A life in words

  • A Just Cause

    I’ve got to read more Dostoevsky! I think you all might enjoy a few of his quotes. I’ve highlighted a few words here and there to make it a better simulation of a motivational poster! “A just cause is not ruined by a few mistakes” “The soul is healed by being with children”€ “What is…

  • Automated Merger of GEDCOM Files

    Have you ever had the misfortune of having to merge two GEDCOM files while doing family history research? I hope not. It’€™s dehumanizing. Dehumanizing? Yes, because doing a job that should be done 99% by a machine is most definitely de-human-izing. Here’€™s a typical example: Billy Bob Jones and Suzy Lee Jones are a brother…

  • Counterpoint

    This is my response to the email I received from “La Russophobe,” whose blog I commented on recently. I have to say that this is the most I ever want to become involved with “blog politics.” I’m not particularly interested in explaining and defending my viewpoints at great depth; I really just express them for…

The principal difficulty lies, and the greatest care should be employed in constituting this Representative Assembly. It should be in miniature, an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them. That it may be the interest of this Assembly to do strict justice at all times, it should be an equal representation, or in other words equal interest among the people should have equal interest in it. Great care should be taken to effect this, and to prevent unfair, partial, and corrupt elections.John Adams, Thoughts on Government, April 1776