Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Democrats and Our Enemies

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Independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman (CT) has long been among the politicians I respect the most. He does not hesitate to state what he believes, no matter whether it is in-keeping with the current beliefs of his party, and no matter what effect it has on his political stature. That, my friends, is the mark of a statesman, not a mere politician. We need more statesmen in both major parties.

Due to my illness, I’ve been sleeping rather than following the news the last few days, so I have to give many thanks to Melissa’s brother Michael for sending me a link to this column. Appearing in Wednesday’s Wall St. Journal, ‘Democrats and Our Enemies‘ by Senator Lieberman is destined to condemnation from today’s Democratic Party of Howard Deans, Hillary Clintons, and Barack Obamas. It states the truth for what it is: the Democratic party used to stand for freedom and was willing to use military force, when necessary, to advance it. Today it does not.

Lieberman, unfortunately, seems to be about the only Democrat that sees the war on terror (including the war in Iraq) as the urgent matter of national security that it is. The fight against radical Islam is not a law enforcement issue, it’s a war against a dangerous ideology bent on world domination—just like Communism before it, and Nazism before it. It’s a fight we must fight, and must win.

Sick (Still? Again?)

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I’ve gotten lots of really interesting emails in the last few days; I’ll reply soon I promise. Unfortunately whatever bug I got almost two weeks ago now has either come back with a vengeance, or—perhaps more likely—my weakened immune system has succumbed to a separate, unrelated virus. That’s almost two full weeks now of feeling terrible, then feeling better, then feeling almost normal, then immediately feeling terrible again.

~sigh~

Anyway, I’ll probably be home from work tomorrow if I feel anything in the morning like I do right now. That will give me a chance to bang out all these interesting replies to all these interesting emails.

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Posted in: Life

AP: Senator Kennedy Has Brain Cancer

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The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy (D-MA) has a brain tumor. Kennedy was admitted to the hospital last weekend after suffering an unexplained seizure, and tests now reveal that the Senator has a form of brain cancer known as a malignant glioma. The prognosis is fairly grim, with life expectancies for people with this form of cancer generally ranging from one to five years. Kennedy is the second-longest serving member of the United States Senate, having been elected in 1962 to fill the seat vacated by his brother, President John F. Kennedy (D).

While I rarely, if ever, find myself praising Senator Kennedy either for his politics or his character, I certainly don’t wish him harm. My prayers are with Senator Kennedy and his family as they deal with this difficult diagnosis. There will certainly be trying times ahead, and I wish him all the best.

Haiku Code Drive 2008

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If you follow the open source community, you might be familiar with the Google Summer of Code (GSoC). GSoC, which has been an annual event since 2005, pairs computer science students with open source projects for a summer of software development. If students successfully complete the task they’ve chosen to the satisfaction of their open source project sponsor and Google, they receive a substantial monetary stipend for their efforts. This simultaneously gives CS students solid, real-world experience (and money ;-)) while contributing to the success of various open source projects.

One of my favorite open source projects, the Haiku OS, is an effort to create a modern, reliable, user-friendly operating system inspired by the defunct BeOS (which was, indeed, a reliable, user-friendly operating system but failed in the marketplace). Haiku has been awarded five slots in this year’s GSoC, which is awesome, but in their drive for reaching a final ‘1.0’ product release they wanted to go a step further.

That’s the driving force behind the Haiku Code Drive 2008. Independent of the GSoC (but along the same lines), the project is raising money to fund up-to five students who wanted to participate in the GSoC but were not offered slots by Google. So far, they have raised enough to fund two additional goals beyond those in the GSoC. The fund-raising continues through approx. May 29, and (if there isn’t enough money to fund all five slots) the goals will be prioritized by a community poll held from May 22-29. If you want to see a free, user-friendly, desktop-oriented OS in the marketplace to compete with the triumvirate of Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, please send these folks a few dollars.

Patiently Waiting for a Snack

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My sister’s cat, Zoe, is probably the dumbest cat I have ever met. That’s okay though, she’s funny sometimes. For example, this morning while we were eating lunch after church, she decided she was going to keep a careful eye on Tarzan the parakeet. Patiently sitting on a nearby table, she watched . . . apparently contemplating how to get into the cage and eat the prey without arousing suspicion. Finally, after a few minutes, she gave up and went back to complaining and making growling and hissing noises at people for no reason.

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.