THE WRITING TODAY has nothing to do with the photographs so I’ll explain them before I begin a short rant. The Photographs are mainly a celebration of photography.  My friend Kamau introduced me to an app. for my iPhone which can be used to produce all kinds of effects... more than I can name or describe.  I played around with that for awhile, including a couple of portraits of Kamau. The expanse of Torrey Pines Beach stretches from Del Mar to the beginning of the Torrey Pines grade, a daunting bicycle climb.  Half-way up the grade I stopped for a picture of an eroded embankment that reminds me of a section of wilderness I saw once in Utah.  I used the Photofunia app. to play with an image of a cowboy I took in Hungary last year and another of a guy leaning on his window smoking in Budapest. The App. let me put him on a poster behind a row of bicycles.  Great fun.

Now the rant:  On page A13 of today’s Los Angeles Times a brief news item from Kentucky reminded me that I live in country that has in it some incredibly ignorant, careless, citizens.  Thankfully, at least ten percent of the citizens have at least some sense about gun control.  The headline:  “5-year-old shoots sister.”  Excerpts: A 2-year-old Kentucky girl was accidentally shot to death by her 5-year-old brother with a rifle he had received as a gift...  The Cumberland County coroner said an autopsy showed the toddler had died from a single shot from the .22-caliber rifle. Her death has been ruled accidental and no charges will be filed...  The rifle is a Crickett designed for children and sold under the slogan “My First Rifle,” according to the company’s website.  It is a smaller weapon that comes in childlike colors, including pink, red and swirls.  The boy had received it last year as a birthday gift.  

“It is legal in Kentucky to give a child a rifle as a gift,” the coroner said, “and it is not unusual for children to have rifles.”

Congratulations to the NRA.  This is Wayne LaPierre's vision of America.  
No Pictures, Please.