I’m so burnt out of anything political to say but I still take plenty of pictures. I tried to restart Friday Evening Photoblogging a few weeks back at DailyKos and this is a repost. I’m going to post last week’s here tomorrow because it relates to this weeks and continue the series here on Friday night. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Have you ever gone to a zoo in midwinter? This diary is a selection of of photos from a three hour trip to the Zoo on a sunny winter day.

I could tell you a winter’s tale or two about going to the zoo. I think it is the best time for both interaction with animals and photographic opportunities.

This is not my first Bronx Zoo diary. My point about a winter visit can be made by comparing the photos in that collection from  about twenty visits to the zoo and these from a three hour tour.

There’s a Feeling I Get When I Look to the West

And My Spirit is Crying for Leaving.  

This is actually a repost of a week old diary but the tip jar is from today.

Somehow I got mixed op and in my confusion I decided that political blogging and Flicka are the same thing. I do many sunsets at Dkos and very often focus on the parks of New York City. My favorite being Van Cortlandt Park that was named after the city’s first elected mayor.

So I’m going to repost this little photoplay and see how it goes over here. Starting off with a picture from last week that has become my new favorite photo. This is the Van Cortlandt Lake in the afternoon sun.

The softer weather that everyone has been enjoying broke today. Before this morning’s snow it was some great walking weather.  While I’m always taking walks on the nature trails of the Bronx and by the Van Cortlandt Lake, I’ve had some company lately.  Some days the trails were as crowded as they are in summer.

Last week I photographed a father and daughter enjoying themselves feeding swans and below the fold is what I watched last Thursday.  It was a very enjoyable sight and would have made a nice moving picture.

Do you remember William Marshall “Let…the cartoooon…begin!”

Cross-posted at Progressive Blue.

Howard Zinn, Historian and Activist, Dies at 87. The New York Times described Mr. Zinn.

…an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif.

I recently wrote a DKos diary called Will you be watching “The People Speak” tonight? As a “leftist alternative” and as a dedication, I’ve updated the part of that diary about the the December 4th interview between Howard Zinn and Bill Moyers.

It was amazing to see these two great Americans sit down and discuss history from the bottom up, focusing on historic successes of the people. Looking at the Bill Moyers Journal link you can read the transcript and view clips from “The People Speak” or below the fold are the YouTube links and a few small thoughts about a man who dedicated his life to the people.

This is really long diary that was posted at DailyKos two days ago. It pays respect where respect is due and looks at the history of the elected officials we are expecting healthcare reform from at the same time. This is a tribute to some good Americans and tragic story of murder and corruption that ends with a question.

On this day two years ago Michael Moore’s SiCKO was released in American movie theaters. In the two years since SiCKO a majority of the American people now want what all Americans need. Somewhere between 59 and 65 percent of Americans want a single payer system that is financed by taxpayers.

For the first time since a now six year old bill called H.R. 676 that was never meant to pass in the first place, someone was working to raise awareness on the issue Americans face from the merchants of death. So this seems like a good time to remember one the few loud voices in this nation that is not influenced by free market of death and praise a few others who are taking it to the streets. Some people who believe our good health is a priority.

There is still the problem of the U.S. Government that will not represent the will of the people and can not look at the devastation that Americans must face each day. The falsehood of the present healthcare debate prevents anything but false reform. In the transition from Bush to Obama will honest hardworking Americans see justice or just campaign donation based propaganda?