Big Travel Weekend

Posted April 23, 2010, 9:51 a.m.

Obviously I’ve been slacking on the posting; I apologize for that. The last week has been busy at work, busy at home, and . . . well just busy in general.

This weekend is our big travel weekend: Melissa and I are going to New York, NY. Lots of you might be surprised to learn that, while I’ve traveled all over the United States, I’ve never been to New York City. It should be an interesting experience. I hate crowds of people, and I don’t like rudeness, so it should be a great time ;-).

Melissa has a thing up there, which is why we’re going now, but we’re also making a long weekend of it as an early anniversary trip. We’re taking the train up this afternoon (so it’ll also be my first time on Amtrak) and staying until Tuesday.

I will try to post some stuff now and then. I’m not sure if the hotel has Internet access or not, but Verizon has kindly made mobile hot-spot free for Palm Pre Plus owners with a standard data plan . . . so up to five computers can surf over the phone’s 3G connection. Now I can be online anywhere without having to pay for access at hotels that aren’t enlightened enough to offer free Internet. Nice.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.

Quotes

But not everyone who is failing is a victim, and not everyone at the bottom wishes to rise, although many do, and many manage it.

If we want limited government, as we should, and a level of taxation that is not unduly burdensome, we need healthy institutions of civil society, beginning with a flourishing marriage culture that supports family formation and preservation.

We have to choose our targets wisely, which is a problem, because we do not have a wise public or a wise government.

The price system works so well, so efficiently, that we are not aware of it most of the time. We never realize how well it functions until it is prevented from functioning. . . .

So it does not matter (comparatively speaking) how often humanity fails to imitate its ideal; for then all its old failures are fruitful. But it does frightfully matter how often humanity changes its ideal; for then all its old failures are fruitless.

No government can flourish unless it be founded on the affection of the people.

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.

Besides, it is a truth confirmed by the unerring experience of ages, that every man, and every body of men, invested with power, are ever disposed to increase it, and to acquire a superiority over everything that stands in their way.

No well-regulated community ever existed long, if at all, where there were many laws.

I always go into the deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst—if you can live with the worst—the good will always take care of itself.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.

No matter how outrageous a lie may be, it will be accepted if stated loudly enough and often enough.

If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.

Among us there is no place for the lukewarm. Humble yourself, and Christ will kindle in you again the fire of love.

The nations which are favored by free institutions invariably find that their resources increase even more rapidly than their taxes.

Men talk most about health when they are unhealthy. So too they talk most about freedom when they are in danger of losing it or when they are enslaved.

If you see news that is so absurd it is literally unbelievable, that’s usually because it isn’t true.

The West is able to look at its own foibles and laugh, even make fun of its own fundamental principles. There is no Islamic equivalent to Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Can we look forward to seeing The Life of Mo anytime in the future?

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

Those who deny that a tendency toward evil is basic to human nature cannot make sense of history, which becomes merely endless, incomprehensible tragedy.