It's perfectly understandable that a kernel hacker could be republican. Unlikely, given the general political climate of the open source community -- but understandable.
Except in 2007. I read an article Love linked to and it caused my remaining teeth to grind. If the choice was of which Sowell article to redirect his readers' attentions to, he chose wisely; reading Sowell is an obstacle-free method of reminding oneself that a significant portion of our educated media is still produced by extremist nutjobs. Or it's an easy doorway to an exciting new antidepressant addiction. Or both.
But if the choice was to discuss Obama's run for the presidency or the future economic landscape of the U.S.A.... this is truly a confusing choice for his small army of loyal nerd fans. Honestly, if the last eight years have not taught every American a valuable lesson in basic macro economics, nothing will.
I've been working in New York for a few months now and every day I find myself in political discussion of varying scale. With cab drivers on the way to the airport. With client designers, developers, QA, and project managers during lunch. With coworkers over beer. And with friends back home after I recount these previous experiences. My emotions have swung back and forth between intense pity and remorse on one hand (for the inevitable but deserved international backlash the US is increasingly unprepared to deal with) to disdain and anxiousness for resolution on the other. The pendulum comes to rest at a comfortable numbness that effectively blocks my innate desire to care about the future of a country whose citizens believe CNN is a reliable source of news. "Innate" is the wrong adjective there. But I do wish to care. I just can't.
I read Love's blog because [a] I have an unhealthy mancrush on the company he works for and [b] I think the work he does is awesome. With that in mind, I'm going to assume his political HREFs are typed in chokingly dry jest. This way, my complete lack of humour will permit such text to fade into the ether, leaving only gadgetry and sexy kernel patch action to attract my attention.
Remember when we were kids and a political discussion meant that it was time to play outside? Do you miss that as much as I do?
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