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I'm a big fan in trusting in the intelligence and capabilities of our youth. My quick visit to Europe in 1996 showed me that young people could be trusted to handle things in a responsible, mature fashion. Their drinking age is twelve or so, and yet they have very few problems with alcohol. They talk about sex openly and have comparatively fewer problems with teenage sex, pregnancy, and disease than we have in the US.

It is because of this reason, as well as my own upbringing and the upbringing of my friends, that I disagree with what Jeff says in "Kids change attitudes". His opinion is based on the presumption laid out in a quote from this article:

Back before I had kids, I was one of those naive people who would say things like "I'm going to let my kids make their own decisions when it comes to sex. Yea, I'm going to be a cool parent." And then I had a kid and that idea went to hell. To make matters worse, I had a daughter. Suddenly, the idea of being casual about my kids having sex seemed ludicrous.

Compare this with my own stance:

Back before I had kids, I was one of those naive people who would say things like "I'm going to let my kids make their own decisions when it comes to sex. Yea, I'm going to be a cool parent." And then I had a kid and that idea was affirmed. To make things better, I had a daughter. Suddenly, the thought and planning I had put into having good conversations and teaching my children about sex, and the respect I'd given them all their life, seemed to be well worth it.

In other words, "letting your kids make their own decisions about sex" is not the same thing as "being casual about your kids having sex." Educate your kids and they'll make the right choice.

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With PulpFiction's popularity growing, we thought we'd take the opportunity to do some good for the world by donating to charity. With a 1.0.2 release planned in the next two weeks (a bug fix update only - 1.0.3 will resume with the adding of some cool new features), we will begin a donation drive to benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

For any donation of $50 or more, your personal blog will be listed as a default subscription in PulpFiction. Freelancer blogs are welcome but company blogs are not. You may donate on behalf of others or for several of your own blogs if you wish. FSS will match the total donation (up to $2500) and all funds raised will be donated in the name of PulpFiction and its users to the EFF in early September. Fundraising will take place from now until the end of August 2004.

These donation-based default subscriptions will be included with every copy of PulpFiction for no less than six months. This is a great way to get some new viewers to your blog for a reasonable donation to a worthwhile charity. You may choose to label your blog (a PulpFiction feature) and you may choose whether to have the "show linked content" feature turned on. Please supply all of the necessary information - the feed you wish to use, your blog name, the default author, and the label and "linked content" preference in the donation note.

EFF is a nonprofit group of passionate people - lawyers, volunteers, and visionaries - working to protect your digital rights. We couldn't think of a better national or international technology- or computer-related charity.

To donate, simply send a PayPal payment to charity@freshsqueeze.com. I'll update the donation list daily (I haven't decided whether to do so in this post or via TrackBack).

What if this happened?

Fortunately, Jeff has the answer.

Question: Who will win this year's PGA Championship?

My Answer: Tiger Woods' game has been fixing itself up lately, and I'm going to choose the #1 player in the world for the past, oh, five or six years as the favorite.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: What's the most money you've ever found?

My Answer: I've found a few $20 bills in my day, but nothing larger. I consider found money to be a gift, and so I make a rule of spending it taking a friend to dinner, buying them a small gift, or something like that. Of course, if there's any chance of finding the owner, I do that first. I know I've been very happy when people have pointed out times when I dropped a bill or two.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I've got my tickets to see R.E.M. in Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center on November 7. Yes, apparently this means I'll be going to PA in early November as well as mid-September, but the timing works out well: I might be moving back later that month, it's a month and a half after the last visit (keeping the timing down to about 45 days between visits), and so on.

Anyway, November 7, section 1, row E, seats 13 and 14. Carey - who doesn't particularly care for R.E.M. - and me. The last time I saw them was… was August 25, 199 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH.

Khoi Vinh has posted a lovely stylesheet for PulpFiction at his site, subtraction.com. Khoi didn't submit it to the PulpFiction Resources page, perhaps largely because he wishes to maintain control over its improvements, but I wanted to point y'all there as it's a lovely stylesheet that looks much like his own (quite lovely) site.

I called Cingular to ask about their v600 recall and was told that it would be very obvious if my v600 needed repaired: I'd have 0 signal 95% of the time, I'd drop just about every call, and so on. My phone works beautifully (except that Romeo doesn't work with it).

I was bored today and didn't feel like going shooting, so I headed out to The Links at Madison Green for a quick 18 holes of golf. The site intrigued me - none of the others in Palm Beach County were nearly as good - and the course looked interesting - a hilly, narrow, watery, waste-bunkery links course located deep inland in southern Florida?!?! For $25!!!

I hit the range and worked on a simple swing though: bring the arms from the inside. Key to this was a longer takeaway more to the outside. Later on the course I'd realize that my hips were way too active way too early. I could have realized this on the practice range when I was hitting 3/4 shots with my feet together and was hitting a nice draw. My driver (the old one still, I haven't got the new one yet) has what now appears to be a rather worn grip, because I couldn't grip the thing without it slipping just a little. I made the decision to hit only my 15° Titleist 980F. I'd even hit some off the grass on the driving range - the damn club is silky. This would be its first test.

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Question: Have you ever driven a motorcycle?

My Answer: No - the things scare me. They're called "donorcycles" by ER workers for a reason, I imagine. I don't even take my scooter out when it's raining. This question was prompted when, on the way back from golfing today, I saw a guy on a crotch rocket pop a 100-yard wheelie at about 60 MPH.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Today I watched the Kerry on Iraq "documentary." My dad says "believe none of what you read and half of what you see," and since this is a documentary and not "real life," I'm placing it a little further towards "what I read" and not "what I see."

I think that changing your mind is fine - you're bound to get new information. I think, however, that trying to pretend that you haven't makes you look a bit silly. I also think that changing your mind because people don't like your position is weak as well.

Said Giuliani:

Now, contrast that with Kerry and Edwards. John Kerry voted against the Persian Gulf War when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. How you could do that, only he can explain - usually five or six different ways - but only he can explain. But he voted against the Persian Gulf War. Then he voted for the Iraq War, and then shortly after, when the question of an 87 billion supplemental appropriation came up - to support our troops, support our people who are on the firing lines, as many of you have been - Senator Kerry voted against it, as did Senator Edwards, among only four senators who voted for the war and against the appropriation. Don't tell me they aren't on the far liberal wing of their party if they did that. That's pretty obvious, although they want to run away from it.

For what it's worth, Giuliani isn't exactly a shining example of what I want a public leader to be, what with his whole mistress thing, but from what I've read of him he did a great job in New York (before and after 9/11) and he sticks to his guns.

Question: How did you purchase your car? Did you finance through the dealer, buy new or used, etc.?

My Answer: I bought new, and traded in the two-year-old model that I'd had for one year. I financed through the dealer - a mistake as I now realize it given the interest rate I've got - but then again I was just out of school, had moved 1100 miles, and had just started a new job so I'm not sure I'd have gotten a better rate elsewhere. I paid 1% over invoice price, though, thanks to Edmunds.com.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Golf ball prices have never been cheap. I used to play the Titleist DT line - back when the DT was a wound, liquid-center ball with a surlyn cover - because a dozen only set me back $19.99 on sale, or $24.99 in a pinch. That price compared favorably to the Titleist Professional or the Titleist Tour. Nowadays, you can't even find a wound ball! "The wound ball is officially dead" claims a golfonline.com article.

I picked up some Callaway HX Red/Blue balls today for $19.99 - they were on sale from $29.99. Titleist Pro V1s were going for $44.99 - a bit too rich for my blood, currently. I could have picked up a bunch of Titleists (a mixed lot) for $19.99, but the balls were logoed and I used to collect logo golf balls (and will start again when I find a logo ball "in the wild"). The Nike One Black is an intriguing choice as well. All other balls? Bah. Nike and Titleist, and these cheapo Callaways while I'm getting my swing back. That's my focus.

I missed this yesterday, but I thought I'd take a stab at it now as people have been asking me how I really feel about certain things.

1. I have never voted for a Democrat in my life.
True. I haven't ever really voted for any local elections, having only voted for representatives, senators, and the President. In those cases, I've voted Republican or another party, but not Democrat. Bear in mind we're talking about four votes.

2. I think my taxes are too high.
For what I get out of it, yep. Maybe. In other words, I pay taxes yet use very few (almost none) of the services it provides: welfare, education, etc. I went to high school and I'm a self-employed white male in my mid-20s. I fully believe that the better-off members of society should support the lesser-well-off members, and whatnot, but I don't always think that my tax dollars are spent in the most efficient fashion. If we truly had a streamlined tax system, I might find myself paying much less per year. How much of my tax dollar goes towards overcoming the burden of red tape and bureaucracy?

3. I supported Bill Clinton's impeachment.
I don't think he should have lied under oath, but I think the whole exercise was a lovely waste of my tax dollars, to further answer question number two.

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Question: Do you have an AirPort Express?

My Answer: I do now! It's attached to the stereo in my living room.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.