Jason Holliston

2005-11-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

I'm Back, and Leaving BloggerI know that there are many of you that have followed this blog in the past and have been concerned that it's appeared dead for the past couple months. I've only come back to pronounce it truly gone for good. While the old posts will remain accessible here for at least a year, please direct your browser's and RSS aggregators to http://www.jasonholliston.com/ for all my

2005-09-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Serenity Coming to a Theater Near YouI've written before about how great the television series Firefly is, how it received a undeserved cancellation, and how it's coming to the big screen soon -- this coming weekend, as a matter of fact. The saga continues in the movie Serenity. I'm lucky enough to be able to attend a screening in the Portland area for bloggers tomorrow night. Here's the

2005-09-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Imagine This News ClipSeptember 12th, 1967NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - Jubilant Israelis planted flags on the rubble of Jordanian settlements and set mosques ablaze today as Jordanian troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip their defeat in the recent conflict.Would reading that paragraph get you a bit upset, focusing upon the burning of the mosques? I'd be upset, and then I'd start thinking: I wonder

2005-08-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

Busy Reading and WatchingFor the past week or so, a lot of my spare time has been taken up catching up some reading. I just finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (blame my fiance for getting me hooked on that), and now I'm deep inside of Charles Stross' Iron Sunrise, a new science fiction novel by one of the brightest new stars to come out of the sci-fi world for quite a while.I'm not

2005-08-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

Are You a Neocon?People often will assume I'm fully with a particular political party, either by reading this blog, or by just knowing me and getting into conversations with me. My politics, though, like many Americans, is all over the map. When people actually do ask me, I tell them I tend to vote Republican, but not always; I tend to align myself with Neoconservatives, but not always; and

2005-08-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Amazon Getting Into Short StoriesI saw a few days ago over at Ars Technica a story about Amazon delving into the short story market. It's a pretty interesting idea, and the wonderful thing for me is the lack of DRM:For only $0.49, you can order an Amazon Short and read it as an HTML Web page, a PDF file, or just have the text sent to your e-mail address. Amazon Shorts never expire, and you're

2005-08-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

How Exactly Does One Become Gay?The Boston Globe recently published an excellent article summarizing and explaining the past and current research going on asking the question, "What Makes People Gay?" I can't recommend it enough. As a heterosexual man, I've always thought that the concept that a person "chooses" to be gay was patently ridiculous. Any heterosexual man should understand what I'm

2005-08-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Keep Your Mind OpenMark the following story up to why you should keep your mind open. We keep hearing the complete obviousness of anthropogenic global warming trend, and how it's obvious that this is a horrible thing that we need to make immediate and major sacrifices for the betterment of Mother Earth. Then I read this:Sea Ice May Be on Increase in the Antarctic A new NASA-funded study finds

2005-08-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

Another Busy WeekendI have another busy weekend in store for me, but in a good way. Tonight Danica and I are having dinner with friends, tomorrow we're going to the company picnic at the Oregon Zoo, and on Sunday we're driving up to White Salmon to spend some time with family and friends. I do believe I've forgotten what it was like to finish work on a Friday night, go home, crack open a beer,

2005-08-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

We Lose a Good OneOn Monday night, at around 8PM, a high school friend of mine died. In the late afternoon on Wednesday, my mother called me to tell me the news (being from a small town, news of tragedies like this circulate rather quickly). He had died in a plane crash in central Oregon. I've been kind of numb to it for the past 24 hours, but after talking to some other high school friends that

2005-08-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

The World of PodcastsI know this is old hat to many of the readers of this blog, but it was just a couple days ago that I got around to checking out this whole podcast thing and seeing if it's worth half of the buzz that the concept has been generating. I work in the software industry, and keeping up on my blogs is usually relegated to lunch (when I'm in), breaks, and the times where I'm doing

2005-08-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

The New Fad: The McDonalds DietI've posted about a similar thing before, but unfortunately, I don't have the time to track the post down (and Google isn't helping). The AP has a story about a couple people showing how much nonsense the Super Size Me movie was by eating only McDonalds, every day, and losing weight by the truckload. Great story.Almost everyone I've talked to about this realized

2005-08-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

And Now for Something Non-PoliticalLast week Glenn Reynolds pointed out this documentary-in-the-making: "documentary:BLOG". They have released a pair of trailers for it, one of which almost entirely featuring the Instapundit himself. It looks to be a very interesting -- and very professionally-made -- movie. If you guessed that the documentary has a blog itself, then you get a gold star.The world

2005-08-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

What Got the Ball RollingI've said before on this blog that I believe the root cause of 9/11 to be the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. Their desire for world domination led to the cold war, which was a main factor in causing the United States to support autocratic dictatorships in the Middle East (and around the world). The global chess game that ran all over the world for 50

2005-08-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

More Nanotechology Goodies from InstapunditGlenn Reynolds at Instapundit has done a great job of staying up-to-date with the latest nanotech news. Given his high readership, he's probably done more to educate people about its promises than most of the mainstream media put together. For those of you that might want to learn more about nanotech and what it all means, he's put together a series of

2005-08-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

Nanotechnology and CancerMy friends (and especially my fiance) get really sick of hearing me drone on about nanotechnology. They are kind enough not to shut me up too often, but I know I can get, perhaps, a bit too excited about the field and what it means to the future of the treatment of disease. Well, here's something concrete to sink your teeth into (hat tip to Instapundit):MIT engineers an

2005-08-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

Camping and BocciYou know, it's difficult to get into the habit of blogging something substantial and interesting every single day -- even if you take the weekends off. I do have a good excuse for this past weekend though: I was outside even cell range, camping in the middle of nowhere. Yes, it was nice and relaxing, even if I did drink probably a bit too much beer. I lost at cribbage, dominos,

2005-08-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

Catching Up MoviesThis week, the fiance and I are trying to catch up on the summer movies we think we should watch in an actual theater. Last night we watched Batman Begins, and I was blown away. Great movie. Bruce Wayne's childhood friend making the observation that the Batman costume wasn't the mask, but the Bruce Wayne persona was the mask. Perfect. Tonight is Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which is just

2005-07-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

A Liberal Tells His StoryMichael Totten linked to this story on Donklephant (a new centrist political blog that he's a contributor to) a while ago, and I finally got around to reading it today during breaks. Warning: it's a long one, but highly recommended. It gives an interesting insight into the world of once-Leftists that feel like 9/11 was a fork in the road, and that many on "their" side

2005-07-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

Howard Dean Gets Caught in a LieAt least, it was either a bald-faced lie, or he is less knowledgeable than your average political blogger. Seriously. From RedState.org:A tip of the hat to John Cole for discovering this incredible bit from DNC chair Howard Dean:"The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is 'okay' to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a

2005-07-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Nuclear Power is the Future!If you don't read FuturePundit regularly, you should. He crawls the web for you, giving insights into what the future will look like, and offering his impressively-informed opinions concerning said insights. This one caught my eye, and wanted to pass it along: South Korea Sees Bigger Role For Nuclear Power. Read it, take note of his wrap up concerning the current and

2005-07-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday on the Oregon CoastOn Saturday, the finance and I drove down to Seaside, Oregon for the day to spend time with her father's side of the family. This makes two family reunions in two successive weekends, which I'm not complaining about, but it lessens the chance of me remembering names and faces. Especially what side of the family they're on. I can foresee a lot more embarrassing mistakes

2005-07-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Off To The BeachI'm leaving in a few minutes for Seaside, Oregon, as the household members have been asked to attend my fiance's father's family reunion. It's been hot and humid here in the Valley lately, and it's always a lot cooler down on the Pacific coast (high of 68 degrees today!). It'll be a nice change of pace.If you have a spare few minutes today, I'd suggest reading Victor Davis

2005-07-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

Africa: Is More Money the Answer?Let me put this out there before I get started: I do respect people that are really trying to help sub-Saharan Africa move into the First World and save the millions that die every year from hunger, malaria, and violence. Their hearts are in the right place. But, just because I respect them does not mean I agree with them. A few weeks ago, right before the London

2005-07-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Fantastic and Detailed Debunking of the Anti-War ArgumentsJohn Hawkins over at Right Wing News gave eight anti-war myths a solid debunking last week. I've love to read a serious counter-argument to these points and facts, written in an equally serious and non-conspiratorial voice. I'm sure I'll be waiting a long time, though. I've heard plenty of refutation of these debunks, but they're almost

2005-07-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

Not Quite Two MonthsIt's been just under two months since I've last posted, and I've received more than one email asking for some sort of reason. I'm not going to go into to some long, philosophical rant: I was just busy with other stuff. Let's see:1. I was on vacation for a couple weeks, and while I didn't go anywhere, I purposely took myself out of the regular rhythms of daily life, so I could

2005-05-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

"Some People Believe..."I read this today, and it just annoys me. It's about a "controversial" thing, so feel free to skip. Sometimes I read something, and I can feel the ire rising in my throat a bit, and I have to force it back down. It happens a lot less than you think, given how much I read online. I guess I've become a bit jaded, as I enter the mid-30's. Anyway, this is from the Reuters

2005-05-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hitchens on GallowayI'm all about the British right now. I'm sitting here at lunch, reading a fantastic take-down of neo-communist MP George Galloway's visit to Washington D.C. by Christopher Hitchens, all while listening to Amused to Death by Roger Waters. British all (or in Hitchen's case, an ex-pat, but he still talks, writes, and acts like a Brit). I suggest you read his whole piece if you

2005-05-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

What We Fight ForNot to make it bigger than it is, but Lileks nails it here (after watching Team America and the Incredibles this past weekend, and planning to watch Star Wars 3):Then, “The Incredibles.” Which was. Died, went to heaven, etc. Tron me up, let me live in that world; you’ll hear no complaints. More about that tomorrow; I bring it up just to compare it with the other bits of juvenile

2005-05-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

A Good WeekendI've been unplugged from the Web for the last couple days, so I don't have any Interesting Thoughts about Important Developments going on in the world today. Not right now, at least. Give me five minutes, and it'll probably change.I had a good weekend, and fairly productive to boot. Saturday was effectively Mother's Day for me, since Danica and I took out our respective mother's to

2005-05-07T04:59:00.000-07:00

Imperfect FaithFather Jim Tucker posted this last October, and it must have been before I began to read his blog on a regular basis, because I can't see myself missing this one. It's very topical to a lot of the buzz lately with Pope Benedict XVI's election and "cafeteria Catholics". With the dissenters getting so much press lately about their laundry list of complaints about the Church (celibate

2005-05-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

VDH On Our Autocratic AlliesI haven't linked to a Victor Davis Hanson piece in a while, but I think this is a good one to point everyone to. Up on his personal site, The Bush Doctrine?s Next Test talks about our autocratic allies, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. This is a constant source of the cry, "Hypocrites!" on the anti-war left, and to tell you the truth, I see some logic in their

2005-05-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

A Give-Up-Hope "Vegetable" RecoversYes, I know. Everyone is really sick of hearing about the moral issues raised with the Terry Schiavo situation, which has been over for about a month (an eternity!). Well, too bad. I keep hearkening back to her situation, and how it must have felt during her last couple weeks -- assuming, you know, she didn't have the self-awareness level of a carrot. It must

2005-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

Target Helps Out the MeticulousI bet you've always wondered, "How do I fold fitted sheets so they look somwhat square, and look good in the linen closet?" Yeah. Me too. Thanks to Target, the masses now have that information. I can rest easier now.

2005-05-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Scientific Political Correctness?Pejmanesque led me to this article on the Telegraph UK, spotlighting leading climate scientists having their work rejected by Science, one of the leading scientific journals in the world. What did they do to get rejected? According to the scientists, they had studies that ran contrary to the "consensus" that the world is indeed warming, and the cause is primarily

2005-04-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Young Are Our FutureAfter this post, I'll try to talk about something other than the Catholic Church and its new pontiff. One more shout out, though. I saw this link, to Musings of an Expagan at Father Bryce Sibley's blog, A Saintly Salmagundi: Catholic Reaction -- Lets Study.Wow. This is from one of Fr. Sibley's commenters:The ecstatic ones are in the lunchroom at Ave Maria University in

2005-04-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Andrew Sullivan Freaks Out; Professor Bainbridge Slaps Him SillyImmediately after the announcement of Cardinal Ratzinger's election to the Papal throne, Andrew Sullivan freaked out in a big way:And so the Catholic church accelerates its turn toward authoritarianism, hostility to modernity, assertion of papal supremacy and quashing of internal debate and dissent. We are back to the nineteenth

2005-04-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

May God Bless Pope Benedict XVISo, today the Church has a new father in the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, and he's taken the name Benedict. This will take a while to get used to, especially hearing "Benedict our Pope" in the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass instead of "John Paul our Pope". While I'm full of hope in this new spiritual leader and in the future of the Church, I still miss JPII, and

2005-04-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Jerry Doyle on Talk RadioDriving home, I was waiting for the traffic report for I-84 on KPAM, my favorite AM radio station (more dependable Portland Eastside traffic reports and a fairly good lineup of radio hosts), when I heard that Jerry Doyle was going to be interviewed next. "Jerry Doyle... where have I heard that before? Wait... Michael Garibaldi? From Babylon 5?" Yep. I just finished

2005-04-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Quick Entry TonightI'm spent. Long day at work, driving home through a serious hailstorm (for Oregon), fighting with the laptop, getting it to play television shows on my television, watching two 24 episodes on it, and then catching up a bunch of stuff around the home office. Yes, there's a quick topic for tonight. Here's the moral struggle I've been trying to figure out of late: is it immoral to

2005-04-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Silver Lining in the Gas PricesGas prices have been on a steep climb lately, reaching just over $2.50 a gallon for 91 octane super unleaded over last weekend. There's a lot of talking about it, in offices and in the newspapers, and a vast majority of it is the grumbling kind. I gave this some thought on the way home, and as I see it, like almost everything, there's good to be found in the bad.The

2005-04-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Catching Up Your ShowsWhile I don't have time to watch too much TV, I do try to keep up on a few shows. My current list is Battlestar Galactica (my current favorite), Alias, 24 (I'm about 7 shows back now), Stargate: Atlantis (so-so show, but hey, it's sci-fi!), and Enterprise (only a few more shows until the series ends). My fiance and I hare fortunate enough to have a TiVo to record the shows

2005-04-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

Interview with Bat Ye'orIf you have some time to spend reading, I highly recommend this interview with Bat Ye'or, the author of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. When you're finished reading it, ask yourself if you, or anyone you know, sound like the Europe that has risen post-1973. When CAIR starts talking about increasing harrassments and attacks on Arab-Americans, do you nod, and see parallels to

2005-04-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Starbucks HateI'll admit it: I don't get it. Where does all this hate of Starbucks come from? A little background before I get into why I'm posting this. I love coffee. I'm fortunate enough to have grown up in the Pacific Northwest, and ever since probably about 21 years old (early 90's, thank you very much), I have been buying my coffee whole bean, and grinding it myself. I remember the first

2005-04-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

Rest In Peace, PapaPope John Paul II, the only Pope I've known in my intellectually aware life, has passed away. I think history will show that this Pope was one of history's greatest, strengthening the Church and showing love and compassion at everything he did. He was a great man, and destined to be a saint, probably sooner than anyone thinks.You can watch President Bush's public statement on

2005-03-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

Photoblogging!I'm going to take the easy way out tonight, and show you a photo from my archives: specifically, from about two and a half months ago. My house is at the east end of the Columbia River Gorge, and in the winter, we get really strange (I daresay extreme) weather. Portland proper will get a dusting of snow, or perhaps a bit of freezing rain, while we'll get slathered with a thick coat

2005-03-29T21:31:00.000-08:00

The Nature of American MoralityWith the Schiavo case in the news round-the-clock, and all the accusations of "the religious trying to take over this country!", I've been thinking a lot about the nature of morality -- specifically, the root of American morality. This particular news story really brought it out in relief for me:Death sentence by jury that discussed Bible thrown outDENVER, Colorado

2005-03-28T14:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Easter!A day late, but worth it. My fiance is now officially a Roman Catholic. She was confirmed in a beautiful Easter Vigil Mass Saturday night. Photos are forthcoming, but I'm not sure when -- I didn't actually bring my camera (I was a sponsor, and was kind of "in the moment"). There were plenty of camera being used, though, and I'm sure I can track some down. Christ has risen!

2005-03-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

MIDI ClementineSometimes adventures on the Internet can lead you to the most unexpected places. You see the title of this post, MIDI Clementine, and you probably wonder how I found something like this. Well. A new tech(ish) blog I've been reading somewhat daily is Lifehacker. One of the interesting features it'll have periodically is HOWTO roundups. Today, one of the HOWTO's was how to change

2005-03-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

More Thoughts on Terry SchiavoI was thinking about this more today, and spending a little more time reading about it. I'm more aghast now than I was. Thanks to DeoOmnisGloria.com for the pointer to the transcript for this interview on Hannity & Colmes with Dr. Bill Hammesfahr, a Nobel Prize nominee in medicine for work with brain injury and stroke victims. No matter what your opinion on this

2005-03-21T20:53:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on Terry SchiavoAs my friends, family, and regular readers know, I'm not only a Catholic, but subscribe to the Church's teaching on moral issues pretty much exclusively (we may disagree what constitutes a moral issue versus a political issue, but that's another post altogether). In respect to Terry Schiavo's case, I agree with the Vatican here, as well. They should leave the feeding tube

2005-03-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

Busy WeekendDid I ever have totally lazy weekends? Ever? I don't remember them, if they existed at all. I'll stop my whining now, though; when Monday morning comes around, almost invariably I feel better if I got things done over the weekend, even if those "things" I did were mundane, like cleaning the house. Friday morning, I had an appointment with a CPA to start the process of getting my taxes

2005-03-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

Confession in the 21st CenturyMy fiance and I went to a reconciliation service at a nearby church today, in preparation for Easter Sunday. It was an extra special day for her: her first confession. (Or first reconciliation, as they call it more often, and probably more correctly, now. Reconciliation is the whole process, in which confession is a part of.) For me, it's been about 26 years since my

2005-03-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

The Hiatus is OverMy last post was in early December, about 3 1/2 months ago. After two years of regular blogging, and with the Christmas season hitting full swing, I think I just needed a break. I thought that it would be a week -- perhaps two -- off, and somehow that time stretched into a quarter of a year. No apologies -- except for the lack of a warning. I had just found that other priorities

2004-12-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

The Power of the People The Ukraine Supreme Court has nullified the results of the last runoff election, and called for a new one soon. I haven't commented about these events, but they are very inspiring. Sometimes, like in Afghanistan and Iraq, the people need a leg-up with some American firepower. I think, though, than everyone prefers this path to a liberal democracy: peaceful, yet firm

2004-12-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas, All The Time! My writing is limited to what's left of my lunch hour today. Such is the responsibilities of having an eight year old to entertain during Christmas. Immediately after work and dinner, we're all heading out to look at some of the spectacular Christmas light displays throughout town. First, the Grotto's Festival of Lights, which always has a distinctly Catholic view of

2004-12-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

The Return of Realist Foreign Policy? I sure hope not. Michael Young over at Reason Online looks at the potential re-introduction of realist foreign policy, citing new found vigor among the Old Guard because of the problems in Iraq. Are the neoconservatives being beaten back? What does this all mean? Young does a good job at dispersing the "neoconservatives are modern Nazi idiocy: This

2004-12-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

My Third Trip to Target The Christmas lights are just about done! Yes, I thought they were done last weekend, too, but no, I was extremely short on extension cables. So, Sunday morning I spied a sale on less-than-contractor-grade cables at Target (less shielding, but what's the chances of a Skil Saw cutting through the line feeding white blinking lights?). They were out, but assured me that they

2004-11-30T21:19:00.000-08:00

Michael's Back Michael Totten is back from his travel assignment to Libya on behalf of LA Weekly. While you'll have to wait until the magazine publishes his piece to get the whole story, he's going to give us some photos soon. Well, as soon as he can find his dealie (yes, he used to work in the software industry, believe it or not). Couldn't help it, Mike. Can't wait to read your story! In the

2004-11-29T21:59:00.000-08:00

Long Thanksgiving Weekend Five days off of work and of blogging can be good for the soul. It can also make it difficult to get back into the rhythm of work and blogging. It's late, so I won't ramble on for too long tonight. I had not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners. On Thursday afternoon, we went to my fiance's cousin's house in Vancouver, Washington, and had a good dinner complete with

2004-11-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

America: The Illegitimate Son For those with some time on their hands and a yearning to understand more fully what's going on with America's relationship with Europe, I urge you to spend a cup of coffee on the latest lecture by Robert Kagan. He's fantastic, as usual, and in my opinion, non-partisan enough to be enjoyed by both sides of the aisle. A short excerpt, then you go read. When the

2004-11-23T20:39:00.000-08:00

Long Weekend Tonight I start out a five day weekend for Thanksgiving, and I'm already drinking some Jameson to start it off right. No huge plans, but just time with family and catching up with some things. I actually have two Thanksgiving dinners this holiday: one with my fiance's cousin in Vancouver, Washington, and another with her Mom in White Salmon, Washington. I expect turkey sandwiches

2004-11-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

Victimhood I haven't written anything about Arafat's death up until now. Let's get that part over with: good riddance. The man was a horrible killer, the father of modern terrorism, and in his early days, likely had deep ties to the Soviets. Not a nice man, and in the end, the world will be better off without him. Enough with that, though. I wanted to talk about the Palestinians and victimhood.

2004-11-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

Very Busy Lately Work has been going slightly crazy of late. I have a product release that I finally got out this afternoon, I've been learning a new software product our company will start using soon, and I've been training some partners on the use of software I previously worked on. Trying to meet expectations on all these projects, all the while trying to live up to my new role as Family Guy,

2004-11-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

Segue Into Chuck-E-Cheeses I had a very relaxing weekend. It was the first weekend of alone time that my fiance and I have had since she moved in, and we made the most of it. You guessed it: we watched Farscape on DVD! It really doesn't get a heck of a lot better than Sunday afternoon. The wind was howling outside, as it does during the winter in Troutdale, with the wind chill likely in the 30's

2004-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Blue State Secession? While a vast majority of people aren't taking this seriously, there are some that are. A writer on Information Clearing House wrote a long piece entitled, "The Case for Blue State Secession: Why Prolong this Marriage?", arguing for a real, honest-to-God secession of the so-called Blue States from the rest of America, citing irreconcilable differences. Most of it is utter

2004-11-09T21:56:00.000-08:00

Tyranny Equals Terrorism The Harvard University Gazette had an article this week spotlighting a study at the John F. Kennedy School of Government about the source of terrorism (thanks to Instapundit for the head's up). You'll hear many people, especially on the Left, push the notion that poverty causes terrorism. Now we have much more evidence to the contrary: it's lack of freedom that lets

2004-11-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Short Night, Long Day This is a night void of politics, to which I'm sure many of you are OK with. I just got home from work -- and it's past nine o'clock. I'm spending (part or most, I'm not sure yet) of this week and the next training two Japanese and three Vietnamese software engineers on a product I used to work on. Since this was their first night in, we took them out to this nice Chinese

2004-11-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

Fair Weather Friends This column, by Tim Cavanaugh over at Reason Magazine, is a few days old, but it's worth going back and reading if you haven't seen it. It's an on target rip on some of the "liberal hawks" that aligned themselves with George W. Bush after the towers fell, but have since then abandoned him, especially over the past 6 months. Most of these people came together with the

2004-11-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

Ah, The Poor Fools... Reading this post on Classical Values yesterday reminded me of the trip home on the bus the day after the election. People in complete shock, and all the chattering about either what went wrong or how the election was "stolen". It has been quite incredible. Portland is a functional echo chamber of Leftist extremism, and over the last four years, it's gotten worse and worse.

2004-11-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

One Last Thing I'm freaking tired. In four years, I'm taking the next day off of work. Those political parties thrown by the RNC/DNC look pretty fun, actually, to a political geek like me, so maybe I'll go to one of them (even though I'll probably have to volunteer or some civic-minded thing like that). At least that way, I'm not the only person in the room drinking booze on a Tuesday night.

2004-11-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Bill Whittle Convinces Me Again Granted, I read it a day late. Granted, it wouldn't have made any difference, since I was already sold. Still, he made me feel better about my vote for the President than all the pundits and bloggers I've read for weeks with his post on Halloween about yesterday's election. I won't ruin the ending, but this paragraph hits it perfectly: I want to finish this fight

2004-11-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

How Close Was I? Jesse Walker over at Reason Magazine's Hit & Run has said, "Everyone should take responsibility for their pre-election predictions". I hadn't really thought of this until now, but I'm game. Here's the relevant text: ...I'll make a prediction too: Bush: 52% Kerry: 46% Nader: 2% Other: < 1% Also, with Bush picking up about 75% of the electoral votes... Obviously I was far,

2004-11-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Goodnight America I do have a job I need to wake up for, and I'm a couple gin and tonics down. Please forgive any grammatical mistakes. After flipping to several news channels and reading news web sites, I'm convinced that President has won a second term. This is regardless of litigation attempts, waiting for Ohio's provisional ballots, or any absentee ballots. It's over, and I'm happy. The

2004-11-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

"The Next Vice-President of the United States... John Edwards!" Oh dear. John Edwards is acting absolutely certain they will win. Edwards: "We will fight for every vote!" This translates to me that he will litigate for every vote. We'll see where Ohio comes in when 100% it hit. If Kerry is losing by a couple percent in Ohio, then this is completely bad form. Maybe I'm misinterpreting his

2004-11-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

Andrew Sullivan Has Called It I'm not sure where he's getting his certainty, but after 2000, the major networks are being a lot more careful than bloggers, I suppose. After coming out as a Kerry supporter, he sets a great precedent for others like him in being gracious. If you're a Kerry supporter, please, take heed: I've been more than a little frustrated by the president's handling of this

2004-11-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

No! Ohio is Ours! A Kerry campaign spokesperson just released a statement saying that they disagree with the call of Ohio for Bush by Fox News, and they believe that when the rest of the votes are counted, they'll be the victor. They would need to carry a large majority of the uncounted votes to come out ahead, but I guess anything is possible. The question is: when (or will) John Kerry concede

2004-11-02T22:13:00.000-08:00

Brit Hume is Horrible at Arithmetic While we're waiting, I'm noticing the silly things. Brit Hume, while I like him as an anchor more than pretty much all of them, is horrible at quick math. I've seen him make so many mistakes. Quick Brit! 273,984 minus 268,657! What is the answer?? Umm, hmm, 15,000? It's the little things. Let's call this race already!

2004-11-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Thank God Washington, D.C. Doesn't Set Our Nation's Direction 90% Kerry and less than 10% for Bush. Rediculous. What I want to know is this: why do they have three electoral votes, but no representation in the U.S. Congress?

2004-11-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

One Vote Away 269 for Bush. 211 for Kerry. Think Kerry can pull out a sweep? New Mexico is putting him over any minute.

2004-11-02T21:42:00.000-08:00

Fox News Just Called Ohio for Bush Four electoral votes to go! He would have to lose every last remaining state to not pull this election off. I expect the race to be called for the President within the next half hour. It's a good night. UPDATE: My mistake. A friend just reminded me that Alaska has three votes, so theoretically it could still be tied. Fat chance, though.

2004-11-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Impressed by Bill Kristol I've read his columns before, but this is the first time I've seen him as a televised pundit. I'm impressed. He's very well spoken, unlike a lot of columnists-turned-television-personalities.

2004-11-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

You Gotta Love Pundits Susan Ethridge came on 20 or so minutes ago, saying that her "sources" in the Kerry camp are sure that Ohio will be theirs. Then, just now, the reporter at the Bush campaign reported that he has a "source" high in the Bush camp that's certain that Ohio is theirs. OK, whatever.

2004-11-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

The Electoral Count Won't Move! Fox News has had Bush at 210 and Kerry at 144 for the past hour, I swear. This is getting annoying. Count faster!

2004-11-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

269-269? How depressing. I just heard a possible (but a real possibility at this point) scenerio where the electoral votes are split 269 to 269. How depressing that would be. You want to see a divided nation and people running through the streets yelling, "Not my president!"? That would pretty much do it.

2004-11-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

But Does Florida Matter This Time? Watching the pundits chat back and forth, they all seem to believe the Ohio is the linchpin of the entire election. Summary: Kerry needs to win it, and while Bush could make up losing it, it would be difficult. They won't call it at this point, with the race too close. Personally, I'd love to see it come down to Hawaii. That way no one will get any sleep

2004-11-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

Florida in the Bag 300,000 votes up with only 5% remaining to count? Obviously the news agencies are being awfully careful about calling that state, but it's difficult to imagine Kerry making up that type of ground. That's a big win, and if those numbers even come close to holding, it'll be pretty difficult to litigate that many votes into your favor.

2004-11-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

Exit Polls Failing Miserably I keep hearing over and over again about how the exit polls have been very unreliable so far tonight. More than most elections. There's differing opinions as to why, some of which involve conspiracies, but some don't. I think it's probably due to people flat out lying to the pollsters, not wanting their wife/husband/neighbor knowing how they voted. Others are

2004-11-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

For Those In Oregon... Here's the Multnomah Country elections results page, which should start updating in about 3 minutes. Locally, we have some pretty interesting local measures we're voting on here, including an amendment to our constitution defining a marriage between a man and a woman. Right now, right off the ballot: 36 AMENDS CONSTITUTION: MARRIAGE VOTE FOR 1 YES . . . . . . . .

2004-11-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

The Best Map My roommate and I are sitting here watching the election returns, waiting on Florida to finally be called (tonight, please?). Waiting, waiting. My roommate started complaining that Fox News wasn't showing the cool blue and red map. It eventually showed up right before a commecial, and he cheered. I went over to AndrewSullivan.com to see what he's been talking about. He points out

2004-11-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

Big Time Live Blogging Over at Instapundit Four bloggers, all posting as fast as they want to. They have sources and contacts that are turning out pretty useful: EMAIL FROM A BUSH OPERATIVE: "We are feeling very confident about Florida. So are people on the ground there, who know a good deal about these things." He adds: Let me make a broader, and very significant, point. The media are now

2004-11-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Barak Obama Wins Not a surprise, of course. Alan Keyes walked over to the nut job part of the crowd, and blew up in a huge, huge way. This was a campaign that had the Republican candidate endorsing slavery reparations, and the Democrat coming out against it. Sanity spoke, in this case. I like the guy quite a bit, and hope he lives up to his Rising Star label he's been given.

2004-11-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Is Oregon Up For Grabs? Probably not, but anything is possible. In 2000, the presidential race was very close here -- closer than it usually is in this Democratic-leaning state. From the feel of Portland, though, it's gotten a lot more radical. There's a weird vibe of group-think going around. I know people that were hard-core Bush supporters in 2000, and now they are voting for Kerry. I ask

2004-11-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

Florida Looking Good Bush leading 52% to 47% with over 80% reporting. Looking good, but incredibly, too early to call. Some of the major Democratic centers (read: Broward county) are just coming in now, so it'll probably tighten up. I hear that the President is doing a lot better with Latinos this year than last time.

2004-11-02T18:31:00.000-08:00

Home and Blogging I just got home and finished taking out the garbage (who scheduled these pick ups? On election night? It's not right, I tell you). I have my laptop setup downstairs in front of the big screen. Thank God for wireless. Listened to the Hugh Hewitt Show on the way home. It's apparently looking good for the President, but of course, way too early to make any solid projections. That

2004-11-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

Final Presidential Vote Equation Numbers This is something I posted about a couple months ago, but it bears repeating on Election Day. Ray C. Fair, a professor of economics at Yale, has an equation for predicting the popular vote for presidential elections based off results over most of the last century. It has proven to be very accurate, but certainly isn't infallible, as he points out. So,

2004-11-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

Less Than 24 Hours Left ...And it'll be over. Well, the start of the end, at least. Unfortunately, litigation is now a part of our election process. You can expect legal challenges all over the country for weeks after November 2nd, especially if the President wins. The Republicans have their lawyers out, but the vibe I'm getting from around the Web is that, at least for this outing, it's a lot

2004-11-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

The Finished Room It's hard to imagine that this room was occupied by a two-year-old boy just over a week ago. She still hasn't seen it. I'm sure that after tomorrow night, she'll be super Disney Princess for quite a while.

2004-10-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Lyndon LaRouche's Insanity Have you ever met people that live in their own little world? That see things that no one else sees? "Understands" things when no one else does? Yeah, Mr. LaRouche is pretty much a carbon copy of that person. I don't really remember his little scandal back in the 80's -- running for president, and then later on, getting thrown in jail for conspiracy and income tax

2004-10-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

Photoblogging with Lavender I finished up my step-daughter-to-be's room this afternoon, and as promised, I have a couple photos for you. They were taken well into sunset, so the color is, in my opinion, a bit off, probably due to the flash. When you have so much color, even a good digital camera gets confused. I think you'd just have to see it for yourself in real life to get the full impact: