June 2011 - Reading The Pictures

Culture Focus Photo June 30, 2011

White House Gay Pride: An Oxymoron?

With the two guys lower left and the guy in the center, Doug captures a decidedly expectant air. Waiting for Godot?

President Obama Photo

White House Flickr Snapshot – Late June '11 Edition (#2): Beware the Bubble

I'm wondering why Souza posted that shot of Obama above, and whether it communicates more than the duty and engagement the White House imagines it does.

Media Focus Photo June 29, 2011

"Diana at 50": Newsweek's Perverse Newsstand Seance

What makes the Newsweek cover such a horror show....

Business Focus Photo

White House Flickr Snapshot – Late June '11 Edition (#1): War and Economy

The lack of focus on the war or the economy in the last group of photos uploaded to the White House Flickr stream is a real mystery.

Campaign '12 Photo June 28, 2011

I Seek the Presidency Not For Vanity

Is Getty having trouble taking Bachmann at face value, or is that the whole point?

Disaster Focus Photo

Fukushima: The Latest Personal Electronics

We were waiting for it to happen.

Campaign '12 Photo June 27, 2011

Pimp My Politics: Front Groups Already Down and Dirty

Expect to see a resurgence of the visual techniques, trading on racist and sexist stereotypes, employed during 2008.

Photo

Looking at Nebraska's (Soggy) Fort Calhoun Nuke Plant

Talk about "fail-safe," see what happens when you don't back up your "aqua berms?"

Culture Focus Photo

Christopher Guess: Stonewall Moment of Victory

"EVERYONE was on their phones, checking Twitter, myself included," Christopher Guess reported from the West Village as the crowd awaited the outcome of the same sex marriage vote.

Culture Focus Photo June 26, 2011

The White House Picture on Historic Pride Weekend

If the tone and body language in the White House photo seems to parallel Cuomo and Bloomberg, et. al. at the Pride March, the comparison stops there.

Culture Focus Photo

For Score and Seven Eons Ago

A reader just got sent this to me and it strikes me as strangely relevant somehow.

International Focus Photo

Euro Swastika

Financial distress is producing ugly cultural cracks. Is the EU coming unglued?

Culture Focus Photo June 24, 2011

Catch-22 2011: Robbed Bank to Get Medical Care in Jail

Wouldn’t logic dictate that the medical, societal and legal systems that conspired to put a rational man in jail are in fact themselves illogical? Within the fabric of our society, there exists a vast gulf between the ways people interface with services and institutions. To me, that is crazy.

Culture Focus Photo June 23, 2011

9/11 Artifacts: Who Will Take the American Airlines Slipper?

Who is in line for the slipper?

International Focus Photo

Afghanistan, the Barking Dog

The photo is one of the most telling I've seen on the Afghanistan war.

Disaster Focus Photo June 22, 2011

Mario Tama: Spicy Tuna, Giant Clam and Radiation Roll

This photo from a N.Y. sushi restaurant takes on a different sense given that the ocean off Japan will likely soon up its glow, and those domestic nuke plants we've been rock-bottom assured are bulletproof might not be.

Campaign '12 Photo

Huntsman, Asha and Gracie Mei

Please tell me Huntsman, the presidential product, wasn't simultaneously using these two children as a brand endorsement.

Iraq and Afghanistan War Photo June 21, 2011

About That Drawdown

On the eve of Obama's announcement to end his surge and commence a drawdown, do you think the foot soldier here has a subtle message either for military strategists, or do you think this is how he ordinarily scratches his nose?