A Light Diversion

Ole' Pliny has been battling against the forces of evil and disease so I've been a bit out of pocket. The battle goes well and the new year may be a big one.

On the eve of what I hope is a splendid holiday for you all I'm posting some images of some of my favorite flags. Wonder how many you recognize...




I submitted this one to the contest to design a new Oregon flag - didn't win.



The above is my Mac screen saver

Well, that would have sucked!

Mohamed Mohamud (is that like Duran Duran?). A twisted teen douche bag who thought it would be grand to blow up a bunch of families at a tree lighting ceremony. Funny to know that you and yours were the target of a murderer. Thought it was a good way to show his faith - not faithful enough to blow himself up too, but hey he was just a weekend jihadist.

Interesting perspectives around Bridgetown.

• Fire bomb his mosque (no doubt a pickup and some beer were involved with this at some level)
• Host a candlelight vigil at his damaged mosque to show support for religious freedom
• Station a lot more police around the transit centers.
• Have a really bad week if you look or dress a certain way carrying a backpack.
  
• Call it entrapment when he remote triggered his dud bomb from the safety of Union Station. (He should have suspected something was amiss when he found Doris Day parking downtown.)
• Rail that Portland quit the joint terrorism task force
• Rail that it’s an FBI conspiracy to punish us for quitting the joint task force
• Complain that the FBI sure went through all the motions to prove this was a legit attempt.
• Complain that this is the same FBI that framed an odd duck lawyer in town for the Madrid bombings
• Complain that the mayor was at the ceremony and was never informed that he was in absolutely no danger (well, at least from the bomber guy...)
• Wonder why in 2010 we still let large windowless vans park next to huge public affairs (particularly ones with six 55 gallon drums in the back).
• Wonder who sold six 55 gallon drums to a angry looking teenager.
  
• We are catching the Kramer lookalike shoe bombers and the idiot kids - but what about the real dudes who aren’t complete idiots?
  
• Portland! are you kidding me? So much for being a city known for acceptance of most anything. We do draw the line for acceptable behavior somewhere north of corpse strewn streets.
  
• If it had been real, coming off an airline gropefest to find out that all that security would have just meant you wasted 30 minutes of your last day...