Big Travel Weekend

Posted April 23, 2010, 9:51 a.m.

Obviously I’ve been slacking on the posting; I apologize for that. The last week has been busy at work, busy at home, and . . . well just busy in general.

This weekend is our big travel weekend: Melissa and I are going to New York, NY. Lots of you might be surprised to learn that, while I’ve traveled all over the United States, I’ve never been to New York City. It should be an interesting experience. I hate crowds of people, and I don’t like rudeness, so it should be a great time ;-).

Melissa has a thing up there, which is why we’re going now, but we’re also making a long weekend of it as an early anniversary trip. We’re taking the train up this afternoon (so it’ll also be my first time on Amtrak) and staying until Tuesday.

I will try to post some stuff now and then. I’m not sure if the hotel has Internet access or not, but Verizon has kindly made mobile hot-spot free for Palm Pre Plus owners with a standard data plan . . . so up to five computers can surf over the phone’s 3G connection. Now I can be online anywhere without having to pay for access at hotels that aren’t enlightened enough to offer free Internet. Nice.

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

Let us not forget that unity is a symptom of life; disunion is decay, a sure sign of being a corpse.

Therefore the wise know themselves but make no show, have self-respect but are not arrogant.

The Son of God became a stumbling block when he humiliated Himself to the human level, taking on the form and habit of man. It is hard on the intelligentsia to believe that greatness can be so little.

Few institutions in our society are in a more unsatisfactory state than schools. Few generate more discontent or can do more to undermine our liberty.

Nothing is easier than to have good intentions but, without an understanding of how an economy works, good intentions can lead to counterproductive, or even disastrous, consequences for a whole nation.

Those who have governed, have been found in all ages ever active to enlarge their powers and abridge the public liberty.

Such is the nature of the understanding, that it cannot be compelled to the belief of anything by outward force. Confiscation of estate, imprisonment, torments, nothing of that nature can have any such efficacy as to make men change the inward judgment that they have framed of things.

The consequences of an action do not increase its goodness or malice.

See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen

A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church. . . .

The church, a community that authoritatively teaches and disciples its members, cannot withstand a revolution in which each member becomes, in effect, his own pope.

I am made, crudely, for success.

No Reformer believed in private interpretation of Scripture, but they had no clear way to discern whose interpretation was the correct one. [They] quickly discovered that casting off Rome’s authority solved one problem but created another.

In practice, self-described ‘purists’ are often ill informed about what actually constitutes good usage.