Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

2013 Cruise: Ash Wednesday and the Kennedy Space Center

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On Wednesday, we woke up just as the ship was coming into Port Canaveral, Florida—just south of the Kennedy Space Center. From the decks, we could see the space center’s iconic assembly building and launch pads in the distance.

Ash Wednesday

It was Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of the penitential season of Lent and is recognized by Catholics with a day of fasting and abstinence [from meat]. Church leaders in the United States define the fast as eating only one ‘main’ meatless meal and two smaller meatless meals (which combined are no larger than the one ‘main’ meal). Individual Catholics may choose to make a more traditional fast if they wish; personally, I usually refrain from food all-together until a single, meatless dinner in the evening.

This practice is meant to be a sacrifice . . . but following it on a food-laden cruise ship is particularly difficult!

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2013 Cruise: At Sea, Popes, and Wireless Data

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When we woke up on Tuesday, the ship was somewhere off the North Carolina coast, and by noon we were passing off Cape Hatteras. The seas had become a bit choppy, though not too bad, and there was a fog and drizzly rain reducing visibility. I understand this is related to the storm system that caused some rain and freezing rain further north. Because of the conditions, we were unable to see the land . . . or much of the ocean, for that matter.

We grabbed some breakfast at the buffet, and Melissa went to the spa. I went back to the room to work on updating my blog notes and then went out taking some photos around the ship. In the evening, it was the first formal night so we dressed up and had our pictures taken.

On Wednesday, the weather was much nicer. There was some sun, the seas were calm, and the temperatures were rising. We slept in, had a light late breakfast, walked around above-deck, and got some outside photos. For much of the day we were off the coast of Georgia.

We really didn’t do much either day. Part of why we chose a cruise with several at-sea days is because we like to relax and do nothing on our vacations (at least for part of the time).

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2013 Cruise: Embarkation and Security Theater

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After attending Mass on Sunday morning and getting everything packed and ready, Melissa and I headed up to the cruise terminal at the Port of Baltimore and arrived there around 1 p.m. You may recall that we had an awful experience with the Baltimore cruise terminal a couple years ago, where we ended up having to stand in line in an uncomfortably hot building for hours. It wasn’t nearly that bad this time around.

The line for passing through security—which is manned by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)—was the trouble spot this time around. There were a mere four metal detectors for thousands of people arriving for their cruise at roughly the same time. It took us a solid hour, give or take, to make it through security. And while I was allowed to keep my shoes on, they have now started doing the idiotic ‘take your laptop out of the bag’ thing at the Port of Baltimore.

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Pope Benedict XVI to Resign

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Pope Benedict XVI announced this morning that he will resign at the end of this month, citing his age and ill health. This will be the first papal resignation since Pope Gregory XII stepped down in 1415 to resolve the western schism.

A papal conclave, in which the College of Cardinals will elect a new pope, will likely be held in March. Once elected, a pope serves until his death or resignation. Technically any Catholic man is eligible to serve as pope, but they are nearly always elected from among the bishops in the College of Cardinals. If a non-bishop were ever selected, he would first need to be ordained bishop.

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and the successor of Saint Peter, who first served in that role. Catholics believe that he is called to serve as the head of the church on earth and, as such, has special leadership authority. The east/west schism in the 1000s occurred, in part, due to a dispute over the nature of this authority, with the eastern (now Orthodox) church believing that the Bishop of Rome is a ‘first among equals’ and the western (now Catholic) church believing his authority to be broader, particularly in church polity and matters of faith and morals.

As a Catholic, I offer my prayers for the Holy Father, and for the whole church as we navigate something that hasn’t happened in nearly six hundred years.

On the Obama Gun-Control Proposals

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Obama Shoots (official White House photo)
Obama Shoots (official White House photo)

There has been a lot of talk about gun control legislation in the aftermath of the horrific elementary school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. This is a natural response to such a senseless tragedy. We want to do something to prevent it from happening again. I sympathize with this feeling; I feel it too.

Here in modern America, we tend to think in terms of government action . . . so when we see a social problem that needs to be fixed, we expect the government to do something about it. And because so much of the news cycle is dominated by the activities of the federal government, we too-often expect Washington to step in when our local statehouses (or county seats) might be a better place to start.

I think it is important that we get a grip on ourselves and re-adopt the founding doctrines of the American republic: First, government is a necessary evil, and should only be used to solve problems when they absolutely cannot be solved some other way. Second, when government must be used to solve a problem, we must try to solve it at the state and local levels, and only defer to the national government in its specific areas of responsibility (cf., U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8).

But it is what it is. Today, too many of us think that government is always the solution, and those old ideas about federalism aren’t worth paying any attention to. So be it. There is a real possibility that President Barack Obama’s (D) suite of gun control proposals will come up for serious debate, and so we need to take a serious look at them.

Before we start, however, we need to get a few things out of the way.

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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.