Six years ago today, things changed. Enemies of this country staged an act of violence unlike any we had seen before or since. It was a slaughtering of innocents that violated every law of war, every norm of human decency, and every teaching of every valid religion. Perhaps most offensive, it was done—according to its perpetrators and their apologists—in the name of God. Today, remember September 11, 2001. Remember the victims, their families, their friends. Remember who did it, and why. Most importantly, remember that the radical Islamist fascists and their ideological brethren who started this clash of civilizations cannot be allowed to win it.
Premature Electioneering
I am interested in politics—anybody who follows this site knows this. But there’s one hot-button political issue that dominates the news and pundit discussions lately that I’m simply not interested in right now: the 2008 Presidential election. I have no favorite candidates. Heck, I’m not even paying attention to who’s running at this point. I’ve heard most of the big names—Clinton, Guiliani, Obama, Romney, etc., etc., etc.—but have fervently avoided paying any more attention than I absolutely have to. I just don’t care right now. It is too damn early to be making political decisions for an election over a year away.
Affirmative Action’s Strange Career
A day late and a dollar short, I know, but I caught this article by Paul Moreno in the Wall St. Journal’s Opinion Journal yesterday and found it quite interesting as a Labor Day read. I am no fan of organized labor these days—seems to me that most unskilled industrial workers are grossly overpaid, which leads to business bankruptcies and downsizing, which hurts the ‘working class’ a lot more than it helps (see the U.S. auto industry). But the unions blithely press on, seemingly unaware how counterproductive their demands really are. Regardless, unions—the inexplicable darling of the political left—have a sordid history of corruption (which everybody knows about) and racial discrimination (which many, myself included, didn’t know about).
- Affirmative Action’s Strange Career: Look for the Union Label (OpinionJournal.com; free email registration may be required).
Technical Difficulties (Resolved)
You may have noticed some problems with the site today, which have been caused by infrastructure changes at my hosting provider. The problems manifest themselves when I have ‘friendly URLs’ turned on, so for the moment I have turned them off. This means that links to specific pieces of content are temporarily different (and uglier) than usual. I am working to fix this and will post updates (probably won’t have time to work on it for a day or two).
Update: I have reactivate the ‘friendly URLs’ as the problem appears to be resolved. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Fixing the Civic’s Deficiency (With Photos & Audio)
I had one complaint about our 2006 Honda Civic—an excellent car that has served us well since we bought it a year ago January. It came with a terrible horn. I mean, it was bad. I described it recently as sounding like a ‘rabbit being stepped on’, which is a slight exaggeration but gets the point across. Given that I live in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and have to grapple with the gauntlet of this area’s rush hours, I wanted my car to have a horn that sounds at least slightly imposing. So I fixed it!
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.