Politics Archive

25 Things (many months later)

Posted December 20, 2009 By Landis V

I’ve been tagged a couple of times. It will take approximately six years for me to complete this. During that interval, it will live in my “draft notes” folder.
I’m not tagging anyone. Read them if you want, don’t if you don’t.

1. I find taxes perversely interesting now that I’m (just a little bit) older. I learn something new every year. In 2007 (2006 filing) I learned that you get positively buttraped for “married filing separately.” Last year I filed longform for the first time. This year I discovered a little bit about tax credits for points while refinancing a home. Next year, I’ll learn about dependant deductions and (hopefully) capital gains and losses.

2. I like to publish my music playlists. I’m modestly ecclectic in my tastes and, though I usually have my players set to random, my music will sometimes reflect my mood. I’m quite sure it’s not something that people pay a great deal of attention to, but it’s important enough to me that I seek out audio devices and applications that support it (www.last.fm, www.foobar2000.org, www.rockbox.org).

3. At any given time, the value of my liquor cabinet approximates that of my cars. I don’t like cheap crap, but I like a lot of different things. Reciprocally, I don’t really mind cheap crappy cars 🙂

4. I’m a bit vain. Perhaps not a surprise.

5. I value intelligence, competence, and self-capability more than anything.

6. Re: #5. Except my family. Though I’ve no qualms there.

7. I like quality. Quality clothes, quality booze/beer/wine, quality thought, quality -everything-.

8. I procrastinate. By way of example, when is the last time you remember this survey going around? Yeah, that’s probably close to the time I started it. And it’s iffy whether I’ll finish it tonight even.

9. I am conservative. For the most part. There are two specific examples I can cite that most conservatives would disagree with me upon: abortion and -true- freedom of speech. In regard to abortion, I have no right to decide (as it is a woman’s body and, as such, her right to make that decision – yes, I say this with no qualms after having had a child of my own; I have an undeerstandable bias, but that does not under any circumstances give me the right to profess my will over another person’s body. In regard to freedom of speech, “conservatives” generally need to adopt an atitude of practicing what they preach, especially in regard to speech they disagree with, to avoid hypocrisy. Actions are another story…

10. Ties into “I’m vain”, but I like people to know what I think. How else are they going to form an opinion based upon my ideals? (That’s pseudo-sarcastic.)

11. I believe this country is going straight to hell, just like the EU. Go ahead and ask me why, I could do with a reason to rant.

12. I -love- my family. My daughter amazes me with her curiosity and inquisitiveness, and my wife amazes me with her undsrstanding and true goodness.

13. I like variety. After all, if you keep the same routines for the rest of your life, how are you going to see alll the other things you like? (N.B. Value > variety)

14. I love to better understand what I already know. For example, in #13 I already had an approximate awareness of “N.B.”. Yet it never hurts to further develop context. I looked it up. See here.

15. My daughter can challenge my patience sometimes. It is no fault of hers; it is fault of myself.

16. I feel starved for time. I want to know everything, do everything, and still maintain channels amongst my friends and acquaintances.

17. My wife is, frankly, amazing. She can take me from a near rage to a settled, thoughtful state that reflects my ideal image of myself. In any circumstance.

18. I have weaknesses. Don’t bother asking me about them. If I don’t tell you personally, you’ll never know. Not a big secret, so does everyone, but it’s something. And I’m running out of ideas without resorting to the “I really like spaghetti” style answers. I’m trying to do something deep here, people!

19. Children are exhausting, but perhaps not nearly so much as one might think. At least, mine isn’t 🙂

20. I would like to learn to read and have a workable understanding of Latin. Yes, it’s a dead language. It’s a dead language with vast history and context, however.

21. I can speak a few words of Mandarin. Something I pursued at one time, and something I may get back to at some point in the (distant) future.

22. I’m maybe (more than) a little bit GQ. Big turnaround from high school.

23. I like stout, black coffee. One of the best I’ve ever had was (I believe) a chickory blend from Cafe Du Mond (Du Monde?) in New Orleans.

24. I LOVE to travel. And I finally got my passport this year. Fortunate, considering I have family in Canada and may want to go there again someday soon 🙂

25. I have summed up the complete and total essence of my being in the previous 24 questions. (The real #25: SURPRISE! I have an enormous amount of sarcasm!)

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Source: www.washingtonpost.com
Nelson sells out…
One of few Democrats who I respected a great deal. No more.
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12/9

Posted December 9, 2009 By Landis

“When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.”
— Paul “Bear” Bryant

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com.nyud.net/blog/mfreed Inaccurate Copyright Enforcement: Questionable “best” practices and BitTorrent specification flaws

“So let us reach for the world that ought to be–that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.”
— President Obama, from his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Now watch as Obama uses his ignoble prize as a divining rod for -his- interpretation of “the world that ought to be”, which is almost without question unreachable from my vision of same.

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11/19

Posted November 19, 2009 By Landis V

http://aimpl.org/pl/
List of unsolved math problems, with what has been done in working towards a solution.

“Admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.”
— Seneca

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140414/Windows_7_tricks_20_top_tips_and_tweaks

http://www.pcworld.com/article/181713/windows_7_for_less_where_to_find_discounts.html

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/_2F6gxBLJx4/Two-Senators-Call-For-ACTA-Transparency
Pass this along to Nebraska senators

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Crimes against humanity

Posted October 9, 2009 By Landis V

In reply to a suggestion of crimes against humanity by the Bush administration.

They would have equally as good a case for a peace prize as Obama, none were any worse than he. Don’t be so quick to forget about Sadam’s mass graves and human rights “shortcomings”, to put it lightly. While it can easily be argued that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, Iraq is arguably no worse off today than they were before, and potentially better off with a regime that has some level of openness to citizens. Surely you jest with the terminology. Hitler committed “crimes against humanity”, if we’re to believe the history books. 11 to 14 -million- people. It was a stated social policy of racial cleansing. Not even in the ballpark with crimes committed by an individual or individuals that may or may not have been known by the administration.
Far be it from me to say that Bush et. al. were saints or angels – they weren’t. There are innumerate examples of half truths, deceit, and outright lies attributable to that administration. Not at all like the current administration who has flatly stated their plan to run the country into the ground and taken every conceivable opportunity to rob their citizenry blind for generations to come. I find the indentured servitude of 300 million people for who knows how many generations as close to a crime against humanity as anything Bush may have been accused of. You can only kill me once, but to crush my will indefinitely? That is unforgivable.

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Source: uncyclopedia.wikia.com
    You have two cows…    
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This from a -court-…

Posted May 29, 2009 By Landis V

The following quote was taken from http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266960, which unfortunately did not cite their references. The judiciary, too, oversteps their powers.

“The child is a citizen of the State. While he “belongs” to his parents, he belongs also to his State. Their rights in him entail many duties. Likewise, the fact the child belongs to the State imposes upon the State many duties. Chief among them is the duty to protect his right to live and to grow up with a sound mind in a sound body . . . .
When a religious doctrine espoused by the parents threatens to defeat or curtail such a right of their child, the State’s duty to step in and preserve the child’s right is immediately operative.”

Let me state in clear and certain terms and with absolute conviction that I DO NOT belong to the “State”, I HAVE NOT in the past belonged to the “State”, and I WILL NOT at any time belong to the “State.” For, what is the state but a collective of men? My decisions are not the decisions of other men, nor should their decisions be thrust upon me to be offered as my own.

The “State” has no right to nurture, only to protect. For in its nurturing, the “State” has shown a heavy interest in perpetuating its own values and furthering its own goals. There are ways these things can be done, can be improved, but they are up to man, not the “State”.

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