The last couple of days have seen people getting quite upset over a decision by the State Board Of Elections to allow the Republican Party of Virginia to require a signed statement of intent from those who vote in next year’s Republican primary.

Not an “oath”, no, just a statement that at the time of your signing that you intend to support whoever the Republican nominee may be by the end of the day.

Who’s upset with this?  It mainly seems to be Democrats and people who don’t typically vote in Republican primaries.  But the question is, what’s wrong with having such a statement?

While it is unenforceable, it really is not too much to ask.  For starters, if you are voting for a candidate you probably think they have a pretty good chance of winning that nomination, so stating that you intend to vote for your horse shouldn’t be too big a request.  And even if your guy doesn’t win, the mantra is always that at the end of the day we’re all Republicans (or Democrats or whatever your affiliation is).  There is absolutely nothing locking you to this statement.  If you find out a week later that the nominee did something you just simply can not stomach, you have every right to change your mind and your eventual vote.

To say this harms the “big tent” is contrary to the truth as well.  This statement also applies across the board, whether a moderate now says they intend to support a far-right candidate, or a far-right voters now says they intend to support the moderate that wins out.

Political parties have a constitutional right of free association.  Short of Virginia changing its election laws to create party affiliation on voter registration and closed primaries, it is not so much to ask that someone voting in a primary simply be asked to express their true intention come tomorrow.  This is not the first time Virginians have done this, nor will it be the last.

Former Outgoing State Senator Brandon Bell joins the blogosphere and starts by kicking Jim Gilmore around and then wondering why we can’t all just get along.  Welcome to the conversation, Sen. Bell.

I just got off the phone with someone calling from the New Mix 103.7 who was simply ringing my work to let us know that we can now tune in and get a fix of all the greatest Christmas classics.  No questions, no pitch, no ask to speak to anyone in particular, just a “so ya know, we got your yuletide stuff goin’ for your ear-hole”.  Which was awfully nice of them.  Except I’m not a big fan of Christmas music except maybe on Christmas Eve and Day.  Just found it odd.  I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a call like that unless it was political in nature or wanting me to buy into something before I hung up on them.

Do bloggers ask better questions than reporters?  Christopher Beam uses dueling Mike Huckabee conference calls to make a case for bloggers asking more substantive questions on issues rathern than reporters asking more about the horserace.

Kenney the Elder takes on Time’s Morality Quiz and “lifeboat ethics”:

Of course, what is being argued isn’t a case of utilitarianism in the purest sense, but proportionalism. Proportionalist ethics make the argument that one can do evil and affect good — a contradiction in the highest regard.

Hence where lifeboat ethics ultimately fail. As the captain of the boat, it holds 800 lbs. of weight, and there are 1200 lbs. of person. As the boat rapidly fills with water, you state the situation to the crew and ask for volunteers. None reply. What do you do?

New York Times has put out its list of 100 Notable Books of 2007.  I’ve read one (Harry Potter 7), own two others (”Falling Man” and “The Abstinence Teacher”), and see a bunch more I’ll have to pick up.

Skins safety Sean Taylor died early this morning from a gunshot wound he sustained yesterday.  He was 24.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family, especially his daughter and fiance.  Just tragic.

The “Best _____ Of 2007″ lists are starting to come out.  Which reminds me to start figuring out my Top 10 Albums list

Scientists in England find that charactures are more effective for jolting the memory than police sketches.

‘Skins safety Sean Taylor shot in his home Monday morning.  Ouch.  That’s not going to help the defense.

Yeah, yeah, I’m only rockin’ out on “easy”, but it’s still rock.

So yesterday I started experimenting with titleless posts, which isn’t so hard to do.  Half the time the hardest part of a post is coming up with a catchy title.  But if what I’m blogging really isn’t all that long or doesn’t contain much original thought, why give it a title?

Because RSS feeds want titles, for one.

The titleless move was not only based on content but a design idea as well, one stolen from Kottke.org where the blog is a series of short posts interrupted by longer, more thorough posts and the like.  The shorter posts don’t have titles on the blog, but they do when they pop up through the RSS feed, which makes subscribing easy and the display of posts on sites like RVABlogs that much easier.  So I guess until I can figure out how to make titles not show on the blog but pop up in the RSS feed, I’ll have to keep coming up with titles.

By the way, if anyone out there has any suggestions on what I can do to fix this issue, I’m all ears.

Which leads to my brief thoughts on WordPress.  While I’ve played with WP a bit in the past, there certainly is a bit of a learning curve moving to WP and PHP from Blogger’s more or less straight HTML.  PHP will do what you tell it to do, for sure, but there are certain nuances in WP’s stuff that I’m still trying to figure out.  Which is why I’ve not only had this recent issue with posts but why I’m also still on the default template.  But I’m making tweaks here and there with the display and all.  Hopefully there will be a slick new design in the next couple weeks, but we’ll see.

So please continue to bear with me as I get the hang of this puppy.  There’s some slick stuff in here and I’m just starting to get the hang of it.

Having succeeded in curing every political ail in America, MoveOn now will do battle with Facebook.  Spats to follow.  Does MoveOn really care or are they pandering to the 18-25 year old crowd to widen their base?

Series of tubes to clog by 2010? “[I]t may take more than one attempt to confirm an online purchase or it may take longer to download the latest video from YouTube.”  Ohs nos!  Sounds like…  well, the internets as they are right now…

SR-17: Now That Was Some Airplane

The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter of a century. Unbeknownst to most of the country, the plane flew over North Vietnam, Red China, North Korea, the Middle East, South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Libya, and the Falkland Islands. On a weekly basis, the SR-71 kept watch over every Soviet nuclear submarine and mobile missile site, and all of their troop movements.

It was a key factor in winning the Cold War.