Quick Roundup 405

Up late. Morning meeting. Taking my beautiful wife to the airport beforehand.

Living in the Future, Today

Whether you're local to Houston and feeling a touch of morbid curiosity about possible candidates in the upcoming mayoral elections, or generally sick of mixed-economy politics, you'll want to stop by Live Oaks. There, you can see what political positions a candidate who actually values freedom might take, were he to run today. Brian Phillips has declared his virtual candidacy for mayor and made a statement of -- What did he call those again? Oh yeah. -- principles.

"Our goal is to increase individual freedom. Our goal is to allow Houstonians greater control over their lives." We owe this virtual candidate the real support of stopping by to see why he has become a virtual candidate, and acting accordingly. The latter would entail thinking about the issue of increasing freedom, and urging others to do so.

As someone known to make a big fuss over principles once put it, "Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today." Your virtual candidate has just invited you to try out life in a better tomorrow.

The Mother as Wiley General

With the wife and me contemplating parenthood after her first year of residency is over, I was intrigued by this entertaining, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking post by Rational Jenn: "The Art of War for Parents." No excerpt or short capsule will do it justice, but a pair of short quotes might give you an idea of what to expect. Here's the overarching strategy:

Children are human beings, but their brains are in the process of growing and developing. They are not fully rational . . . not yet. But one day (we hope), they will be rational. So when attempting to get the child to do something she might otherwise not want to do, I think it's right (and worth it!) to go the Reason Route first.

And here's a short bit of advice, given "Art of War" style:

Extricate yourself from pointless confrontations.

First, make sure you're not the one unnecessarily dragging things on. :o) Sometimes the child prolongs the confrontation beyond the point of all tolerance. I find that saying, "I know you're upset, but I'm all done talking about this now" very useful.

Say "Hmmmmm." Sometimes a kid needs to vent a bit. A well-timed "Hmmmmm...." allows you to acknowledge them while not engaging in the battle. (It also works for when they say something hilarious and you ought to respond but are afraid you might laugh.)

Good stuff!

Version 2.0 of todo.txt

A few months ago, I ran across a command-line program for managing GTD-style to-do lists, tried it out, and ended up adopting it. (I also use it to simplify making grocery lists.)

I thought work on the program had died down, but it was adequate for my purposes, and I figured I might tweak it myself if I ever really needed to. Fortunately, development was merely on hiatus: Version 2.0 is out, and I am happy to see that it allows for easier management of multiple lists, now!

If you like the command line, like multi-platform portability/hate vendor lock-in, and appreciate simple, effective programs, you should take a look.

I was being too kind, yesterday.

The Republicans aren't merely the "party of George W. Bush." They're also the party of Alan Greenspan. (HT: Andrew Dalton)

The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times.

In an interview, Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire [sic] capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers.

First, being "regarded as the high priest" of something often means you've fooled a lot of people. Second, at least Bush has the excuse that he never really knew what capitalism actually is.

Hmmm. On second thought, neither did many of the Republicans.

Quote of the Day

Encountered somewhat randomly, ...

If I were to say that many women [who] voted for Obama are irrational, politically ignorant, flighty, and confuse the tingling in their genitals with the kinds of political thoughts that actual grown-ups have, I'd be called a misogynist.

So I won't say it.

…I'll let the women in question say it for me. [bold added]

TJIC then proceeds to quote an account from a blogger for The New York Times. All I would add is that the issue here isn't strictly adulthood, not that this isn't juvenile.

-- CAV

This post was composed in advance and scheduled for publication at 5:00 A.M. on February 19, 2009.