I know it’s still early in the game, but are any of you ready to throw your support behind a U.S. presidential candidate?  If so, who?  If not, what issues or character traits will make or break a candidate for you?

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I’ve retired a number of blogs from my RSS reader, and I’m looking for some new ones to rotate in. Here’s a few gaps that I’m trying to fill:

I’d like to find an intelligently written conservative political blog that pays attention to nuance and isn’t afraid to swim against the Republican mainstream. No, […]

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Ironically, this is exactly what happened to two brothers who ran a Pakistani version of The Onion. In response to the bounty on Osama bin Laden, Abdullah and Badr al-Noami wrote a satirical article that put a $100 price (in Afghani dollars) on the head of then President Clinton and listed Monica Lewinsky as […]

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Sacrificed a day of studying and took GameBoy up to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Annual Open House. It’s a huge event. In fact, it’s a lot like Disneyland–distant parking lots, gaggles of families with young kids, and long lines. Only instead of rides, there’s science. And science beats out everything that […]

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Every couple of months, I pick up the latest issue of Bust magazine (”For women with something to get off their chests”) from the local Borders. Sometimes I get weird looks from the cashier, like I’m mistaking it for Maxim or some other soft-porn monthly. Anyhow, I was especially excited to read this […]

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Unfortunately, that’s as close as I’m going to get. He’s been invited to speak by the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. Oooh, I just checked his bio at the Atlantic Monthly, and he’s a Harvard PhD who makes a living as a professional blogger. He is Catholic, gay, Republican, a classical (small government) […]

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Bored in Vernal asked several pointed questions in her response to my Personal Inventory and Waxing Emo posts. I’ve decided to respond to them in this post, rather than in the comments.
Why have you decided to jettison the dream of being a professor instead of the IT/programming thing? Is it a question of finances? […]

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Yesterday, one my friends shared a wedding favor from the wedding of a different friend with me. It was a set of four different teas (one bag each) and three different cookies (four of each). She told me that they seemed like such good teas that they would be a shame to waste on just […]

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In light of my ditching the professorial dream, it’s time for a personal inventory (I’m actually doing personal blogging for a change!). Here are a handful of my strong points:

I like ideas.  I’m pretty good at understanding, manipulating and synthesizing them.
I’m pretty good with words.  I’m an OK storyteller.
I’m a decent problem-solver.
I like people.  People […]

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I tried this experiment on Sunday during silent worship. I started with the word “gift” and tossed it into the shallow waters of my mind like an anchor. Occasionally I drifted far enough away that the line grew taut and I remembered my focus: “gift.” I turned this word over and over […]

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