The Birth of Democracy

What does the birth of a democracy look like? What happens when a society – that has lived under despotic rule for as long as most can remember – attempts to transform, to evolve itself, to a higher form? Shiites Told: Leave Home Or Be Killed (registration required) The Iraqis are working out their future, … Read more

Negotiating with Terrorists

We will not should not will try not to negotiate with terrorists. Negotiations appear to be in full swing. Aloha [posted with ecto] Technorati Tags: commentary, political, religion

The Reserves

I did my Navy thing this weekend. I am a member of the United States Navy Reserves. One weekend a month and two weeks a year. That thing. Only one weekend a month and two weeks a year doesn’t really cover it. In order to truly make a successful military career in the reserves it … Read more

HD, DRM, DMCA, oh my!

Writers Block Live is calling for a complete boycott of all high definition video (HD) that uses any kind of DRM such as AACS. The core issue is the desire of major corporate content publishers to incorporate control over how and when copies are made. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the term that has come … Read more

When Work is God…

I have this friend who buys a lot of really cool toys. Bicycles, motorcycles, table saws, band saws. Expensive stuff. I mean, he buys the expensive ones within each class. However, he never has time to go out and play with his toys. Moreover, he also does not have time to maintain the physical condition … Read more

No More Plug-Ins

Whew! What a pain in the butt. I finally got my weblog nailed back together. This time with no plug-ins installed. I can’t honestly say that the plug-ins were to blame. It does seem that the problem stemmed either from the plug-ins or the fact that I’m not technically savvy enough to properly handle plug-ins. … Read more

MovableType Crapped Out

The content management system (CMS) I used, MovableType, crapped out on me. It won’t let me log into the control panel. I’m trying to get it fixed but since I don’t really know what is wrong… We’ll see how it goes. Maybe it’s time to switch on over to Expression Engine or some other CMS. … Read more

A Few Things About Smittie: Political Center

My political compass Economic Left/Right: 1.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.62 I want less government because I don’t believe that the government is the best way to get most things done. There are few things that absolutely need to be the responsibility of the government. Although I am a registered Republican I feel that all politicians are … Read more

A Few Things About Smittie: INTP

I like online tests that tell us something about ourselves. In many cases, I learn something new about myself through these tests. Today’s case in point, the Myers-Briggs personality model (Google Search, Wikipedia) and the tests based on this model. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on the psychological research of Carl Jung. At … Read more

Returning to Fitness

So, I’ve managed to get my fat, old butt out and run every morning this week so far. One more day and I’ve finished a full week. Very cool. Not as hard as I thought it would be. Monday I was really slow. Almost 50 minutes to run 4 miles. 12 minutes to go one … Read more