Scrap the Inaugural Invocation

Politics, Religion

Anyone who follows politics can’t have missed the current uproar over the announcement that Pastor Rick Warren will deliver the Invocation at President Elect’s Inauguration next month.

Rick Warren is some kind of mega-pastor with whom I was unfamiliar until the point of the campaign that he was able to command McCain and Obama to come and kiss his butt at a campaign forum hosted by Warren. I was embarrassed for both of them for having to do so.

I’ve read arguments both for and against Warren’s selection to deliver the invocation. GLBT advocates are understandably upset that such an advocate of the hateful Prop. 8 anti gay marriage bill in California should be invited to speak at the inauguration of the President for whom expectations of tolerance is so high. While the Obama folks say they are demonstrating that they can be civil to those with whom they disagree.

My personal feelings favor those who oppose his involvement. Obama’s supporters deserve better than this, and certainly a better message would be sent through the participation of a more tolerant individual to give the invocation.

But there is a better solution. Don’t include an invocation in the inaugural ceremonies at all. Let’s keep religion, any and all of them, out of our civic lives. I’d be very glad to hear our new President begin his term by telling all American’s what his plans are for addressing our many problems, and there’s no need to first listen to some doofus call out to the invisible man for help.

And for that matter, leave the bible out of it too. Put your hand on a copy of The Constitution while you vow to preserve, protect and defend it.

I’m A Lefty And I Like Obama’s Pick Of Rick Warren
NPR.org, December 18, 2008

Obama’s Inaugural Mistake
The Washington Post, December 19, 2008

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My Team

Work

Last month I reached my 4-year anniversary working as Director of Online Campaigns at NGP Software, where our small team does what we can to help Democrats and their allies with their online campaign efforts. During that time we’ve built a *few web sites, managed a few online campaigns, won a few awards, helped a few Democrats get elected, and had a few laughs. I’m very proud of our team and the work we do, and looking forward to much more of the same to come.

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* lots and lots

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Today in History – The Bill of Rights

Books, Bush's Last Day

On this day in 1791, Virginia ratified the Bill of Rights, becoming the 11th State to do so, and thus reaching the required 75% of states needed to ratify to make these first 10 amendments part of the Constitution. Well done founding fathers!

I recently read a great book about the drafting of the Constitution, Miracle at Philadelphia. There are many facts about our government that we learn and just take for granted, such as the formulas for representation in the House and Senate, and the inclusion of a ‘Bill of Rights. This book provided a fascinating look at the sausage making that took place as the Constitutional Convention WAY over-stepped their mandate by creating a whole new form of government, and how close they came to failing. Thanks to James Madison for taking such good notes during the process.

In 35 Days we’ll say good bye and good riddance to a President who has utterly failed in his job requirement to ‘preserve and protect The Constitution of the United States of America’. Thankfully, hopefully, the damage he’s done can be undone, and America will have learned how easily a government can undermine our guiding principles, and how vigilant we must remain to prevent it from happening.

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Ending the Blog Lull

casey.com

If you are one of the very very few people who ever actually looks at this blog, then it can’t have escaped your notice that things have been pretty quiet around here lately. There are three primary reasons for this; technological, lack of time, and competing alternatives.

For years, I have maintained my blog using MovableType, a first-rate blogging application that I was glad to purchase and keep installed on my own server. But over time, something went hinky, and attempts to post content became increasingly likely to fail with an ‘Internal Server Error’ rather than to successfully post. Web servers are a bit like cars to me. I can fix minor and routine problems (change a tire, etc…), but more serious breakdowns are beyond me. Upgrading my MT software didn’t fix the issue, and I was stuck with a very unreliable blog.

As for time, it’s been a very busy year. I’d like to find time to blog, but often real life intrudes with a higher priority. Two events have consumed much of my time over the last few months, the Presidential campaign, and training for and running a marathon. These events have concluded happily, and now I may be able to reclaim some of the time devoted to them in order to again write more for my blog.

And lastly, new web technologies such as Facebook and Twitter have provided new means to quickly and easily share info about myself and what’s going on in my life. Given the technical problems with my own blog, and the wider reach provided by these alternatives, it became very easy to just use them while my blog lay fallow.

So there’s the explanation. But changes have been made. I have moved to new web hosting, and migrated my blog to use TypePad, the hosted blog software by the maker’s of MovableType, so reliability should not be an issue. With major events passed, I will be making a commitment to make the time to write more. And I’ll work to integrate my blog with my use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites as best that I can.

And who knows… maybe, just maybe, someone besides myself will actually read the result. We’ll see.

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50 Days

Bush's Last Day

Marathoners50 Days! It sounds so wonderful to say, just 50 Days left until Bush’s last day in office. What a painfully long eight years it has been.

I have been in the midst of a MAJOR blog lull, I haven’t even posted in this category since the countdown was at 200 Days on the 4th of July. But the lull wasfor good reason. I was busy doing all I could to help elect that man who will replace Bush (and inherit the tremendous mess that he made), and was also training for a marathon (more on that later).

Getting through the election season was like a marathon itself, and happy each ended well. Eight years contains 2,920 days. Now there’s just 50 left. You do the math, but if compared to the 26.2 miles of a Marathon, we’re just inches from the finish line!

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Blog Conversion

casey.com, Technology
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For about the last five years or so, I’ve maintained my blog using Movable Type’s (MT) software on my own web server. And during that time, I’ve been happy with the program and it’s features. It has allowed me to build and tinker with sites on my own server. But a server admin I am not, and when, from time to time, things go hinky on my server, I am not well suited to troubleshoot and fix the problem. Over the last several months, my MT installation has been very inconsistent, and is just as likely to return a server error as it was to work as it should.

I have been using web.com as my web host for about the last four years. Their VPS Root server allowed me to create the sub-sites I desired, and I was familiar with their service and support. Unfortunately, their service has suffered, and competitors offer hosting package with more features and more disk space at less cost.

And so, it’s time for me to move on. For my web hosting, I’m moving to Host Gator and am currently working at moving my life/files to my new server. As for my MT blogs, rather than install MT on my new server at Host Gator, I will instead use Six Apart’s hosted blog service, TypePad.

I’ve spent part of today, migrating my blog’s to TypePad. It’s too soon for a full review, but so far I am finding it promising and looking forward to letting them manage the burden of keeping things up and running. And hopefully, having restored reliability to my blog life, my recent lull will come to and end. Stay tuned…

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iHappy

Technology
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It’s weird to say, but I’ve never felt this way about a phone before. Sure, I’ve loved gadgets all my life, and have gotten especially close to a number of computers in my day. But my new iPhone just makes me smile, and I’ve had it less than a week. Maybe we’re just still in our honeymoon, and it will soon become routine and unexciting, but right now, it’s just so much fun.

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