Robert Pence

The Heritage Foundation presents itself as a think tank analyzing public policy. It's nothing of the sort, certainly not impartial. The members are shills for conservative and neo-con causes and the lobbyists who solicit the support of right-wing legislators, and they keep parroting the same tired, inaccurate lines in an attempt to justify their existence.

They do. You just don't notice them because of the old pickup trucks and campers sitting on cinder blocks.

I'd second what montecarloss said. Just look at the photo threads on the forums and you'll see a lot of excellent work done with both Canon and Nikon, and for that matter, with cameras a lot simpler and less expensive than either one of those. The camera is secondary to the photographer's skill and attentiveness and feel for appealing composition. I started with a Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex, one of the early SLRs, in 1962. It was a gem, very sharp, and some of the older photos I've posted on the site were taken with it. It had leaf shutter built into the lens, though, and no lens interchangeability. I carried it until 1979 when I decided to spend some money and move up. I went with a Nikon FM after looking at and handling most of the other name brands. My first career was as a machinist/toolmaker and I still love mechanical things, and to me, Nikon's feel and apparent manufacturing quality seemed superior. I especially noticed the silky-smooth motion of the film advance when compared with any of the others. It took me 25 years to wear that camera out, and by the time I decided to go digital, I had become a Nikon loyalist. Don't rule out buying used if you have a dealer you know and trust or if you can buy from an individual you know won't cheat you. I've gotten some very good hardware that way over the years, often for about fifty cents on the dollar. I'd be wary of spending much with strangers on eBay, though.

Good shots! I've never been there, but I'd like to see it. For a state capital it has a surprisingly small-city look in some respects. There are some pretty interesting buildings, though, and that Knapp building absolutely kicks butt, in my opinion. Not many like that survived the sixties and seventies without being stripped of their decorative features and covered with metal cladding. It could be the centerpiece for a whole revitalization project.

I saw you setting that one up, and sat here counting down; three ... two ... one ... Bingo! Appalling predictability! :laugh:

The people in that linked photo set have to be nuts, or have a death wish. I wouldn't go near that place on a bet, and they're messing around the vents and fissures!

Wonderful photos! Looks like a beautiful day.

Pretty powerful stuff. I'd be afraid to go there, especially where the ground and roads are cracking and steam comes up. Getting swallowed by a cave-in would be a bad way to go. I don't know which would kill you first -- suffocation, burning or breathing sulfur dioxide. Please, please, be careful!

Pretty exciting - Great Photos!

The wide downtown streets are somewhat overpowering, but with the city's car-oriented demographic and abysmal public transportation system, they're still clogged with cars during peak periods. I'd like to see them put a transit median, buffered with landscaping right down the center of those wide streets, with both high-capacity, low-floor buses and light rail to mitigate the car traffic. That said, the city's downtown appearance keeps getting better 'n better. My memories of it go back to the fifties and sixties when it was austere, grimy and depressing, even when it still had lots of active retail downtown. Now, it's lively and green with wonderful public spaces that are well-maintained and well-used. The monuments are clean and in good condition and the mall is a wonderful formal, classic signature for the city.

Nice! Despite demolitions that took place in the past, Dayton's downtown still has a respectable density of big buildings.

And sometimes it can cause folks to buy into right-wing politics and even creationism (cretinism?) :roll:. Seriously, some of the things I've learned have hurt, and at the moment I've wished I hadn't found them out. Over the long haul, though, usually it's been good that I learned about them rather than continuing to be the vicitim of deception, sometimes self-inflicted. Like discovering that "hottest BF ever" was professing the same undying love and exclusive attraction to two other guys concurrent with me. Rotten b..tard (but amazing stamina, apparently). Hurt like hell at the time, but looking back I'm glad I stumbled onto it before I became even more emotionally invested. :-o Yikes! Makes a cheating spouse/BF seem like pretty tame stuff.

Looks like fun, but I'm not sure I could take the excitement! I think I'll just stay where I am. :wink:

You qualified that question with "accidentally." :-D

I think Quaker Square's good times were fairly short. I visited it when it was new, around 1979, and it was fun and lively. There was a pizza place where you could watch the freight trains pass, and there was a crossing signal in the middle of the dining room. When a train approached, the lights would flash and the bell would ring. On my next visit, around 1984 or 1985, the place was pretty dead. A lot of the stores were already vacant, and you could have shot a cannon through the place and not hit anyone. The way it looked then, I'm surprised it lasted this long. In the early days of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, when they were still running steam, I think the trains terminated at Quaker Square. Then something like a washout or bridge failure caused them to cut back to Hale Farm.

As always, Pittsburgh photos give me a yearning! Good stuff! I just realized it's been 20 years since I was in Nashville. Downtown looks a lot different, now. Still mostly tourists, though, from the look of it. The capitol building is a Southern classic!

And conversely, it's been shown that cuts in service almost always reduce revenues more than they reduce costs. The effect becomes more pronounced when service levels already are barely or less than adequate. Service cuts can be the beginning of a death spiral.

< :speech: >There are some things that after you find them out, you realize you were happier when you didn't know them. If you haven't learned that by now, you will by the time you're my age. </ :speech: > :wink:

Great shots, fabulous place!

That demographic trend extends as far as Central Indiana, I think. Go very far south of Indianapolis, and with the exception of the university-connected population around Bloomington, the character of the towns and the heritage and traditions of the people reflect Appalachian roots. Martinsville is a pretty good example. Farther north, in the eastern part of the state, that same character is very visible almost as far north as Berne. Forty or fifty years ago there seemed to be a fairly obvious boundary roughly along the east-west road through Berne now known as Indiana 218; the dividing line has become more blurred over the years. Families south of there were largely Scots-Irish, some from eastern Kentucky and Virginia/West Virginia, and they had a pretty casual attitude about improving their farms and taking care of their property. The incidents involving disordliness, domestic abuse and alcohol reported in the local newspaper were more likely to occur there than in the northern part of the county. In the fifties, federal agents raided a couple of large moonshine operations based there and run by people from Harlan County, Kentucky. Not to tar all Scots-Irish with the same brush; that would be an unfair and inaccurate stereotype. There's also a strong Quaker presence, and the Underground Railroad had a lot of support there. In the northern townships more of the families were/are of German and Swiss heritage, with a few French descendants who had come there via the German/Swiss settlements in Pennsylvania. Their farms appeared, and still appear, to be prosperous and well run. Their church affiliations were mostly Mennonite, Apostolic Christian and Reformed, and to a large extent that's still true.

Looks like a fun, laid-back time! Lawn chairs under shade trees is the way summer is meant to be enjoyed.

Pretty interesting; very neat and tidy, with things all arranged in orderly, precise rows.

Incredible photos! Such an amazing city. I can't imagine living there and being surrounded by so much beauty all the time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't LaPorte County's county seat LaPorte? Or is that just a satellite courthouse? You're right. Here's the courthouse at LaPorte:

Two classy-looking gentlemen!