America hates the poor

America - land of extremes. The best and the worst of almost everything. I am not a "lefty America hater". But sometimes I just don't understand Americans.

The American political sphere consists of

• a Liberal, Centralish party (Democrats) and
  
• a Right Wing, "free market", traditional-values (sometimes, "Authoritarian") party (Republicans).

American Christians, because of a strong belief in traditional-values are often pulled to the latter, as modern liberal values are at odds with the strict beliefs of various Christian denominations.

However, it is my belief that the ideals the Republicans (and the Right) hold dear are at odds with Christian compassion and caring.

1. Imposing America's world view (when it suits) via the Armed Forces. aka. Unjust wars of the Bush administration (which isn't my main point)
   
2. Universal healthcare is wrong. You can't tax me to pay for other (poor) people's misfortune.

Matthew Warner - a clever, Catholic social commentator, recently wrote on his great blog Fallible Blogma (a must-read),

"As Catholics, there is an obligation to personally love and care for people – the suffering, the dying – the best we are able until natural death. But there is no moral obligation to take money from other people in order to do it. In fact, taking money that isn’t yours from other people is immoral itself. But of course, this line is blurred in our civil tax laws that a majority have forced onto everyone."

If you've ever been to the states and seen US poverty - it doesn't even compare to Britain. Social deprivation in Britain's cities and our rural poverty may be bad, but it is nothing compared to the slums and shanty towns of America.

And if you are poor and you are ill, well, tough. There's no help until you're in need of emergency treatment. (I know the NHS feels like it's going this way at times, but we are a hell of a long way off). Yes there are some charities who will fund you. If you're lucky. The NHS (while still run-down and appalling in places) is still better than no NHS.

Americans must learn that the left, and socialism (in small doses) is not evil. It is love for your fellow man and that is Christian.

How a die-hard UNIX head switched to Windows

If you know me, you'll have heard me lavish praise on UNIX and Linux and deride Microsoft for nearly everything. But as Keynes said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Here are some facts/opinions/hunches

Windows 7

• Windows 7 is fast enough. It's a lot faster than Vista -and boots in a similar time to Ubuntu
• Windows 7 has a usable, attractive, well-thought out UI.
• Windows 7's power options and Switch-User work. Consistently.
• Office 2007 still beats OpenOffice 3.x and is only £50 for 3 licences (assuming you have a kid).
• Most stable version of Windows on the desktop yet.
  

Development

• Visual Studio 2008 is better than Eclipse, Netbeans, JDeveloper, etc.
• The CLR is more efficient than the JVM in terms of RAM and speed.
• C# is better than Java. (Being, fundamentally, a re-engineered, re-thought out version of Java with more features).
• LINQ to * (very clever).
• Silverlight 3 beats Flash and Java applets hands down in resource usage.
  

Servers

• Windows still may not have UNIX-levels of stability, but 2008 does appear to actually be stable. At last. (I don't have enough data to judge this).
  
• Active Directory is the de facto SSO/Directory mechanism for many enterprises. It works.

The Linux desktop

• I don't like KDE - it's brilliant "under the hood" but isn't usable.
• GNOME is usable, simple and attractive. It would like to be written in C# and run on the Mono CLR, but there's no way a bunch of Free Software advocates are going to do that. Expect a fork and both versions to die slowly. KDE wins (and usability suffers).

Other comments

• It's just a shame that Outlook and Exchange suck so much. ;-)
  
• I have no experience with SQL Server 2008 but I hear good things
• Is IIS 7.x stable?
• Expression Blend is pretty cool
• I wish I had multiple desktops.
  

Oracle and Sun - uninformed comment

Just like the rest of the Internet - here's some uninformed thoughts on the Oracle-Sun deal:

1. GlassFish vs WebLogic (and erstwhile OAS). I suspect that GlassFish 3 has had it from Oracle's perspective. It'll carry on as an unsupported, but great, open-source project.
2. NetBeans vs JDeveloper and Eclipse. Goodbye NetBeans. Like GlassFish it will carry on, but wither on the vine.
   
3. MySQL vs Oracle DB: Support and Sales. Well, there's some wondering in the blogosphere as to who at Sun actually works on/supports MySQL now, but, be that as it may, Oracle can now sell you (cheapish) support for MySQL. So SMBs outgrowing their roots can get infected by Oracle sales, and Enterprises can run the many MySQL-based apps.
4. MySQL vs Oracle DB: Migration and up-sell. I still expect some sort of automated MySQL to Oracle DB product, and/or a MySQL-api call into the data in an Oracle DB. Ease of Migration.
5. JVM and Java language. And the JCP. I expect Java to become more open. Why? Kudos. Looking-good. (While still selling tons of expensive WebLogic, DB, etc., etc. licences). Plus it will be good for Java (and hence Oracle).
6. That pesky hardware business. Sun's ailing hardware business is what has brought the once-huge company to it's knees. Dell and HP make perfectly good (and rather scalable) x86-64 servers. The vast majority of people do not need E25Ks. Honestly - will it be wound down - sold off to HP or even the fledgling Cisco? Or can the expensive software vendor make the case for a one-stop shop to customers? "Here, our hardware is pricey too, but you get our excellent support - all in one place"
7. Sun xVM and Oracle VM. One will stay, one will go. (Sorry - stating the obvious there).
   
8. (Open)Solaris and Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL). Is Solaris (Sun's other millstone) just legacy now? Does OpenSolaris really offer throughput advantages over Linux? Will ZFS become GPLd and available in Linux or a commercial addon to OEL? Does btrfs offer all of ZFS' feature set (should have researched that bit, sorry). I suspect Solaris is history, like Netbeans. In 5 years, it will be a fond memory.

The Sun is dead, long live the Oracle. Dear Oracle, please look after Sun and Java, we've had a lot of good times together, and we want it to continue.

Left Wing Catholics?

Where are all the left-wing Catholics? What can possibly be logical about the "Religious Right"?

In America, they don't really have a left-wing, so things are either liberal or right-wing. This includes Catholics, and Catholics don't really do "liberal", thus leaving them right-wing (at least the highly-organised, vocal part).

In the UK, though? (Don't mention that turncoat, Blair - he's as Catholic as Queen Elizabeth I. Only less competent as a leader. And not left-wing). Well the Waugh-connection doesn't help, but in general I don't actually know. Perhaps UK Catholics span the political spectrum like our Protestant brethren?

Personally I can't understand right-wing Christians, Jesus spent pretty much all his time with the poor. I mean, we hear this stuff every week during Mass. You know, the Gospel? Surely protecting the vulnerable (the poor, the sick and the needy) in society is the most important thing (after loving God, of course).

The rich and those who desire to be rich are not big with the big man - love is what counts:

• "A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you" - John 13:34
  
• "If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all" - Mark 9:34
• "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven [...] And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. " - Matthew 19:21-24
• And many more - read (or, at least Google) the Bible!

What of the UK Catholic press? Well the Editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald is Damian Thompson - who also writes for The Torygraph and recently tweeted about the G20 protests: "Watch the lefty tossers squeal". Nice. I've no clue about The Tablet or The Universe. Perhaps they're all politically-agnostic?

Back to the US, perhaps this is why Catholics over there seem to be obsessed with abortion, because it's easier to be seen to be defending unborn children than actually giving away your riches and helping the poor.

Food for thought, I hope, and a Happy Easter to you all.

More random Christian / Catholic thoughts

So my conversion has been about 9-10 weeks now.

Some notes

1. I understand the Trinity now. (Never understood the Holy Spirit before).
2. I understand Mariology, and asking for Saints' intercession (apparently common in Islam, too).
3. Praying the Rosary, and concentrating on different things on each decade works pretty well.
4. Did I have a "Road to Damascus" moment? Yes and no. I'd been holding back through pride (and fear) from letting Christian thoughts back into my life. When I finally did let the barriers down, it was a bit like that. (Can't really explain, without sounding like a total nutter...)
5. I blogged a flippant note on my "choice" of Catholicism. To a certain extent, I didn't choose Catholicism. It sort of came to me as part of the revelation I got, when I let myself believe again. So I read up on it and yea, verily - it seemed to right up my street. (A couple of caveats, but hey, nothing is ever perfect). Check out "Catholicism for Dummies" - I kid you not - it's a great introduction.
6. Our Lady of Peace and the Blessed Dominic Barberi is a family oriented church. It's not super-duper "high church" and strikes a nice mix between worship/piety and a more modern approach. They have an organ, but also a band (thankfully not electric - there's nothing worse than Christian Rock! - they have a flute, violin, acoustic guitar, that sort of thing)
   
7. People are friendly and not snobbish - everyone is equal. They've been welcoming without being scarily cult-like (you can tell I don't really like modern, happy-clappy churches can't you?)
8. There's a huge community and lots of social/club events. (Look forward to the kids joining these).
   
9. People come from all walks of life and are many racial backgrounds. (Something to do with Roman Catholicism being the largest of the Christian groups with over 1 billion members).
10. I did not convert for the sake of my children's schooling! (Wouldn't be that beneficial in Reading),
    

2008 - A year in review

A different year. That's probably the headline. So let's see.

• Started off with a great facial infection ;-)
• In February, we went to Newbury races (my first time at a racecourse) and took up running
• In March, we had a work team-event playing paintball which was great fun.
  
• In April, I bought a server for home, which hosts several guest OSes under Xen.
• In May, I got all upset by my lovely old cat, Bob passing away, but worse was to come; Debbie's mother lost her fight against all the myriad illnesses plaguing her body. (In my personal view, this was severely exacerbated by the C. Difficile infection she contracted in the Royal United Hospital, Bath).
• In July, I got less and less able to cycle, then walk... and was diagnosed with Heart Failure. For 3 months I felt like was dying, until the medication kicked in. Now I'm OK!
• In September/October, we went to the Lakes, which was as lovely as ever (even if I still had a problem keeping up with the kids on the walks).
• In November, Charlie took me to Tate Modern to see the Rothko exhibit which was fantastic.
• The family also attended the infamous "Lapland New Forest" sham...
  
• In December, I re-found God, and started attending my local Catholic church, and will become a catechumen when they run the next RCIA course.

Interesting times. Anyway have a great 2009. Pax - out.

Why Catholicism?

So Charlie and Richard are confused by my choice of Catholicism.

By means of analogy I shall compare Christian demoninations to vegetarianism.

• C. of E.'s approach to vegetarianism would be for those people who still want to eat a bit of meat,but like animals really.
• Happy clappers would be those vegetarians who insist on going round chastising/annoying omnivores and telling everyone how healthy they feel. (Shut up!)
• Catholicism is more like veganism (with random other foods banned by random Popes over the last 2000 years ;-) )