Bobby Rockers – Page 14 – Survivor to Software

The Sun Also Rises

œThe American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.

–Alexis de Tocqueville

While I disdain liberal politics, I have to say that it made be very proud to see the first black, major party, candidate for President get nominated yesterday. It was a great moment for our country. I wish that such a charismatic candidate was also a strident defender of the constitution, but unfortunately it will not be the case. My biggest beef with both our major party candidates is that they are basically identical on the issues. From a foreign policy and domestic fiscal standpoint they are both exceedingly liberal (as is the current President.)

I heard a caller on NPR express an opinion that hit close to home for me. The basic summary of what he said was, “I really want to vote for Obama but I simply cannot stomach the idea voting for someone who is pro-choice.” Obama is exciting, dynamic, and probably the most articulate candidate we have had since Kennedy. I want to vote for that kind of candidate. But how can I vote for someone who stand so starkly on the wrong side of history when it comes to abortion. There are lots and lots of things I can overlook when I vote for a candidate (how many of us had to hold our noise while we voted in the last election) but abortion is simply not one of them.

A hundred years from now, the great sin of American history will NOT be slavery. Our great sin will be the institutionalized slaughter of millions of children. It is a sad expression of irony that, as President, Barack Obama would easily be most ardent defender of abortion rights in the history of that office; supporting abortion through ALL 9 months, without parental consent regardless of age, and even refusing assistance to babies born accidentally during abortions.

I hate this election. I hate it for getting my hopes up with the possibility of a Ron Paul President. I hate it because I despise the current Republican presidential candidate (why bother being a Republican if your not going to be conservative/libertarian.) I hate it because we FINALLY have a black presidential candidate (who is at least honest about being a liberal) that I cannot vote for. I hate it because we finally have a candidate whose lofty oratory is reminiscent of Americas greatest (i.e. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln) but I cannot vote for him.

We have suffered through eight years of a fiscally liberal Republican President. It just feels like a long night for lovers of liberty.

Oklahoma Primary Day

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

-John Quincy Adams

One of my life resolutions is to never again vote for a “settle-on” candidate and I don’t vote for progressive liberal candidates (mostly because I actually LIKE democracy.) Nationally, that means I can vote for Ron Paul, two guys from New Hampshire, and a bunch of dead founding fathers. Thankfully local elections still have significant importance to a community, albeit not for much longer, and locally there are some pretty good candidates.

Now if we could only find a way to keep Republicans and Democrats from shitting all over federalism; maybe there would be hope. Sorry folks, but my mood gets this way when I think about November.

Run Baby Run

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

James Thurber

Heather and I finished the City Arts Center Midnight Streak 5K last night. Sadly I am in bad enough shape that I actually had to train for a 5K. My seven week schedule was devised from a couple different sources but ultimately is worked out wonderfully. Here is the schedule I ran:

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Week 1	Run/Walk 15 Min	Run/Walk 2 Miles		Run/Walk 15 Min		Run/Walk 25 Min
Week 2	Run 20 Min	Run/Walk 2 Miles		Run/Walk 20 Min		Run/Walk 35 Min
Week 3	Run 25 Min	Run/Walk 2 Miles		Run/Walk 25 Min		Run 30 Min
Week 4	Run 25 Min	Run 2 Miles		Run 30 Min		Run 35 Min
Week 5	Run 25 Min	Run 20 Min		Run 30 Min		Run 3 Miles
Week 6	Run 30 Min	Run 3 Miles		Run 35 Min		Run 4 Miles
Week 7	Run 20 Min	Run 20 Min		Run/Walk 15 Min		Run 5K

I have some previous experience running; but I haven’t actually been in an organized event since the half-marathon I ran my Junior year of college. Great date night for Heather and I.

The Weekend Update

Just a quick note to let everyone know I have updated the Scotch list by adding 4 new single malts. I also added a couple headshot pictures of my kids to the family pictures section.

If you haven’t had a good beer in a while I have two recommendations. Konigshaven Quadruple is the only official Trappist beer from the Neatherlands. There are 7 Belgium Trappist beers; the most famous (of course) being Chimay. The second beer is about as strong but with a more of an Irish Red kind of flavor, it’s called Anchor Foghorn. Both of these beers I had after the Bon Jovi concert a couple weeks ago. Pretty good night if you ask me.

Finally, just for summer fun, Good Housekeeping proudly presents Frozen Drink Recipes. Some of them are even drinkable when you are under 21.

Make More Urgent the Necessity

Luck is the residue of design.

–Branch Rickey

After an Dr. Dobb’s interview with Christos Papadimitriou I have been thinking about design, creation, and development of complex systems. Specifically systems that are fundamentally efficient. The most important systems in existence are all amazingly complex (in fact, entirely too complex to ever design) and yet are built (often upon very simply concepts.) They evolve into existence and are created without ever being engineered.

My favorite example is economics, which has as its basis very simple rules. Economics sprout markets; which which are not only insanely complex but suffer from constant attempts to control always with perfect failure. Other example include physics and the universe, computers and the internet.

So my question is, what other systems exist that can be created, but cannot be designed?

Fun Facts

Pulled directly from this website; so you should definately read the original.

Doctors:

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.

Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is 80 million.

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year all age groups is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188. Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”

Refrain therefore awhile

Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them.

–Suzanne Necker

I am in the process of updating the image galleries to use the new WordPress Media Manager instead of the local scripts I used before. While testing out the functionality I added some new family pictures. They require a user account to access (for obvious privicy reasons) but you can register by clicking on the link on the right.

So far I have converted the Jeep and desktop image galleryies. Also, I have added lots more quotes from an old list I found on my home computer. Check out all of my images by clicking on “Images” on the right-hand side under VAULT STUFF.

Legal Plunder

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.

–Albert Camus

It is a factual misconception that the primary tool of the tyrant is religion. As often, nationalism is listed as weapon of the dictator; but nationalism is an effect, like the dust from a sander, it simply masks the source of its origin. No, as with every Hitler, Mao, and Amin the source of power came from the promise of welfare to the people. That the tyrant, and only his government, could lift the people from their suffering.

I know that we, as Americans, began our slow slide towards totalitarianism around the time of FDR; but for some reason that movement seems accelerated as of late. At least during the Roosevelt administration we had a political party working to preserve democracy. Now we have two parties working aggressively to legislate, regulate, and subsidize democracy out of existence.

Here is, via a light bulb, a great example of the kind of Machiavellian control government tries to have over our lives. If you think life is complicated if you use a light bulb you should try running a small business.

And it only looks to get worse. Universal health care looks like it is coming. If you honestly believe the government has ever done a social program right, think about this:

When Medicare was initially passed in 1965, the politicians projected its cost in 1992 to be $3 billion ” which is equivalent to $12 billion when adjusted for inflation to 1992 dollars. The actual cost in 1992 was $110 billion ” nine times as much.

And when Medicare was enacted, Section 1801 of the original law specifically prohibited any bureaucratic interference with the practice of medicine. Today not one word of that protection still applies. The federal government owns the health-care industry lock, stock, and barrel.

The new program you support will eventually include all sorts of powers and privileges you can’t even imagine right now.

–Harry Browne

Improved by death

I have updated VAULT to WorlPress 2.5. Additionally I have added a quotes widget to the sidebar and a page that has a (nearly) complete list of the quotes I have posted. This new functionality is a product of the Quotes Collection plug in. Now that I have a tool to manage adding quotes, it looks like this blog may become nothing more than a repository for posting links unless I actually add some unique content on occasion.

On My Return to Work

A good manager makes sure things get done right; a good leader makes sure the right things get done.

God never intended for us to be comfortable.

Nothing is impossible, and nothing worthwhile is easy.

Vision without action is just a dream; action without vision is just consuming time.

–All Stolen from the CBMC Newsletter