"YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS ARE AS DAZZLING AS YOUR SUBJECTS"

Monday, December 31, 2012

HILLARY CLINTON GREETS THE NEW YEAR IN THE HOSPITAL

THE SECRETARY OF STATE  
IS KEPT FOR OBSERVATION 
OF A BLOOD CLOT 


HILLARY CLINTON 
in the service of 
her country 
at the APEC summit 
in Vladivostok, Russia 
September 2012  

Some of the details of 
the hospitalization 
"serious but treatable" 
since December 30, 2012, here 

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

BOXES FOR BOXING DAY

BOXES IN THE 
THRONE ROOM 


GEUNJEONGJEON THRONE HALL  
KYONGBOK (GYEONGBOK) PALACE 
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA 

A bit of a wider view, here 

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A WHITE CHRISTMAS

A SNOWY, FOGGY 
CHRISTMAS MORNING 


MONOCACY RIVER 2012 

Saturday, December 22, 2012

FORMER SPEAKER JIM WRIGHT IS NINETY

JAMES C. WRIGHT, JR. 
b. December 22, 1922 


JIM WRIGHT (D-TX)  
in his Congressional Leadership Days 
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives 
1955-1989 
Speaker, 1987-1989 

His Congressional Biography here 

THE SEOUL BLUES: A RAINY TWILIGHT

NORTH FROM 
GANGNAM 


LOOKING ACROSS THE HAN RIVER 
AS NIGHT FALLS ON A 
RAINY DAY IN SEOUL, KOREA 

Monday, December 17, 2012

CHRIS MATTHEWS IS SIXTY-SEVEN

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MATTHEWS 
b. December 17, 1945 


CHRIS MATTHEWS 
AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM 
CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL OF 
THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL 
Boston, Massachusetts 
December 9, 2012 

THE VIDEO here 

MORE ON THE TIP O'NEILL CENTENNIAL
here and here and here and here 

MORE ON TIP O'NEILL here 

TOM O'NEILL & THE TIP O'NEILL KENNEDY LIBRARY CENTENNIAL IV

THE KENNEDY LIBRARY 
CELEBRATES THE CENTENNIAL 
OF THOMAS P. O'NEILL,  JR. 


THOMAS P. O'NEILL III LISTENS 
Boston, Masschusetts 
December 9, 2012 

MORE ON THE CENTENNIAL 
here and here and here 
THE VIDEO here 
More on TIP O'NEILL here 

Sunday, December 16, 2012

KIP O'NEILL & THE TIP O'NEILL KENNEDY LIBRARY CENTENNIAL III

KIP O'NEILL HONORS 
HIS FATHER 


CHRISTOPHER R. ("KIP") O'NEILL 
SPEAKS AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY 
FORUM CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL 
OF SPEAKER THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL, JR. 
Boston, December 9, 2012 

The video is here; Kip O'Neill comes in at about 1:27 
More on the Kennedy Library Forum is here 
More on Tip O'Neill here 

Friday, December 14, 2012

TIP O'NEILL IS HONORED AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY II

SCENES FROM 
THE CENTENNIAL 
CELEBRATION OF 
THOMAS P. O'NEILL, JR. 


CHARLES GIBSON (l) TELLS A 
TIP O'NEILL STORY; AL HUNT (r) 
IS AN APPRECIATIVE AUDIENCE 

John F. Kennedy Library 
Boston, December 9, 2012 

TIP here 

More to come 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

IN HONOR OF THE CENTENNIAL OF TIP O'NEILL

THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL, JR. 
b. December 9, 1912 


TIP IN A TUX 
REDUX 


More Tip 

To be celebrated at the Kennedy Library 
December 9, 2012 

Video of the Kennedy Library Forum 
"Celebrating the Life of Tip O'Neill" 
here 


Saturday, December 8, 2012

NEW YORK AT NIGHT: "THE LIGHTS ARE MUCH BRIGHTER THERE"

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 
DAZZLES 


A MOMENT IN WHICH 
THERE IS STILL 
THE JOY OF FLYING 

Friday, December 7, 2012

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER HAN...THE NIGHT VIEW II

NIGHT BRIDGE 
WITH TRAIN 


A TRAIN RUNS THROUGH IT 
A RHAPSODY IN 
ORANGE AND BLUE 

Another view here 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

CHINA MAKES A NEW LAW AGAINST SELF-IMMOLATION

AGAINST 
SELF-IMMOLATION 



MARCHING PAST THE GREAT HALL OF THE PEOPLE 
THE FIRST DAY OF THE 18TH CONGRESS 
OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 
Beijing, November 8, 2012 

The Washington Post reported on December 6, 2012, that "Self-immolators and their abettors [in China] will be charged with murder." The Post notes that "An unprecedented 91 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past 18 months...." 

The security clampdown during the 18th Party Congress has been much remarked.  One element of it was the presence of men with
firefighting equipment marching past the Great Hall of the People (above) and otherwise present nearby, including notably on Chang'an Jie, the Avenue of Eternal Peace. 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

JIM PLUNKETT TURNS SIXTY-FIVE

JAMES WILLIAM PLUNKETT 
b. December 5, 1947 


JIM PLUNKETT 
AS 
 A NEW ENGLAND PATRIOT 

Quarterback:  Winner, Heisman Trophy (Stanford, 1970); 
Two Super Bowl Victories, XV & XVIII 
(Oakland Raiders, 1980, 1983) 

A long profile from recent years, here; two articles, here and here (with contemporary photographs). 

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

HANDICAPPING THE REPUBLICANS WHO DID NOT LISTEN TO DOLE

THE REPUBLICANS 
TURN THEIR BACKS ON DOLE  


Senator ROBERT J. DOLE (R-Kansas) 
Photographed for Business Week 
Published in the July 19, 1982 issue (p. 52) 

Former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican Presidential Nominee Bob Dole, disabled serving his country in World War II, came to the Senate floor today, in a wheelchair, to lend his support to the American ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Only eight of the U.S. Senators of the Grand Old Party voted to ratify the treaty.  Thirty-eight Republicans having voted against, the two-thirds majority needed for ratification was not reached. 

HANDICAPPING THE PUTIN VERTICAL

VLADIMIR PUTIN'S SPINE 
IS ONCE AGAIN 
IN THE NEWS 


PRESIDENT PUTIN 
HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE 
AT THE END OF THE 2012 APEC SUMMIT 
Vladivostok, Russia, September 9, 2012 

"Transfers" can be hard (transferring from standing to sitting, or from sitting to standing); ask someone who knows. 

Why this is in the news again:  Since the Vladivostok APEC Summit (above), Vladimir Putin had been taking to working at his country home (which sounds like a variation on the Yeltsin-era "working with documents").  In Vladimir Vladimirovich's case, the noble reason given was to not tie up Moscow traffic.  But the president was also canceling meetings with foreign leaders, those who would have come to him as well as those whom he would have had to travel to meet. 

Finally, he emerged to travel to Turkey to meet with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan on December 3.  Then he was reported to have "winced as he lowered himself into an armchair," prompting the Prime Minister to "bend solicitously as if to help him," and a photograph was made. 

More on Istanbul excursion and some speculation here and here and here. 

A little more on the backstory:  Just before showing up on Vladivostok's Russky Island for the Russian Far Eastern APEC Summit, Putin undertook to help some endangered Siberian cranes.     
 He suited up (a rather dazzling white suit) and took off in a motorized hang glider to lead "a group of the captivity-raised birds onto their correct migratory path." 

It was afterwards speculated that this stunt might have injured (or re-injured) his back.  But it also gave the president a chance to boast that only the "weak" cranes did not follow his lead. And he did sit for a longish press conference. And then came his sixtieth birthday, and then the non-appearances. 

Monday, December 3, 2012

BEIJING HANDICAPPED SIGN: IN HONOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

A BEIJING HANDICAPPED SIGN 
AT NIGHT 


ON CHANG'AN JIE 
ON THE NORTH SIDE OF 
TIANANMEN SQUARE 

In Honor of December 3, 

"Over one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent 
of the world’s population, live with some form of disability." 

For an earlier posting on 
"Two Decades of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 
see here 

For the story of 
"Crossing Tiananmen Square by Wheelchair," 
ask (post a Comment, below

For show & tell on 
"Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy," 
see here 

Sunday, December 2, 2012

RODERICK MACFARQUHAR HAS A BIRTHDAY ... AND A CONFERENCE

RODERICK MacFARQUHAR 
Birthday December 2 


November 30-December 1, 2012 
"Chinese Politics Past and Present: The 18th Party Congress"