Personal | Maps, Photos, Videos, Aerial Photography, Charts | Page 201

When the right wing adopts cancel culture 😶

Andy | September 20, 2025

I didn’t like it all when the left wing adopted cancel culture and censorship. I thought too often scientists and government were too self confident, too willing to proscribe their beliefs on the public.

But I now see the right wing adopting all of the same tactics and I sure don’t like it all. While I personally find a lot of things that Charlie Kirk said to be incredibly distasteful, I think he had the right to say it and you had the right to stay home and ignore his rallies. Or show up and protest. He’s dead now, due to assassin’s bullet but that doesn’t automatically make him some kind of martyr or legitimize his message. That said, he had the right to be heard, not censored or canceled by either the public or private sector.

People shouldn’t talk about sensetive work business outside of work, especially on a public forum. But people have a right to have opinions and not have their occupation define all of their waking hours. People should be free to talk about whatever they want outside of work, bar maybe sensetive company secrets, when they’re off the clock. It doesn’t matter if you are liberal or conservative in your views.

The OSI Parcel 🏞️

Andy | September 20, 2025

Always so many beautiful views of the mountains, full of colors in the autumn with the fading Goldenrod and Purple Astors. Full of monarchs today, along with bees and wild turkeys. I can walk these fields for hours studying the wildflowers and natures, taking in the serenity of the Catskills and the valley below where the Catskill Creek ultimately runs.

Oh, wow! 🐦

Andy | September 20, 2025

I guess you know you’ve made it when the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation is buying ad space on your blog. “Join your local birding club today! – NYS DEC”

Wonders and realities of the universe 🌌

Andy | September 20, 2025

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

~ Rachel Carson

You poor addicted smoker, don’t you know you’re going to die ☠️👈️🚬

Andy | September 20, 2025

You know it always strikes me as problematic to shame smokers and suggest they are addicts, while it’s not okay to suggest obese individuals are fat and unable to control their urges to eat. Or that somehow smoking is more harmful to one’s body then eating hamburgers and doughnuts. Or that smokers simply need “help” to quit.

While I don’t endorse smoking of anything for ones health, and it can be pretty stinky and nasty, I don’t really see the harm of an concessional drag on a cigarette with beer infrequently – maybe one or twice a month. While there is evidence that even light smoking over a long time is more harmful then heavy smoking and then quitting, the evidence for an occasional drag on a cigarette with a beer doesn’t suggest it is the worse thing in world. If anything, it’s healthier then obese American’s eating meat and other processed foods every day.

I don’t disagree with restrictions on smoking in public places. Cigarette smoke is pretty nasty smelling, and it does quite a bit of damage to interior of buildings, and not everybody wants to partake in the activity or smell it and breathe it walking by. And it’s not harm-free, just like the chocolate doughnut or TV dinner is not harm-free. But I really object with people painting anybody who occasionally enjoys a smoke as an addict.