Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

First 2008 Presidential Debate TONIGHT

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The first formal Presidential debate between Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) will be held tonight at 9pm EDT. This is the first of three scheduled general election debates between the two major-party candidates. Third-party candidates are excluded from participation.

Tonight’s debate will be held at the University of Mississippi and will be moderated by PBS NewsHour host Jim Lehrer. The official topic of the evening is foreign policy and national security.

I strongly recommend that all Americans watch this debate, as well as the remaining Presidential and Vice Presidential debates between now and the November elections. For unfettered coverage, I recommend watching the debates on C-SPAN rather than any of the commercial broadcast and cable news outlets.

Fairfax County Bond Referendum, 2008

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Introduction

Virginia county governments are required to put bond issuance to a voter referendum in order to borrow money on behalf of the county. Bond issuance is usually used by governments to raise money for large capital expenditures, and those bonds are repaid to their purchasers at a later date with interest. Bond referendums in Fairfax County historically pass by a large margin, in large part because people think they are voting in favor of the agencies that will benefit (after all, who wants to vote against schools, parks, or transportation?). Many voters do not realize that bond issuance contributes to government debt and should be used sparingly.

Read more . . .

Rewarding Poor Choices

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U.S. banking firms, particularly in the mortgage industry, chose to offer mortgages to high-risk home buyers. Home buyers chose to take on mortgage payments they were unable to afford. Now, according to President George W. Bush (R), you and I—the American taxpayers—should rescue these companies and individuals from their own reckless decisions.

Thankfully, many members of Congress—conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat—are drawing a line in the sand on Bush’s plan to spend $700 billion of your dollars on rewarding bad decisions.

The best course of action the government can take to stabilize the economy is to stop interfering. No rescues, no bailouts, no Mommy Government fixing all Americans’ mistakes. Bad decisions have consequences, and the best thing to do is let those consequences take their course. Yes, some businesses will fail. Yes, some homeowners who overextended themselves will lose their homes. Sorry guys; you reap what you sow. Maybe next time you won’t offer 1 million dollar mortgages to people who make $30,000/year. Maybe next time you’ll read the fine print and refuse to sign a mortgage that you can’t afford.

The government has no right to redistribute your and my hard-earned dollars to the very people and businesses who created this ‘crisis’. A 700 billion dollar hand-out won’t fix the ignorance and stupidity that led to these economic troubles, nor will it have any benefit for the vast majority of us who are actually doing just fine (because we made smart decisions). I don’t know what kind of ‘conservatism’ President Bush thinks he is practicing; a 700 billion dollar bailout of private businesses sounds more like Roosevelt-style economic interventionism.

Meet Mittens (uh . . . Vincent)

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So, uh, I’m not really sure how this happened but Melissa and I (mostly Melissa) got a new cat today. His name is Mittens Vincent. He has a somewhat-rare deformity where the ‘thumb’ of his paw is down where the other ‘fingers’ are instead of further up the leg like on most cats.

I’m still trying to compute how a trip to Men’s Wearhouse to return my tux turned into an adoption trip to the Petsmart next door, but it did.

Anyway, Mittens Vincent—aside from his neat little paw deformity—is your average male orange tabby with white highlights on his feet and belly. He’s about four months old, so he’s still just a kitten. Hopefully, Mei Mei will pick up a slight maternal instinct toward him with a little time . . . but right now we’re just trying to convince Mei Mei that the newcomer is not Satan and need-not be hissed at every time they see one another.

(Update: My wife informed me this morning that ‘Mittens’ was not likely to be his permanant name. Then I found out this evening that he will be called Vincent. The entry has been updated.)

Melissa: Award-Winning Artist

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My talented wife Melissa entered a series of three silver pendants, Transcendence 3, into the Bead Museum DC’s Celebrating Beads competition. She found out a couple of weeks ago that she was a finalist, and tonight was the Passion for Beads Gala at which the winners were announced. Melissa, who insisted that she wasn’t going to win anything, won two things!

Melissa’s piece won 1st Place in the ‘Clay’ category for hobbyists (full-time professional artists are judged separately) AND the Best in Show: Best Handmade Bead award (which was open to both hobbyists and pros).

The photo above/right is of Melissa standing next to two of the three parts of her piece as-displayed at the gala (hers are smaller pieces, right next to her hand, labeled ‘6’).

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.