My Diary

Yesterday, I was hanging out with a friend who had visited my blog for the first time.  We were discussing the purpose of blogging, how I choose what to post, and the like.  She compared it a little bit to a diary, in which one might write their most secret thoughts and feelings, with the intent of keeping them secret.

I jokingly, and with all of my standard cynicism, remarked that by putting things in her diary, she made the things she never wanted found out by anyone readily available to the very last people on Earth she might want knowing those things.  A boyfriend, her parents, or a sibling.

That’s when it occurred to me that blogging is actually the complete opposite of writing in a diary.  Blogs may include some very personal and private thoughts, but there the similarity ends.

Writing a diary is a way of putting down your thoughts and feelings in a way that guarantees that the people you want to read them least will in fact read them.  They’re conveniently located in a special book, usually something decorated, in your bedroom.  Diaries have the illusion of privacy, with none at all.

Blogging on the other hand has no such illusion.  In fact, it feeds off a certain exhibitionist tendency.  Blogging is where you make your most personal and private thoughts readily available to the entire world, and in fact, no one reads them at all.  It’s a bit like having sex in a public place, with the associated risk of getting caught.  Generally, you pick someplace that’s just a little bit out of the way, so that there’s not a guarantee of getting caught, but a certain risk is there.

Yes, there’s a risk that someone will read my blog.

And then what?  Is that so terrible, if someone gets a better understanding of what was going on in my head on a particular day?  My friends won’t judge me, and my enemies will leave interesting comments.

Next time you’re thinking about blogging or writing in a diary, remember: they’re complete opposites.

Open Letter to NOAA

http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2008/07/noaa-regulations.html?showComment=1217130300000#c1661668902025045433

Dear NOAA,

With all due respect, we cannot allow you to claim licensing rights to the Earth at this time. Your attempt to effectively copyright THE EARTH and subsequently license it is without merit, as a clear right of ownership cannot be established. The Earth is the birthplace and ultimate resting place of every human being who has ever lived. It is the origin and home of all known life in the Universe. You may claim an entire planet as intellectual property, argue eminent domain, or make it part of a licensing agreement. We are concerned that any credence given your claim may set a dangerous precedent. For example, one may not copyright the sky, and encrypt it with anti-piracy technology. Such a proposal could be considered grounds for filing a Deed of Trust for the entire Universe.

I have it on good authority that the NOAA is not, in fact, in title, possession, or authority with regards to The Earth. In fact, The Meek currently hold Title to The Earth, and as it is a joint ownership of real property, would be required by law to furnish the appropriate officials with documents signed by all vested parties, and/or powers of attorney.

Perhaps you can try Saturn. I hear its moons are lovely, and no one has yet laid claim to them.

But we regret to inform you that your claim of licensing rights to The Earth, the home of all humankind, is erroneous and cannot be substantiated at this time.

Warm Regards,
Eric LaBrant
Unilaterally, The Meek

TSDB vs ACLU re FOIA

Today, as I was stumbling upon the internet, I came across an interesting blurb that suggested that the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) had reached the grand pinnacle of over 700,000 names.  Thinking that seemed rather high for a list of the most violently anti-American characters, not to mention an awful lot of people to keep tabs on, I set out to find whether my name might be included.  Have I ever been convicted of a crime?  Nope.  But 700,000 names seems like a number more consistent with the number of folks who might vote Democrat in a key constituency, or the number of people who draw anti-Bush cartoons on the internet.  I my search, I found some interesting things.

http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/counterrorism/faqs.htm

The FBI’s website clearly states that there is no way to query the database for your own name, nor is there any plan to make that information available.  So it’s free for me to look up my credit report and see if I’ve got a Mastercard, but it’s impossible to find out if it’s thought I’m a dangerous individual.

Additionally, I discovered that the number has actually swelled to well over a million.  A million terrorists?  Is there such a thing?  With years of planning, a couple of organizations have successfully launched a million-man march on Washington, but a million terrorists?  That seems even more in line with the number of folks who might vote Democrat in certain Florida counties, plus an Osama bin Laden or two to make the list respectable.

In fact, one popular common denominator seems to be those who have been associated with the ACLU for whatever reason.  The ACLU’s biggest problem seems to be not buying the party line, not falling into step, which has been an ongoing problem for the Bush Jr presidency.

So I’d like to be one of the first to voluntarily sign up to be added to the Terrorism Screening Database as a non-violent person, by sending this message to the ACLU.

Please lend me your legal expertise in helping to dispel in court the ridiculous notion that a list of over a million names could have any bearing upon terrorism, by filing a Freedom of Information Act requesting the contents of the list itself.  Additionally, please lend your lobbying expertise in convincing legislators to require a free dispute and removal process, whereby (like a credit report) an individual may prove his or her innocence, having been presumed guilty.

America does not need a list of political prisoners floating around unchecked.  I’ll not wait to see if my name is checked off as I enter a concentration camp.

Patience

So a few weeks ago, I asked out the girl at the video rental store, who’s VERY cute.

Her response was basically “Yes, as soon as I break up with my boyfriend who I was on the outs with anyhow.”

A few weeks later, she’s expressed her interest pretty unambiguously, but still isn’t broken up yet.

Ever want what you can’t have?  This is frustrating, yet exciting.  *sigh*

Survival

My ex-wife called me today to talk to the children, who she hasn’t seen in almost 18 months, and to tell me that her terminal illness is no longer in remission.  There’s no telling the likelihood of another remission, nor any indication of how much time she has left.  She was in remission when she met me.  She was in remission when she had our children.  And she was still in remission when she left to do… whatever it was that seemed like such a good idea at the time.

A bit shocked and at a loss for how to respond to such a revelation, I told her I was sorry to hear that, put her on the phone with the kids, and began to think and overanalyze the way I’m prone to do with anything of great weight or import.

It would seem that this posed an excellent opportunity to reevaluate my priorities and goals for life.

But then… doesn’t waking up in the morning pose an excellent opportunity to reexamine why you’re doing the things you’re doing with your life?  I mean, is it really necessary to have someone professionally trained telling you that you’re going to die in order to figure out what you want to do?

I later pointed out to her that it’s far more likely that she’ll die first in a car wreck on her way to work.  And I recommended that she watch Bucket List and Shawshank Redemption.  I haven’t pointed out to her that the happy parts of each movie required Morgan Freeman to find someone with a lot of money in order to live his dream.

But how am I going to tell my kids that they won’t even get to talk to their mother on the phone anymore?

With All Due Respect

http://loader.gadgetzone.com.au/Movies/July-2008/20-things-that-Windows-7-MUST-include.aspx?Page=1

Gadget Zone has a wonderful writeup on what sorts of things Windows 7 truly ought to include. He hits some wonderful high points, and the article is well written, which is truly refreshing in the world of modern hardware reviews. These days, it seems to take six pages to say “Card X is basically faster, but only half the price of Card Y.”

So in the spirit of a true Bertrand Russell wannabe, I shall comment.

Not only is there an elephant in the room when it comes Windows features, there are several. A treatise on minor annoyances like standards-compliant web browsing brings the Titanic’s deck chairs to mind. I’d like to volunteer a few suggestions for features for the upcoming Windows 7 in a spirit of true sarcasm and disgust. Not for Mr. Casissi, but for the hypothetical operating system that shall one day be foisted upon us all, yes, foisted — http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29644?ts

Reasonable Hardware Requirements. Windows 7 should be available to function smoothly and comfortably within the confines of a gigabyte or less of RAM, a 32-bit processor, and a hard drive too small to contain every work of literature ever produced by the human race. Windows Vista finds this challenging, but these are the sorts of things that will quickly alienate Linux users everywhere.

Lack of Virus Support. Linux has exploits. There was one discovered recently surrounding DNS. Linux is vulnerable to DOS attacks. What Linux does not include is backward compatibility for every virus ever invented. Several weeks have passed since the DNS exploit has cropped up, and the Linux developer community is on it like a pack of rabid dogs smelling blood followed by a gaggle of angry Klingons sensing a slight against their honor. Someone just unveiled an OS-independent processor-level exploit in modern x86 hardware, and Linux will likely be the first platform with a fix. Which segues nicely into my next suggestion.

Open-source TCP/IP Stack and NIC Drivers. Open-source Javascripting. Why are Linux developers around the world feverishly chasing an obscure exploit? Purity and security. Exploits are a rare breed, and they hope to keep it extinct. With the huge preponderance of attacks being internet-based, a simple switch to open source would cut off the primary vector of infection and Windows Security issues. The fleet of Windows developers trolling about on MSDN would no doubt love to contribute to the Windows Security effort. If that were possible.

Ground Level Rewrite. Windows is so crufty these days, it’s insane. Is it absolutely necessary for the average user to have tape drive drivers installed by default? Does a typical computer these days have a pressing need for ISA support, or a PC speaker device listing? Or oceans of C? Microsoft should by necessity lead the race in developer toolkits and IDE’s, just to manage their huge mountains of code. The entire Bible could hide three times over without being noticed. But trail the herd in making life easy on coders with their overwhelming chore of managing extant code. True Windows innovation has become exorbitant at this point, like trying to make a u-turn in a train.

Global Driver Repository. A fresh installation of Windows already reboots something like six times on average before finally getting to a desktop screen, whereupon users may install their own applications and voluntarily rebooting another six or thirty times. A basic Windows installation should include storage drivers and a mind-blowing list of NIC drivers. It needs to be able to interact on some level, even a basic one, with the target drive. Thereafter, with an internet connection and a global driver repository, it can use hardware IDs to upgrade to its heart’s content. Linux is already evolving in this direction, because it’s the next logical step.

Faster, Smaller Software. I downloaded OpenOffice the other day, and it was a little over 100mb. Office no longer fits on a single CD. Irfanview has yet to top a half megabyte, in the age of terabyte hard drives and gigabit ethernet and petaflop supercomputers, and easily outperforms every image utility released with Windows since its inception, in terms of size, usability, features, and speed. And it’s free. Firefox is up to 17.2M for its Macintosh version, the largest of all. The download for Internet Explorer 7 is 14.2M on its home platform, x86 32-bit Windows, but that number is deceptive. The install package appears to be 2M smaller because it only installs the installer. No kidding. Microsoft refuses to release a redistributable installation package. The last full redistributable was version 6.0 at 76.7M.

User Mode. For something like a Windows XP virtual machine or DOS-mode software support, libraries need to be called, and a compatibility layer enabled. Temporarily. For that program. And highly optimized. The notion of leaving DOS support available for the operating system, or a Windows XP virtual machine, is ridiculous, like installing a kernel module in Linux to enable direct execution of Win32 binaries. Any backwards compatibility, emulation, or cross-platform support should be strictly in user mode for the sake of security and stability. Want to know Windows’ dirty little secret? To date, the entire system slows to a crawl to accommodate kernel-mode network and sound drivers. Applications on a fresh install of Windows, before NIC and sound are installed, are fast, like driving a stick of butter across hot teflon. Running these drivers in user mode would bring a huge security boost, and bring the system back like a country song played in reverse.

Scriptable Window Manager. This one thing alone costs me 12 minutes a day at work. And that’s after as much scripting as the system allows. I have to cram four roughly 800×600 windows into one desktop such that all are mostly visible at one time, and each morning an entire series of windows have to be resized and moved.

Stability. Many complain about the amount of time required to go from POST (Power On Self Test) to a usable Windows Desktop. But stability would eliminate the need for a speedy boot or reboot, as would limiting the number of processes and files that could precipitate a system restart. Most users could stand a full 10-minute startup if it were only necessary once every six months.

The current state of the art isn’t terribly artistic. When words like “bloated” and “monolithic” are thrown around as buzzwords, the classic corporate pitfall of huge failures mitigated by mountains of liquidity become obvious. Microsoft once stumbled upon a goldmine, but now chooses not to evolve and create a leaner meaner product, grappling instead with an enormous body of work by way of minor tweaks, patches, fixes, and upgrades.

Windows 7 needs, more than anything, a fundamental change of philosophy.

A Man’s Emergency Bathroom Cleaning Tutorial

So you should start with reviewing the emergency kitchen cleanup routine to get comfortable with the rhythm, and the notion that it’s a list of priorities, not a set of sequential steps.

A spray bottle of antibacterial dish soap and water is your best friend, especially in cleaning emergencies.  Let’s get going.

1.  Spray your solution around the sink, counters, and all parts of the toilet.  Spray the floor around the toilet.

2.  Take all laundry, rugs, and towels to the laundry room and make sure at least one hand towel gets VIP Express Lane treatment for getting back to the towel rack.

3.  Take anything that doesn’t belong in the bathroom out.  Don’t spend a lot of time putting it away, just make sure it’s out of the bathroom for now.  Magazines need to go away, unless you have an attractive and tasteful rack for them.  Books need to go away altogether.

4.  Give the medicine cabinet a quick once-over, but don’t spend a lot of time on it.  Nosey people should be seen but not heard.

5.  Police all trash.

6.  Wipe everything that was sprayed earlier using a rag starting with the mirror, then counters.  Yes, that includes the toilet.  It’s covered in antibacterial soap, and you’re going to wash your hands when you’re done.  You can use a brush inside the bowl, but you don’t have time to waste on chasing pubes with a brush at arm’s length.  Respray if necessary, but don’t waste time scrubbing.

7.  Give the shower a quick pass.  By now any ring around the tub should be largely dissolved and ready to be wiped.  Rinse your toilet rag in the tub and make sure you dust the higher-up areas where water doesn’t reach.  Close the curtain.

8.  By now the toilet should be as clean as it’s going to get.  Make sure it’s not still dripping wet, and swap out the toilet paper.  Empty the trash into the kitchen.  Sweep if necessary, and wipe any visibly dirty areas of the floor.  You’re done.

A Man’s Guide to Last-Minute Kitchen Cleaning

So your maid is off for the weekend, and Bernie and Margaret are on their way over for some cabernet and quiche.  Or far more likely, you’ve been too busy playing video games to notice that tonight is the night that new girl is coming over for the first time.  And your immobile lifestyle has taken its toll on your kitchen.  Here’s the triage approach to cleaning the kitchen for men.  The best part is, it really works, and in a pinch can be adapted to your entire apartment.

This list is NOT a list of sequential steps, it’s a list of priorities, based largely upon what’s grossest to see in someone’s kitchen, and what can be disregarded with a “please don’t mind the mess”.  Oh, and the whole notion of “clean a little area at a time”?  Bogus.  That never fools anyone.  That square meter of hospital sterility in the midst of a landfill will NOT get you invited over for movie night.

So without further ado, here are the priorities in descending order of importance.

1.  Keep the machines running.  If your whole house is bad, this goes for anything you’ve got, washer, dryer, etc.  In the kitchen, this means the dishwasher, if you’ve got one, is going full-time.  Depending on your state of emergency, you may even opt to put slightly-wet dishes in the cupboard, ideally with the wet side facing air.  If you have enough time or few enough dishes to let them dry, leave the dishwasher open and pull the racks out so they dry faster.  Turn on your vent-a-hood to help circulate air around the kitchen.  Failure to keep the machines running is like having an able-bodied person who could be handling half the work sitting there watching.  Start with as many smaller items as possible, beginning with silverware and cups, and moving up to plates.  Cram the dishwasher full making sure every eating surface is exposed to water, load it up with extra soap, and use the heaviest pots and pans cycle the machine has.  The goal here is to babysit as little as possible.  Pick up from the table first, then counters, with the sink last.  Dishes with large amounts of leftover food should be emptied into the toilet, as your garbage disposal is probably inaccessible at this point.

2. Keep the water working.  Spray the harder stains and any dried-on food, be it surfaces, floor, or dishes, with water, and better yet a water and dishsoap solution.  Spray soap and water on your stove and walk away.  Rinse the dirty dishes off and set them aside, and start the dried-on food soaking, especially if you’re washing your own dishes.  Come back to this step as things get loosened up to wipe and spray again.  DO NOT waste your time scrubbing.  Water is your second most valuable asset toward conquering a nasty kitchen, and is like having another part-time helper present.  Nest smaller dishes inside larger dishes to take up less counterspace.

3.  Any edible foodstuffs should be stowed.  Spin and tuck with the bread.  Failure to do so is a sign of homosexuality.  Things that would normally be left out, such as a butter dish, coffee treatments, or spices should be stowed out of sight to contribute later on to an uncluttered appearance.

4.  Any rotten or expired foodstuffs that are not in the refrigerator should be thrown away.  Don’t bother trying to save a container unless it’s expensive.  Time is of the essence.  Don’t bother with crumbs, as you’ll deal with those later.

5.  Now’s a good time to check back with the machines to make sure they’re still running, and feed them another load if they’re not.  Remember, you’re going smallest to largest, and big pots and pans are actually pretty low on the priority list if they don’t fit in the dishwasher.  They can be left to soak in the sink without looking disgusting, and handwashed later if you really finish that quickly.

6.  Make a trash sweep, clearing counters and so forth.  By now, your counters should be approaching 60% empty space or more, even under the worst of starting conditions.  Don’t waste your time taking the trash out yet, as you may find more, and double your efforts unnecessarily.  Pay special attention to the floor.

7.  Spray soapy water on any floor spots you may have.  Do not wipe them yet.

8.  Move any remaining dishes to the sink or close by if you simply have too many.  If you do indeed have too many, consider taking the remaining dishes out of your cupboards and donating them or throwing them away.  These are, by definition, the ones you use last and are least likely to use ever.

9.  Spray down the rest of your counters.  Wipe the spots on the floor, surfaces, and stove that you sprayed previously, and spray again if necessary.  Wipe down your coffee maker and make sure it’s rinsed out.  Take the trash out.  Make one last pass at counters and table.  Sweep the floor.  Mop if you have time.

You’re done.  You’ve just rescued your kitchen from disaster.  Stay tuned for my emergency bathroom cleanup tutorial.

Blogging

Y’know what the best part about the internet is?  I can post complete nonsense, and no one will even remotely care.  If I’m wise and intelligent, it gets lost in the noise.  If I’m foolish and psychotic, I blend in beautifully with everyone else on the ‘net.

Best of all, I’m still anonymous and unknown enough that I don’t even get any hate mail calling me a baby-killing Jew-hater or anything.  Which is nice, because I don’t hate Jews, and I’ve never killed a baby.

Lab Rant for President!

For the original, see the following: http://www.stopthinkvote.com/compare.html
I got curious as to how I’d stack up with the other candidates and politicians.

Comparisons

CAME FROM A FAMILY OF POWER

Eric: No.  Father was a pastor of a local church, a middle school music teacher, and a city bus driver.  Mother takes care of feet.

PARTIED AS YOUTHS

Eric: No.  Stayed at home and listened to music.  Worked to support himself without roommates or help from relatives.  Spent most of his time raising his two kids.

LOW PERFORMING STUDENTS

Eric: No.  Graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA, scored 1550 on the SAT.

POWERFUL FATHERS & GRANDFATHERS

Eric: That’s terribly similar to the Powerful Families item.  Beating a dead horse there.

USED FAMILY TIES TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS

Eric: No.  Largely estranged from immediate family.  Only communicates regularly with his little brother.  Bought herbs from his brother’s highschool horticulture sale at a reduced price.

Eric on the Issues

ABORTION

Eric: Unable to justify expressing an opinion without owning a uterus.  Fails to see the relevance to national security or a significant economic impact.  Feels that if the government should have a stance on abortion, it should be one of abstinence, specifically that of abstaining from attempts to legislate moral or immoral behavior.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Eric: None.  Cannot stage a meaningful campaign for the presidency at this juncture because his Geo needs new tires.  Feels that publicly-funded elections are a low priority at the federal level, and should be decided by the states.

CUBA

Eric: Favors referendum of “chip on shoulder” approach to democracy with Cuba.  Favors a diplomatic approach to annexation to help reduce US reliance on foreign sugar.  Considers current foreign policy on Cuba to be an obvious and miserable failure.

DEATH PENALTY

Eric: Favors greatly simplified appeal structure.  Feels a life lived on death row is no life at all.  Favors simpler and looser guidelines on vigilante violence, specifically in cases of self defense or defense of ones family and home.

EDUCATION

Eric: In favor of it.  Feels that education is the responsibility of the parent, and that schools serve a limited role in the outsourcing of basic subjects such as language and mathematics.  Thinks the notion that schools are responsible for teaching children to be productive members of society and well behaved is ridiculous, lazy, and outside the scope of an governmental agency.

GAY MARRIAGE

Eric: Gay marriage would reduce the number of homosexual couples having sex outside of wedlock, and the Evangelical Right should recognize and support this.

GLOBAL WARMING

Eric: Favors research promoting the use of biological agents such as engineered algae to convert sunlight into energy.  Supports research into the use of extremophilic biology to extract energy from waste heat.  Well aware of the laws of thermodynamics as they relate to national energy policy.

GUN CONTROL

Eric: In favor of a law requiring gun ownership by individuals and families to encourage education and safety training.  Also understands the value of a well-armed civil militia to combat tyranny at all levels of government.  Aware of the dangers posed by an imbalance of weapons and violent force between people and the government.  In favor of disarming public servants.  Strongly in favor of interpreting the 2nd Amendment literally.

HEALTH CARE

Eric: Would outlaw lobbyists and contributions from pharmaceutical and insurance interests.  Has vowed to establish a tariff on drug imports to defray research and development costs, but otherwise open the market to drugs produced internationally.  Would establish a commission to investigate practices of price gouging, and recommend plans to make restitution to taxpayers without destroying the American pharmaceutical infrastructure.  Favors a federal plan to cover basic healthcare needs, but would not include advanced end-of-life treatments beyond basic pain medication.  Feels that while everyone should enjoy the privelege of being basically healthy, it is not the duty of the federal government to require each person to live as long as they possibly can.

HOUSING

Eric: Very much in favor of housing.  Understands that current renter-based mentality is not cut out for homeownership on a large scale.  Favors establishing a federal tax credit of up to $150 per month paid directly to mortgage lenders to bring homeownership within reach for millions of poorer Americans.  Would provide up to $150 per month extra food assistance for homeowners who qualify within more lenient income guidelines.

IMMIGRATION

Eric: Would encourage across-the-board amnesty for all immigrants, and open the borders to all foreigners with 19th-century guidelines and quotas, including immediate citizenship for all who pass a basic language and civics test.  Would withhold citizenship from native-born pending passing of the same tests.  Strongly favors legislation making violation of the Bill of Rights a crime, including infractions against any person regardless of national origin.  Amnesty plan includes immediate issuance of social security number to every citizen, and the associated requirement of appropriate taxes and fees.  Considers a border fence to be the most hilarious proposition ever, on par with enacting a law requiring global warming to “go back where it came from”.

IRAN

Eric: Neither for nor against.  Would like to reestablish trade relations with Iran to reduce American dependence on fake Persian rugs and cats.  Finds saber-rattling to be silly and pointless, especially with the current American dependence on OPEC.  Would favor annexation, with proper planning, of the entire Middle East, for the sake of inflicting the IRS upon the Muslim world.

IRAQ

Eric: Strongly against.  Feels that the only approach with any reasonable chance of success in Iraq is one of total Imperial colonialism.  Would make Iraq and Kurdistan the 51st and 52nd stars on the American flag.  (See Iran.)  Otherwise, the business of the rest of the world’s politics is none of ours until we can shape up a bit in matters at home.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Eric: Feels that the poverty and overall disrespect for the aging is largely the result of continued government bailouts for corporations, and that when corporations are required to meet their contractual pension obligations instead of being rescued by the PBGC, those who work long and hard for a company will be rewarded later on, and those who fail to work their entire lives will be supported by family members, or die in poverty.  Would like to see social security become a state issue, but also recognizes that any state with better benefits would be unduly burdened by an influx of retirees, and thus is realistic about Social Security being a national issue.

STEM CELL RESEARCH

Eric: Favors strongly.  Notes the irony of both denying the sovereignty of a woman’s uterus and the inviolate status of a clump of cells under the umbrella of “the dignity of human life”.  Suspects the Christian Right will be hard-pressed to find sympathy with YouTube videos of fertilized zygotes lying in trashcans and rubber-gloved hands.  But seriously, what is the point of federal interference anyhow?

TAXES

Eric: Strongly opposed.  Feels taxes should be limited almost entirely to tariffs and duties levied on international trade, and all other income to come from lightly taxing corporations with total revenue of greater than $1.5 million, with heavier tax burdens imposed upon larger corporations.

TRADE

Eric: Feels that governance of international trade on behalf of the several states is the single most important preoccupation of the United States Government.  In favor of the ancient notion that the purpose of tariffs is to ensure that domestic business interests remain competitive with international corporations, and that updating international trade laws would largely eliminate the practice of outsourcing of labor and industry.  Suggests that the reason we fail to remain competitive globally is because we’ve given up on remaining competitive domestically.

ALL ELSE

Eric: Somewhat isolationist, feels that disasters such as Hurricane Katrina would experience an overflow of money and supplies if resources weren’t being squandered abroad in the form of “foreign aid”.  Would seek to cripple and/or eliminate the Federal Reserve Bank.  Thinks the current social system for dealing with children and delinquent adults is observably inadequate, including prison for adults and prescription drugs for children.  Thinks overzealous child welfare organizations are largely to blame, in addition to overzealous safety-conscious parents.  Would limit cash payouts for civil lawsuits to a maximum of the amount an average person in their income bracket could be expected to make in his or her lifetime, plus medical expenses, less a reasonable assessment of his or her ability to go back to work and lead a normal life at home.

Notes that certain measures, such as an interstate highway system, may be appropriate for ensuring that the United States does not develop a blighted section any further than what the southern states have achieved already, but more strongly favors making it illegal to include funding requirements, such as speed limits or mandatory drinking ages.  Would establish a one-time reward of $10,000 for any individual undergoing voluntary surgical sterilization up to age 30.  Would establish weighted scholarships and bounty programs designed to encourage individuals to pursue high-demand occupations.

Would solicit petitioners for statehood around the world.

Would establish a requirement that three laws be repealed for every law enacted, until such time as (1) The sum total of Federal Law is limited to a maximum of 100,000 words, and (2) a free copy is provided upon demand to any individual requesting it.  Would outlaw the practice of subcontracting federal work, and establish an upper limit to the maximum number of federal employees.

Would promote all measures designed to sustain and improve the US Postal Service in its entirety.

Would slash defense spending to a twentieth of its current level.  Bear in mind that we have no need to go to war.  Those who are large and strong enough to conquer us are unwilling to do so forcibly.  Those who are small enough for us to conquer we have no business tampering with.  Would eliminate the federal penal system, and have an ongoing draft for prisoners to engage in humanitarian missions abroad in violent areas.