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Shorpy: The 100 Year Old Photo Blog

I’ve been thinking how odd it is that I’m one of the very few 3rd generation Californians I know. My Great grand parents were Okies that came to California during the dust bowl and lived in the tent cities initially upon their arrival. So, when Sam Lawrence tweeted about Shorpy it was timely.

Here are some choice dust bowl photos.

November 1936. Arvin migratory farm workers’ camp in Kern County, California. “Tom Collins, manager of Kern migrant camp, with drought refugee family.”

“Children of Oklahoma drought refugee in migratory camp in California.” November 1936

“Destitute pea pickers living in tent in migrant camp. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two.” Nipomo, California. February 1936. Photograph by Dorothea Lange. The anonymous subject of this famous Depression-era portrait known as “Migrant Mother” came forward in the late 1970s and was revealed to be Florence Owens Thompson (interview). She died in 1983. Read more here.

Fantastic site. Thanks Sam!

Coburn is an Idiot

Where do babies come from?

It’s really a toss-up for most ridiculous Tom Coburn moment of his brief tenure in the U.S. Senate.

His warnings about rampant lesbianism in Oklahoma schools will always be the sentimental favorite, seeing as how it was the one that put him on the map.

But them came his enthusiastic support for breast implants, going so far as to offer his opinion that women with implants were healthier than women with their real babylons.

While those examples would be plenty for a man in just his fifth month in the Senate, Coburn’s latest entry makes a strong case for the top spot. From his “Revenge of the STDs” sex-ed lecture to Congressional staffers.

I find it unbelievable that this guy hasn’t been run out of office! I suppose it is just a sign of our very ignorant times. Is our national level of education diminishing? Or is the quality of our education in the U.S. decreasing? One of these two must be the case given the political climate in this country.