MichaelRunyon.com – All Things Geek

I won’t waste time going over all of the strange and depressing things that have marked this presidential campaign year. I’m pretty sure that even the most stubbornly ignorant people in America have heard quite a bit about both candidates. How much of what they’ve heard is the truth, though, is the real question. 

I decided a while back, after doing some research, to abandon the practice of voting on the candidate, and voting for the ideals that I hold. After doing some personal investigation (with the aid of some websites) that I most closely align myself with the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. I am very much for the Constitution re-instatement platform that those affiliated with the Libertarian Party have been pushing lately. I feel that a true step towards the core values that the Constituation put into place would be a very good thing for this country. 

I was talking to my parents and sister the other day about how strange it was to find so many people who had such strong opinions about one candidate or the other without much basis. Certain relatives on one side of the family tend to repeat the somewhat fearful phrasings of the right, going on about Obama’s Muslim background and the abortion issue. I don’t really have a problem with them expressing their fears about those aspects, only lamenting that they are making such a large difference in their minds, versus some other aspects that I find to be much more important, such as the economy or foreign policy. 

Unfortunately, in regards to the war in Iraq, there appears to be no clear definitive difference between the two candidates. McCain seems to hold true to the right’s mantra about us leaving Iraq means signalling weakness. Obama has hinted at the idea of beginning to leave Iraq almost immediately after taking office, but I don’t recall much being made of an immediate and total withdrawal from either candidate. And even Obama has stated that perhaps we should focus our efforts in Afghanistan once again, to attempt to eliminate the root cause of the initial threat. I can’t say that I’m much of a fan of our troops being stationed in either place, as I feel occupation of either country is unjust, not to mention poorly executed. 

This brings me to my main point: neither of these candidates offers the radical change that I am looking for, and I feel that America needs. Sure, they have their differences, but they are very, very similar in almost every aspect. All this jockeying for votes seems to draw out their differences, but during these crucial times, it seems to draw them much closer together (as far as issues are concerned). Each party makes their common cracks about stereotypes about the other party, and round and round we go. But at the end of the day, aside from some grandiose talk about fixing problems that we could easily avoid, a great majority of the problems that we face will remain no matter which candidate is chosen by the populace.

This is the time for a 3rd party to rise to legitimacy. Many of the candidates who represent them are fairly well known. Ralph Nader is probably known to a great many of Americans, though I rather doubt that the positive associations outweigh the negative. In 2004, I was one of only 18,058 people in the entire state of Indiana to vote Libertarian (Michael Badnarik at the time) for the presidential election. Indiana had 2,463,830 people vote in the 2004 election, so 0.73 percent of Indiana voted Libertarian. Not a strong total.

Given the radical difference in policies between Nader and other 3rd party candidates and the 2 main party candidates, it’s really a shame that they aren’t given more of a chance to make themselves known to the American people, to offer Americans a chance to invoke true change in the country. Unfortunately, without the staggering funding that the candidates have brought to bear on this election, and without the white-hot focus of the corporation-owned media news outlets, they don’t stand a snowballs chance in being actually elected. The last successful independent candidate was Ross Perot, and many would argue that his success was largely because of his personal wealth, allowing him to enter the households and consciences of many more Americans than today’s independents. 

Coming full circle, despite these candidates near-impossibility at becoming elected in our 2-party oligarchical system, I still feel that it is best to vote on the issues that you wish to become present in our government, and not for a particular candidate. Too often we fall into the polarizing sensationalism of the media (you’re either on the right (republican) or on the left (Democrat)), and allow ourselves to enter that mob mentality that gets us collectively nowhere. Until we can stop fighting bloody, expensive wars amongst two parties that behaved in almost exactly the same fashion for the past 20 years, I don’t think there is much hope at all for real change to had, despite what some fresh-faced Senator from Illinois might want you to believe.

But, hoping against hope, if he is elected, I can always be pleasantly surprised. Until then, however, I will continue to cast my vote where I hope it will do the most good: another brick in the slow rebuild of 3rd party legitimacy.�

Today, after returning from lunch, there was a man (presumably) in a bald eagle costume and an Uncle Sam hat carrying Obama signs and trying to get honks from people passing by. There are nearly always 4 lanes of traffic going in both directions at the intersection outside my building (pretty busy), and thus, his campaign for honks (and thus, again, Obama), was, needless to say, very successful. So much so that I was very tempted to get in my car and run him over.

I’ve been doing lots of reading lately about crafting a development environment in which you can excel. My job depends a lot on being very flexible and agile. Stuff comes at you hard and fast, and it’s up to you to solve problems that can be solved quickly as quickly as possible, and to prioritize correctly the rest of the tasks that might take a bit longer. Typically, I have intermittent projects where I need to concentrate hard through the duration of the project, because new thoughts and techniques are having to be developed (versus a copy-and-paste with mods or something of that nature). So, you can imagine my frustration at having incessant honking about every 5 seconds, with people leaning their heads out the window and shouting praises of the candidate of their choosing. Between the phone ringing, co-workers talking, people asking me questions, friends on IM, clients on email (pulled every 5 minutes), it’s a wonder that I can get even 90 seconds of clear thinking together.

Joel on Software (a very popular blog about the facets of software development) wrote a memorable post in the past about how important it is for companies and developers to work together to find space and time for devs to reach that critical state of concentration, where true innovation and productivity are at their apex. Some advocate a closed office (where the door is closed), others advocate headphones, cutting off visual stimulation, etc. I personally find that outside stimulations are about as equally distracting as the internal thought process, where indirect thinking takes place.

This concept is difficult for a lot of people to understand, because the exterior behavior is essentially the same as a typical action, but there are a wealth of other things going on in the background. For me, personally, I have such an insatiable need for information, that for me to begin to enter my concentrative state, I have to engage that information addiction for at least a while, at regular intervals, or face a near impossibility of productivity, due to my background brain constantly wondering about new happenings, etc. So, to the regular boss/co-worker, who finds me reading Digg/Slashdot/random techsite, they would think that I am slacking to avoid work or some other reason. And while this behavior is ideally not neccessary, and indeed frowned upon in a lot of circles, it is in truth necessary for me to function.

So, back to the issue at hand…the eagle. I likened the situation in a remark to my co-worker about how it felt like the situation in “Harrison Bergeron”, where smart persons are handicapped by loud, distracting noises at regular intervals to make them equal with average persons. I am not so much making a statement about my personal feelings about my relative intellect, as much as grimly marking my observance of what those characters in that dystopian universe might feel like. They can’t concentrate on their own lives because of their distractive implants or general stupidity, and I can’t get any thoughts put together because every 6 seconds there is a loud series of honks. If this is what Obama is bringing to Indiana, and to my workplace, then I say, to heck with politics and his campaign.

In all fairness, I lamented greatly last week at the expense of the Clinton campaign due to another productivity-killing incident. I was directly in front of the entrance to the Marriott hotel in downtown South Bend when state police set up roadblocks directly in front of the traffic that I was a part of. All of the sudden, the morning commute came a screeching halt, less than 200 yards from my destination. I was perturbed to say the least, and felt that sentiment increasing all the more as time trudged on, marking 15-20 minutes solid of waiting to be released from that line. I couldn’t understand why the Clinton camp had to get with police to block off the street for so long, especially considering that traffic was still flowing very near the spot where she would be departing the hotel, from a perpendicular direction.

After about 20 minutes, I noticed a gap behind me, as some of the cars directly behind me had managed to move into other lanes and the like. I abruptly turned my car around and made my way down the wrong way on a one-way street for about 100 feet before turning on a green light onto a road running perpendicular to the previous entrapment. I made 3 right hand turns around the city, hoping to get to my building, which had sadly been just one light away. I got stuck in traffic again as Hilary’s camp actually departed and the police moved the roadblocks to the intersection that I was waiting at. This time, my building was less than 100 yards away. I re-enacted the scene from Office Space in my car, where the cursing doesn’t make sense, but the anger is totally a reality.

Finally, nearly 40 minutes later, I pulled into the parking lot of my building. 40 minutes later than I had wanted to be, and 40 minutes less time to complete my work that day. I saw good riddance to both of them. I know that not everyone is directly responsible for the actions of their constituents, but they must be forced to take responsibility for ruining nearly 7 good hours of my life so far. Is Indiana and its people really worth the price of these distractions? Instead of even listening to their BS about fixing the economy or lowering gas prices, I’m sitting in my car, idling, wasting economic opportunity and productive time.

Tommorow will bring about the end to this needless conflict, and though it’s a bit exciting for Indiana to have a role in the election for the first time in a very long time, I for one am ready for it to all be over.

Yesterday, I saw the first signs of life of the Hillary campaign in humble Indiana. I had remarked to some co-workers earlier in the week that I could not understand how Hillary was still doing so well in the polls, as I had likely talked to over 100 people about politics over the last few months, and absolutely none of them had mentioned that they were planning to vote for Hillary.

I saw a large group of supporters standing where the anti-war protesters usually stand, in front of the library. I nearly honked, as I always honk in support of the anti-war protesters, until realized that nearly all of the people were women (which seemed strange) and that they were holding signs that said “Hillary” instead of “F*ck Bush”. Close call.

Obama and Hillary both have made recent runs through the South Bend area, trying to garner suppport for the upcoming Indiana primary. Kinda strange to see any kind of attention being paid to the Indiana primary, as it’s so late in the primary season that nearly all of the candidates will have dropped out already. This is already the case for the Republican primary, as “100 Years” McCain pretty well has the nomination sewn up.

Ron Paul/Ralph Nader 2008!

I don’t discuss politics in the family or casual setting too often, mostly because I am so vehemently anti-confrontational. Politics seems to bring out the worst sides of the people that I like to be around, and because of this, and the lack of an easy way to talk about things, I just avoid the situation altogether. Some may call this apathy, and they may be right, but I like to think that I am leaving the table open for all other discussions of interest.

To this end, however, I would like to talk briefly about the candidate for 2008 presidency that I think suits the interests of the country best. His name is Dr. Ron Paul. Because the mainstream media refuses to report much about him (since he doesn’t fit into their profile of presidential material), most people haven’t heard about him, except through the blogosphere and word of mouth. The man is brilliantly honest and dependable, however, and I think that most would agree with me if they took some time to gather the facts about the candidates that they are supporting for Presidential consideration.

Ron Paul has been representing Texas as a House congressman for almost 20 years, and has been an extremely prolific member, putting forth to vote and legislation many smart ideas and plans. Ron Paul once ran for President in 1988 on the Libertarian platform, before joining the Republican party as a congressman shortly thereafter. He ran, as he does now, on the basic premise of returning the country to the design of the framers of the Constitution, and reinstating Liberty, Privacy, and other such basic principles. For those of you who often base your vote on the abortion issue, Ron Paul opposes abortion, but does not support a national abolishment. Like most of his views, he supports the Constitutional idea that nearly all issues should be location dependent, and that the constituent states of the US should be making most of their own decisions on what they want their people to have rights to do and not do.

Ron Paul is not nearly as well funded as some of the other candidates who rely on their personal wealth and corporate connections to propel them into the eye of the public. Especially with a near vacuum of media coverage, Ron Paul has been relying on the vivacity of his followers on the Internet and other such open mediums to plug his campaign and try to get the word out about his excellent positions and ideas for change.

I donated to Ron Paul’s campaign, and I support him for both the Republican nomination and the Presidency. I support him because he stands for change in a way that absolutely no other candidate is even willing to begin to approach. Ron Paul is for immediate ending of the Iraq war, and retooling our foreign policy to be in line with what the founders would have wanted: a more aggressively isolationist approach to letting the world sort out it’s problems. Ron Paul is for changing the economy, and abolishing the Fed and centralized governmental control over the economy. Ron Paul is for reverting to the gold standard, to ensure that our dollar stops plummeting with regards to the rest of the world economy. Ron Paul is for real, actual change, not just saying “I’m for change” and voting the Republican party line, like all of the other candidates, including the Democratic contenders. Ron Paul’s voting record, passion for change, consistency of truth, and adhesion to the founding principles of this nation make him the most attractive candidate for me, and my personal only hope for real change in this country.

Read up on Ron here: RonPaul2008.com

Leah and I decided to spice up tonight’s State of the Union address (which I won’t get into details about) by playing a drinking game. We chose the word America(n) 10 minutes beforehand and took a drink every time that he said it. Here is the running log that I was keeping of my count. I zoned out a few times, there may have been as many as 10 more than I counted.

5
7        9:14
9        9:14
12        9:16
13        9:17
14        9:18
15        9:21
16        9:21
17        9:26
18        9:27
19        9:28
20        9:28
21        9:32
22        9:36
23        9:38
24        9:38
25        9:39
26        9:39
27        9:39
28        9:40
29        9:40
30        9:42
31        9:42
32        9:44
33        9:46
34        9:49
35        9:50
36        9:53
37        9:54
38        9:54
39        9:55
40        9:55
41        9:56
42        9:56
43        9:56
44        9:57
45        9:58
46        9:58
47        9:59
48        9:59
49        9:59
50        10:00
51        10:01
52        10:02
53        10:03
54        10:03

54 TIMES!!! That’s a whole lot of drinks.  My face is very warm right now. This is really the only way to watch this absurb scene of hands down the worst president in US history. I have nothing further to report.