Finally signed up for Flickr, thoughts on that later, hopefully I’ll be uploading some images from the gates later today directly from my phone.

It’s a good idea to bring matches or a lighter to birthday parties. Fire seems to be the thing most often forgotten.

Sometime late last year while braving a torrential rainstorm on our way to a weekend morning playdate, we arrived at the First Ave L-Train station shortly after a large section of wall had collapsed onto the Brooklyn bound tracks. By the look of things, water had been seeping behind the wall for some time and finally pushed it’s way through. I took a picture with my phone and didn’t think much about it again.

I stumbled across that image last night while cleaning out some old files. There was no date. After a lot of Google searching, it seems that no one ever posted anything about this, no news, no blogs, no MTA advisory.

Based on the poster for Lost, I’m guessing the wall fell sometime between August and October of 2004. If you saw it and know the date, let me know.

Congress is set to substantially increase indecency fines for broadcast media.

“With passage of this legislation, I am confident that broadcasters will think twice about pushing the envelope.” —Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich

Speaking as a creative professional, that ranks among the worst quotes I’ve ever seen from a politician.

Increased fines aren’t the problem, and may actually be a solution to the greater problem of arbitrary guidelines and de-facto moral police. In the long run we’re better off enforcing dumb laws because it increases the likelihood that said laws will repealed. Laws that aren’t enforced encourage a laxity and disrespect towards the larger rule of law. If the law is going to be there, it should have teeth. If the law is outdated and absurd, it should be stuck down.

Support is bipartisan, so there isn’t really a “bad guy” in this. But still, what a horrible quote.

Bagel Zone now has free wifi (I helped set it up, blame Verizon if it’s wonky). It’s been too long since I’ve been down to see Al. The food and coffee are still fantastic, I gotta go more often.

Friends of Democracy is a news site covering the Iraqi elections through the voices of everyday Iraqis from all over Iraq. The site is a project of Spirit of America, and the pictures and stories are remarkable.