Thursday, May 6, 2010

Introducing Myself

I am a common man, and have had a full life. The question here is how (and how much) of myself to reveal. I am not trying to be secretive (mostly) but I am struggling with how to hit the right balance; telling enough of myself to have a chance for your respect and gain creditability while still staying within a short and readable outline. Since I have had 65 years of experiencing and observing life, compressing that into a page or two is not easy. I must beg your patience, but I think it is important that you know where any writer, particularly one who expects to deliver opinions. is coming from.

I spent 35 years working with mainframe computers as a programmer, analyst, manager, trainer and consultant. I am now disabled (a stroke) and I'm a couple of years out of practice. I am married and my wife and I have grown old together and put up with each other for almost 43 years. We have raised three children and (so far) been blessed with three grandchildren.

I am a Christian (a life-long catholic), but don't agree (mostly in private) with all of that church's positions. Politically, I am an independent, but have been both a Republican and a Libertarian. Some years ago a friend described my outlook as "... slightly to the right of Attila the Hun." I can best describe my current position as somewhere between an anarcho-capitalist and a libertarian.

I am an American, and have been part of the rising-tide of its civilization. I think the best way to give you a feeling for this is by sharing some of the occupations that hapened along the way. My GG-grandfather was a German immigrant, a laborer and a farmer; my G-grandfather was a blacksmith and liveryman; my grandfather was a steam engineer; my father was a chemical engineer and executive. I was a computer systems engineer, and my son in his turn is a physicist with a PhD. My daughters are an accountant and a housewife-mother, respctively.

After two intense years of education (mathematics, languages, and theology), then a couple of years of night school (mathematics), I dropped out without a degree. I have had time over the years to meet and talk with people ranging from congressmen, senators, and governors to the homeless; from scientists to laborers; from business executives to clerks; from farmers to industrialists; and from billionaires to the poor. I have taught Sunday school and been a scoutmaster and served a tour in the infantry. I have lived in the midwest, the east coast, and the southwest.

Thanks to my stroke, I've had the chance to study liberty for ten years. I started out with an interest in the revolutionary war; then spread out to include philosophy, more history, economics, politics, government and law. The result of this is something you will have to judge for yourself from the contents of various blog entries....

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