when it's GOOD hate, POSITIVE hate, and hurts people who DESERVE to be hurt, don't you know -- good hate like flogger hate) acknowledging such realities is not an option if it neutralizes the ridicule you're just dying to spew....





*This is why they only pay attention to a tiny handful of people who post at the SHPG.
**Most of the time, they do this in vast ignorance of the subject they're speaking about.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Flogger Mindset On Display

Comments from Corey's blog, regarding photos from the Virginia Flaggers flag raising:

Of course, you wouldn't see this at a Klan rally, so it cannot be acknowledged by floggers.

Happy reunion of old friends... JM Big Hoss Herman and Karen Cooper

 Blind spots have to be selectively created so haters like LibertyLip can maintain his "acceptable" and even "good and positive" hatred....

___________________
Screenshot edited by C. Ward; Photo by Judy Smith