An Eventful Week

Posted October 23, 2009, 1:09 p.m.

It’s been an eventful week. I already talked about having to take our youngest cat to the emergency vet for a digestive blockage, which was a blast, let me tell you. Since then, we’ve been feverishly working to get all the paperwork lined up for settlement on our house in less than a month. On top of that, we’ve set up all the utilities (including the super-critical Internet access) to start on-or-around November 20, we have a quote on homeowners’ insurance, appointments next week to get quotes on blinds, a security system, and movers, and probably twenty other things all spinning around all at once.

Since that all wasn’t enough, I interviewed for and was offered a new job and put in my two-weeks notice at the old one. Now the chaos is having a multiplying effect on itself; the change in jobs means a whole new round of paperwork for the mortgage! Weee!

Anyway, the new job is a very exciting opportunity with a well-known technology firm (I’ll provide some more info over the next week or two). After five years at the same company, most of which on one project, it will be nice to have a change of pace. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s also a move from government sector work to private sector work, and the office will be much closer to home.

I thought this was funny though: the office is reasonable walking distance from our apartment . . . and we’re moving out of the apartment to a house 20 or 30 minutes away less than two weeks after I start. Oh well.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

The more laws and restrictions there are, the poorer people become.

The Church alone has the right to make laws concerning the Sacrament of marriage, though the state also has the right to make laws concerning the civil effects of the marriage contract.

All pagan religions begin with the teachings of adults, but Christianity begins with the birth of a child.

The body hates the soul . . . because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.

The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.

What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.

How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. . . . We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know.

Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

There can be no higher international duty than to safeguard the existence and independence of industrious, orderly states, with a high personal and national standard of conduct, but without the military force of the great powers.

The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.

And it is a fact that books which fall short of greatness sometimes have a power to move us greatly, especially in childhood when we are least critical and most forgiving, for their very failures confess their humanity.

Prices determined in a free market are a form of free speech.

The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity[,] or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on out traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.

A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.

You know, Gina, Apple [Computer Inc.] is like a ship. That ship is loaded with treasure, but there’s a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction.

A car is useless in New York, essential everywhere else. The same with good manners.

The more you read and observe about this politics thing, you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line.

Self-censorship and appeasement will not solve problems in the Middle East. Surrendering the liberties guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights will not bring peace to the world. We have a right to expect that our government will defend our constitutional rights instead of kowtowing to those who emphatically reject our values.