Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

One Woman’s Story of Surviving the Holocaust

Posted

We can’t forget World War II. I have long believed, and still believe today, that World War II was the moment where it was all on the line. We could have lost civilized, free society entirely to fascism and totalitarianism. It was the turning point, and it could easily have gone the other way had we (civilization) failed to rise to the challenge.

It is worth keeping this in mind constantly. We must study how Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in Germany, and how they managed to go as far as they did with their racist, totalitarian doctrine.

A touching story appeared in today’s Washington Post about a Ukrainian Jewish woman who, through her ingenuity and quick thinking, managed to survive the Nazi occupation and the greater holocaust that took the lives of her family and most of her entire community. It is an incredible story, and calls to mind other stories of survival like it . . . and the absolute horrors that so many were not able to escape.

Redcoat Holdouts Still Fighting American Revolution

Posted

According to The Onion, the most reliable and useful newspaper left in America, the entire 32nd Regiment of His Majesty’s Royal British Army was found in a small wooded area outside of Carlisle, Massachusetts, Monday still fighting the Revolutionary War.

The Pentagon immediately dispatched air support to defend our sovereignty against the redcoat regiment, but ultimately called off the air raid after assurances from the United Kingdom officials that there was no invasion in progress, and the 32nd Regiment’s presence on U.S. soil did not represent an official action of the U.K. government.

Businesses Behind the Times

Posted

Some businesses just don’t even seem to be trying.

This came to mind this afternoon when I spent a few minutes in a Borders book store. I like book stores, generally, and book prices in these stores are usually comparable with prices online. Stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble need to compete with online retailers, particularly Amazon.com, that offer similar prices, wider selection, and the convenience of shopping from your own home. I don’t know how they’re going to do that in the long term, but sharp businessmen can figure it out I’m sure (or else the bankruptcy courts will have to).

What perplexed me though wasn’t the book section, but the music and video sections of the store. The average price for music CDs—regular, old-fashioned physical albums on compact disk—was an insane $17! It was like a flashback to 1998, when the grossly overpriced wares of the music industry pushed pushed people to illegal downloads from Napster. Average CD prices dropped to $12 or $13 in the early 2000s, then dropped further to $9 or $10 in the last couple of years. These price drops were long overdue, especially given the relative dearth of good music these days.

Today, a wide variety of new and old albums are available from Best Buy, WalMart, Target, Amazon.com, and elsewhere in the $8-$10 range, with popular new albums rarely priced over $12 or $13. Albums from digital retailers like Apple iTunes or Amazon.com MP3 are rarely over $11 or so, even when brand new. I can’t understand how Borders expects people to pay $17 for something they can download in five minutes on iTunes for $10. Quite unsuprisingly, while there were plenty of customers in the browsing books, the music section was essentially deserted.

The video section was equally bizarre, with DVDs—even bad movies that blew through the theaters in a week—running upwards of $20. Some even approached $30! I can get those same films at Target, often as low as $8 or $10.

You know, if book stores stocked hard-to-find import music and DVDs, or otherwise differentiated their selection, this would at least make a little sense. But no, we’re talking about Britney Spears albums and the new Pink Panther movies—your standard ‘popular’ tripe. I don’t get it. Why even bother selling music and movies if you’re not going to differentiate yourselves or, at least, price the product reasonably?

VDOT’s Ingenius Rest Stop Closure Plan

Posted

The Virginia Department of Transportation is proposing to close 25 of the state’s 41 freeway rest stops in a cost-cutting measure. In-and-of-itself, my response to this is something along the lines of, “whatever.” I don’t use rest stops often, and I don’t see why people can’t pull into a gas station or fast food restaurant to rest (and contribute to the local economy) on their long journeys.

Then it dawned on me: In 2006, VDOT spent over 20 million dollars to renovate and rebuild Virginia rest stops. I criticized this in my 2005 endorsement of Jim Hyland (R) for the 35th District seat in the House of Delegates, since that 20 million dollars could easily have gone toward solving Northern Virginia’s urgent transportation issues, but it got spent on rest stops anyway. Fine. According to VDOT’s web site, the renovated rest stops were:

Read more . . .

Why I Support the Smoking Ban

Posted

My readers generally know me as an independent conservative who, nine times out of ten, tends to agree with the Republican Party. That said, I’m never afraid to take the other side based on my own convictions (which is why I have never joined any political party). It’s my libertarian streak that sometimes puts me at odds with the Republican Party that one time out of ten, because I generally feel that the government ought to stay the heck out of my and everybody else’s business.

So how, you may ask, can I possibly support the smoking ban that Governor Tim Kaine (D-VA) is signing into law today? After all, the ban tramples the property rights of business owners and the individual rights of smokers, doesn’t it?

The reason is simple. I think government should stay the heck out of my and everybody else’s business, but the government still has a responsibility to legislate against harmful acts that effect the innocent. That’s why I support a ban on abortions, which kill innocent human beings, yet tend to oppose legislative acts to limit or prohibit homosexual activity—even though I consider it immoral—since it only directly effects consensual participants. Cigarette smoke is an airborne carcinogen and can potentially harm me; I have a right to never be exposed to it unless I voluntarily choose to be so exposed.

I do not support outlawing smoking. In fact, on the contrary, I tend to support the legalization of marijuana since its intoxicating effects are no worse than those of alcohol. I draw the line at ‘hard’ drugs though, again because of the major societal ills caused by addiction to meth, crack, heroin, etc. As far as I’m concerned, people can drink and smoke all they want—so long as they don’t put me at risk by driving, handling firearms, or performing other dangerous tasks while under the influence . . . and as long as I don’t have to be directly exposed to these drugs or their byproducts except by choice.

Smoking bans like the one being signed today in my home state of Virginia don’t stop people from smoking, but they do significantly reduce my potential exposure to harmful environmental toxins I prefer not to be exposed to. They aren’t trampling smokers’ or property owners’ rights, they protect everybody’s right to only be exposed to toxins they chose to be exposed to.

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.