Quantum Theology

I don’t know what is worse, killing my spirit or giving it too much reign. Can there ever be an in-between?

Well, the company part was good for the food and wine. Literally the best steak I have ever had, and perhaps the best merlot as well. Things were good until the obligatory speech time.

The two real architects of my company were missing, and nobody mentioned their names when it came time to handing out praise. Sad. I was a bit drunk at the time and I quite nearly blurted out some comments praising them as the real architects for any success we have had. I’m both glad and sad that I kept my mouth shut. Glad because sometimes it’s not ok to break the moment with sober realities. Sad because I hate to see good work go without credit. I was especially sad because I got way more credit than I deserved for the things I have done at the company so far.

I can’t help but feel like scum when I hang around these people too much. It’s like they infest me or something.
I’m glad to be moving back to Colorado.

Why, for the Billions (muahaha) of dollars you have put into Windows over the years, haven’t you added the following features to windows that I would actually use:

• A simple text editor with syntax highlighting for XML and C style languages.
• A tail application
• A port of the unix ‘find’ command
• A native zip tool that had decent performance., I mean, how many times do I have to rip off WinZip?
• A menu option to open a terminal window at a particular directory in explorer
• Multiple Desktops (while it may confuse my grandma, it makes my life much easier)
• An expert mode to disable all the stoopid pop up warning windows
• A ssh client AND server
• The ability to read unix file systems

Did I miss anything? Seriously, just how hard might it be to add this stuff. Really, my biggest beef with Vista is how it gets in my damn way all the damn time. DAMN! If I have to click ‘yes’ an another damn pop up window I will go postal. Oh yeah … why did it take you 5 YEARS to to put out a product that is worse that the one it replaces? Did you hire monkeys to write your code?

The sad reality is that your saving grace is that Office only runs on Windows (the Mac version looks nothing like the Windows version), and the fact that you at least did a good job with Windows server and Active Directory.

The Housing Panic blogger gets it. I get it. Do you?

Sometimes politics isn’t about winning or losing an election. Sometimes it’s about making a stand. Sometimes it’s about planting the seeds for a future run. Sometimes it’s about standing up for what is right, or fighting against what is wrong.

And that’s where we are with Ron Paul 2008.

Ron Paul has absolutely no chance now of winning the GOP nomination. The Republican party has been hijacked by religious jihadists, who don’t care about fiscal policy, or limited government, or businesses, or taxpayers. No, the vast majority of GOP primary voters are simply interested in who’s the best evangelical preacher. Who hates gays the most. Who is against abortion the most. Who brings up the name jesus the most. And who does the best job pretending to be moral.

And as you know now, Ron Paul is NOT an attractive candidate for this crowd. He’s too smart, and they’re too dumb.

So I’m going to be giving again to Ron Paul’s campaign on the 16th. I’m hoping to see him finish first or second in New Hampshire. I think it’d rock the world and punk the pathetic GOP field. But I’m leveling with you HP’ers, and some of you may be upset with me, but I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear, I’m just telling you how it is.

Americans are too clueless to elect Ron Paul as president. And GOP primary voters are even dumber.

But please, give to RP’s campaign. Send a message. Do good. Try your best to be an agent of change. Fight against this cancer in the GOP. Send a message that Ron Paul needs to be heard. And on election day 2008, get ready to vote for an Independent candidate. Because both of these political parties that we’re stuck with simply suck.

The only music store in the mall was a small place specializing in hip hop / rap / jazz. I walked in and asked the guy at the counter to recommend a real solid rap album.

So, I’ve been listening to that stuff for the last week. My thoughts can be summarized like this. Abe Lincoln and the northern states saved the black people from slavery. Martin Luther King saved them from the back of the bus. Now, my question is, who is going to save them from their own gross incompetence which generally sticks them in the slums and jails of America? That’s right, for once their fate is in their own hand. Don’t blame ‘The Man’ because that same man applies equal pressure to the lower classes regardless of race. ‘The Man’ has gone global.

I remember my sister getting pissed at me when I asked a question in public ’so, why can’t a white man call a black man a nigger?’ She was was SOOO pissed that I said that out loud. It was a valid question that stands and I don’t give a rats ass if it offends some people sensibilities. Why is it that on the rap album I purchased, the term nigger is thrown down with the frequency of a vocal filler? Why is it that when the term ‘cracker’ is thrown around I don’t give a shit? I don’t know, and the only way I’m going to find out is to ask someone. But, the truth is that I don’t care enough to ask and I don’t need to know the details. It’s enough to see that they need to change strategies because what they are doing now just doesn’t work. And, it’s not because of the white man anymore. Besides, in another 50 years it will be the hispanic man they might need to worry about.

On the other hand, that CD really makes my sound system sound good! My normal music just doesn’t leverage all the expensive equipment like I’d want it to.

Stay away from the Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic. Nasty stuff. Repulsive!

I saw a picture of a cat and a rabbit this morning. I couldn’t help but giggle. A mental picture of my brothers rabbit tried to hump the family cat flew out of the recesses of my mind.

I think the most important thing I can draw from my time in Dallas is that a career does not count as purpose in life.

Make no mistake about it, I am cutting and running out of Dallas. I made an agreement with my employers to stay for a year. I clearly didn’t make it. The fact that I am running back to Colorado with a job in hand is a matter of luck and timing. I made an honest attempt, but there is a limit to how much shit I can absorb and for how long I can dodge it.

What did me in was a crushing lack of hope and love. It has been said that the three greatest things in life are faith, hope and love. I can operate on two of the three, but not on one. It was obvious that faith alone was not enough. Indeed, I don’t think any of the three are enough. Not even love. Hope is closely related to purpose and a man without purpose is a man a small step away from losing hope. It is of little surprise that when I broke I reached out by instinct and took hold of both hope and love.

I’ll quote from a founding father in honor of sanity, which has long forsaken these parts.

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free– if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending–if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained–we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

From a message board thread:

Person A:

On Duncan hunter (presidential candidate): He sems like a good man. Does he stand a chance?

Me:

Are good men corrupt? http://www.beyonddelay.org/node/373
I’m from San Diego, and that region is corrupt from the local government all the way up to it’s representatives.  Don’t drink the kool-aid!

Person B (SD Resident):

your rhetoric is just that…. one of a lib who has never met or spoken to Duncan Hunter and doesn’t have clue. ha! 

Me:

I’m a registered republican. I lived in his district for a while. I lived in San Diego from 1985 up to 2006.  You know as well as I do the corruption that exists in San Diego. You obviously don’t care. If you are going to stereotype me, do so properly. I’m a moderate/libertarian in the vein of Ron Paul. I am a proponent of an honest and open government and such things cannot happen if we continue to elect people lacking in integrity. In short, Duncan Hunter does not stand for the principles of honesty and openness. My question stand, can this describe a ‘good man’ or simply a ‘man’. I think he gives good men a bad name.

Person C:

Obviously, your sense of judgment is quite off the mark.

Me:

House Resolution 734 passed a couple of months ago with a vote of 395 to 21. The text is as follows

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Vote to pass a resolution that expresses the sense of the House disagreeing with the retroactive classification of the report titled “Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq: U.S. Ministry Capacity Development Efforts Need an Overall Integrated Strategy to Guide Efforts and Manage Risk” after it was released by the Comptroller General, and that this and other broad reports citing corruption in the Iraqi government should not be classified.

---

Hunter voted against this resolution, along with three others from that list of suspected corrupt officials. In fact, the ratio of yea’s to nay’s on that corruption list was about 3:1. The ratio among the greater house was about 18:1.

Here we have a recent example of him favoring a closed government. The real kicker is that this was in relation to corruption itself.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with my judgement. Perhaps you all need to look to your own.

Person B:

Did you write him and ask the reasoning behind his vote? Or do you just know it all?

Me:

Nope. He’s not my representative anymore and I have already decided on a presidental candidate to support. If you write him and his office responds, I’d love to see the response.

Person C:

There is a term in the military and, I’m sure, government circles: the need to know.

We, the peons, do not need to know everything.

It’s like the girls in my basic training platoon who whined they weren’t getting treated like the guys. The drill sgts came in the next day for an inspection and roared, threw things, tipped over wall lockers, screamed in faces, etc. We had two girls taken to the hospital for hyperventilating and many were crying. I thought it was great–it’s a game, you see, and no one was hurt.

Same thing goes for matters such as this. You whine and cry that you want to know every little thing, but the minute such information is disseminated among those without need to know, our security and safety is compromised. For real world stuff, this is not a game. People can get hurt.

Let the ones in charge take care of things. Vote for leaders you want, but then shut up and let them lead.

Wow …. wow…. wow. It’s clear from this that we have scumbags in office because the people that elect them don’t give a shit. Packaging people, it’s all about packaging. I try to show the man behind the curtain and I get a lecture on how the man should have his privacy.