Month: June 2007

Categories
politics

Alan Augustson

Learning about Alan Augustson turned out to be much less pedestrian than I had expected. I anticipated that I owuld find a candidate like so many other unknowns. I found instead a person who has some very good ideas that are not being shared as widely as they should. I found myself debating about whether he should be endorsed. In the end I realized that, while his ideas deserve a wider audience because our political discussion of issues is often too narrow to be useful, he would not be able to lead the country.

We need a broader discussion that would come from some more obscure candidates getting more public attention, so this is almost an endorsement, but we also need a President who can get things done, and the current political climate would not allow Alan to do that even if he were elected.

Update 7/3/2007: Alan has decided to abandon his presidential bid in favor of running for the Fifth Congressional District of Illinois.

Categories
life

Father of Daughters

As Laura was going out to visit a neighbor she (or one of our girls who was going with her) found one of our naked barbie dolls on the sidewalk up the street (has anyone noticed that barbie dolls are naked almost all the time) and threw it back toward the house. I went with Mariah to retrieve it from the street. Mariah saw it and said “Annalise.” I looked at it and told her that it was Erika, not Annalise.

First of all, every barbie looks alike aside from skin tone, or hair color, but secondly, Annalise and Erika are supposed to look exactly alike (except for their hair color) in the Barbie movie they star in. It just made me realize that my life is not my own anymore when I can tell the difference between them and take the time to point it out to my toddler.

I am a father of daughters.

Categories
politics

Mike Huckabee

I did not have high expectations when I began investigating Governor Huckabee. I knew he had been a governor, but before I started actively looking at him as a candidate I had the impression that he was just another aspiring politician who lacked the media advantage of the more well known candidates. I was totally surprised by what I found. After more than a decade as governor I could expect him to have sufficient political experience to be President, what I could not anticipate would be the way that he presents himself. He comes across as approachable, knowledgeable, and willing to serve the country.

Because he lacks the media appeal of other candidates I am confident in predicting that the media will, unfortunately, not give his candidacy the attention that he deserves. I endorse Mike Huckabee for President.

Categories
politics

June Candidate List

It’s that time again when I review my current status on candidate endorsements. In the last month I manage to finish the whole list of candidates plus one who was not on the list a month ago. Despite all my work, the list this month is as long as the list last month:

  • Mike Huckabee
  • Alan Augustson
  • Wayne Root
  • Joe Schriner
  • Jon Greenspon
  • Charles Maxham
  • Bob Hargis
  • Fred Thompson
  • Daniel Imperato

The sad thing is that once you consider that two of the candidates on the list last month should not have been on the list (one was not running for president and I forgot that I had already covered the other one) you find that the list is actually longer at the end of the month than it was at the beginning. I have quickly glanced at all the candidates on the current list to make sure that they are all supposed to be on the list. Based on that quick review I am hoping that I can cover a large number of these candidates in a short period of time.

I’d like to get done with this soon so that I can review the endorsements and give some clarification on my positions with regard to the candidates. Not all my endorsements are equal and I want to get through all the candidates before I try to explain who I think are the best candidates and not just who is qualified enough to deserve votes.

Categories
culture politics

Depths of Public Discourse

The current voucher mess illustrates a sad low point in public discourse. The course of events reads like the script of a soap opera. Our legislature passed two laws to implement a voucher system with the expressed intent of giving citizens a choice in educating our children. One of the two bills is now up for a ballot referendum in November which casts a cloud on the whole situation. The second bill stipulates that the State Board of Education should implement vouchers this summer but the chairman of the Board of Education, an outspoken critic of vouchers, has refused even after the Attorney General has told the board to comply with the law as written. Of course the whole thing has gone to the courts for “clarification” but no matter what the courts say we will still have dedicated people on both sides of the debate who will push their respective agendas. Now we have the Attorney General revoking the status as “special assistant to the Attorney General” of two attorneys working for the Board of Education.

It boils down to the fact that the Board of Education is refusing to comply with the law when they are not elected either to make law or to interpret it. On the other hand, the legislature managed to pass two bills that are largely redundant and forcefully opposed. They have done this in such a way that neither the ruling of the courts nor the ballot referendum will necessarily settle the issue. This sounds more like the work of a handful of powerful partisans than the result of honest efforts by 104 people (the combined size of the House and Senate) trying to represent their constituencies and bring about the best resolution to a high-profile issue.

People on both sides of the issue have called for a special session as the means of clearing up the two existing bills and paving the way for the issue to be resolved. Those who advocate for this approach are likely the most intent on finding a solution rather than just pushing an agenda.

Whatever the outcome of the whole thing, I fear that the final effect on education will be to provide a striking example of how our system of government can be manipulated and hobbled by any minority that is determined enough about what they are trying to accomplish or prevent.

UPDATE: The state Supreme Court ruled that if the citizens voted against vouchers on the referendum in November it would be binding on both bills.

Categories
technology

Wireless Electricity

I’ve always said that there should be a way to power devices wirelessly. Now MIT has proven that it can be done. Just think what that will mean for the world of mobile devices.

Categories
culture

Information Processing

Thanks to Joshua for pointing to this quote from Douglas Adams (author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).

Of course you can’t ‘trust’ what people tell you on the web anymore than you can ‘trust’ what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants. Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do. For some batty reason we turn off this natural skepticism when we see things in any medium which require a lot of work or resources to work in, or in which we can’t easily answer back – like newspapers, television or granite. Hence ‘carved in stone.’ What should concern us is not that we can’t take what we read on the internet on trust – of course you can’t, it’s just people talking – but that we ever got into the dangerous habit of believing what we read in the newspapers or saw on the TV – a mistake that no one who has met an actual journalist would ever make.

This goes hand in hand with an argument that some people have heard me make about our “information society” as we call it. In a society so full of information sources the great challenge and skill is to be able to identify which sources are accurate or trustworthy. That is the skill that we need to have and that we need to pass on to our children. If Adams was right about humans being naturally hard-wired for this then we should do just fine.

The whole piece was published in 1999 which has given us 8 years to prove that he was right on target. Go read it.

Categories
politics

Bill Richardson

If becoming President were like getting a job – getting the right previous experience and hoping that it is a better fit than any other potential hire – as some of his campaign ads humorously depict, Bill Richardson would easily have the most impressive resume among the candidates. Wanting to go beyond the resume I took the time to seek input about Governor Richardson from current residents of New Mexico. Even considering the other intangibles which affect the worthiness of a candidate it is easy for me to endorse Bill Richardson for President.

Categories
culture life

Neighborly – Like Leonard Goss

I was having a rough day today so I was pleased that Laura showed up at the office with the kids to give me a ride home. Not two blocks from work we turned a corner, hit the gutter, and one of our tires blew out. Little did we know that we were right in front of the home of Leonard Goss and family. Mrs. Goss saw us emptying the trunk to start changing the tire and volunteered her husband to help me out.

Leonard came over and cheerfully offered his energy, experience, and tools (which were nicer than the little jack and lug wrench that were in the back of my van). He didn’t just help me put on the spare tire, he looked at his watch and suggested that we take his car to the tire store before they closed in 15 minutes to get the tire fixed. While Leonard was helping me, his family was playing host to my family in their yard, letting my girls play on their trampoline and helping Laura make a bottle for Isaac.

What could have been an added strain on an already wearisome day turned out to be a very pleasant hour. As we thanked Leonard and his family for their help he responded with, “that’s what we’re supposed to do right, help each other out?”

Of course he’s right, that’s what neighbors are for (even the ones who live over a mile away whom you’ve never met before), but he went beyond helping and completely turned our predicament around. I hope I can be as helpful when I see someone in need.

Categories
life technology

Help: I need PHP to actually work on IIS 6

I know this is a sidetrack from my normal topics, but I guess I’m testing the community out there. I have not been able to get reliable help on this problem even with Google.

I got PHP working on IIS 6 and then it magically stopped working. I got it working again (not sure what changed) and then it stopped working again as soon as the server got rebooted. Does anyone know how to make IIS play nice with PHP?

P.S. Let’s just pretend that I have no choice about IIS or PHP. It won’t help me to hear anyone suggest their favorite alternatives to either of them – if I could change the setup I would not bother with this combo.