Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent
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No, that’s not a typo in the title. Melissa and I went to Japan and Alaska all the way back in April 2024, but I just got around to sorting and processing my photos now. Sorry. It is what it is. I assume these places haven’t changed too much in the meantime!

Our trip took us first to Tokyo, Japan, where we stayed for a few days. Then we boarded the Norwegian Jewel for a 14-day cruise to Sendai, Hakodate, Aomori, and Kushiro in Japan before crossing the Pacific Ocean (and the International Date Line) to Kodiak and Seward in Alaska.

We were originally supposed to visit Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on the island of Unalaska, but it was cancelled due to weather. That was disappointing for a World War II history nerd like myself. The Battle of Dutch Harbor opened Imperial Japan’s Aleutian Campaign. I joked before the trip that we were going to retrace the steps of the Imperial Navy from Japan to Alaska. (I politely did not repeat the joke while I was in Japan.)

Anyway, enjoy!

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Conservative political activist and writer Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated yesterday during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Most people—including, to their credit, many prominent Democratic politicians—reacted with disgust and condemnation. Sane people of all political stripes agree that we cannot solve our political disagreements with bullets.

Political violence happens sometimes in America. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated in office—Abraham Lincoln (R) in 1865, James Garfield (R) in 1881, William McKinley (R) in 1901, and John F. Kennedy (D) in 1963. Another, Ronald Reagan (R), was seriously wounded but survived an assassination attempt in 1981. Then-former President Teddy Roosevelt (R), running for president again under the Progressive Party banner, survived an assassination attempt in 1912. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY), then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, was killed in 1968. Other assassinations and attempted assassinations have targeted members of Congress, state governors and legislators, and local officials.

These crimes led to widespread public outrage and condemnation. I’m sure some people were happy to see their least favorite politicians murdered, but they (aside from a few fringe radicals) wouldn’t say something like that in public . . . or even in private.

Something is different now.

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U.S. House, VA 11th, Special, 2025

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A special election will be held on September 9 to fill a vacancy in the United States House of Representatives. I make the following recommendation in that race:

  • Virginia’s 11th District: Former Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA 11th) died of esophageal cancer on May 21, 2025. Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock) and Stewart Whitson (R) stand as candidates to serve out the remainder of his term. I recommend voting for Stewart Whitson.

Endorsement Statistics, 2004-2024

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I started making formal political endorsements on this website in 2004, just four years after I turned eighteen and gained the right to vote. In the twenty years since, I have evaluated 267 candidates for 113 offices at the federal, state, and local levels (an average of 2.36 candidates-per-office) and 72 state and local ballot issues.

Every once in a while I go back and take a look at my endorsement statistics to see if I can discern any patterns, trends, or other interesting tidbits. I went through this exercise to analyze endorsements from 2004 through 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2021. I’m doing it again today to cover endorsements through 2024. As you can see, I’ve been pretty ‘irregular’ about this. My intention is to start doing this exercise on a four-year schedule (that is, after each presidential election).

If you are not interested in my political views, or pie charts, you should probably just skip this post!

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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.