Citizens of Fairfax County, Virginia, will be voting on two county bond referendums on November 7. These referendums, if passed, will authorize the county to ‘borrow’ money from bond purchasers which would have to repaid with interest at a later date. Bonds are traditionally issued to fund large, expensive capital projects.
The 9/10/2001 Attitude
On 9/10/2001, it was a different world. Terrorism was something that, even against United States’ interests, usually happened elsewhere—U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000. Only one example of foreign terrorism on U.S. soil comes to mind from before 9/11: the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. But that attack, which killed six and injured over 1,000, just didn’t seem to affect us much.
Five Years On: More Victories Than Setbacks
It has been nearly five years since the 09/11/2001 terrorist attacks which plunged the United States of America—and much of the world, for that matter—into a war without precedent. Five years since smoke rose over the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York, a demolished section of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field near Skanksville, Pennsylvania where the last plane hijacked that day went down without hitting its target.
The Lost Action Hero
An interesting piece by Stephen Hunter appeared in this morning’s Washington Post about the fairly vacuous topic of action heroes in film. I find it interesting not because I care much about action heroes (though I do like a good, mindless action movie now and then), but because—in comparing today’s to those of old—the author exposes a serious problem I’ve noticed with modern cinema and television.
Of Friendship and Personal Responsibility
One of the philosophies I have lived by in the past few years is the doctrine of personal responsibility: Every individual is primarily responsible for his or her decisions, successes, failures, feelings, and attitudes. That’s not to say that ‘outside factors’ cannot impact those things—they can—but ultimately people have more control over their own lives and their own feelings than they usually admit.
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.