Economic Times...

I was catching up on Michael Barone’s blog (hey, Michael, where’s that RSS feed?), and followed a link to an old entry discussing why people think that economic are bad while indicators say otherwise. Other than a dig at the “mainstream media” (more on that topic later), Michael supposes that people concentrate on the issues that they perceive to be negative at the time. I think, more to the point, people use their own feelings about the economy as their litmus test regarding how well/badly the economy is doing. If they’re feeling shaky about how things are, then (obviously) the economy’s doing badly. If they’re feeling good, then the economy’s doing good.

Notice I said how they feel, not how things are actually going for them. I think there’s still a lot of insecurity in the public, and that’s what’s causing this general feeling of economic woe. During the Clinton years, people felt better about the economy because Clinton made us feel good about it. He was that kind of President. As much as I like GW, he’s more of an “everyman” than a real “leader”, he really doesn’t inspire confidence in the people, and I think that this is what’s showing now.

Regarding Michael’s reference to the “mainstream media”: Hey, Michael! The last time I looked, US News was part of the mainstream media. It amazes me how many people who are part of the media that don’t consider themselves that way. Own up to it folks. We’re all in the same boat.

Except that, as a blogger, I’m really not in the mainstream.

8/17/2005 4:48:21 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics

Once again I'm being seduced by the dark side...

So, Christopher Walken is running for president. You know, the idea’s just crazy enough to work. After all, it worked for Ronald Reagan, remember him?

Why do I keep getting pulled in by these out-of-the-mainstream candidates? Does anybody remember John Anderson?

8/17/2005 9:09:05 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics

Guns and Sex...
Once again on Instapundit.com (Glenn Reynolds, you’re terrific!):

LAW PROFESSOR KENNETH ANDERSON observes take your daughter to shoot day.

To which a reader left the comment:

…in some quarters, it is believed that it would be better for your daughter to be totally ignorant of how to use a gun …

This immediately touched a nerve in me. It sounds so much like opposition to sex education. Frankly, I think that both sentiments are anti-American. Okay, I know. Them’s fightin’ words. But, the way I see it, fundamental to our Bill of Rights Freedoms is a basic right to make an informed choice. As many like to say, this is what our Founding Fathers fought for…

8/16/2005 9:57:03 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics

RSS vs. Web Feeds

There seems to be a lot of talk lately around the name for this syndication thing that we’re all using. From what I’m hearing, various people are upset that Microsoft is thinking of using the term “Web Feeds” instead of “RSS” to refer to their syndication support.

At first, I agreed. Why play with names? Why gratuitously use a different name than the industry uses? Then, as I was reading Asa Dotzler’s comments on the issue, I got to thinking about it: RSS is a syndication protocol. Atom is a syndication protocol. These guys are different animals, even though they provide essentially the same service. And just what is this service? Well, I guess “Web Feeds” is as good a name as any.

I wonder how the Atom folks feel about this controversy. After all, I’m sure they wouldn’t like the general service to be called RSS…

 

By the way, I love the RSS button from Dave Winer's post. I just might change my xml icons to use this instead .

8/16/2005 9:37:02 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  development | general

Well, that was painless

I just upgraded to the Gold version of Das Blog 1.8 . The process was quite painless. I did get a new copy of Beyond Compare to take care of the site config comparisons. Mostly, it was a matter of copying my backed up files back into the uploaded new software.

My thanks to Scott and Omar for a great job!

 

8/12/2005 9:45:07 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Finally, some insight into what's going on in the Middle East

Instapundit reports that Michael Totten, in his new Tech Central Station column, has commented on the West’s obsession with Muslims “hating” us…

He makes some darn good points. It’s easy to think that this is simply them against us. But, what’s going on is much bigger. Through various circumstances (plenty of blame to go around here), we’ve become embroiled in the cultural struggles of the Middle East, most of which involve Muslim groups. Surprise! Most of the Middle East is Muslim! Who’d of thought…

8/12/2005 11:49:27 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  

Marriage with a Twist

Instapundit reports that two men in Toronto are planning to get married. The twist in this case is that the men are heterosexual. Apparently, they just want the tax benefits of being married. This could be the beginning of the other shoe falling in the whole “gay marriage” debate: if (supposedly) traditional restrictions on marriage are outmoded and gay folk are allowed to marry, then what about all of the other marriage restrictions? What about brothers and sisters? What about polygamy?

For the record (just in case you’re getting the wrong idea here), I’m in favor of gay marriage. I think building strong family ties is good for society, and our government should be supporting it. I just wonder if society (especially those whose support of gay marriage is a knee jerk response to certain right wing groups) is ready for the ramifications.

8/12/2005 11:35:08 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | politics | world affairs

ESPN has announced a second season of The Contender! Yeeha!

As many of you know, I became a reluctant fan of The Contender, Mark Burnett’s boxing show. It was a cross between reality show gimickry and (in my opinion) sports done right. You got to know the participants well, and the boxing matches were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Now, granted, I’m not a big boxing fan (remember the “reluctant” earlier?). But, (believe it or not) my mother is, and I’ve watched quite a bit of boxing over the years, mostly real yawners. That wasn’t true for the matches in The Contender.

Now, I know some folks had real problems with the way that the matches were portrayed. Since they weren’t live, Burnett and company had the opportunity to “improve” the drama in the cutting room. Still, I think that The Contender made for great TV, and am really looking forward to the next season on ESPN.

8/12/2005 9:41:02 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

What is Weblogs.com?

Eric's asked what is Weblogs.com. Weblogs.com (and blo.gs) are blog indexes. Now that I"ve turned on the ping feature of Das Blog for those sites, when I post an entry here, it'll be cross-posted there, as a kind of general publishing of my entry.

8/9/2005 5:36:29 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

I'm taking the training wheels off
I’ve had the Weblogs.com publishing feature of Das Blog turned off since I started this shindig, because I wanted a little “privacy” while I got back into the swing of blogging. Now, I’m thinking that its time to take off the training wheels and “join” the world at large. Wish me luck…
8/9/2005 11:39:30 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

A Liberal "Education"

I searched the web for a definition of “Liberal” and “Liberalism”, and boy did I get an education! It seems that what we think of as “Liberal” today is very different from both the accepted definition and what the rest of the world thinks of as “Liberal”.

Liberalism in the U.S. seems to be more of a blend of liberalism and social democracy, while what the rest of the world thinks of as “Liberalism” is more like American Libertarianism.

On top of this difference, there’s the fact that the sites that profess to advocate Liberalism have rather “generous” definitions. In stead of simply defining what “Liberalism” means, they include issues that others use as criticisms of “Liberalism”. For instance, they state that Liberalism is “pro family”. There is absolutely nothing that I know of in current Liberal thought that addresses the family in any way. This isn’t to say that Liberalism is “anti-family” (no matter what those “other guys” say), just that Liberalism addresses other concerns.

So, what does this mean, in terms of my inquiry? I guess this means that instead of simply taking an “accepted” definition of “Liberalism”, I’m going to have to craft my own. Work, work, work…

8/8/2005 12:46:15 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | politics

What does "Liberal" mean?

I came to the conclusion a while back that there are no Liberals. Yes, the Republicans throw that word around, but it’s just demagoguing. All they mean by it is “my opponent”.  In today’s politics, it isn’t Liberals vs. Conservatives; it’s something else. It’s not even a “big government” vs. “small government”. Our current (Republican) President and the (Republican) Congressional Leadership have proposed and approved the largest federal budgets in history.

But, enough about “the way things are”.

My question for today, is just what is Liberalism? What does it take to make a Liberal? What philosophical and civic beliefs define a person to be Liberal?

I have no answer. But I’m thinking about it…

8/7/2005 5:11:06 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | politics

What's with Charles Krauthammer?

In his Washington Post column, Charles Krauthammer says:

“It is a good idea to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. It is a bad idea to do that without prohibiting research that uses embryos created specifically to be used in research and destroyed.”

He argues that creating embryos with the intent of harvesting their stem cells and then destroying them is somehow “less moral” than creating embryos with the intent of using some for in vitro fertilization (and destroying the remainder!). This is shaving it pretty thin; a distinction without a difference, as it were.

Besides, everyone seems to miss the point. Lets assume that we discover a way to cure some disease with embryonic stem cells; say, Alzheimer's. How do we get stem cells that are genetically compatible with the patient?? In my own little layman head, there’s only one practical way… human cloning! You take a suitable human ovum, suck out its chromosomes, pop in a set of the patient’s chromosomes and grow yourself a clone embryo! Am I wrong? Why doesn’t anyone talk about this?

8/5/2005 2:55:27 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics

I just had lunch...
I just had lunch with Alan, Eric, and Cyrelle from the old office. Not only was it great sitting down with old friends for lunch, but we had a long talk about software development and specifically agile development. It felt great being able to discuss and share that. I don’t get to do enough of that these days…
8/5/2005 2:09:33 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Robin Curry's continuing his discussion of Dot Net metrics tools

Robin Curry’s continuing his discussion of metrics tools for Dot Net with an explanation of using vil with NDepend. Good stuff.

8/5/2005 8:32:22 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  development