A relentless photo quest

Is it worth the trip to Fremantle, Western Australia, just to see this statue?

[Note:   This photo pops up repeatedly on a Google Image search.   We took this photo in Fremantle in late 2008 and posted it on our blog.   It took an effort to find the floppy disk with the original file, but that's what we used to post it here.   Hence we do have the file owner's permission to use it.   We don't recall anyone else asking us if they could use it.]

Does Flower Power grow out of the barrel of a gun?

Is it time to write a trend spotting column about snapshot collecting?

[Note:   In an effort to enhance the reading on the humor scale, this column will be found to contain trace elements of braggadocio and fabricated verisimilitude.]

Due to the fact that a member of the Fortyniners did his imitation of Bill Bruckner style clutch performance twice in one game last Sunday, we are obliged [It's never fun to lose a bet] to start this week's weekend wrap up by plugging a blog ( www.franknicodemus.org

 {did she say it was the Cadillac of blogs or a blog about Cadillacs?}) for a Giants fan and then proceeding on to our regularly scheduled ration of amazingly perceptive and insightful political punditry interwoven with unique observations about pop culture.

Are the mainstream media pundits pointing out the absurd spectacle presented by the fact that a year long cavalcade of clichés proclaiming that the most important Presidential election ever?   It is starting with a concerted effort by top Republican personalities to discredit the two leading candidates.   How dare the Republican rank 'n' file voters think that they can select the nominee!   Isn't the core principle of a Republic that only qualified persons (such as men who own land) can vote?   Well then only folks like Bob Dole and Karl Rove should be consulted when it comes time to write a news story that will refer to "the Republican frontrunner."  

If it ain't gonna be Romney or Gingrich, then who will it be?   If the experts on the weekend shouting matches can't tell you that, do you really expect the World's Laziest Journalist to make an accurate prediction which will spoil the surprise?   Here's a hint:   what totally qualified Republican has the initials:   J. E. B.?

The Republicans lately have been rather insistent about starting a tiny, quick war with Iran.   The Republicans always harshly criticize everything Obama does.   If President Obama starts a war with Iran; will that force the Republicans into making a tough fielder's choice decision?   They can either cheer him on in the conduct of a blitzkrieg in the Gulf or they can denounce him for doing what they wanted to do.  

Even if President Obama starts a new war they really want, and even if he personally goes into battle and wins a Medal of Honor and the war is won in thirty minutes, the Republicans would sincerely ridicule that as being a despicable inept spectacle that has brought shame and dishonor to the country.

Where can we get a photo that contrasts flower power with a soldier's weapon to illustrate the dilemma facing the USA this week?   There was an iconic Sixties image that showed a hippie guy placing the stem of a flower into the barrel of an M-1.   That image is rather common on the Internets, but we won't use it because we don't know who owns the rights to the famous shot, so that makes getting permission to use that shot a moot question.

Berkeley CA is rather synonymous with both flower power and anti-war demonstrations and, as luck would have it, to promote the current production at the Ashby Stage (home of the Shotgun Players) a relevant new mural is being used to tout it.   It is a graphic design featuring an M-16 with a flower dangling from the gun barrel.   Click.   Voila!   We now have in our possession, a digital file of an image that makes getting permission to use it seem like a schizophrenic's soliloquy .

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