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In the posturing and deliberations over Obama’s comment about the comforts of guns ‘n religion during his last trip to California, a pocket of politicians happily descend with hair-trigger atavism into the cozy ruts of medieval thought…

I found my notes from Obama’s recent talk in Silicon Valley, at the home of Sara & Sohaib Abbasi, CEO of Informatica:

Q&A about the “third war” – young people killing each other on the urban streets:

We need sensible gun laws. I just got back from Montana where just about everyone has guns. In that culture, fathers and sons bond over hunting. You can’t take that away from rural America. But the inner city is different, and we should tighten the laws on gun purchases and close the loopholes in gun show sales to unscrupulous buyers. The gun control people and the right to bear arms people are talking past each other about disconnected topics.

The other problem is that many 10-year old brown and black kids are not relevant to the economy. They know they are irrelevant, and they don’t react well to it. They turn to the drug trade and violence.

29 responses to “Statuesque Obama”

  1. therese flanagan Avatar
    therese flanagan

    Nuanced thinking…how lucky we are to have him running for office. Chicago Public Schools have had 20 kids gunned down this school year. It’s heartbreaking.

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/872727,CST-NWS-simeon02.a...

    Reply
  2. Resh B. Avatar
    Resh B.

    It will be interesting to see how he handles all the politiking and media frenzy about him being elitist.

    This whole election process seems like a big chess game.

    Reply
  3. therese flanagan Avatar
    therese flanagan

    (make that 21 kids….another one was killed last night)

    Reply
  4. NYCArthur Avatar
    NYCArthur

    hmmm….
    "
    The other problem is that many 10-year old brown and black kids are not relevant to the economy. They know they are irrelevant, and they don’t react well to it. They turn to the drug trade and violence.
    "
    They sure are relevant to the economy – just ask Jean John about that – CDs and HipHop clothes.

    Freedom to regulate firearms – important!!… they are already against the law to carry without a permit. The kids get the guns because enforcement of gun control laws, are not adequately enforced – don’t we have enough laws that don’t work?… get congress out of the business of making new laws that are short sighted. Help enforcement.

    I sure wish Obama and Hillary could get along instead of insulting each other – geez – that’s hardly democratic. I’ve never seen so much bad adolescent behavior in politics in a long time. Nothing criminal, just adolescent name calling and bickering.

    Obama sure has a good command of language, if a bit preachy, but that’s ok.
    Problem for me is that he thinks Government can fix what’s wrong – government often screws things up by trying to make everyone pleased with one new bill or another…. or federal regulation that is not well thought out particularly looking forward ten years.

    Social Security?… Age 65 was the mean life expectancy when it was instituted… didn’t Roosevelt think the life expectancy would increase .. it was already up from 10 years earlier.

    and health insurance – how about health care instead – now we have to support TWO industries – health care AND insurance. Personally I think rich people can pay for fancy exclusive doctors and private hospitals – it’s better to be rich or at least productive and well off – if not you then your kids will be better off than you are….

    whewww – that’s my 2cents.

    Reply
  5. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    A very nice set of "retrato" you took Steve, and interesting with the quotes and thoughts.

    Always with a camera…you had "competition" in front of you too ; )
    Barack Obama by rosendahl

    Reply
  6. TomiTapio Avatar
    TomiTapio

    Good documentary work.

    Reply
  7. Happy Tinfoil Cat Avatar
    Happy Tinfoil Cat

    Gun laws are almost as bad as the tax laws and both need to be overhauled. There’s no way to ban guns (there are more guns than people) so lets come up with some sensible laws and enforce them. Just about everyone agrees on what we want to happen, we just need to find a way to make it happen. A drastic reduction in gun crime while preserving lifestyle and freedom is the goal.

    PS: Flat tax would also be great. At least kill AMT.

    Reply
  8. ஐ♥S๑mmeя βяeeZe♥ஐ Avatar
    ஐ♥S๑mmeя βяeeZe♥ஐ

    great shot.

    Reply
  9. nels1 Avatar
    nels1

    i happened to read this article recently about Obama and donations…

    Reply
  10. Steven Hegarty Avatar
    Steven Hegarty

    is he a stand up

    Reply
  11. San Diego Shooter Avatar
    San Diego Shooter

    congrats on explore…perfect portrait

    Reply
  12. nomadica Avatar
    nomadica

    very nice one, thanks for posting.

    Reply
  13. msamaclean © Avatar
    msamaclean ©

    My hopes are high.
    I’m rather disgusted at the phony "shock" of Hillary & John Mc. from Mr. Obama’s statements of late! He spoke a simple truth & they know it, (though maybe not expressed the best way he could have)
    Excellent shot of the next President of the United States!
    .

    Reply
  14. FrodoBabbs Avatar
    FrodoBabbs

    I used your picture for my weekly photoshop contest creation. Thanks.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/36041246@N00/2675281525/

    Reply
  15. firepit16 Avatar
    firepit16

    I hope he take’s all 57 states in the election.

    Reply
  16. first science Avatar
    first science

    You really took some iconic images, Steve.

    Kudos. And thanks. Again.

    Reply
  17. peaceful activity Avatar
    peaceful activity

    Great photo. My variation:

    Le Prez

    Thanks for sharing (cc).

    Reply
  18. bcg~art Avatar
    bcg~art

    yes, a stately portrait.
    yes, we did. !

    Reply
  19. heavenuphere Avatar
    heavenuphere

    I just remembered I saw this photo in the Feb. issue of a Dutch library magazine. I recognized your flickr name.

    Reply
  20. agenziami Avatar
    agenziami

    Great shot!
    We published to illustrate our news.
    Thanks so much for making this beautiful image available under the Creative Commons license.

    Bello scatto!
    Lo abbiamo pubblicato per illustrare la nostra notizia.
    Grazie molte per aver rilasciato questa bella foto con Creative Commons license.

    Reply
  21. Monica's Dad Avatar
    Monica’s Dad

    Why should city dwellers not have the same Constitutional rights as country folks? This nuanced thought is what you’d expect from a totalitarian — it’s exactly what Hitler did in Germany. Banned guns in cities, where communists and socialists (who opposed his Brown Shirts) were concentrated, while leaving the country volk in possession of their arms. Let’s see if we can follow the nuanced logic here — in Montana, everyone has a gun and there’s hardly any violent crime, while in cities it’s already much harder for law-abiding citizens to get guns and the bad guys run wild with their already illegal, undergound weapons. And the lesson from this is… wait for it… push even harder and faster for more of the same. Disagree though me may, I support you lefty urbanists in your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms without ANY government regulation. I’ve already got my guns. And the criminals have theirs. Why shouldn’t you have yours, too? Can’t we trust liberals with the means to defend themselves?

    Reply
  22. Eduardo Loureiro Avatar
    Eduardo Loureiro

    Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Against Rights, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

    Reply
  23. Ross Tucknott Avatar
    Ross Tucknott

    Great moment captured there – he looks really statesman-like.

    I’ve just used the image for an article about Obama targeting fossil fuel subsidies at my company’s blog at Energy-Saving News.

    Keep up the fantastic photos – I love ‘Icarus at Night’!

    Reply
  24. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    Why the atheist tags? Hmmmm.

    Reply
  25. jegaskin Avatar
    jegaskin

    FYI: I used this on ITworld in Obama may start CISPA-style cybersecurity with Executive Order. Thanks!

    Reply
  26. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/13342981@N05] That is his Indonesian made ring and they put that inscription on everything from coconuts to the spa Julia Roberts visits in "Eat Pray Love"

    Reply
  27. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    "The other problem is that many 10-year old brown and black kids are not relevant to the economy. They know they are irrelevant, and they don’t react well to it. They turn to the drug trade and violence." As opposed to having them take a big step up Obama’s sociological economic ladder so they can bitterly cling to religion and to guns, which they do get to keep.

    Reply
  28. akurajasembiring Avatar
    akurajasembiring

    We make Obama as an idol in the decision to live in different social strata, religions and cultures. I worked as digital agency indonesia and Obama was giving me inspiration.

    Reply
  29. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    I was feeling some sympathy for Obama today with him candidly admitting that he has no strategy, then I quickly snapped out of it. If you look at this photo and compare him today without knowing the timestamp how many years would you guess he aged? 12? 15? Why the US never adopted a more parliamentary style of orderly no confidence and recall is beyond me.

    Reply

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