I thought about this for awhile. I realized (and we further discussed) that this is not something we need to worry about. God has provided for our family thus far, and we have no reason to believe that won't continue. What that means may change significantly, and our lifestyle may have to make a radical shift. But what of it? Here's the truth: the things that I derive my quality-of-life from will be largely unaffected by our financial state.

I quickly realized in that conversation that my worrying and obsessing about the financial markets were distracting me from the things I'm really worried about. I'm not worried so much about losing our money; in our lives I expect to see both lean times and fat, and we will tighten and loosen our belts as needed. We will survive, regardless. What I'm really worried about is losing our freedoms.

The more we (and by we I mean our nation, collectively) divert our energies to obsessing about the global financial meltdown, the less we will notice the ongoing erosion of the freedoms our country was established to bring about.

I predict (at least) one of two things will happen. (Perhaps both.)

1. Insidious acts or changes will be committed by our leaders and go largely unnoticed amidst the torrent of "bad news", AND/OR
   
2. Terrible policy changes will be enacted in plain sight, justified as balms for the ailing financial situation.

Yes, #2 has already happened more than once – but I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.

It feels strange to type this; the thing that has been lurking in a deep, dark corner in the back of my mind is something I don't actually believe will really happen. At least, I don't believe it anywhere but in that deep, dark corner in the back of my mind.

The idea that has been lurking in a deep, dark corner in the back of my mind is this: on November 4th, 2008, no polls will open. Or maybe, only some of them will open. Or perhaps they will close abruptly. Insert some value for incomplete/improper/invalid/non-existent election into the equation and that's what it is.

The thing that planted this in my head in the first place – four long years ago – was one of the main campaign slogans of our incumbent president: "can't switch horses in the middle of a race" (and many more folksy variants thereof.) Here was my thinking: I wrote back in 2004 that the president's real agenda is war without end. If you take this and draw out the above slogan to its logical conclusion, the so-called "horse race" is still going on, ergo we should "not switch horses." I just searched my own blog, and found that I actually wrote about this, how it irked me then, and how silly I thought it was. The entry was called "Horse Race."

A lot has happened since 2004. Many of the seeds of autocracy have been sewn into the fabric of our society; this process has been going on since the events of September 2001. No, I'm not suggesting (as so many other conspiracy theory nut-job types have) that those in power predicated the tragic events of September 11th; merely that they exploited it. Before 2004 we saw the Patriot act, the scapegoating of Muslims, Arabs, and many other groups that supposedly resemble Muslims and Arabs (even Sikhs! Madness!) Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, "Mission Accomplished", and the establishment of out-of-system prisons run by the military. Since 2004 we've seen warrantless wiretaps, government mining of domestic telephone call records, the establishment of a network of secret prisons, significant tightening of journalistic freedoms (followed by a lot of journalistic capitulation), senseless, mass arrests (think both major parties' political conventions, both in 2004 and 2008), I could go on. And now, just in the last few days we have the deployment of U.S. troops to... the U.S. and U.S. military spy satellites pointed at... the U.S. (Remember Real Genius and the "Crossbow"? Okay, maybe not that.)

So I don't actually believe that this is going to happen, or even anything resembling it. I do believe we've already ceded too many of the freedoms we should cherish and protect. I also think it will be irresistible for the next president (whomever that might be, even if it's the "Chosen One") to hold on to a lot of the newly endowed (or recently left unchecked) powers that the presidency has acquired. If it weren't for all of those things I mentioned above (and countless more I don't even bother to mention), the thing that has been lurking in a deep, dark corner in the back of my mind would have died long ago. It lives on though, albeit contained to the recesses of my psyche. I expect that will be where it stays until it finally dies on November 5th.

So you can't really call me a nut-job. Unless you want to.

Almost a year and a half ago I wrote this post. I'm writing now to tell you that my aphoristic statement still holds: Raising three children is much like raising two, except there is one more of them. To me, having the one more makes it infinitely more rewarding; but it really isn't any harder, at least not so far. Sometimes it can be a slightly harder, especially because they are so close in age. (Consider the logistics of taking all three to a highway rest area bathroom so one of them can use the facilities.) But that same issue makes it easier sometimes, since they are better playmates for it.

So if you have two children, don't be afraid of another, it really is quite wonderful.

(This is the part where someone asks me when we're having our next child. We're done, thanks, we've hit the target. :)

Nods to David Seruyange for reminding me of this post.

Went on vacation to Puerto Vallarta last week. First time to Mexico-South-of-Frontera-BC. Went parasailing! First time ever. Always wanted to try it. I was third to go (my dad and wife went before me), and we were all getting hungry for lunch. After they rigged me to fly I had to wait a long time (the boat was pulling "the banana", a water-toboggan-thingy, and the passengers kept purposely falling off, forcing the boat to stop and wait for them to get back on.) Anyhow, finally the boat returned, they hooked up my tow line, and I was off and flying. Parasailing is awesome! It's really breathtaking...I highly recommend it (despite what I'm about to tell you next.) The only part of the experience I missed having was landing back on the beach – I got dropped in the drink instead. :) As it turns out, the boat ran out of fuel. Fortunately, the tropical Pacific is plenty warm (even in March), and I was wearing a life vest of course so treading water was no problem. And I got a free WaveRunner ride out of it to boot! :)

My wife knows me well enough not to worry (once she could see I was afloat), my kids worried only a little bit, and my mother might have had kittens. I personally had a blast. :)

In a (H.R.) Clinton vs. McCain presidential contest, McCain wins in a landslide.

That's it. If you are a Democrat (by registration, anyway), and you want a Democratic president to be elected in November, vote for Barack Obama; he has a fighting chance against McCain for independent voters. In a Clinton/McCain bout, independents will fly to McCain who they recognize as one of the most independent (read, not beholden to party leadership) members of the Senate. (Conversely, Hillary Clinton is perceived by independents as a party wonk.)

Incidentally, IMHO (assuming McCain wins the Republican nomination) all McCain need to do to win the presidency against any challenger is to enlist his Senate Democratic counterpart (his comrade-in-laws) Russell Feingold as his running mate; the two of them would be unstoppable.
<EOM>

P.S. - Yes, I'm still alive.
P.P.S - I am a registered Democrat because of more issue alignment, though not a partisan.
P.P.P.S. - Barack Obama is the only of the field of Democratic candidates I can vote for without "holding my nose." I actually like him as a candidate. He's not the guy I actually wanted, though.

Watch this space!

I just went back to the video, and it's already changed! Now it's 8GB!

Something is fishy...

UPDATE:
Looks like Engaget caught this too:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/80gb-iphone/

And this is the world I have brought my children into...