I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, so here it is: If for some odd reason you want to read more from me than my occasional blog posts, note that I do maintain a microblog (or “tumblr,” as the cognoscenti call it, after the underlying service) at hecker.tumblr.com where I record short thoughts, including links to articles I thought interesting. Some if not all of these posts I could publish on my main blog, but I tend to reserve that blog for longer posts with more analysis and background research. Posting to the tumblr is quick and easy, and so I don’t feel the need to justify time spent in posting in the same way as I do on my WordPress.com blog. ...

Lots of people love filling out quizzes to find out things about themselves they probably already know, and if you’re that type of person here’s another one for you: the new “political typology” quiz from the Pew Research Center. It’s part of a new and interesting “Beyond Red vs. Blue” research study designed to suss out how people in the United States cluster in their political views. My responses put me in the “Post-Moderns” group, though I should note that I didn’t fit the profile exactly in terms of my answers to the quiz, and also that some of the questions don’t allow for nuance or “none of the above” answers. For example, in national security matters I’m a follower of Thomas P. M. Barnett, and thus consider non-military approaches to security, including extending economic globalization, equally as important as military efforts. However the response “Good diplomacy is the best way to ensure peace” doesn’t really capture that very well, so I answered the opposite, “The best way to ensure peace is through military strength.” ...

Some time ago I complained about Maryland restrictions on direct-to-consumer genetic testing. The FDA is currently deliberating about whether to impose similar restrictions for the entire US, essentially forcing anyone wanting access to their own genetic data to do so only through their doctor. If you’re at all interested in this particular issue, or if you’re concerned about government restrictions on personal freedom in general, I urge you to submit a public comment before the deadline of midnight tonight (Monday, May 2). (Note that the page has a timeout feature, so if your comment is more than a sentence or two I advise you to compose and save it beforehand and then paste it into the comments field. Also, for really long comments you can upload a Word or PDF document.) ...

Today is one month since I started the Newt Gingrich weight loss program, and it’s time for a progress report. As you’ll recall, my initial weight as announced a month ago was 75.0 kg; as it turned out, my weight on the first day I started the program was 75.3 kg, so I was actually starting at a higher point than I anticipated when setting my first month’s goal of losing 1.0 kg. ...

Before heading home after a recent family visit to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show, we stopped to see the Liberty Bell. One of the most interesting aspects of the bell’s history (which I hadn’t fully appreciated before my visit) is that for almost the first hundred years of its life (it was cast in 1753) it didn’t really serve as a symbol of liberty or freedom, despite the quote from Leviticus 25:10 (“Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof”) inscribed on the bell. It was simply the bell that hung in the Pennsylvania State House and was rung on special occasions, including possibly on July 8, 1776, to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence. ...

Yesterday HoCo Connect posted an interesting article on whether Columbia’s village centers are still relevant, including a look back at the original village center vision as laid out by Jim Rouse and others. I was moved in response to offer my own two cents on the village center issue. So without further ado, my thoughts: We need to think of village centers as resources for Howard County as a whole, and not just for the Columbia village in which they’re situated. I don’t happen to live in Columbia, and hence my opinion would be considered somewhat irrelevant in the context in which the village centers were created. However I think the original village center vision is not sustainable, at least not as the main function of a center. Village residents no longer see their center as a primary destination, instead driving by it on the way to the Mall in Columbia, big box developments like Gateway Overlook, or other places scattered around Columbia and the county (e.g., off Dobbin Road). This means that village centers can survive (let alone thrive) only if they can become major destinations for others elsewhere in Columbia and in the county at large. ...

I’m still enjoying reading and commenting on the Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog. Today while reading a post on the “deserving” vs. the “undeserving” poor a commenter brought up that perennial topic, is taxation theft? More specifically, many (but not necessarily all) libertarians believe that the state has no valid claim to extract taxes from people (backed up by the implied threat of physical force), and in that sense even a democratically-elected government is nevertheless the moral equivalent of Tony Soprano and his crew. ...

For those of you who haven’t heard, the Howard County local blogosphere has a new entrant, as Corey Andrews has started a new “HoCoLibertarian” blog, “to get a foot in the door for libertarians and libertarian-leaning conservatives in Howard County.” (Note that Andrews is also planning to run for the Board of Education in 2012; for more information see his campaign blog.) To help welcome his new blog I’m going to devote this blog post to libertarians, more specifically to Bleeding Heart Libertarians, a great new group blog I’ve been following avidly (and occasionally commenting on). ...

HoCo Rising has been teasing us all week about his “big announcement.” It turned out that he’s not just raising consciousness through his blog but he’s also raising money, in this case to help eliminate homelessness in Howard County. It’s a worthy cause, and the recipient of the funds, the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, is a worthy organization. I just donated $50 (which I’m proud to say put the campaign past the halfway mark on the way to the goal of raising $1,500) and I encourage you to donate too if you haven’t already. ...

A while back I lost a fair amount of weight and got back into the “normal” range of BMI. Since then I’ve regained some of the weight and am now just a tad above the normal range. I’ve been trying to get back down to where I was before, with not much luck. So I’ve decided to try something different: I’m entering into a “commitment contract,” a concept that’s been the subject of academic research and is being commercialized by StickK. StickK itself sounds like an interesting service, but since I have a blog I figured I could do this myself. ...