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Thread: Former Clinton staffer finds the idea of beating up Rand "tempting"

  1. #1

    Exclamation Former Clinton staffer finds the idea of beating up Rand "tempting"

    Imagine the hate that would have been unleashed on Ron had he won...that's how much AmeriKunts hate liberty.

    Rand better carry 24/7...he has a target on his back.


    Former Clinton WH Staffer: It’s ‘Tempting’ to Beat up Rand Paul

    https://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...-up-rand-paul/

    15 Jul 20181,902

    A former Clinton White House staffer and veteran presidential campaign staffer tweeted Sunday that “it would be tempting” to beat up Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) if he lived in the senator’s hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

    I never advocate violence but if I lived in Bowling Green it would be tempting to beat the crap out of Rand Paul.

    — Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) July 15, 2018

    “I never advocate violence but if I lived in Bowling Green it would be tempting to beat the crap out of Rand Paul,” tweeted Claude Taylor, who worked on former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 campaigns and in the Clinton White House as a volunteer director.

    Taylor’s tweet comes months after Paul’s Bowling Green neighbor, Renee Albert Boucher, 59, attacked him while mowing his lawn over a dispute about yard debris. Paul suffered six broken ribs in the November attack.

    A judge sentenced Boucher, a registered Democrat and retired doctor, to 30 days in prison for attacking the senator.

    The senator has been in several other situations where others have threatened his life.

    Two weeks ago, a man allegedly placed several phone calls to Paul’s Bowling Green district office threatening to dismember the senator and his family with an ax.

    The Kentucky senator was also in harm’s way in June 2017, when he was on a northern Virginia baseball field when gunman James Hodgkinson opened fire on Republican congressmen practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Washington, DC.

    Although Paul was unharmed, the bullets from the shooting wounded Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and several congressional staffers
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2

  4. #3
    I said the Boucher farce declared open season on Rand, he needs to carry but he also needs bodyguards.

    Claude Taylor needs to be arrested for inciting violence.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  5. #4
    I do not think Claude would be welcome in Bowling Green .
    Do something Danke

  6. #5
    Taylor is a travel photographer. To date he has taken about 25 trips to various places around the world for the business, not the pleasure, of taking pictures. He shoots from sun up to sun down, documenting on 35mm film places most people will never see. His pictures are full color, except for a special black and white excursion in France.

    Taylor's photos capture the beauty of the world through his own eyes. 'I like looking at pieces of things to see the whole, rather than seeing the whole to understand the pieces of things,' Taylor says. He photographs life, not scenery. He hasn't always made his living this way. Born in New York City on August 28, 1963, the day Martin Luther King made his 'I have a dream' speech; Taylor's road to professional travel photographer was marked by serendipitous twists and turns.

    Raised in Maine, he worked for the Clinton campaign in 1992 and again in 1996. In between, he had what calls 'a boring staff job' in the White House. But the boring staff job, like all government jobs, came with a few perks. 'They were sending me to some very interesting places,' Taylor says, 'Guantanamo Bay, Japan, Albania, Argentina, Uruguay. I was going to some cool places so I figured I should get a camera. I took pictures and found that I was enjoying the photographs more than I was enjoying the government work.

    The Left Bank, as the business was then known, was born. When the store opened in 1998, the kitschy French figurines of Tin Tin, Barbar and the Little Prince were not just limited to one shelf, but part of the central theme of the store that sold no photographs. 'French culture, Curious George and Madeline. Most of what we did focused on classic children's literature, ' said Taylor. After the store's first year, he began selling photographs from two trips he had taken. He had first sold his prints for extra cash at the Georgetown flea market during his year off in 1997. 'That's when I realized that there might actually be a market for this,' Claude says, ' That someone might be willing to pay $30 for one of my photos that they would hang in their hallway.'

    They sold well in the store, so he expanded the photo section to include his Italy trip. He kept taking more trips and coming back with more pictures and now the store is 95% photographs. He plans on phasing the kitschy stuff out within a few months after he has taken another three or four trips. Claude is also an anti-Bush propagandist. He sells political mugs, buttons and bumper stickers that are products of Taylor's Mad Dog brand, a separate political expression sideline, and represent the part of Taylor that just can't stay out of politics entirely. 'I like to keep my toe in,'

    Taylor said of his business within a business where the newest product is a button that says Bush Sucks. Taylor was in charge of printing such things for the Clinton campaign, so he has plenty of experience with the bumper sticker sound bite. Phasing out these items, which he handed out by the thousands during Bush's first inauguration protest, would be bittersweet for the photographer. 'I would love for Kerry to win and not have to do any political stuff; but,' he says with a laugh 'I would lose money.' Taylor takes six trips a year to various places around the world.

    Although it might seem like he lives in a perpetual state of vacation, they really are business trips. He researches each trip by reading a travel guide or the area cover to cover, as well as some history about the area, and a novel set in the area. He does not spend time relaxing or getting to know the locals. He takes pictures, thousands of them, and he taught himself the business side of it just as he taught himself the artistic side. 'That's sort of what he does for a living; sit there and look picturesque,' Taylor says as he holds up a stunning photo of an ancient looking Cuban man smoking a pipe on a dilapidated front stoop. 'I gave him two bucks and took the picture, and he's happy and I'm happy and I've probably made a couple thousand from his photos. It would have been chintzy of me not to give him the two dollars.'

    He notes that despite any language barriers he might encounter, everyone speaks dollar. 'When he gets back he's entirely wrapped up in the photos,' says Paul Serici, 23, one of Taylor's employees of about two years. 'He doesn't talk much about the trip.' Serici says that the days after Taylor returns from a trip are not very communicative. His picky eye for detail consumes him when selecting his best shots. Once the 80-plus select pictures from each trip are blown up and framed, the meticulousness doesn't stop. 'If I don't Windex the pictures well enough, he'll tell me,' says Serici.

    But he won't notice a spot on his glasses for a week. This is the transition from politico to artist. Taylor can be distant. At times he seems bored and arrogant. He doesn't want to talk about himself. He can be impatient with some customers: 'Some people came in asking if I had any Kerry Sucks stickers. I told to get the hell out of my store,' he says nonchalantly. But his big secret is that he is really a big softy. 'When people show an interest, he can be really nice and give them discounts. He has favorites,' says Serici. Taylor is undoubtedly charmed by certain people, and by no one more than his son, Avi. He keeps a picture of the adorable six-year-old on the wall behind the desk.

    Taylor gets him on weekends, when he has one of his five employees watching the store. Avi has dimples, and looks like his mom, but moves like his dad, according to Serici. 'That's one of the best times to see Claude with his guard down,' Serici adds. But his guard is up most of the time, especially when he talks about religion and nationality. He presents his views as absolute, but clearly has not yet answered all of his own questions. 'I'm kind of between religions right now,' he says in a half joking way. He is fascinated by the history and culture of Judaism, but notes some of the fundamental problems with the religion. As he talks about religion, a chip appears on his shoulder. 'If I had been born Jewish and happened to be an atheist, nobody would have a problem calling me a Jew. But if I wanted to become a Jew, there is a very fundamental theological problem, namely does God exist or not.

    In which case I have a problem because I don't think he does,' says Taylor as he explains his dilemma. Taylor wants Avi, which is a Hebrew name Taylor just happened to like, to make up his own mind about religion too. Avi's mother and Taylor's ex-wife is a lax Catholic. But even as he complains, it is easy to see that Taylor sort of revels in his outsider status. He does not belong to any professional photography societies, because he's 'not a joiner.' He even feels like he doesn't belong in America any more. 'What's happening with this election, Christian Fundamentalists, NRA nuts, I feel almost completely alienated from this culture,' he says as support to his hypothesis that he is a European who somehow ended up being an American. 'I don't think countries are that important. I don't think that because I happened to be born American means anything.

    I could have happened to have been born a Brazilian or a Frenchman, or an Indian. I don't think national boundaries should be that vital.' 'I would leave tomorrow if I could, but I have a business here. I have a six-year-old son here. It's not that easy,' Taylor says. For someone who thinks people should be able to move freely about the world, he is certainly in the right business. Kevin Reid, a photographer in town to take pictures of the homeless behind the White House runs around the gallery like a kid in a candy store. He is in awe of Taylor's work, and excited about life in a way that explains his manic movements around the gallery to marvel at one photo after another. 'Would you look at this one?' Reid says as he holds up a landscape shot of Egypt. Those in the know recall how Taylor rode the couple hundred miles from Luxor to Aswan in a military controlled convoy where his taxi was made the lead car. A soldier sat in the front seat with an AK 47 leaned over his shoulder pointing directly at Taylor. Knowing the moment right was show his friendly side, Taylor would ask 'Do you think you could, like, move that a little bit?', and the soldier, who had forgotten about the gun's position, would laugh and kindly oblige. This happened over and over again on the way to Aswan.

    To those who don't know the story, the picture is just as beautiful. The image creates a fantasy in the eye of the beholder. As the photographs take over the last bit of kitsch, the gallery's transformation is almost complete. Taylor, however, seems to be an ever evolving individual. His work has taken him around the world, over walls and fences and under gates. He plans to be a travel photographer for some time to come, but 20 years from now, he cannot say. And what about Mad Dog in the wake of the election? Taylor already has a new slogan ready: Yes, Actually I do hate George Bush.
    Last edited by Danke; 07-15-2018 at 02:24 PM.
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  7. #6

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    Why?
    Russia.
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
    "dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
    "You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
    "When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q

    "Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

    "Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    Taylor is a travel photographer. To date he has taken about 25 trips to various places around the world for the business, not the pleasure, of taking pictures. He shoots from sun up to sun down, documenting on 35mm film places most people will never see. His pictures are full color, except for a special black and white excursion in France.

    Taylor's photos capture the beauty of the world through his own eyes. 'I like looking at pieces of things to see the whole, rather than seeing the whole to understand the pieces of things,' Taylor says. He photographs life, not scenery. He hasn't always made his living this way. Born in New York City on August 28, 1963, the day Martin Luther King made his 'I have a dream' speech; Taylor's road to professional travel photographer was marked by serendipitous twists and turns.

    Raised in Maine, he worked for the Clinton campaign in 1992 and again in 1996. In between, he had what calls 'a boring staff job' in the White House. But the boring staff job, like all government jobs, came with a few perks. 'They were sending me to some very interesting places,' Taylor says, 'Guantanamo Bay, Japan, Albania, Argentina, Uruguay. I was going to some cool places so I figured I should get a camera. I took pictures and found that I was enjoying the photographs more than I was enjoying the government work.

    The Left Bank, as the business was then known, was born. When the store opened in 1998, the kitschy French figurines of Tin Tin, Barbar and the Little Prince were not just limited to one shelf, but part of the central theme of the store that sold no photographs. 'French culture, Curious George and Madeline. Most of what we did focused on classic children's literature, ' said Taylor. After the store's first year, he began selling photographs from two trips he had taken. He had first sold his prints for extra cash at the Georgetown flea market during his year off in 1997. 'That's when I realized that there might actually be a market for this,' Claude says, ' That someone might be willing to pay $30 for one of my photos that they would hang in their hallway.'

    They sold well in the store, so he expanded the photo section to include his Italy trip. He kept taking more trips and coming back with more pictures and now the store is 95% photographs. He plans on phasing the kitschy stuff out within a few months after he has taken another three or four trips. Claude is also an anti-Bush propagandist. He sells political mugs, buttons and bumper stickers that are products of Taylor's Mad Dog brand, a separate political expression sideline, and represent the part of Taylor that just can't stay out of politics entirely. 'I like to keep my toe in,'

    Taylor said of his business within a business where the newest product is a button that says Bush Sucks. Taylor was in charge of printing such things for the Clinton campaign, so he has plenty of experience with the bumper sticker sound bite. Phasing out these items, which he handed out by the thousands during Bush's first inauguration protest, would be bittersweet for the photographer. 'I would love for Kerry to win and not have to do any political stuff; but,' he says with a laugh 'I would lose money.' Taylor takes six trips a year to various places around the world.

    Although it might seem like he lives in a perpetual state of vacation, they really are business trips. He researches each trip by reading a travel guide or the area cover to cover, as well as some history about the area, and a novel set in the area. He does not spend time relaxing or getting to know the locals. He takes pictures, thousands of them, and he taught himself the business side of it just as he taught himself the artistic side. 'That's sort of what he does for a living; sit there and look picturesque,' Taylor says as he holds up a stunning photo of an ancient looking Cuban man smoking a pipe on a dilapidated front stoop. 'I gave him two bucks and took the picture, and he's happy and I'm happy and I've probably made a couple thousand from his photos. It would have been chintzy of me not to give him the two dollars.'

    He notes that despite any language barriers he might encounter, everyone speaks dollar. 'When he gets back he's entirely wrapped up in the photos,' says Paul Serici, 23, one of Taylor's employees of about two years. 'He doesn't talk much about the trip.' Serici says that the days after Taylor returns from a trip are not very communicative. His picky eye for detail consumes him when selecting his best shots. Once the 80-plus select pictures from each trip are blown up and framed, the meticulousness doesn't stop. 'If I don't Windex the pictures well enough, he'll tell me,' says Serici.

    But he won't notice a spot on his glasses for a week. This is the transition from politico to artist. Taylor can be distant. At times he seems bored and arrogant. He doesn't want to talk about himself. He can be impatient with some customers: 'Some people came in asking if I had any Kerry Sucks stickers. I told to get the hell out of my store,' he says nonchalantly. But his big secret is that he is really a big softy. 'When people show an interest, he can be really nice and give them discounts. He has favorites,' says Serici. Taylor is undoubtedly charmed by certain people, and by no one more than his son, Avi. He keeps a picture of the adorable six-year-old on the wall behind the desk.

    Taylor gets him on weekends, when he has one of his five employees watching the store. Avi has dimples, and looks like his mom, but moves like his dad, according to Serici. 'That's one of the best times to see Claude with his guard down,' Serici adds. But his guard is up most of the time, especially when he talks about religion and nationality. He presents his views as absolute, but clearly has not yet answered all of his own questions. 'I'm kind of between religions right now,' he says in a half joking way. He is fascinated by the history and culture of Judaism, but notes some of the fundamental problems with the religion. As he talks about religion, a chip appears on his shoulder. 'If I had been born Jewish and happened to be an atheist, nobody would have a problem calling me a Jew. But if I wanted to become a Jew, there is a very fundamental theological problem, namely does God exist or not.

    In which case I have a problem because I don't think he does,' says Taylor as he explains his dilemma. Taylor wants Avi, which is a Hebrew name Taylor just happened to like, to make up his own mind about religion too. Avi's mother and Taylor's ex-wife is a lax Catholic. But even as he complains, it is easy to see that Taylor sort of revels in his outsider status. He does not belong to any professional photography societies, because he's 'not a joiner.' He even feels like he doesn't belong in America any more. 'What's happening with this election, Christian Fundamentalists, NRA nuts, I feel almost completely alienated from this culture,' he says as support to his hypothesis that he is a European who somehow ended up being an American. 'I don't think countries are that important. I don't think that because I happened to be born American means anything.

    I could have happened to have been born a Brazilian or a Frenchman, or an Indian. I don't think national boundaries should be that vital.' 'I would leave tomorrow if I could, but I have a business here. I have a six-year-old son here. It's not that easy,' Taylor says. For someone who thinks people should be able to move freely about the world, he is certainly in the right business. Kevin Reid, a photographer in town to take pictures of the homeless behind the White House runs around the gallery like a kid in a candy store. He is in awe of Taylor's work, and excited about life in a way that explains his manic movements around the gallery to marvel at one photo after another. 'Would you look at this one?' Reid says as he holds up a landscape shot of Egypt. Those in the know recall how Taylor rode the couple hundred miles from Luxor to Aswan in a military controlled convoy where his taxi was made the lead car. A soldier sat in the front seat with an AK 47 leaned over his shoulder pointing directly at Taylor. Knowing the moment right was show his friendly side, Taylor would ask 'Do you think you could, like, move that a little bit?', and the soldier, who had forgotten about the gun's position, would laugh and kindly oblige. This happened over and over again on the way to Aswan.

    To those who don't know the story, the picture is just as beautiful. The image creates a fantasy in the eye of the beholder. As the photographs take over the last bit of kitsch, the gallery's transformation is almost complete. Taylor, however, seems to be an ever evolving individual. His work has taken him around the world, over walls and fences and under gates. He plans to be a travel photographer for some time to come, but 20 years from now, he cannot say. And what about Mad Dog in the wake of the election? Taylor already has a new slogan ready: Yes, Actually I do hate George Bush.
    ..
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
    "dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
    "You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
    "When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q

    "Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

    "Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    Why?
    Because he promotes a small government that stays out of people's business.

    This is not allowed.

  12. #10
    This is all in order to shape Rand's image. You see, Trump is a tough guy when liberal democrat Joe Biden threatened violence against him he said he would take Biden in a fight, when crazy liberals were threatening Trump with violence at his rally's he told his supporters to take them down and that he would pay any legal consequences. When Rand gets suckerpunched by a scumbag liberal the media gets to promote it to all the crazy people who want to become famous on TV ala "mass shooting", "tide pod" mass media liberal meme promotions

  13. #11
    she won't do $#@!, just trying to be cool in front of her cucky antifa hoodlums
    THE SQUAD of RPF
    1. enhanced_deficit - Paid Troll / John Bolton book promoter
    2. Devil21 - LARPing Wizard, fake magical script reader
    3. Firestarter - Tax Troll; anti-tax = "criminal behavior"
    4. TheCount - Comet Pizza Pedo Denier <-- sick

    @Ehanced_Deficit's real agenda on RPF =troll:

    Who spends this much time copy/pasting the same recycled links, photos/talking points.

    7 yrs/25k posts later RPF'ers still respond to this troll

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    Taylor is a travel photographer. To date he has taken about 25 trips to various places around the world for the business, not the pleasure, of taking pictures. He shoots from sun up to sun down, documenting on 35mm film places most people will never see. His pictures are full color, except for a special black and white excursion in France.

    Taylor's photos capture the beauty of the world through his own eyes. 'I like looking at pieces of things to see the whole, rather than seeing the whole to understand the pieces of things,' Taylor says. He photographs life, not scenery. He hasn't always made his living this way. Born in New York City on August 28, 1963, the day Martin Luther King made his 'I have a dream' speech; Taylor's road to professional travel photographer was marked by serendipitous twists and turns.

    Raised in Maine, he worked for the Clinton campaign in 1992 and again in 1996. In between, he had what calls 'a boring staff job' in the White House. But the boring staff job, like all government jobs, came with a few perks. 'They were sending me to some very interesting places,' Taylor says, 'Guantanamo Bay, Japan, Albania, Argentina, Uruguay. I was going to some cool places so I figured I should get a camera. I took pictures and found that I was enjoying the photographs more than I was enjoying the government work.

    The Left Bank, as the business was then known, was born. When the store opened in 1998, the kitschy French figurines of Tin Tin, Barbar and the Little Prince were not just limited to one shelf, but part of the central theme of the store that sold no photographs. 'French culture, Curious George and Madeline. Most of what we did focused on classic children's literature, ' said Taylor. After the store's first year, he began selling photographs from two trips he had taken. He had first sold his prints for extra cash at the Georgetown flea market during his year off in 1997. 'That's when I realized that there might actually be a market for this,' Claude says, ' That someone might be willing to pay $30 for one of my photos that they would hang in their hallway.'

    They sold well in the store, so he expanded the photo section to include his Italy trip. He kept taking more trips and coming back with more pictures and now the store is 95% photographs. He plans on phasing the kitschy stuff out within a few months after he has taken another three or four trips. Claude is also an anti-Bush propagandist. He sells political mugs, buttons and bumper stickers that are products of Taylor's Mad Dog brand, a separate political expression sideline, and represent the part of Taylor that just can't stay out of politics entirely. 'I like to keep my toe in,'

    Taylor said of his business within a business where the newest product is a button that says Bush Sucks. Taylor was in charge of printing such things for the Clinton campaign, so he has plenty of experience with the bumper sticker sound bite. Phasing out these items, which he handed out by the thousands during Bush's first inauguration protest, would be bittersweet for the photographer. 'I would love for Kerry to win and not have to do any political stuff; but,' he says with a laugh 'I would lose money.' Taylor takes six trips a year to various places around the world.

    Although it might seem like he lives in a perpetual state of vacation, they really are business trips. He researches each trip by reading a travel guide or the area cover to cover, as well as some history about the area, and a novel set in the area. He does not spend time relaxing or getting to know the locals. He takes pictures, thousands of them, and he taught himself the business side of it just as he taught himself the artistic side. 'That's sort of what he does for a living; sit there and look picturesque,' Taylor says as he holds up a stunning photo of an ancient looking Cuban man smoking a pipe on a dilapidated front stoop. 'I gave him two bucks and took the picture, and he's happy and I'm happy and I've probably made a couple thousand from his photos. It would have been chintzy of me not to give him the two dollars.'

    He notes that despite any language barriers he might encounter, everyone speaks dollar. 'When he gets back he's entirely wrapped up in the photos,' says Paul Serici, 23, one of Taylor's employees of about two years. 'He doesn't talk much about the trip.' Serici says that the days after Taylor returns from a trip are not very communicative. His picky eye for detail consumes him when selecting his best shots. Once the 80-plus select pictures from each trip are blown up and framed, the meticulousness doesn't stop. 'If I don't Windex the pictures well enough, he'll tell me,' says Serici.

    But he won't notice a spot on his glasses for a week. This is the transition from politico to artist. Taylor can be distant. At times he seems bored and arrogant. He doesn't want to talk about himself. He can be impatient with some customers: 'Some people came in asking if I had any Kerry Sucks stickers. I told to get the hell out of my store,' he says nonchalantly. But his big secret is that he is really a big softy. 'When people show an interest, he can be really nice and give them discounts. He has favorites,' says Serici. Taylor is undoubtedly charmed by certain people, and by no one more than his son, Avi. He keeps a picture of the adorable six-year-old on the wall behind the desk.

    Taylor gets him on weekends, when he has one of his five employees watching the store. Avi has dimples, and looks like his mom, but moves like his dad, according to Serici. 'That's one of the best times to see Claude with his guard down,' Serici adds. But his guard is up most of the time, especially when he talks about religion and nationality. He presents his views as absolute, but clearly has not yet answered all of his own questions. 'I'm kind of between religions right now,' he says in a half joking way. He is fascinated by the history and culture of Judaism, but notes some of the fundamental problems with the religion. As he talks about religion, a chip appears on his shoulder. 'If I had been born Jewish and happened to be an atheist, nobody would have a problem calling me a Jew. But if I wanted to become a Jew, there is a very fundamental theological problem, namely does God exist or not.

    In which case I have a problem because I don't think he does,' says Taylor as he explains his dilemma. Taylor wants Avi, which is a Hebrew name Taylor just happened to like, to make up his own mind about religion too. Avi's mother and Taylor's ex-wife is a lax Catholic. But even as he complains, it is easy to see that Taylor sort of revels in his outsider status. He does not belong to any professional photography societies, because he's 'not a joiner.' He even feels like he doesn't belong in America any more. 'What's happening with this election, Christian Fundamentalists, NRA nuts, I feel almost completely alienated from this culture,' he says as support to his hypothesis that he is a European who somehow ended up being an American. 'I don't think countries are that important. I don't think that because I happened to be born American means anything.

    I could have happened to have been born a Brazilian or a Frenchman, or an Indian. I don't think national boundaries should be that vital.' 'I would leave tomorrow if I could, but I have a business here. I have a six-year-old son here. It's not that easy,' Taylor says. For someone who thinks people should be able to move freely about the world, he is certainly in the right business. Kevin Reid, a photographer in town to take pictures of the homeless behind the White House runs around the gallery like a kid in a candy store. He is in awe of Taylor's work, and excited about life in a way that explains his manic movements around the gallery to marvel at one photo after another. 'Would you look at this one?' Reid says as he holds up a landscape shot of Egypt. Those in the know recall how Taylor rode the couple hundred miles from Luxor to Aswan in a military controlled convoy where his taxi was made the lead car. A soldier sat in the front seat with an AK 47 leaned over his shoulder pointing directly at Taylor. Knowing the moment right was show his friendly side, Taylor would ask 'Do you think you could, like, move that a little bit?', and the soldier, who had forgotten about the gun's position, would laugh and kindly oblige. This happened over and over again on the way to Aswan.

    To those who don't know the story, the picture is just as beautiful. The image creates a fantasy in the eye of the beholder. As the photographs take over the last bit of kitsch, the gallery's transformation is almost complete. Taylor, however, seems to be an ever evolving individual. His work has taken him around the world, over walls and fences and under gates. He plans to be a travel photographer for some time to come, but 20 years from now, he cannot say. And what about Mad Dog in the wake of the election? Taylor already has a new slogan ready: Yes, Actually I do hate George Bush.
    Names are funny .There was a fine eating establishment in the 80's in Columbus Indiana Across the Street from the 4th St Bar called Left Bank . On the corner when I was young was a butcher shop which later became a pool hall . I went to Basic with a guy whose nickname was Mad Dog , he was from Michigan . Few years later , first time I really had a semi permanent duty station in the states , I was living in Tacoma and Mad Dog lived across the street from me . His wife had left him . The guy she shacked up with killed himself and she took all the insurance money and moved back in with Mad Dog . He bought a new car. He gave me a painting she had on the wall after she moved in with the other guy . I still have it .
    Do something Danke



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