The State of Our Union is 'Strong'

State of the Union: Yes, it is strong. While President Bush was faced with a recession at the end of the tech bubble when he came in, he is building up a better, more reliable economy.

USA PATRIOT Act: This was the lowest moment in the speech, so I guess it was good he got it out early. I'm hoping the parts that are set to sunset in 2005 will be allowed to terminate. The PATRIOT Act is the worst thing the administration has done thus far.

International Diplomacy: President Bush wisely pointed out the difference between negotiations with Libya and Iraq. The president's firm, unchanging policies have lead to improvements in Libya. Mr. Bush also emphasized the need to bring democracy to the “greater Middle East,” emphasizing that everyone has the God given desire for freedom. He emphasized the need for free people, free speech, and (interesting emphasis here, is this another attempt to take an issue away from democrats?) free labor unions.

“America is a nation with a mission and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.” — President George W. Bush

Deficit and Budget: The president appears to be moving back to a strong, conservative budget with just a 4% growth this year. The president's budget would lead to a 50% reduction in the deficit in just 5 years. This is GREAT news. It's time to return to fiscal responsibility, and the president seems to be aiming for that goal.

Taxes: The president emphasized the need to end the death tax permanently, as well as the marriage tax. It's time that people are taxed once and taxed fairly. He, quite rightly, notes that congress failing to renew these tax cuts will really simply mean a tax hike. That's very true.

International Support: The president named the dozens of countries that have committed troops to the effort in Iraq. It is to the shame of the democrats that they keep talking about making it an international effort as thousands of international troops, monies and materials are assisting us. Let's not ignore our allies. More dittos to the president.

Empire Building: The president emphasized, as the included quote says, that we are not building an empire. The goal of the United States is to spread democracy, not to enlarge its holdings.

Education: “Jobs for the 21st Century” will help prepare people for the more complex jobs of today. The president also emphasized strengthening America's excellent network of community colleges.

Traditional Values: The president promoted traditional values in his speech as well. President Bush argued for increased funding of programs promoting abstinence, as well as insuring “activist judges” will not destroy the sanctity of Marriage. This shows the president is listening to the concerns of Americans.

Social Security: The president argued for the privatization of Social Security, giving people ownership of their retirement funds — to an extent. This is the way things should be!

Illegal Aliens: The president continued to promote his compromise plan that recognizes the difficulty of removing illegal aliens, while realizing full amnesty is not fair or right. While I wish this wasn't necessary, I think Jonah Goldberg is right when he asserts it is about the only practical solution at the moment.

Healthcare: Another touchy subject, but overall ok solutions. Medicare can be adjusted to whatever the needs of the individual are per the new Medicare bill the president was “proud” to sign. As I reflect on the bill more, I do think it this is again, a good compromise, if not perfect. The president stood firm on the seniors' right to choice as well. Association Health Plans were also emphasized to allow SMB organizations to be able to afford to provide healthcare. Mr. Bush also emphasized providing tax credits to help low income families pay for private insurance (good). Finally he made the much-needed comments on restricting frivolous lawsuits and the need NOT to go with a government healthcare program.

“The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that his purposes are just and true.” — President George W. Bush

Athletes: They — like it or not — are young people's role models in this day and age. They should quit taking performance enhancing drugs, the president said. You're right, Mr. President.

Overall, the President provided a good balance of offerings for everyone. He continued to follow his commitment to be a president for all Americans, not just the special interest groups that the Democrats so enjoy appealing to.

If the president continues his determination to get done what he promises, we ought to have a great year this year. Go Dub-ya!

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Iowa Voters Prefer Kerry, Edwards; Gephardt Considers Quitting

John Edwards (D-N.C.) a rising star of recent weeks nabbed a second place finish with 31% of the vote. National poll leader Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vermont) came in a surprising third at just 18% of the vote. However, perhaps the biggest shocker was Rep. Richard Gephardt's (D-Mo.) fourth place finish, giving him just 11% of the vote, according to CNN.com.

Gephardt, a long time representative of St. Louis, Missouri, was expected to be one of two contenders (the other being Dean) in Iowa, a state he had won in his last presidential bid (1988).

CNN reports that Gephardt's weak showing in what was generally considered “his territory” will lead to his announcing a Withdraw from the race.

The no. 2 leader in the polls, Rt. Gen. Wesley Clark (D) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Con.) both made little or no showing in the caucuses, perhaps a reflection of the fact that both skipped campaigning in Iowa and concentrated on New Hampshire, where a primary contest will take place next Tuesday.

Sen. Lieberman appears to be the most conservative of those running, offering a platform far less extreme than those of Gov. Dean and Rep. Kucinich (D-Oh).

Information based on data provided by CNN.com.

The Eighties

Got it yet? Yes, it's the Apple Macintosh “1984” commercial. This is the commercial that introduced the world to the first real GUI operating system, not to mention the inspiration behind most other GUI's (including Windows). This commercial, generally considered one of the top two or three of all time, changed the computing world forever. It was the first stake in DOS's coffin. The Macintosh was here.

Two weeks ago, Steve Jobs revived the famed 1984 commercial at MacWorld, this time, using digital editing techniques, showing the runner in the commercial wearing an iPod. After it aired, the audience erupted with a standing ovation. It is known that Steve Job's famed “RDF” (Reality Distortion Field) has succeeded in causing mass excitement over little things, but this was clearly a show appreciation for both a spectacular commercial and the equally impressive era that was ushered in by the Macintosh.

It is interesting to note that as the “Evil Empire,” of Redmond, Washington, promotes the Trusted Computing (a.k.a. Palladium) initiative, a dangerous initiative that could eliminate choice in using different applications and operating systems, Apple has publicly come out against that system. Perhaps the Macintosh will really help avoid “1984.”

Happy Birthday, Mac. Let's hope Apple will still be on the cutting edge on the Mac's 40th birthday.

The Future is Open

“Imagine the following scenario: 'OK, ad people. We want you to sell this really cool technology that's going to change the world. But it's not really our product. You can't hold it. You can't see it. And, um, there's no way to take a picture of it or even really show what it is. Oh, did we mention that the future of our $80 billion company depends on it? Thanks.'”

That's how an article on IBM and Linux begins. Find out what Thomas Mucha is talking about in this Business 2.0 article.

Call for Blogs

This message is for two requests. As I announced a few months ago, FaithTree.com now allows users to place their favorite blogs on their customizable front page, just like you can local and national news, tech news, Bible quotes, local weather etc. You can find the few that I put up right here. I didn't add all of my blogroll, although I am planning to.

1. My first request is to hear from you about some of your favorite blogs that you think might make a good addition to FaithTree.com's listings. Maybe picking your top favorites would be best, but if you can't decide, that's alright. Just let me know what you like.
2. The other request is that, if you like the idea of seeing a customizable Christian home page that can take blogs as feeds, that you might consider mentioning this post on your own blog so that I can gather a good selection of blogs for this project.

The only real catch is that the blog must be Christian and agree with Christian Scripture as interpreted by historic Christian belief (the Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed are a good base for this judgement). Essentially, anything that would go on Blogs4God can go on FaithTree.com's blog selection. This may change in the future (perhaps some secular blogs will be allowed), but for now that's the safest way to insure that the blogs meet our guidelines for content.

Once a blog is listed, it will be given a unique ID. If the blog owner wants to make it easy for people to add the blog to their FaithTree.com home page, they can follow some simple instructions on how to do so. This all works much like it did on the old “My Netscape” that existed in the days when Netscape was still a force to be reckoned with. If you are interested, please indicate so and I'll post about that.

Thanks for your help with this project!

Back up...

To answer Christopher's question from the last post, I am back up, at least mostly. I'm going to be writing about what I'm up to on OfB, so I guess I'll save it until then, but it's kept me busy!

And it all started because of a phone. I hinted about cell phone service issues a few weeks back and intended to follow that up sooner than I did. Verizon Wireless had, after over a year and a half of fighting, still failed to provide me with a number that actually could be reached from many phones in the metro area. They had also, earlier in 2003, managed to lose my voicemail for about a month and then somehow switch my number over to “pay as you go” (which of course caused it to be terminated, since I didn't have pay as you go minutes — I had a monthly plan!).

At any rate, they finally relented and let me out of the contract. I'm now with Cingular Wireless and have a new Nokia 3600 phone (the GSM 850/1900 MHz variant of the Nokia 3650). So far things have been good with Cingular — good coverage, good customer service and a great phone. The Nokia 3600 is a camera phone that is powered by the OS that's somewhat of a cell-phone/PDA blend: Symbian. It has a 100 MHz processor, is capable of running Java and Symbian applications (of which there are a ton!) and can play wave and polyphonic midi ring-tones. Battery life seems to be 4-5 days of standby and light usage, or 2-day with moderate Bluetooth usage (leaving Bluetooth on all the time seems to lower that to around a 24 hour battery life).

One feature I really liked about the phone, other than the 640×480 camera (which is nice for when you don't have your normal camera with you), is the inclusion of Bluetooth. That's also how I ended up taking on a major project in trying to get my contacts, that are on my GNU/Linux box, to my Mac (which has Bluetooth) and then to the phone. sigh

At any rate, it's a good phone. IMO, the future of wireless is on a GSM network, so if your looking to get a new phone, this nice Nokia 3600 GSM phone might be a good choice.

Tim is Currently Out of Order, Please Try Again Later

If you've e-mailed me and I haven't responded, please forgive me. I've been trying to get a server configured. That project ballooned into something bigger, and presently I have a new install of GNU/Linux on my desktop in which I have not imported my e-mail yet. I haved viewed it a few times in Apple Mail using IMAP, but I haven't done much with it, and I can't respond to messages sent prior to the move (since they aren't on IMAP any longer).

At any rate, I'm hoping to finish the server project tomorrow. Once I do that, I will import my e-mail from my backup and respond.

Dean: The Bible Scholar?

I saw this in the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday and couldn't help but chuckle (although fear also hit me when I realized there is a chance we might have to live with this guy being our president). Apparently Democratic front runner Howard Dean, who has been trying to talk a bit more about religion as he attempts to appeal to Bible-belt voters, was asked what his favorite New Testament book was.

As he heads into what H.L. Mencken called the “Bible Belt,” the candidate moved to plug an apparent hole in his resume about an interest in religion. After hearing Dean's observation beginning “If you know much about the Bible - which I do …” a reporter asked about his favorite New Testament book. Dean named Job, adding, “But I don't like the way it ends … there's one book where there's a more optimistic ending, which we believe was tacked on later.” [link]

So, it seems Dean's Bible is organized a bit different than everyone else's. Robert Novak, the conservative CNN commentator, explains what happened afterwards in his syndicated column for this week:

Dean returned to reporters, confessing a slight error. When they persisted in asking his favorite part of the New Testament, he prudently answered: “Anything in the Gospels.” [link]

While I always feel sorry for people making dumb mistakes, I can't help but see this as Dean trying to look Christian when he really could care less. For someone who has, as Novak reports, claimed to have read the Bible “from cover-to-cover” and also has also stated, as the Post-Dispatch reports, “If you know much about the Bible - which I do,” it is disturbing that Dean lists Job as his favorite New Testament book and then can't be any more specific than the Gospels when he is reminded that Job happened about 2,000 years too early for the New Testament.

I guess it could have been worse — he could have mentioned his favorite New Testament books where the ones that followed Moses's life or something like that.

Automatical Blog Posting Template

This is a blog post about $X. When I heard about $X, I thought $Y and $Z. According to $A, “$X is the best thing since sliced $B!” The Associated Press also talked about $X and declared it the “Best of the Best” for the $foobar industry! This is so exciting! You really should read more about $X. I bet you'll think $Y and $Z too. Or maybe not, but then you may at least think $C and $D. Whatever the case, let me know what you think about $X in the comments below. If you think $E or $F, please explain why, as well.

Nice Streams!

I've spent a few hours over the last week or so ripping Christmas CD's. I'm not quite done and there are over 40 albums spanning almost a day an a quarter in playtime. But what to do with them? Well, I thought it might be nice to listen to it as I went from computer to computer, so I decided to try Apple's Darwin Streaming Server (DSS). DSS is the Free Software/Open Source sibling to QuickTime Streaming Server. It appears to have most of the same functionality (including QuickTime streaming).

One of its many features is IceCast compatible MP3 streaming. So, in a (nearly) effortless few minutes, I installed DSS, fixed my MP3 directory's permissions, used the great web-based GUI to select the proper folder, and clicked “play.” Now, I can connect from any system on the network and hear the continuous stream as if it was on the radio. Only its 100% good Christmas music and not some of the stuff that makes you wince in agony (the Christina Aguilera Christmas songs where the worst of the year, I think).

DSS's stream works just fine in iTunes (which shows the proper track information), XMMS (which does not show proper track information), Windows Media Player, and probably others. WMP seems to have a larger buffer and thus you don't want to have WMP playing the stream within listening distance of a system using XMMS or iTunes, but other than that, it works well on all three.

Now, I'll just do the same in a few weeks for my non-Christmas music and all will be well. If you'd like to try DSS, you can do so on Mac OS X, GNU/Linux or Windows. The server is available for a free download under the GNU Project approved Apple Public Source License (ASPL) 2.0, right here.