James Kirk

For those in the UNIX world, there is no debate so bitter, so fiery, so polarizing, as the debate over which text editor reigns supreme: Vi or Emacs. Now, I’ve been a loyal Vi (actually Vim - Vi iMproved) user for many years now, and due to the browbeating and shame I experience at the hands of DD Emacs users, I’ve decided to start using Emacs. I have betrayed my beloved editor and switched sides. You can call me Benedict Arnold.

My first impression is, Emacs sucks. Everything that was quick and efficient in Vim requires, in Emacs, inhuman contortions of the fingers. Plus, it’s like driving a manual transmission car - you need both hands to drive. How am I supposed to sip my coffee or pick my nose in the middle of editing a file now? I am currently of the opinion that Emacs was invented to give its users hubris over their mastery of an occult and arbitrary skill.

Emacs sucks.

I read an article in Rolling Stone (there’s a Guardian article here) reporting how Brazil “stood up” to American tyrants by declining millions in AIDS funding. Why? Because along with the money came provisions for promoting abstinence and discouraging prostitution.

“We can’t fight HIV with principles that are fundamentalist and Shiite,” says Dr. Pedro Chequer, director of Brazil’s AIDS program. “You can have a prostitute with almost zero risk, and you can have a member of Bush’s church with an incredibly high risk. It just depends on whether they use a condom.”

Mmmkay… The effectiveness of condoms for preventing HIV has been reported to be as low as 60%. Way to fight the Man, Dr. Chequer, while you watch your countrymen die.

I just read an excellent article by Andrew Sullivan over at the New Republic. Sullivan claims that there’s a fundamental split in the ideology of the Republican Party, and because of this, the Republican Party has lost any ideological consistency. The split is between two camps, one adhering to a “conservatism of faith” and the other, a “conservatism of doubt.” I’ve thought about this a bit, and reasons like what he mentions are why I’m no longer a Republican. Check it out here.