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My Letter to Senator Corker

In addition to registering my displeasure concerning the economic bailout package, I sent this to Senator Corker (I also sent similar messages to Senator Alexander and Representative Wamp).

Dear Senator Corker,

I encourage you to oppose the economic bailout proposal that is currently on the table. Your US Senate web site states that promoting fiscal responsibility is one of your priorities, and not bailing out these businesses that have made poor choices and are now facing failure as a result is the only fiscally responsible thing to do.

For almost 200 years now, starting after the War of 1812, our government has bailed out banks that recklessly lent money. Because our government has shown a willingness to try to exempt such businesses from the consequences of their poor business decisions, we have created an industry that knows that there is a higher-than-normal probability that they will not have to face such consequences. As a result, we have an environment where banks that would lend and do business responsibly are at a competitive disadvantage, and are thus punished for their wise decisions.

As a nation we are now facing the consequences of our poor choices to bail out banks time and again. The era of easy credit has resulted in a “false boom” and we collectively owe more money than we ever have any hope of repaying. We must allow these banks and businesses to fail, and allow the economy to return to its natural state.

Allowing the banks to fail will, of course, be a painful choice. It is going to hurt every citizen of our nation. However, like the proverbial spoiled child who has never been told “no” … somebody needs to step in and make the hard, unpopular choice.

This economic bailout package will simply keep us on the same path we’re already on. It may temporarily delay the inevitable economic correction that we are going to experience, but it will only make it worse when it arrives.

Again, I urge you to take a strong stand against this package.

Best regards,
Jeremy Clifton

Normal Park Upper School

Turns out you don’t really need a tripod for night photography after all. A few random rocks placed properly can suffice quite well.

Normal Park Upper School

Camera Time

I’m finally starting to feel like I’m “one with the camera” so to speak. For two of the three photos below, I only took two exposures (the sign detail and the typewriter). For the third, of the desks/wall, I only took three. It’s nice to be able to dial in pretty much exactly what you want.

Click on the images to jump to Flickr and see larger versions.

Modern-Day Jeremiah

Summer’s over; time to start blogging again. My Mac buddies got me hooked on Twitter, but I’m too long-winded to get everything into 140 characters most of the time. :-)

Wanna guess who predicted the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle five years ago? Nobody important … just some nut job who ran for president (hat tip to Father Hollywood who has an interesting twist to the whole thing).

People, we gotta wake up and realize that if we keep trying to spend on credit nationally, sooner or later pretty much everything we think we own belongs to folks outside of our borders. Period.

“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Profit, profit,’ But there is no profit.” (apologies to Jeremiah and God)

Argh! Programmer Stupidity!

So, I’ve been trying to run down a problem with a web app I’m working on since about 2 p.m. today. Since then I’ve probably put about five hours into finding the “problem.”

This particular app stores its data in an XML database. I thought that the app wasn’t saving part of the data, because every time I updated the data on my local copy and checked the XML file, the file didn’t reflect the changes I’d made.

I just discovered the problem. Although I was testing the app locally, I was checking the XML data from the development VPS at the datacenter. Kind of hard for my local copy to update the database at the datacenter.

I think this means it’s time for a break …

Sigh. This is disturbing … and sad.

So, apparently this is really old, but my brother just shared this with me tonight. I’m pretty much speechless.

The Ordination of William Miller

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Taken on Holy Trinity Sunday (May 18, 2008) at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, Chattanooga, TN

TennBridge at Night

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This is one of the first shots I’ve taken at night since I applied the Canon firmware hack to my camera. The exposure time was 64 seconds at f/3.2. I took the shot at approximately 11:30 p.m.

The TennBridge is one of my favorite spots to shoot. It’s a double-tracked vertical lift railroad bridge, and one of the longest of its type in the US. There is a lot of railroad traffic over the bridge … four separate trains crossed tonight while I was out there, and I was only out for a little over an hour.

If you look closely, just this side of the lift part of the span, you’ll see that one pier isn’t quite like the others … it’s older, white, and round. This is a remnant of the original bridge; the movable part of the span rotated on that pier.

Chattanooga Traffic at Night



Originally uploaded by vintage_car
I love night shots, and this one is a great one …

Curing Tobacco and Flickr Addiction

Tobacco Curing
Tobacco Curing
Originally uploaded by esywlkr
So, I’m now addicated to Flickr. I’ve started uploading some of my better shots, and in the last 24 hours have discovered groups and have started looking at shots other folks have taken.

I just found this image of burley tobacco curing in Haywood County. I know it’s not the same thing, but it reminds me of the wonderful smell of tobacco curing in the old gas-fired barns back home when I was growing up. Not the more modern bulk barns, but the ubiquitous tobacco barns that at least used to dot central North Carolina. Seems like every time I go back home there are less of them around … and it’s been years since I’ve smelled that wonderful smell.

How I miss that smell …