Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Telling the Truth is Islam Bashing?

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Amil Imani, an Iranian-American who’s family fled Iran after the 1979 radical revolution, writes about the reality of Islam in the world today. It continues to amaze me how little attention the media and general populations of Europe and North America pay to the threat of radical Islam. In the face of widespread Islamic violence and rioting that flares up periodically in Europe, and continuing acts of terrorism, we still laud it as a ‘religion of peace’ with which we earnestly expect to coexist.

While there are plenty of fine, peaceful, upstanding people who call themselves Muslim, the sad reality is that the religion as-a-whole is—as Imani so eloquently puts it—not multiculturalist, but mono-culturalist. It accepts no culture as valid except for the culture of Islam. It seeks to “ . . . terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle” (Qur’an 8:12).

Sooner or later, the threat must be confronted. The war brewing—a vicious clash of ‘western’ and Islamic values—cannot be prevented through diplomacy, or blind acceptance, or mincing our words for fear of ‘offending’ people. We must speak the truth, and we must prepare ourselves for the inevitable.

Santa Arrested in Sweatshop Sting Operation

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Santa Claus has been arrested in Hong Kong, China following an international sting operation investigating the jolly elf for involvement in a sweatshop cartel. A high-ranking Interpol official speaking to Off on a Tangent under conditions of anonymity stated that Claus, known worldwide for his annual distribution of Christmas gifts, enlisted the network of sweatshops several years ago to augment the production capacity of his North Pole toy-making factory and meet increasing demand from the world’s children.

Santa’s team of elves have been faced with difficulty keeping pace with the world’s consumerism over the last two decades. Cost-cutting measures have led to periodic elf strikes and other labor difficulties, including a 2004 investigation of unexplained elf illness by the North Poll Occupational Safety & Health Agency (NPOSHA) that remains unresolved.

“When we got into this business, it was wooden horses, fireman helmets, and plastic swords,” said Claus in a 2006 interview with BBC World News following a two-month-long elf strike. “If we are to remain competitive in this world of iPods and X-Boxes, we are going to need to work longer and harder. We may also need to outsource some of our toy production to non-elf factories around the world.”

According to officials in Hong Kong, Santa outsourced as much as 50 percent of his 2007 and 2008 toy production to a network of sweatshops in the Chinese countryside. These sweatshops, known for dangerous working conditions and the illicit employment of child labor, have recently become the subject of various crackdowns from Chinese and international law enforcement agencies.

Claus was unavailable for comment.

Conquering the W&OD, 10 Miles at a Time

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The Washington & Old Dominion Regional Park is one of the premiere bike trail parks in the DC metropolitan area. It’s 100 feet wide (with a 9 foot wide paved trail) and 45 miles long—running from Purcellville, Virginia, all the way into Arlington. You can read some more about the park and trail from BikeWashington.org or Friends of the W&OD. As part of my quest to ride at least 30 miles each week, I’ve been spending at least a couple hours over the last three weeks riding the W&OD.

I’ve been tackling the trail in 10-mile increments (each outing is a 20-mile ride: 10 miles from my chosen starting point, then 10 miles back). In my three rides so far, I’ve successfully conquered just over 30 miles of the 45 mile long trail—from its Purcellville end-point all the way to a rest area past Hunter Mill Road.  If you look at the map on BikeWashington.org, I’ve ridden everything from the left starting point to a point about 2/3 of the way between the dots for Reston and Vienna. I’ll probably really push myself and finish the last 15 miles in one big ride (30 miles total!) this or next week before moving on to some other local trails.

If you have any interest in local history, check out Paul McCray’s fascinating photographic history of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad, which was abandoned in the 1960s and later converted into the W&OD ‘rail trail’. Some of my favorite bits include the W&OD bridge over the [4-lane!] Beltway in 1967, the grade-crossing over the Shirley Highway (now I-395) in Arlington from 1968 (local readers will recognize the building in the distance to the left, which is still there), and—best of all—the Dulles Airport siding from 1959. The airport siding is especially ironic, since the W&OD was both a freight and passenger line, so we had a passenger-capable rail line running most of the way to Dulles Airport while it was being built in 1959 but don’t have any line or service to the airport today.

Apparently though, the W&OD line had a reputation similar to that of today’s MetroRail system. It was known by a few interesting nicknames like ‘Wobbly & Old Dilapidated Railroad’, ‘Worst & Openly Damned Railroad’, ‘Old Devil Railroad’, and others. So it turns out that MetroRail is just part of a long, consistent transit tradition.

The Hybrids Come Crashing Down

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I’ve spoken before of my dislike for public/private hybrid organizations, including public universities, and my laissiez-faire attitudes toward government involvement with business. The fact is that when government involves itself with private business—whether by endorsing public/private hybrids or bailing out private businesses—it rarely ends well for anybody, least of all the taxpaying public.

Well, like Amtrak and the Postal Service before them, two of the largest ‘government sponsored enterprises’—the Federal National Mortgage Association (‘Fannie Mae’) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (‘Freddie Mac’)—have come upon hard times. These two monstrosities were created in the 1970s to increase the money available for home-buyers, which is a fine goal, but it is a goal that should be met by private industry not by government sponsorship. Now, feeling the pinch of the so-called mortgage ‘crisis’ they (and poorly educated home-buyers) helped create, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the happy recipients of government aid to shore up confidence in their solvency.

Like past bailouts, the government won’t be able to do anything but delay the inevitable without these companies changing from within. That’s why the government shouldn’t bail companies out, nor should the provide funding to failing hybrid public/private organizations. Bailouts/investments simply allow these companies to continue operating in a flawed, unprofitable way (e.g., Amtrak). The government should let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac succeed or fail on their own merits. If they fail the market will pick up the pieces on its own and move on. But, more likely, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy without a taxpayer-funded safety net will be a big incentive for Fannie and Freddie to get their acts together on their own.

Weird . . . Al Yankovic!

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Had a fun day yesterday. My sister Kristen, Melissa and I, and two of Kristen’s cool friends all headed down to the Warner Theater in Washington, DC, to see one of the most unique singer/songwriter/performers in the world: Weird Al Yankovic.

For some reason, like many performances, photography was prohibited (why do they do that?) so you’ll just see the outside marquee and ticket stub here. Oh well. It was a great, hilarious show that had us all rolling in the aisles laughing most of the way through. Weird Al, believe it or not, is an amazingly entertaining performer. His stage presence equals the quality of his musicality and wit.

Of note, Weird Al’s most recent ‘hit’—White and Nerdy—is not only funny, but it is technically accurate. Further, the images displayed on the screen during his performance of the song were equally accurate and relevant (even including the ‘smiley face’ image of the Acid 2 browser compliance test). I guess, since I know that, it would make me ‘White and Nerdy’ too.

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.