Non Violence, 1997, by Carl Fredrik Reutersward, Olympic Museum Park, Lausanne, 31-Aug-2008

Delicate

Posted on Saturday, 15 December, 2012 by BobR

Non Violence, 1997, by Carl Fredrik Reutersward, Olympic Museum Park, Lausanne, 31-Aug-2008

More sad but tragically uncommon news from the U.S. yesterday; this time 20 elementary school children were among the murdered. Most stunning to me is that I’m not more stunned.

This is Non Violence, a 1997 sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reutersward at the Olympic Museum Park in Lausanne. I first saw this in August 2008, about two years after seeing another version (below) near The Göteborg Museum of Art. This morning it was the only image that fits Delicate, this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge theme. Delicate to describe the ‘debate’ about the ease of accessibility to guns in the U.S. And delicate to describe the bruised egos of politicians who continue to cower to the increasingly mad demands of the NRA and other guns rights advocates.

There’s nothing left to be said about a debate that’s long overdue.

Americans Respond to Norway Attacks by Shooting Each Other

Posted on Sunday, 24 July, 2011 by BobR

Gawker:

If you spent yesterday huddled in a corner with a bottle of vodka, crying and depressed about all of the massacre and death news that this weekend has brought us so far, well … you might want to get a refill on that drink.

Conclusion:

Please, nobody give me any reason to update this list! Go hug somebody, plant a flower, bake a pie, draw a cat picture, play some badminton, anything. Just stop shooting each other.

Non Violence, originally uploaded by pirano.

LJ Pic of the Day

Posted on Tuesday, 20 October, 2009 by BobR

We’ll try to kick-start this daily chore again with this, spotted near Kinoklub Vič a few weeks ago. I’m delighted to note that the square on which it’s located is still called Trg mladinskih delovnih brigad, or Youth Workers Brigades Square. Recently renovated and reopened over the summer. [map] [now showing (scroll down)]

Nice gun!

Ljubljana 0168, originally uploaded by pirano.

News: Neo-Nazi Skinheads are Camera Shy

Posted on Friday, 10 April, 2009 by BobR

roundtable

On Wednesday, a group of about a dozen neo-Nazi skinheads disrupted a roundtable discussion on hate speech, nationalism and neo-fascism at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. On their way out, they reportedly broke a couple cameras, but on one the footage was preserved for internet posterity. PopTV has video of the scuffle here. Anyone you know?

Some reports pointed the finger at a nationalist group, Tukaj je Slovenija, or This is Slovenia, which the group vehemently denied. “We are not an organization,” read a statement on its website, but rather an association of individuals. [Their website is here where, among other things, you can buy black t-shirts with dragon designs so you can dress up like neo-Nazi skinhead youths the world over!]

Related? Shock! Richard Poplawski, the man accused of gunning down three police officers in Pittsburgh last week, was apparently a gun-loving racist pinhead who hung out on neo-Nazi and white supremacist websites and firmly believed the Fox News line that Obama’s impending socialism would signal the end of his right to own and love guns.

At least it’s a lot harder to get your hands on a gun here.

UPDATED to add this link to a couple posts on the topic from Pengovsky, always worth a read.

(screenshot from PopTV video)

Ammo Shortages in the USA

Posted on Friday, 10 April, 2009 by BobR

From NPR:

“It started the day that Obama got elected,” Johnny Dury, who owns Dury’s Gun Shop in San Antonio, tells NPR’s Michele Norris. “It is when everything just went crazy in the gun business.”

From The Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune:

“It’s a political deal. Everybody’s worried about losing their guns and ammo or not being able to get it,” Wagner said. “There’s a huge influx of that right now, but our sales are up in all categories. Our sales are double what they were last year.”

From the Fort Myers, Florida News-Press:

Tired of having to cancel trips to the local gun range because he couldn’t find ammunition to buy, Patrick Naidl went on the offensive last week.

“I called every Wal-Mart from Naples to Port Charlotte and everybody was sold out,” the Cape Coral resident said. “The Lehigh store told me they were selling their last box when I called and that they only had it for two hours.

“Ammunition is very hard to find because everybody is stockpiling. It’s like the paranoia before Y2K.”

From the Detroit Free Press:

At Jay’s Sporting Goods in Clare, salesman Tim McCall said the store had been largely cleaned out of 9mm pistol ammunition and was experiencing massive sales of .40 and .45 caliber ammo.

“Anything for personal protection is selling like crazy,” he said. “They’re also buying a lot of .223 and 7.6×39 Russian.”

Non Violence, originally uploaded by pirano.

January pic(k)s

Posted on Wednesday, 6 February, 2008 by BobR

This is a detail of this piece by Austrian sculptor Theo Blaickner at the Schillerplatz in Linz, Austria, one of a handful of my personal favorites shots taken in January. I’m not a big fan of guns but like how they look when very rusty.

The rest of my personal faves, shot in Koper and Ljubljana, Slovenia, Linz, Austria, and Stuttgart are here.

Linz 009, originally uploaded by pirano.