The Wrecking Crew

Listening to the audiobook of The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank, which is just a staggering account of how the "conservative" movement has been working from within to destroy the functions of the US government so they could be privatized and plundered. Really worth checking out if you're political at ALL, especially if you consider yourself a conservative -- you can see what's being done in your name.

We've seen various huge, obvious examples of it over the past few years -- huge tasks the military used to do itself have been outsourced to private contractors, the effort to divert social security funds into the stock market, dismantling FEMA from being a highly efficient operation to a blundering bunch of criminal sub-sub-contractors, with nobody accountable to anyone. Frank's book shows how it's happening throughout the government.

It occurred to me at one point, and Franks later confirmed it, that some of these "conservatives" have such hatred of the government and are SO far to the right, they are wrapping around the spectrum to practically being anarchists. It's a really grim prospect. Seems my best option for surviving it is to create some bogus non-profit "foundation" like the "Free Americans United for Freedom" or something and start sending out urgent fund-raising letters, promising contributors that the foundation is dedicated to "uniting free Americans in the defense of freedom" which is obviously something that is frail and under attack. Care to contribute? Simply click here.

Angel on a rainy night

Some of the highlights from my shoot with Angel on a cold and rainy night a few weeks back. We had our first shoot last year, which was one of her first modeling shoots, and we were both quite pleased with the results. She's since started doing more modeling with area photographers and attending group shoots to diversify her portfolio, and seems to be having a great time doing it. She's trained as a dancer, which translates into a strong ability to pose and be aware of what her body is doing when she's posing.

She'd been sort of fascinated by the rain that was falling for the duration of the shoot, so I just decided we should go out and do a few shots in the rain. Afterward, we did the wet hair shots in the studio, which are probably my favorites of the night. Thanks Angel for the shoot, braving public nudity in the rain, and for your patience. :)