Rodent Regatta

Tonight I learned this.

I’m sad. I feel old.

The inspiration that first came from Textpattern, Textdrive Lifetime Accounts and the writing of Dean Allen have faded to a dim glow like the wick of an old, oil lantern.

My only self-serving way to hold those memories and trim the wick will be to revive a bit of writing here and get reacquainted with all that remains from the list above, Textpattern.

Perhaps 2018 is the year. Thank you, Dean. You have been and will continue to be missed.

It was 1969. I was in the tenth grade. Clearly, we weren’t thinking about things like this.

There’s not much no chance that I’m going to take up computer programming any time soon. However, I like the motivational aspect of seeing what a 15-year old has done with his skills. Spend a few minutes at Yuvi’s weblog and you’ll probably find a lot to like about his weblog design as well as its content.

Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted, but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate.

Bitter as it is to accept the results of the November election, we should have reason for some optimism. For many years now we have preached “the gospel,” in opposition to the philosophy of so-called liberalism which was, in truth, a call to collectivism.

Now, it is possible we have been persuasive to a greater degree than we had ever realized. Few, if any, Democratic party candidates in the last election ran as liberals. Listening to them I had the eerie feeling we were hearing reruns of Goldwater speeches. I even thought I heard a few of my own.

Those words were in Ronald Reagan’s 1975 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. They could have been delivered this morning. They probably should have been.

The first individual, group or party to (seriously) stand for most (or all) of the following principles and run for office will get my next vote. Each is supported by another quote from Reagan’s speech!

Operate government efficiently and with common sense:

They went into every department of state government and came back with 1,800 recommendations on how modern business practices could be used to make government more efficient. We adopted 1,600 of them.

Reduce taxes (of all types):

We also turned over—for the first time in almost a quarter of a century—a balanced budget and a surplus of $500 million. In these eight years just passed, we returned to the people in rebates, tax reductions and bridge toll reductions $5.7 billion. All of this is contrary to the will of those who deplore conservatism and profess to be liberals, yet all of it is pleasing to its citizenry.

Balance the budget:

What side can be taken in a debate over whether the deficit should be $52 billion or $70 billion or $80 billion preferred by the profligate Congress?

Inflation has one cause and one cause only: government spending more than government takes in. And the cure to inflation is a balanced budget.

Drive free market capitalism:

Shorn of all side issues and extraneous matter, the problem underlying all others is the worldwide contest for the hearts and minds of mankind. Do we find the answers to human misery in freedom as it is known, or do we sink into the deadly dullness of the Socialist ant heap?

Rebuild our military:

We did not seek world leadership; it was thrust upon us. It has been our destiny almost from the first moment this land was settled. If we fail to keep our rendezvous with destiny or, as John Winthrop said in 1630, “Deal falsely with our God,” we shall be made “a story and byword throughout the world.”

Stand for lofty ambitions:

Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness.

Fix the broken and ponderous tax code:

Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.

Let our banner proclaim a genuine tax reform that will begin by simplifying the income tax so that workers can compute their obligation without having to employ legal help.

And let it provide indexing—adjusting the brackets to the cost of living—so that an increase in salary merely to keep pace with inflation does not move the taxpayer into a surtax bracket. Failure to provide this means an increase in government’s share and would make the worker worse off than he was before he got the raise.

Who will drive for this vision?

Bill Whittle hasn’t given us anything new to read in a while. This week is different. We now have Seeing the Unseen-Part 1.

Are you able willing to see it?

Some political issues never captured my attention as the most important thing that government should be about. Abortion is an example. Clearly, given two (theoretically) identical candidates—something impossible—I might use their respective stances on abortion as a deciding factor. However, long before I get to abortion or gay marriage or some other issues, I’ve made up my mind about most candidates.

With the USA targeted as it is right now by various people and countries, I find security high on my list of issues for testing candidates. Mike Hollihan has written well about last week’s October surprise in Tennessee politics. Political stunts are of little interest to me when we face such stultifyingly complex problems as control of nuclear knowledge, economic polarization and religious extremism.

However, in this one stunt, we get to see our candidates reacting to real, unscripted situations that tell us a great deal about the character of the men and how they respond when decisions must be made alone and on the spot.

In fact, they tell us enough to decide our vote!