This is actually my second attempt at starting a blog. The first ended in complete failure because Blogger couldn't get past my ISP's firewall in order to upload my blog to my website. I tried fiddling with the settings, couldn't get it to work, ended up just deleting the damn thing and created a new one, and then let Blogger host it. I suppose this means I should get around to posting a link to this from my regular web site. Yet another thing I need to get to.
So, here are the basics: Male, just turned 40 (egad!), married for (almost) 13 years with three great children (one girl and a pair of twin boys), living in Chicago, IL. Interests include science fiction & fantasy, literature, classical music, history, traveling. Big, long-time anime/manga fan. Also a big fan of the British SF series Doctor Who (I'll probably touch on these issues at some point or another, so be forewarned.) Current book I am reading is Berserker Blue Death, by Fred Saberhagen. Favorite composer, at the moment probably Aaron Copland; favorite musical group, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (of course!). Favorite place to visit: just about anywhere west of the Mississippi River, especially around the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Politically, I like to describe myself as a pragmatic libertarian, which basically means that I think meat inspectors are a good idea (among other things). I am virulantly anti-marxist, and pretty much think that Stalin and Mao were two of the three most evil men of the 20th Century (the third, of course, being Hitler). And to give you a better idea of where I am in the socio-political scheme of things, here are some other beliefs of mine:
- A woman should have the right to an abortion but the god damn good sense not to do it.
- John Wayne Gacy, Timothy McVeigh, and Ted Bundy all got exactly the punishment they deserved.
- Lee Harvey Oswald was a nutcase who acted alone.
- You have the right to be stupid. Smoking dope is stupid. Drinking yourself into the gutter is stupid. Jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge is stupid.
- Don't expect me to have to pay for your stupidity. You are responsible for the consequences of your actions. Deal with it.
- Anyone who started smoking after about 1975 and now wants to sue a tobacco company because they are dieing of cancer should have their lawsuit laughed out of court. Ditto anyone trying to sue McDonalds because they got fat from eating their food.
- Mumia is guilty.
- Castro is a dictator. Cuba is a totalitarian state.
- Kenneth Lay is guilty.
- The only group of people it is perfectly OK to be prejudiced or to discriminate against are Green Bay Packers fans.
- O.J. is guilty, guilty, guilty, GUILTY!
