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Mira

Mira's Journal
Mira's Journal
October 24, 2013

First thoughts are Nosferatu / Herzog and Kinski / and Dracula. Second thought: RATS

All of those thoughts are quite wrong. Here is what's really going on:

Photographer captures haunting beauty in abandoned buildings


Andre Govia has explored more than 800 locations to document what we've long forgotten
Haunting scenes from abandoned locations — hospitals, schools, houses, hotels, asylums and more — are what Andre Govia photographs. The London film-and-TV professional documents these buildings’ off-limits (and sometimes guarded) premises throughout Europe and often captures them exactly the way their occupants left them: cluttered, dusty, silent and honestly creepy.
He shared some of his beautiful and haunting work with Yahoo News this week.



http://news.yahoo.com/ghost-haunted-photos-abandoned-buildings-andre-govia-210849823.html

OR GO HERE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andregovia/
October 24, 2013

Color and fun were served up in the Appalachian mountains this weekend

Some years the color is spectacular, others it is muted. It depends on the amount of rainfall and the varying temperatures. But always at the peak of the fall season the Appalachian mountains are overrun with folks looking and enjoying themselves.
This was a couple of days ago near Asheville, NC














October 20, 2013

Refreshing and Smart suggestion for Republicans. A LTE in my paper today/ from a person in the South

A different approach

I’m a liberal Democrat, but I believe in our two-party system and would like a strong Republican Party to serve as a check and balance against the worst indulgences of my own party. The recent shutdown could end any such hope, though, as conservatives continue to discredit their ability to legislate and act rationally and threaten the very existence of their party.

But I’ve got a solution. The Republican Party could regain its momentum – and, incidentally, destroy Obamacare forever – by advocating a single-payer health-care system like the rest of the civilized world – including conservatives – has and endorses.

Just think about it: It would be pro-business, removing the burden and cost of health care from business owners. It would contain costs and thus be a boon to the middle class. And while it would have the handicap of repudiating the conservative claim that the federal government can’t do anything right, it would be the exact kind of care that our veterans and Medicare recipients receive, which conservatives support.
Doubters could be schooled in the “American exceptionalism” that would make it work better here than anywhere in the world. And it would eliminate the stereotype of Republicans as regressives who care about no one but themselves. Indeed, it would be far more progressive than anything Democrats ever offered.

If the Republicans did this, they would draw many new recruits to their ranks. And they would perform an inestimable service to the country.

HB
WINSTON-SALEM, NC

http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article_d2dd8ee0-3822-11e3-9e81-001a4bcf6878.html
October 18, 2013

Meanwhile back in Old Europe: Protesters stopped Nazi war criminal's funeral in Italy. Video/story

My Mom who lives in Germany told me about this. She says the body is unclaimed at this point. No country wants it.





Protesters gather to show their anger at Erich Priebke's funeral procession

The funeral service for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke in Italy has been halted amid angry protests.
More than 500 people in the city of Albano Laziale shouted "murderer" and "executioner", and clashed with Nazi sympathisers, as his coffin passed.
The former German SS officer, who was jailed for life in 1998 over the killing of more than 300 civilians, died under house arrest last week.
His death led to fierce debate over what to do with his body.
That question remains after the funeral was suspended on Tuesday evening.


snip

Priebke was one of the SS officers present during the killing of men and boys at Rome's Ardeatine Caves in 1944, in a reprisal attack ordered by Adolf Hitler for the killing of 33 German soldiers in Rome by resistance fighters.
He died aged 100 and had never apologised for his actions.
The Vatican had issued an unprecedented ban on holding the funeral in any Catholic church in Rome.
Argentina, where Priebke lived for nearly 50 years before being extradited to Italy, has refused to take the body.
But the Society of St Pius X - a Catholic splinter group which has in the past faced criticism over anti-Semitic leanings among its members - offered to hold the ceremony.

'Take him to the landfill'
Angry demonstrators who had gathered in Albano Laziale jeered at and hit the hearse carrying Priebke's coffin as it made its way to the funeral.


Story and videos here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24544380
October 17, 2013

Obama Declares National Day of Gloating -short lived, but hearty. By Andy Borowitz



WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Residents of the District of Columbia were roused from their sleep by a massive fireworks display over the White House just after midnight, as President Obama declared what he called “a national day of gloating.”
“It would not be productive for this nation, going forward, to crow about our victory over political adversaries,” he said in a nationally televised address. “So let’s get it all out of our systems today.”

Immediately after the President’s speech, loudspeakers outside the White House blasted “We Are the Champions,” and the national day of gloating began.

In addition to a ticker-tape parade, the day’s events will include a screening on the Mall of a clip reel of Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s marathon Senate speech, punctuated by sad trombone sounds.

“Starting tomorrow, my message to the Republicans is, ‘Let’s work together for the American people,’?” said Obama, wearing what appeared to be a beer hat. “But today my message is, ‘We won, bitchaz.’?”

www.borowitzreport.con
October 17, 2013

Rept... Republican...Repug...Let Julia Roberts put it in alphabetical order



My comment on changes in my life:
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away I had some friends who were Republican. Some of them have seen the light over time. It has become sadly true that I can no longer be friendly with the others.

Mira

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