Rubber Bullet

The Living Camera: Autistic Savant

My sister, Robin, an incredibly talented artist and art teacher, sent this to me in September 2007. I rediscovered it in my e-mail and was once again amazed by this video. Her message: “It's been said that the mind is the only thing the mind cannot comprehend. Get a load of this!”

Download TheLivingCamera.wmv

McCain's “Spiritual Guide” Wants America to Destroy Islam

You may have heard of Rev. John Hagee, the McCain supporter who said God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its homosexual “sins.” Well now meet Rev. Rod Parsley, the televangelist megachurch pastor from Ohio who hates Islam. According to David Corn of Mother Jones, Parsley has called on Christians to wage war against Islam, which he considers to be a “false religion.” In the past, Parsley has also railed against the separation of church and state, homosexuals, and abortion rights, comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazis.

John McCain actively sought and received Parsley’s endorsement in the presidential race. McCain has called Parsley “a spiritual guide,” and he hasn’t said whether he shares Parsley’s vicious anti-Islam views. That’s because the mainstream media refuses to ask.

Since the media won’t question McCain about his deeply bigoted pastor, it’s up to us to call attention to this issue. Make McCain’s pastor problem a major story by forwarding this video to your family, friends, and colleagues.

We can’t let McCain get away with aligning himself with a religious leader who’s called for an all-out war on Islam, someone who draws no distinctions between Muslims and violent Islamic extremists. Now is the crucial time to act.

Produced by: Brave New Films

How Am I Doin? (Mardi Gras 1938)

I recently found in a box this old daguerreotype mounted in an ink-embossed cardboard frame. As indicated from the inscription on the back, the photo was taken in 1938 in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. I scanned it, rotated the photographic image (which was horizontally "flipped"), and touched it up to improve the contrast and remove some of the scratches on the image. [Click on the image to enlarge.]

Pictured are my father, Andrew Robinson Johnson III (in the tassel-fringed bolero hat and holding the serpentine balloon) at 12 years, with parents Margery Gordon Ogden Johnson and Andrew Robinson Johnson, Jr. (both 37 years old), and sisters Margery "Tyke" Ogden Johnson (Olinde), 9 years, and Sallie Sunshine Johnson (Terry), 7 years.

In the background is a sign for Hart's Band Instruments with a saxophone logo. The exact street location is unknown.