I should really set this blog up with multiple categories. Anyway, I thought I’d get a lot done over the past 4 days. Didn’t work out that way at all, I’m afraid.

Penny and I had Thanksgiving dinner with her family in Port Orchard and then visited some friends out in the Belfair area. Had a great time both places and engaged in some shameless discussion about the LP with our friends’ extended family. I love finding out how many libertarians there are out there who are just waiting for a little more party success before they jump on board.

Friday night, we had dinner (yummy Indian cuisine) with Joe and Katie and then watched Control Room. I really enjoyed the film - seemed pretty balanced and definitely presented a perspective on Al Jazeera you can’t get through typical American media outlets. Personally, I wish we could get AJ broadcasts here (translated, of course). I’d love to see more international broadcasts in general as it would force the US media to pay attention to broader issues. I try to watch BBC and TV-5 stuff when I can, but the BBC is typically just a version made for US audiences and the TV-5 stuff is all in French (which I can barely make out a few words of).

Saturday just sort of came and went. Met with Max to work on some LP website stuff. Good things coming from that effort soon.

Today, Penny and myself and our friend Sonda went and saw Pacific Northwest Ballet’s The Nutcracker - which should be called “Rat-Infested, Pyschodelic Nightmare” cause it’s ultra-creepy. Actully, the set was really awesome. It was done by Maurice Sendak and is enough reason to go see the performance. The music, of course, is wonderful and the dancing was okay. I think the PNB needs to work on the female chorus’s synchronization and heavy-footedness. Still, a very good time.

I must go for now. I’ll try to post more soon, just in case anyone out there is paying attention

I’m pretty sure that I’m one of the last to discover interesting websites. Nevertheless, I’m going to pretend that no one out there knows about SupaDubya and recommmend the site. Basically, it features an anti-war rap video with good lyrics and Bush samples mixed in.

I find it amusing (read sad, confusing, odd, etc) how little coverage the war in Iraq is getting since the election. There’s even perceptively less activity on campus regarding this issue. Is it really the case that all those war protests were just campaign activities? That would be a real shame. Now that Bush is feeling all fuzzy after getting his “mandate” we should be in the streets more than ever to remind him that we still think his war sucks. Especially since the military’s really increased it’s activity lately. What’s with all these triangles anyway? Are we fighting Pythagoreans?

I just found the coolest new game on the internet. It’s not super-fancy, but it is terribly funny and pretty damn hard. It’s basically a Flash knock-off of the old Whack-A-Mole game, but with Republicans. Anyway, go waste some time playing Spending Explosion! Oh yeah, the guy’s blog is worth reading too.

So I’ve been terribly lazy this quarter when it comes to school. Fortunately, I saw this coming earlier and changed all my classes to Satisfactory/Non-Satisfactory status. That means I only have to aim for a 2.0 and I won’t be screwing up my GPA. As a result, I’ve let myself become increasingly distant from the school process. Today, that translated into a miserable midterm experience in chemistry. I did study (for a day or so) but when I saw the exam it did not even resemble anything I’d ever seen before. The problems were completely foreign to me. It was as if I’d not been to class in weeks… oh wait, I haven’t been to class in weeks! The ironic thing is that I probably didn’t do much worse than those around me who studied every day. Apparently, the test seemed foreign to everyone.

On another entirely different note, I just stumbled across an interest editorial that suggests that Microsoft will be releasing a branded Linux product. Perhaps MS-Linux is on the way?

I’ve been pretty busy over the past couple of days. In the background, my mind is still puzzling over the election results. In particular, I’m growing even more upset by the gay-marriage ban. Partly because the more I think about it, the more appalled I become. Partly because I’ve heard talk radio hosts, like Michael Medved, defending it.

Most people on the Left are upset because they fear and despise the religious right. I am with them on this. I am, however, uncertain as to why the Left is so upset. It seems kind of contradictory for someone who advocates the use of state force to take property from some for the benefit of the few to then oppose the use of state force to impose some other world view. As I said, I am horrified that so many religious and cultural conservatives exist. I am just confused about how the social Left justifies their position.

My position, is clear. No individual (or any group of any size of individuals) has any right to initiate force against any other individual (or group of individuals)… period. To impose any limitations on behavior or belief beyond this simple rule is a violation of this rule and an outrage. That means you cannot justly tell someone how to eat, drink, dress, speak, worship, or love. That means no matter how strongly you disagree with someone’s choices or disapprove of someone’s lifestyle you have no moral authority to use force to restrict that person’s choices or lifestyle. Because you do not have this authority, you cannot grant this authority to someone else - that is a power you simply do not have to give. Thus, no matter how many people demand it, nor how loudly they cry out, the government cannot justly interfere with the lives of individuals beyond the enforcement of the simple rule of non-aggression.

That, in a nutshell, is the philosphy of liberty. For a great animated introduction to this idea you should watch this. It takes a few minutes, but it is well worth it.