You would think that a guy like me, a professional computer geek, would actually be a gadget-head, into all the new technology coming out, buying all the latest gear. The funny thing is, I'm not. I'm interested in all of the new things that come out. I read about and follow the computer and consumer electronics trends. But I don't actually buy much of it. What I do buy, I actually use in my daily routine. I don't buy very much just to have it or to impress people - but I love it all. I think it's just plain cool.

Mrs. Pete, on the other hand, is not into technology at all. She doesn't get into the latest gear. She just doesn't care about it, unless it helps her do something she really wants to do. Most of what she wants to do involves other people. Her favorite form of entertainment is talking with her friends and family, preferably in person, but also on the phone. I'm just the opposite. I don't really like talking on the phone much, unless it's with someone I haven't seen in a while, or I have to talk about something important.

Well, because I haven't really felt a need for one, and I don't like talking on the phone, and Mrs. Pete certainly isn't impressed by the technology, we have never had cell phones. I know - we're like the last people on the planet without cell phones. We're "techno-Luddites." That's my new term for people, like me, that are comfortable with technology, really like technology, understand how it works, but just don't see a need for it.

Don't you ever feel that way? We keep on inventing new stuff, and it gets better, cheaper, more functional, faster, smaller, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and all that. But does it really improve quality of life that much? I think a lot of the stuff doesn't.

High definition television is a great example of a cool invention that doesn't improve quality of life much, if at all. Right now I have a nice 31" flat-screen Sony WEGA television. It isn't high-definition, but it has a nice picture. Would watching TV in high definition make that much difference? No, not really. I'm satisfied with the picture I get now. I've seen lots of high definition sets: plasma TV's, LCD's, various types of projection systems. The picture on them is fantastic. They have a nice, wide aspect ratio screen. They're cool. But when it comes right down to it, I'm still just watching TV on it. There are so many other ways to spend my time (like writing on this crazy blog) that are more productive or creative. Why should I spend thousands of dollars, just to get a better picture on my TV? It doesn't make much sense to me.

The same thinking applies to really expensive audio equipment. Can you really tell the difference between a fairly nice, $500 to $1000 stereo system and a $5000 or $10,000 dollar system? Maybe some people can, in ideal conditions, but I doubt most people can in a typical home environment. The marginal increase in sound quality just isn't worth the order-of-magnitude increase in cost. Not to me, anyway.

Now that you all think I'm completely hopeless, I have to say that Mrs. Pete and I actually did get cell phones yesterday. She wanted one in case of emergencies on the road and other situations where she has to be able to call someone. So, I went out yesterday morning with my son, and I got a cell phone for myself and for her. It's her Christmas present, a little early. I suspect she'll get more use out of hers than I will mine. I do think they're pretty cool little gadgets. The one I got the Mrs. is really small, so she can put it in her purse. Mine will fit in my pocket, so that's where I'll probably keep it. I'll need to research a good case for it. I don't really like the one I got for it yesterday.

I just hope that they won't be a waste of money, even if they are cool. Will life be a little better because we have them? I suppose I'll find out (but I'm not holding my breath).

Remembering Pearl Harbor and Looking At Current Challenges

Today is, of course, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. This should be the top item in my blog entry for today, but I started writing the previous bit yesterday, and I don't want to re-arrange right now - I need to be heading for bed soon.

In the perilous times that we face today, we can take inspiration and encouragement from the brave people of "the greatest generation," those that lived and fought during World War 2. The challenges to our country and our way of life are as great now as they were then, except that they are less focused. The Islamists and anti-American forces aren't a conventional enemy army. They are cowards, and they know they can't defeat us conventionally, in a fight between military forces. Instead, they use terror tactics, attacking civilians in public places for maximum shock effect. They use "peace" groups as fronts to sow dissent and confusion, and to sap our will to fight. They play diplomatic games in the United Nations and the European Union to delay and demoralize. They seek weapons of mass destruction - terror weapons - to counterbalance our overwhelming conventional military superiority. They do all of those things because they know the only way they can win is if we quit.

Just as in WW 2, we are in a war for the future of humanity. Will we live in societies where individual rights are respected, where people have freedom, can speak their minds, and can worship as they please or not at all? Or will we live in cruel theocracies or fascist dictatorships, where expressing a contrary opinion is likely to be a death sentence?

The future is literally up to us. As long as we resist the forces of medievalism, just as Americans, British, Australians, Canadians, and so many others did during WW 2, we will prevail. But if we try to pacify, accommodate, negotiate - be politically correct - we will lose. That's exactly the response from us that the terrorists want. Our way of life will die, slowly but surely, as the terrorists continue to grind away at us, demanding more and more, until we give in.

You can see it happening right now in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. The Palestinian terrorists continue with suicide bombings, raids on Israeli villages, mortar attacks on checkpoints, and so on. They call it resistance, but that label is nonsense. It's used to confuse people. The fact is that Israel has tried to negotiate in good faith. They've made offers to the Palestinians that would give them almost everything they have asked for, including their own country (see the Oslo agreement). Yet, the Palestinians have refused! They aren't interested in a negotiated political settlement, despite what they say. They are interested in the destruction of Israel as a country and extermination of the Jews. They aren't much different than the Nazis, except that they don't have the political and military power that the Nazis had. If the Palestinians wanted a peaceful solution to the conflict, they could have a quite satisfactory one next week. They don't want that, so they use terrorist tactics, political disinformation, and diplomatic shenanigans, trying to grind down the Israelis and the rest of the world, until Israel no longer exists and all of the Jews are gone from the region.

The Palestinians are part and parcel with the other Islamist terrorists around the world, and they all use the same tactics and strategies. They only way to defeat those tactics is to confront them - to use force as necessary, and to hunt down, arrest or kill those responsible for terror attacks. The ideologies behind the terrorists must be defeated, as well, by encouraging, or even enforcing, liberal democratic institutions in those countries that have supported terrorism.

This will not be easy. It will take a long time. Don't let anyone tell you different. But we can take encouragement from the Pearl Harbor generation, our fathers and grandfathers, that persevered and prevailed, despite overwhelming obstacles, and brought freedom and democracy to so many. To them, the world owes a debt of gratitude. I hope and pray that our current generation is equally up to the challenges we face now.

A Final Note For Today

My apologies for neglecting to write anything for so long. Mrs. Pete has been ill, and I've had a lot of work to do on the job and at home, and the holidays are coming up, so I've been busy with Christmas stuff, and I've been just plain distracted with other things, and... Well, those are my excuses. The fact of the matter is that this blog is pretty low priority for me. I enjoy writing it, but family, work, and so on, have to come first. I'm also fully aware that hardly anyone even reads this thing, so it doesn't make much difference, anyway, except to me. When I decided to do this, I made kind of a promise to myself that it wouldn't be just something I do for a little while, then quit. I want this to be something I do regularly for quite a while. So I suppose this apology is to myself as much as anyone else. But if you do happen to read this page somewhat regularly, my apologies for not having anything new for so long.

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