On Civility and Personal Responsibility - Obama's Tucson Speech

In the wake of the tragic and absurd Arizona rampage, I'm grateful for Obama's inspiring speech:

In particular:
"Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together. (...)

So sudden loss causes us to look backward – but it also forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us. We may ask ourselves if we've shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame – but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others. That process of reflection, of making sure we align our values with our actions – that, I believe, is what a tragedy like this requires. (...)

We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us."

Read the full speech here.

What are they thinking??

Hasn't the whole thing about the VW Beetle always been about being round and cute?  sweet and soft?  I just ran across a picture of the 2011 model and it looks like it went under a truck:

Very sad... especially when they could have gone like this instead:

Now we're talking.. that would be my next car if it was available...

I might give it a try on my old Civic but the roundness cuteness factor isn't quite there..

Photos from  the vintage laundress and  Auto Motto

Learn to love plastic bags...

Last year I started stitching compulsively on some plastic newspaper bags

so I loved running into these embroidered plastic bags by Josh Blackwell (via Emily Barletta's blog):

More of  Josh Blackwell's work here.

As amazing is this Kickstarter organization that facilitates micro funding of creative projects of all kinds, and through which Josh managed to finance the publishing of a book on his Plastic Buckets. Yeah!!

Contemporary Patrons of the Arts

NPR Marketplace had this great article yesterday on people chosing to commission artwork:
You Too Can Be a Patron of the Arts.
I could use one of those...