It’s been widely reported that Roy Ashburn was arrested for DUI with an unidentified man in the car after leaving a gay night club. But let’s take a look at the primary sources and see what he’s all about. Here is his CA Senate website.

He has four daughters and two grandchildren and is married to a woman.

He has held a rally to support “traditional” marriage (click image to see it on his site):

And he lists MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving as a resource on his site (click image to see it larger):

That’s all.

Claessen-Wyckoff House, originally uploaded by Dan Hewins.

I am in a history book club called “History is the New Fiction” and we have been reading Gotham, the history of New York City. It’s a great book but it’s just so very long. And all that means is that it’s taking a long time to read.

Some of the folks in the book club got together a couple of weeks ago to take out the Iron Cupcake (a car) and go on a (magical) History Tour. Our plan was to visit the Claesson-Wyckoff House in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The oldest structure in New York, then see an old church nearby. After that we were going to go to Lower Manhattan to see the Customs House, which houses the Museum of the American Indian, and Trinity Church. From there, we wanted to drive uptown to Grant’s Tomb and then over to Highbridge park.

The first parts worked out pretty well. In fact, the Wyckoff House was fascinating–more than I thought it would be. It turns out that anyone (on earth!) named Wyckoff (or one of about 60 variations) is descended from this very house. Yes, that’s true. Pieter Claessen had to change his Dutch Surname under English law and chose “Wyckoff.” Supposedly, nobody else had that name. Pretty cool.

That tour took a while longer than expected so we got to the Church as the people there were leaving. We persuaded them to let us take a look around. It was a nice looking old church with a more new badass pipe organ.

To Manhattan through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

Customs House: closed
Trinity Church: closed

Uptown to Grant’s Tomb. By this time I was calling ahead but got the same answer: closed. We went there anyway to take a look though. It was a good view in the late evening snow.

Highbridge Park will have to wait till a sunnier day. But I look forward to seeing the Highbridge (built as an aqueduct to bring Croton water to Manhattan).

See all the photos of the day here

the long tendril…

…comes from here

24 water towers with snow, originally uploaded by Dan Hewins.

It’s not a snow day for me. (As in, I am at work)

frozen marsh, originally uploaded by Dan Hewins.

I took a hike through Teatown Preserve on Saturday with my friend Alex, proprietor of the site Woodland Walks

Sarah and Bristol Palin appear on the cover this month’s In Touch magazine. What strikes me about the caption the word “chose.” Does this mean that Sarah Palin is Pro Choice now? She must be, since she is proud of the choice she made.

This is why she is a political/public figure that cannot be reasoned with. The will likely maintain her position of Pro Life even though she touted her choice on a national magazine cover. She cannot be reasoned with because if she gets what she and other Pro Life people want, there will be no choice anymore. If she gets what she wants, the caption would have to be rewritten as something like:

We’re glad we have babies.

We’re glad.

Thanks for the babies.

Life’s great!

This illustrates again the genius (if you want to call it that) of naming the political position they share “Pro Life.” It implies that the opponents of Pro Life are Pro Death. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that most people who are Pro Choice are not Pro Death. People do not want to have the right to kill babies just for the sake of it. People just do not want to be forced to have babies in many situations where it would not be wise to do so.

In any case, it just infuriating that they have the gall to say that they are glad to have made a choice when it’s exactly that freedom that they want to take away from all women.

wildflowers, originally uploaded by Dan Hewins.

which is, incidentally, my favorite Tom Petty album.

me in the window, originally uploaded by Dan Hewins.

Cairo, Illinois is the triangular part of Illinois where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet and the Mississippi continues south. The town itself is a bit run down and depressing but shows some of it’s former prominence in the buildings around town.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewins/tags/cairoillinois/