Throughout the 80s I didn't pay very much attention to politics. I was a "Working Man", "I got no time for livin’... Yes, I’m workin’ all the time."

During Bill Clinton's presidency in the '90s was the first time I became particularly interested. I remember primarily the debate about "character" when he was caught having "sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky", which, semantics aside, of course he did, regardless of the mechanics. But, in order to skirt that issue, it became fashionable to ask, "Is character important in a President?". Whenever it was asked, I always gave the same answer, namely that, "To ask, `Does character matter?` is to profess one's own lack of it." As with most obvious truths, that one was not well received. At the time I naively mistook the question for a moral one; I still did not recognize it for the political obfuscation and distraction that it plainly was.

As you might guess, I was not a fan of President Clinton's policies overall. For example, nationalizing health care scared me, but primarily for fiscal and pragmatic reasons... I did not yet think in Constitutional terms about inalienable rights, human dignity, moral justification, etc.

But Bush v. Gore is really what finally ignited my interest in things political. The immediacy of the labyrinthine court arguments and decisions were (and are) fascinating to me. It seemed obvious to me even at the time that Vice President Gore (who never "used to be the next President of the United States", by the way) was not only disingenuous, but dishonest, so I was relieved with the outcome. But, to be frank, the only incontestable result of the election to me was to prove that punch card ballots don't work very well...

Much, if not most, of the news, media and popular culture today is actually factually false. E.g., Don Lemon's calling President Trump a racist and then proclaiming, "That's not an opinion, that's a fact", is obviously absurd. Whether you believe Trump to be a racist or not is irrelevant - it is clearly an opinion - heck, even the definition of racist is a matter of opinion!

But much more often there are misrepresentations to downright lies presented in a constant stream of fanaticism. E.g., the claim that President Trump said there were "many fine people on both sides" of white supremacy is blatantly false. Three minutes invested in watching a clip in context proves that he was speaking of people debating for or against Confederate statues on public grounds. He even realized he'd phrased it poorly and knew that it would be misrepresented, so he immediately stated that he was NOT talking about the white supremacists. Never the less, that lie is repeated to this day, frequently and widely. There are a lot of things to dislike about Trump - or any other human being, for that matter. So why is there a need to lie about him? (Not a rhetorical question, btw...)

These and many other issues that usually devolve into name calling can actually be discussed fairly objectively. I'll try to do that here.

Until my mid 20s I held roughly the predominant, humanistic philosophy of modern "post Christian" America. While I was not an atheist, I had never thought through what it was I did believe. Largely this was because I didn't see how it mattered. I was neither Theist, Atheist or Agnostic... I guess I was an "Apathist".

Like most in that situation, I did not realize what a mish-mash of self-contradictory drivel I really did believe. Through my teens and 20s I "developed an unhealthy relationship with drugs and alcohol," as abusive drinkers like to say.

Now, I'd heard many stories of people having religious epiphanies and being cured of alcoholism and addiction. For me, it was the opposite. I frankly wasn't able to think clearly enough about the spiritual aspects of the world I lived in to form a coherent belief system until after I'd "straightened up". Which is not to say that I don't think God was involved, by the way :-)

I'll share here the belief system that I've evolved since then.

I fairly frequently make technical notes or do 3 minute vids for friends or workmates to explain a concept or procedure. This is largely a place to dump those until I release a full blown technology website, which is due "On the 12th of never", as they say...

Areas of interest for me include:

• Linux
• Internet technologies
• Networking in general
• Databases

So, it should be a real hoot!!!