Hmm...
Well, Champions of Norrath is awesome. What an improved, console look at what Neverwinter could have been if it wasn’t so boring (still good, though). Kristin’s a great tank. She’s also a disturbingly good cornerback and receiver “X” in Madden 2004. Love those post routes.
I just took the political orientation test at politicalcompass.org, and somewhat expectedly I came up as a medium libertarian and an extremely weakly right-oriented economist.
The libertarian thing is really coming to the forefront for me during my college years (but not really as a result of them). My core (somewhat flippant) philosophy is that—day-to-day—God is a libertarian (or close enough). He doesn’t intervene or impose our behaviors on us, but He does hold an opinion about which way is the best. He gave us authority, and we yield it back to Him with faith. But, that’s our choice and our gift in return to Him.
I wish that the current administration could communicate to me (a disgruntled supporter) what these monitoring and restrictive measures are doing. Because, if I heard those reasons, I might just be able to say I wish the leniency granted to the Executive could be made narrower rather than removed altogether.
Frankly, the Patriot Act gives far too many abilities to the government for the Executive to find it necessary to push the limits. As far as I’m concerned, the limits are already being pushed to an unmaintainable (in the long-run) limit.
It’s easy to say these things while overlooking the fact that enemies are currently attempting to revoke our ability to allow a “live and let live” philosophy domestically. I know we need monitoring, law enforcement, military.
I think that, as spoiled black-box technological citizens, we underestimate the government-funded miracle of public fiber and copper that let us check up on the news in 0.05 seconds every morning over the computer, and we really think that our use of those public lines (truly no more public than yelling something on a street corner in Manhattan) is not open and monitorable. Surprise, surprise.
We grumpy Libertarians must realize that a few packets of 128-bit SSL would even make the NSA sweat a bit to crack in large volume. We need to use this stuff to protect ourselves if deemed necessary. And, frankly, I don’t buy the philosophy when people seem to claim “civil liberties” are necessary to permit people to break the law (read: illegal use or purchase of drugs, etc.) with impunity. Simply put: the laws should be rewritten to be correct, fair, and enforceable so that no ethical citizen need hide anything. If marijuana needs to be legal (I don’t agree, but if), then make it legal; don’t simply bolster some flawed concept of civil liberties to allow it to continue.
I was really glad to see I didn’t test far-right (nowhere near GWB, by the way). It kind of puts my current thoughts and frustrations on a scale and makes them more orderly for me to process. The conservative aspects of my look on things survive, but the Republican thing is fading fast.