The photo below was on the front page of the NYTimes yesterday. It accompanied an article about how many Muslims feel that they are being snubbed by Obama as he tries to get the rest of America to understand that he isn’t Muslim.

The caption read:

“Muslim women at an Obama rally in February. Last week, two Muslim women were not allowed to appear behind the candidate.”

The photo seems to finish the thought:

Yesterday, the campaign revised it’s position, instituting a “rafters” policy under which Muslims may only sit in the very last row of any arena lest they surreptitiously sneak into the frame of any photographs of the candidate.

What a cheap shot.

With all of the options he had, the photographer trolled the nose-bleeds looking for the Jim Crow photo, like Obama made them step to the back of the bus. I don’t condone the Obama campaign’s decision to remove the two Muslim women from behind the candidate, but let’s not insinuate the he then deposited them in the hinterlands of the arena for good measure.

from xkcd

The article in today’s New York Times about a reverend that ministers to truckers, primarily out of his own rig in Breezewood, PA, is well worth a read. (Side Note: Have you ever seen Breezewood, PA? It is something to behold.)

But what I really want to talk about are the photos that accompanied the article. Each of the photographs were published with their negative borders around them. I can’t remember ever having seen that in a newspaper before. I know it’s code for “my framing is gangster and I don’t crop my images.” I guess I am just surprised that the photo editor even entertained the idea.

I realized today that I don’t think I actually ever saw the Tyson / Spinks fight. Back in 1988, my friend Jesse’s folks agreed to get the show on pay per view. I don’t remember what I was doing - bathroom break, or perhaps I lost the coin toss on who had to get the popcorn from the kitchen downstairs. But I do remember Jesse shouting “The fight’s starting!” and by the time I got back to the TV - it was over.

91 seconds. In 91 seconds, he knocked out a guy who’d never even been knocked down, whose knees had never touched a mat before.

I never watched boxing again.

Could you imagine if a candidate made a version of this ad updated for terrorism? My my how times have changed.

I came across this ad because Tony Schwartz, the creator of this ad, died on Saturday.

I almost fell out of my chair when Michelle gave Barack a pound before last night’s speech.

My first thought: “Wow… that’s amazing…”

My second thought: “Who has that much free time?”

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.