McCain's economic plan: complete disaster

Under the Bush economic policies, we have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Not only that, but we have seen the economy go into a recession with the threat of an outright depression.

So instead of looking at the results of Bush's economic policies, John McCain wants to do what? Intensify Bush's policies by giving yet more tax breaks to the super wealthy?

I personally don't believe in the idea of trickle-down economics, but I am willing to admit that it could work in some situations IN MODERATION. The fact that Bush has not exercised restraint in deploying it means that the solution to correct the problem is to move back in the other direction (ie focusing on helping the individual directly rather than focusing on helping big business directly and hoping the individual will somehow benefit).

McCain should be able to see that Bush has gone too far, but he doesn't, and that is one big reason why he is not fit to be president; because his economic plan would plunge us even deeper into the economic mess we currently are already in.

Everyone should be taxed the exact same percentage all the from the poorest among us to the richest among us, with a few exceptions. That is fair, and that's what I want to see happen.

Obama understands this and that's why he's going to fix taxes so the rich are paying more of their fair share.

Unbelievable.. Microsoft to open file formats?

I just read something amazing. Apparently, Microsoft is going to open their file formats. I've long complained that Microsoft was able to maintain its monopoly because people needed to be able to use Microsoft's closed file formats with accuracy (ie you need Microsoft Word in order to communicate with everyone else who is using Word). With open file formats, now we will finally have a legitimate choice to use competing products and still be able to interact with people who are using Word.

This may finally be the end of Microsoft's unreasonable dominance in the marketplace.

More Politics

Since my last entry, my political views have changed somewhat.

After I saw Mitt Romney publicly thank George W. Bush for the Patriot Act, I began to doubt whether now is really Mitt's time to be president. I think the Patriot Act has gone too far (allowing the government to spy on its citizens with no 'checks and balances' system in place) and I think someone needs to adjust it so that it protects more individual privacy.
In addition, I also think that it makes absolutely no sense to give tax breaks to the super wealthy. I was genuinely surprised that Orrin Hatch argued that the rich should pay less taxes by percentage because the actual amount of taxes that they pay is greater than the guy who makes minimum wage. Orrin should know better. Remember the story of the "widows mites" from the Bible? This story illustrates that it's all about percentage, and therefore, I say that everyone ought to pay the same PERCENTAGE of their income for taxes.

In short, I am saying that I think that it's well past time that this country has a Democrat president to bring balance to the nonsense that George W. Bush has imposed upon us for 8 years.

So while I am still a Mitt fan, and do think he would make a good president, I think that we need a Democrat in there for now and maybe Mitt can be president in 4 years if he's still interested and healthy.

I actually like a lot of candidates this go around.
I thought Mike Huckabee's comment about Fred Thompson needing some Metamucil was hilarious. I really liked McCain's concession speech after losing Michigan to Romney. I've liked Romney ever since he saved the 2002 Winter Olympics. I like the idea of a black president (Obama) and the idea of a female president (Hillary). Heck, I even don't have anything against John Edwards and I hardly know anything about him.
I am not too thrilled about Fred Thompson, but for now it looks like he is basically done for anyway. The only candidate I really don't want to see do well is Giuliani. I know it may not be his fault, but the fact that he's on his third marriage may suggest that he isn't a good husband, and I think being a good husband is pretty dang important to running the country (although Bill Clinton seemed to pull it off without being a good husband.. hmm).

Romney rules!

Today, presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave his "famous" speech entitled "Faith in America." I was dubious about the necessity of this speech, fearing that it would cause more people to start bashing my beliefs, which is never pleasant. However, after watching the speech, I came away being very impressed by Romney. The man has basically said that it is important to him to stand true to his values than to win the election, and what he had to say about separation of church and state is precisely how I feel about the subject.
Separation of church and state, to me, means that the government shall impose no religion upon its people. It has _never_ meant that we, the people, cannot make laws based on ours beliefs (such as banning gay marriage) or that God can never be mentioned in public (including praying in public). I've always thought that those people who spent so much time trying to remove prayer from schools were being a bit selfish; if the majority of people believe in a Supreme Being, then it is completely appropriate to have some kind of prayer to this being in a public forum.
In short, I've gained a tremendous amount of respect for Romney, and I will most likely be voting for him if I get the opportunity.

Seagate Nailed! Other HD manufacturers to follow?

If you're like me, you've been annoyed by the way that hard drive manufacturers represent their storage capacity. Basically, 1 GB on a hard drive means 1 billion bytes, but in almost every other context of which I am aware, 1 GB actually means 1024 cubed, which is 1073741824 bytes. Obviously, HD manufacturers want to use the "base 10" system instead of the "base 2" system to advertise their stuff, because it means they can say that they offer more capacity than they actually do.

Well, Seagate finally got nailed. I am hoping this means that all HD manufacturers everywhere will start being honest from now on. If I buy a 500GB drive, I want it to have 500*1024*1024*1024 bytes, dangit!

California Extreme 2007

I just was at California Extreme 2007 (http://www.caextreme.org) this past weekend and I got some video of the occasion:

Google Video Version:


YouTube Version: