What is zqc and The Z Quarter Circle?

Contrary to popular belief, zqc does not stand for Zenophobic Quarantine Club, it is short for Z Quarter Cirlce, my Grandfathers brand (Branding Iron image to the right). zqc.com is where I post thoughts and whatnot that mean something to me. Right now, I am not leaving room to post replies on this site; I really want to KISS this blog (Keep It Simple Stupid). If you feel an unquenchable desire to reply to something on here just throw it at me on Twitter or Facebook

I have been on computers and internet thingies for 2 decades (back in the FIDONet days). It is my intent to make this site a fusion of the new(ish) social feedia stuff and old school *nix ways (if any of this is confusing, google it).

Everything here is solely my (Justin Zeigler's) opinion, and should in no way reflect or imply positions of the organizations and other things I support, oppose, notice or ignore...

My Thoughts on FreedomWorks:

I have more respect for Barack Obama than John McCain... why? because he at least admits (in a very round about way) that he is all about gaining power so that he can make decisions for people. The McCain method of paying lip service to conservative votes with anti-abortion, anti-immigrant conservative-social-issue rhetoric to secure votes is in my mind a greater harm than a flat out Marxist. I voted for Barack Obama, and still believe that our country is in a better position than if McCain had been elected because libertarian ideology (specifically the tenets of Austrian School of Economics) is being brought forward to counter the extreme big government power mongers who are running the country.

So.. the honorable lip service paying faux conservative from Indiana got his hat handed to him in a primary; I applaud this. There is no doubt that a major factor in this loss is the campaign and lobbying efforts of FreedomWorks. This leads me to an exciting thought; is there a group working to remove the power mongering Republicans that supposedly represent their constituents yet behind closed doors endeavor to consolidate power for the Washington elite? I see FreedomWorks accomplishing this by appealing to two voting blocks--Evangelical Christians and Libertarians.

Is there common enough cause for Libertarians and Evangelicals to unite and force the GOP to evolve into something that the people want? It is my observation that FreedomWorks may have the ability to join these two disparate groups--Pointing out to Evangelicals that less Government really is better, and bringing in Libertarians who understand Social issues are not Government issues and already believe Government should have no hand in it. Let me give a few examples where working together is to the advantage of both groups:

Abortion: Evangelicals think it should be completely banned, and Libertarians are for the right to choose, The uniting issue right now is government support funding for abortions. With Libertarians being opposed to any form of government provisioning of personal health care both sides can join and gut government funded abortion clinics. If Evangelicals take on the choice side of the argument, and make massive improvements in Adoption, young mother assistance and abstinence education, it is possible to greatly reduce the the stomach churning frequency of abortions and I believe a lot of libertarians would financially support these choice alternatives (even create ones that are atheistic). By obliterating the ideology of unwanted babies, both sides win.

Gay Marriage: Evangelicals are against the idea but Libertarians support it. A compromise is in the law books--abolish tax preferences to marriage, Insurance mandates for married couples , and government endorsed certificates, and gay marriage is a non issue. Marriage should (and actually (is)) be a contract. One of the few absolutely identifiable purposes of government is to enforce contracts. If two people want to include God in their contract (by say, having it approved by a pastor) there is no conflict of interest. If two people want to contractually obligate to each other with the aid of a Mediator (Possibly a Lawyer or online service) so be it. Either way, Marriage is defined by the individuals, the only say anyone else has is in the enforcement of the contract.

Guns: Not much to say here, no need to compromise or change any thoughts on this one, both sides (in general, there are always outliers) are in agreement that the Second Amendment is the cornerstone of the Constitution.

That covers some major political hot topics that I think two major groups in this country can unite on and start pulling my beloved United States of American back from a precipice. I believe FreedomWorks is the organization that can do that. (So stick that in your pipe and smoke it!)

Doing it Grey Beard Old School *nix Style!

I am going to construct this blog completely with ViM and hand done, console only, php script. I am going to monkey around with a few things to handle automation (maybe some server side bash scripts to handle quick and dirty entries, etc...). I figure if I keep this old fashioned and fun (for me) I will be more likely to continue doing entries... time will tell :)

I may just now get around to blogging up this site

Having succefully survived 4 decades, I am now seriously contemplating writing what I think and making it public (once again (maybe)). if anyone is actually reading this take the time and look at my Twitter feed.