Election Special Coverage on Home Page

Posted August 18, 2012, 1:32 a.m.

I’m continuing my ramp-up for the Off on a Tangent coverage of the 2012 presidential election, which will be quite a bit more comprehensive than it has been in previous years. In addition to the standalone election site, which will be the place to be for live blogging and election results on November 6, I’ve also just launched a new election home page widget. The new election widget replaces the three-column ‘features’ area that I launched with Website 23, which is exactly the kind of thing that I promised in the launch announcement.

The election widget contains an independent Off on a Tangent projection of where the presidential election stands today, a space for my official endorsements, and links to the last five political posts on the site. The independent projection will be updated periodically as we move toward the election in November. The formal Off on a Tangent endorsements will come out in mid-to-late September like usual.

I’m planning to continue making improvements as we move toward November, so please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in the Off on a Tangent coverage of the 2012 presidential election.

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

I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

Now, if no other work were commanded but chastity alone, we would all have enough to do with this one; so perilous and raging a vice is unchastity.

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.

God has created me to do him some definite service. . . . I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught.

The law helps him who watches.

One of the things that has constantly amazed me is the delight that decent people take in the ability to provide opportunities to those over whom they currently exercise authority.

Being right and being wrong feel exactly the same to all of us. We can’t tell the difference. If we could, everyone would agree on everything important.

Power from any source tends to create an appetite for additional power. Power coming from wealth tends to create an appetite for political power and visa versa. It was almost inevitable that the super-rich would one day aspire to control not only their own wealth, but the wealth of the whole world.

It has always been the favorite maxim of princes, to divide the people, in order to govern them. It is now time that the people should avail themselves of the same maxim, and divide powers among their rulers, in order to prevent their abusing it.

The more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters composed, the greater is known to be the ascendency of passion over reason.

The more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it.

Revolutions like this have happened in almost every country in Europe . . . instances of the people losing their liberty by their own carelessness and the ambition of a few.

And he who lives a hundred years, ignorant and unrestrained, a life of one day is better if a man is wise and reflecting.

The Church can, when necessary, change the laws it has itself made, but it cannot change the laws that Christ has made.

What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,

To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it.

You‘ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.

He who, by causing pain to others, wishes to obtain pleasure for himself, he, entangled in the bonds of hatred, will never be free from hatred.

He is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.