Famille Du Pentium

It's been a long time since I published a blog of my travels.  Unfortunately, all the old blogs are lost forever, the victim of a flooded basement in 2002.

However, I leave for Zurich, Switzerland this Sunday for two weeks.  It's a fairly heavily scheduled business trip, and I might have one day to look around.  But I'll comment on the trip here. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 06:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Thirty years ago, Bill Gates wrote a letter to the Homebrew Computer Club, accusing them of theft.  In this letter, Bill asks:

What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?

Thirty years later, he has his answer:

- Linus Torvalds and another couple hundred
- Andrew Tridgell and another couple dozen
- Larry Wall and another couple thousand
- Marc Andreessen and who knows how many
- Repeat for several thousand other open source projects...

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... you said Boehner ...

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So after all these postings about Latin American despots, taxes, David Addington and the wiretapping scandal, etc., some of my friends (and certainly most of my family) are wondering: Why on earth are you a Republican?  Despite the declining state of the party, the war in Iraq, burgeoning deficits, and growing scandals, why on earth do you still associate with that party?

Below is a little email joke a friend of mine sent me.  He and I share views on many issues, but we also disagree on a few.  He respects my view, and I respect his.  We share one common thread ... we both came from modest working class families with no entitlements when the only encouragement to be successfull was to work harder.  We both did, and we both are succeeding at our goal to provide our families with more than we had. 

Anyway, here's the joke he sent.  It may be funny, but it also sums up our reasons for backing Republicans, no matter how bad it gets:

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth. She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, How is your friend Audrey doing?

She replied, Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over.

So her father asked his daughter, Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, That wouldn't be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked, worked, worked.

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently to his daughter, Welcome to the Republican party

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a quick one.  First, I owe an apology my friends in the EU for my comments that the EU (actually, I said "some European countries") would recognize and financially support a Hamas-run PA.  Mea Culpa.   In fact, I am happy to see almost universal support for Israel on this, even from the Arab world.  There is even unconfirmed word that Abbas will require Hamas to renounce violence before he officially asks them to form a PA government.  If true, this would show an incredible level  of character and  leadership on Abu Mazen's part.

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)