The willingness to send others off to die for a misguided war because you wet your pants after 9/11 is called “cowardice” not courage.
–Atrios (via AB, with a hattip to PR)
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Monthly Archive for May, 2006
I’m not done with the travelogue yet, but I’m going to take a break to bring you these news nuggets:
Sigh. I’m not sure how much worse things have to become in Iraq before the dimwits that dreamed up the whole stupid mess will finally admit that it was a mistake. These bozos let bin Laden wander away, they built a monument to America’s disregard for fundamental rights at Guantánamo Bay, compounded that image problem with our actions at Abu Graib and other prisons, turned Haditha into the Iraq War’s My Lai, and now American soldiers have shot and killed a pregnant woman who was trying to get to the hospital to give birth. Can we please, finally, stick a fork in this unbelievably idiotic waste of lives, resources and our former good will?
In other news, George Bush lies so much, no one even cares any more. They yawn, they are not surprised, they turn back to whatever “reality” TV is on tonight…
Oh, and Batwoman is a lesbian.
And this is just so very, very sad:
I had a friend die on 9/11 in Tower One, and the son of another friend in the Pentagon (I live in Maryland). I was heartbroken and angry as hell at Osama. I felt more patriotic than usual — and I am usually very patriotic (even if what we did to Native Americans always pissed me off). But now, unfortunately, Bush has ruined my feelings for this country. I’m ashamed. 9/11 has become a sort of bastardized event where the sadness I feel now is directed at how 9/11 has been used and abused. Osama wanted to destroy our infrastructure and Bush played right into his hands. I’m so angry. And why this man is not impeached just kills me. I believe America has been lost. It started under Reagan, and now it is complete. I have no more hope. I think 9/11 actually destroyed us. The problem is it really wasn’t Osama that did it — it was Bush, the media, and the scores of ignorant Americans that have forgotten what we stand for. I actually hate the America that now exists. Thanks, George.
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Here’s another cool Otto Wagner building in Vienna, the Postsparkasse.
We went by the morning after we saw the Wagner Apartments, on our way to the nearby MAK, which we visited primarily to see Secession art (I was pleasantly surprised to find a piece by Margaret McDonald Macintosh there), but I also enjoyed seeing the furniture and panels from David Roentgen. From there, we went over to the Belvedere (below), to see the Gustav Klimt collection. We finished up that day at the Museum of Fine Arts (highlights there included Brueghel and Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath).
We ran out of time, so we didn’t get to follow our thread through to see the actual Secession Building and Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze until the end of the week (where my luck with [a lack of] light on buildings continued, as you can see). This building also serves as the companion to the bookend I mentioned in yesterday’s post.
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This is an image that puts a bookend at the beginning of the trip for me. These are the Wagner Apartments and we saw them at the end of our first full day in Vienna. They were designed by Otto Wagner, who also designed the Karlsplatz Pavilions, where our group had stopped for a photo at the start of the day. From there, we went on to visit the Historial Museum of Vienna, the Freud Museum and the Hofburg Palace Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum and Treasury.
It was a full day, so we opted to stay close to home for dinner and wandered past the Wagner apartments along our way (”home” was the Hotel Ananas, which is right next to the Pilgramgasse U-Bahn stop). These buildings are just outside the Kettenbrückengasse station, near the Secession Building and Naschmarkt, which we would be visiting later in the trip. But more importantly, Wagner was part of the Secession artists group, which would provide a thread that ran through many of the places we got to visit in Vienna (I do love the Art Nouveau!).
This particular image kept repeating for me throughout the trip, as we were to pass it again and again when we visited sites nearby. It was hard to photograph — getting the whole thing in the frame would have been difficult because it was all so close to the other buildings in the area, and that would have caused an unacceptable loss of detail anyway — and I never did catch it in full sun. I looked on the web to see what other photographers did with the challenge, and they all seemed to struggle along with me.
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Happy Memorial Day! I’m going to try to post a photo or two of my trip today, and maybe add a few others over the course of the coming week.
We visited Vienna (and environs) in the company of some friends with whom we’ve been traveling on an annual basis for about a decade now. After a few years visiting wine countries (we went to Italy and France in our previous two trips), it was a nice change of pace to visit a county that is also known for its beer. After a long day of touring, it can be a real treat to sit back after dinner, enjoy a beverage and hear how the day went for our fellow travelers. This photo was from the first day’s postmortem, when we sampled a beer from Salzburg.
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According to the Washington Times, the US is disliked more than ever by people around the world. But from what I’ve seen on my recent trip to Vienna and in past annual trips to Europe, it’s not the US, or Americans, who are hated — at least in Europe, anyway — it’s Bush that they can’t stand.
These posters were plastered all over the subways and streets of Vienna last week. They refer to Bush’s plans to attend an EU Summit in Vienna on June 21st (I do hope he’s not expecting friendly crowds there).
Additionally, many of the posters provided further opportunity for locals to express themselves, resulting in a number like this one. As the week wore on, I saw fewer and fewer posters that hadn’t been defaced in some way.
The mocking of Bush has even become part of corporate advertising campaigns (the inset more clearly shows the happy meeting between Bush and bin Laden):
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It’s been a rough day here. The blog was down from last night until just a few minutes ago, and a big storm took out the power here three times this evening. All the plans I had to put up some pictures have been foiled for now, but I did spend some time looking into blogging software (if anyone has any suggestions, please share!). I’m thinking about switching over to blogger if I can manage to find the time I’ll need to deal with the hassle…
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We’re back from Vienna (we made it, anyway — our luggage got stuck in Amsterdam). Yesterday we were awake for 26 hours straight and enjoyed two buses, three planes and a car ride. Whew. I’ll get some photos up soon. In the meantime, I’ve missed a few boardings, so I better get something up on today’s ark.
I just picked up the dog at the kennel this morning and am very happy to see her, so here’s another friday creature photo featuring our (standard) cockapoo. It’s a picture I took right before we left town. There aren’t many things as steady as a dog’s eye if you’re holding something she wants.
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I’m heading out of town in the morning, so I’ll leave you with this photo of a Norwegian landscape (which I wish I had taken!), in honor of the country’s Constitution Day tomorrow. The link (which has more photos!) came to me via a friend in Norway (I got to spend some time there a few years ago, and it is definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth — even these breathtaking photos don’t do it justice).
I’ll be in Vienna for the next week or so and I may or may not be updating while I’m gone. I figure if things end up being quiet here for a while, at least there will something pretty to look at if anyone comes by checking for an update. I’ve had this picture open in a browser tab for days now and I never get tired of looking at it. Click on the image to go to a larger view and to see more photos.
ps. Also for tomorrow: Happy Birthday, Mom!
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Yeah! The New York phenomenon has come to our fair city! Are you ready? Are you listening?!?! Get on this, folks 
(via akijikan).
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