Thursday, December 22, 2005

High Culture


IMG013, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

We discovered an undeveloped roll of film and were delighted to find these photos from last year's Oregon Country Fair!

The Inkwells


IMG005, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Probably our favorite jug band. Certainly the funniest and hardest working!

Amy, Zai Velvet and Kelly


IMG021, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Kelly is one of our oldest friends, but this was our first encounter with Amy and Zai. What a treat!

Ride 'em India!


IMG025, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

I nick named this rocking horse 'ol skull crusher' since he was placed in the kid's area with lots of young 'uns crawling under his rockers! It took a few hours till some prudent soul blocked him from rocking. A majestic steed none-the-less.

Love that funky style!


IMG004, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Rob's Conspiracy Corner

Conspiracy:
1) An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2) A group of conspirators.
3) Law. An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.

Perhaps the most clever conspiracy ever began some years back when the very word 'conspiracy' began to be actively associated with mental instability, irrationality, illogic and tin foil hats. I don't remember when this all started and I'm too lazy to research it, but damn, what a great way to keep things in the dark. Practically no one likes to be branded a 'conspiracy theorist'.

There are so many conspiracies these days, mostly involving crooked CEOs shafting the public or the companies they're running--Enron being the poster child. All too boring. I want to focus on a few choice right wing conspiracies that seem to make most folks I know very uncomfortable. Why focus on these? Maybe at a certain point it becomes appropriate to pick at a scab. I think we're becoming a scab-centered nation. At any rate...

ROB'S CONSPIRACY CORNER
1) STOLEN ELECTIONS. Bush did not win either presidential election. Michael Moore did a fairly good job explaining the first one. The second time they simply changed the vote tallies electronically. They didn't have to rig each electronic voting machine (although it's clear that many were indeed 'fixed'). They only had to hack the GEMS tabulators. They did this in several states, most notably Ohio, but also a few other close ones. It's clear to me that they pre-figured a somewhat believable margin ahead of time, nothing too obvious, and nailed a few swing states. Diebold's CEO, who openly bragged about delivering Ohio for Bush, has just resigned and his company is facing several shareholder lawsuits.
So what does it all mean? We don't know how many of our elected officials were actually elected by the people and how many were selected by a criminal conspiracy bent on looting state and federal treasuries, de-regulating everything in sight and possibly orchestrating a fascist takeover. Scary stuff. No wonder people don't want to hear about it, which, thank's to our second conspiracy, they don't have to!
2) CORRUPTED MEDIA. Yes, I'm talking about the New York Times too. Way back in the early 80's folks were yelling about GE, the biggest defense contractor, owning NBC the second largest TV network. Or something like that. (I warned you that I'm being lazy here.)
So by now it's all sewn up by that 'vast right wing conspiracy' that Hillary Clinton was excoriated for revealing. It's true. It isn't just Fox (Faux) News. You just aren't going to hear about certain things via the Main Stream Media. If it weren't for the internet I think America would be long gone, except perhaps in name.
3) 911. I spent so many hours researching this one, only to find out that nobody wanted to hear a damn thing I had to say. Way too scary. And way too big. Here are a few of the major points:
a. Bush did it. Of course by 'Bush' I mean Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld et al. The neocon game plan Project For A New American Century calls for another Pearl Harbor type event to galvanize the public to war. Hitler's Reichstag fire is another apt analogy. Hitler blamed the communists. Bush blamed the terrorists.
b. The towers didn't fall because of the impact or fire. They were demolished. Along with building 7, which was not hit by a jet or any falling debris.
c. The Pentagon was not hit by Flight 77. The hole is too small and there isn't any debris. The scary thing is wondering what actually became of that flight.
d) The morning of 911 a number of simulated attacks were being staged in joint military/civilian excercises, being run through the white house. This is why no military jets were scrambled to intercept, in the most heavily guarded airspace in the world. Even though the airliners were off course for more than 45 minutes and it violated established procedure not to interecept them. They were told to stand down because it was just another simulation.
There's more. A lot more. For example, it may be that there were no hijackers at all! The technology to fly airliners remotely has apparently been around for many years. Someone made a millions of dollars by placing stock 'puts' against the two airlines involved. They clearly had fore knowledge of the attacks. But the investigation was stopped cold. Also, several of the 'hijackers' did their flight training at a CIA run flight school in Florida! And they flunked. It goes on and on.
Theologian David Ray Griffin has done an excellant job of raising questions about the official conspiracy theory in his book The New Pearl Harbor. It's clear to me that the whole thing was carried out to facilitate the overthrow of the US government by right wing criminal conspirators. They came pretty close to succeeding too! We are still teetering on the brink of becoming a police state, but yesterday the Patriot Act was defeated in congress.
Well, that's all for today's CONSPIRACY CORNER. Enjoy your day and keep that tin foil hat on straight!
love to you all,
rob
ps: just to end on a positive note...

Monday, December 05, 2005

Hiking


CIMG5222, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

We really do live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. After days and days of rain, we finally got a nice sunny day. A blue sky with no chemtrails in sight. And all that rain filled the little creeks and streams. Beautiful!
We were slated to go to the goddess festival but changed our plans. (I think I've mentioned that this is the first time in 13 years we haven't been vendors at holiday shows. We aren't even going to go to any! I think we're nearly phobic.)
Eden's friend Aja came with us and was great company. Right at the start, up on the hill, the wind was very fierce and cold. But down in the valleys it was lovely.
Krista packed us an awesome picnic lunch which we devoured between climbing an ancient bay tree and rock hopping in the creek.

Eden and Aja


CIMG5264, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Good friends.

So Happy Together


CIMG5255, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

This just happens to be the park where we got hitched some 20 years ago. It really has good juju. At least for us.

India illuminated


CIMG5271, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Checking out the flowering bay trees and beautiful horse chestnuts.

Me and Eden


CIMG5248, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Aja took this one.

A good time was had by all.


CIMG5283, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.