Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

A Nice, Slow Weekend

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It’s been a really busy few weeks, but I’m happy to report that things are settling back down. Last time I had a ‘slow day’ it was because I was sick, which is no fun. This time I can enjoy it! It’s good to have some relaxation time now and then. I took the day off from work yesterday since things are a little slow (we got an extension on a proposal that we were pulling our hair out over). Yesterday was St. Maximilian Kolbe’s (my patron saint) memorial day and today is the Feast of the Assumption, so it seems appropriate for me to take a couple days to pray, meditate, relax, and so on.

Yesterday I spent a good chunk of the day doing a 50 mile ride on the C&O Canal towpath in Maryland. It was a great ride, though 50 miles is pushing it a bit for me (especially on un-paved trails). I’m sore today! I’m hoping to ride the entire trail (in smaller chunks) before it cools down too much for winter, but I’m not too sure I’ll be able to do it. Worst-case I’ll pick it back up in the Spring. I’m trying to push up my distance-per-ride so, eventually, I can do a 2- or 3-day ride of the entire 185 mile long C&O Canal Towpath.

Today, I’m mostly cleaning up some stuff on my computers and on the web site back-end, but that’s about it for the day. I’m also working on a couple of writing projects in my spare minutes (and watching some TV too ;-)). Basically it’s just a nice, lazy weekend. I’m sure I won’t have another one of these for months to come!

The Nebulous Modern ‘Contract’

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One of the most annoying things I have seen on the road is those little signs on the back of dump trucks stating, simply, “Not responsible for damaged windshields.” These really get under my skin because the people who run these companies are claiming that somehow, by plastering a sign on the back of their truck, they have absolved themselves of any responsibility for securing their load. ‘Oh, yeah, we can scatter gravel all over the road without care and damage people’s property . . . we have a sign.’

I have been tempted on many occasions to put my own sign on my car: “Not responsible for sledge-hammer damage.” I could then pay an entertaining visit to these companies’ offices and show them what it is like to have valuable property damaged unjustly. Of course I can destroy their property, I have a sign!

The idea that a person or business can declare themselves above traditional traffic, civil, and contract law is pretty ludicrous, and yet we see it all the time. These truck companies, blithely declaring that they need not obey traffic safety laws, are a fine example. ‘Shrink wrap’ or ‘click through’ software licenses are another—a form of ‘contract’ that doesn’t require any signature or meaningful assent, and yet is declared by the manufacturer to be legally binding on your activities with a lawfully purchased product.

Read more . . .

Unfortunate Juxtapositions

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jux2jux1jux3WTOP, a Washington, DC, area all-news radio station, has a pretty good web site. It’s not the flashiest or fanciest news web site, and they occasionally have trouble with journalism fundamentals, but they’re usually pretty fast with local news and provide a good overview of relevant local stories (in addition to national and world news). Plus, the radio station can’t be beat (especially the ‘traffic and weather together on the eights’ filling you in on the these essentials every ten minutes).

One thing that I occasionally run into on the site though is that they have a featured photo section called ‘Picture This’ which appears on the right-hand side of almost any news story. This section usually features a humorous or random photo, but that photo is not related in any way to the story you’re reading. Usually this is harmless, but occasionally it results in unfortunate juxtapositions. Here are two I’ve run across recently that just didn’t seem right.

Update 8/12/2009: Just found a new one today! A story about a pit bull with an un-related (but somewhat inappropriate) photo.

Health Care Insanity

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Look, most of us agree that we need some kind of health care reform. I’m willing to entertain more government regulation of health care than I entertain in most other industries because health care is, indeed, something that everybody should have access to. This is a moral truth that all Christians should agree on, although good Christians can surely disagree on the best way to provide that access.

But the health care plans being foisted upon us by President Barack Obama (D) and the Democratic super-majorities in both houses of Congress are pretty reprehensible. While some parts of these plans are fine (like limitations on insurance companies holding ‘preexisting conditions’ against you), the whole idea of a government plan—even as an optional alternative to private plans—is frightening. With artificially limited prices, this government plan will likely supplant private plans in time and it will almost definitely begin to exhibit the same problems that all other public health care plans have exhibited in countries that have attempted this dangerous experiment. Beyond these ‘big picture’ concerns, however, there is the fact that the plans being considered in Congress are thousands of pages long and nobody—nobody—has actually read them in their entirety.

Doesn’t that scare you? Doesn’t it frighten you that Congress might pass a massive rewrite of our health care system un-read? It should. If they don’t know what’s in the thing, how can anybody know what it will do to our health care system?

Read more . . .

House: Framed and Roofed

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house-roofedMelissa and I ran out to the house on Sunday afternoon just to see the progress. As you can see, the whole house is framed and has a roof and everything. Supposedly it will still be done and ready for delivery in a November-ish time frame.

Now we just need to get everything set up with the loan . . . boy that’s a headache all its own. I’ll get into that later.

I do really wish that we could simplify the process of buying houses, buying cars, buying cell phones, etc. There’s no need to layer complexity upon complexity.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.