Oh Deer

Posted June 28, 2009, 11:52 p.m.

I’ve been a total post-slacker this weekend. I was in a conference for work pretty much all day Friday and Saturday, and Melissa’s parents and brother were visiting most of the weekend too. On top of all that I’ve been doing my monthly computer maintenance, getting some chores done, going to Mass, and going on a 20-mile ride on my mountain bike. Enough for one weekend?

On my bike ride, I finally finished the last little bit of Fairfax County’s Cross County Trail. I had done about 3/4 of it (in smaller chunks) last year, but didn’t finish before winter set in. This year it’s been so wet and rainy that I’ve gotten very little riding in on the mountain bike (though I have been doing regular rides on my hybrid on paved trails, which dry out quicker). Today was my first real mountain bike ride of any length this year.

For a county that is so well known as a suburban, over-developed, vibrant region, many are surprised to learn that Fairfax County has a ton on undeveloped parkland and rural areas, even close-in to DC. This undeveloped parkland even has wildlife in it, like the deer at right which I spied on my ride today.

Bear in mind that my phone’s camera doesn’t have zoom, so the deer is as close to me as it looks. It didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by my presence, and went about its business.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.

Quotes

[The provisions of the Bill of Rights] were designed to meet ancient evils. But they are the same kind of human evils that have emerged from century to century whenever excessive power is sought by the few at the expense of the many.

Hugo Black

Human societies, like human beings, live by faith and die when faith dies.

Whittaker Chambers

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Teddy Roosevelt

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Peter Kreeft

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Holy Bible

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Holy Bible

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U.S. Dec. of Independence

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Teddy Roosevelt

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

George Santayana

Let Republicans be mindful of their heritage. It was moral conviction—and the courage to act on moral conviction—that gave birth to the Republican Party and made it grand. Now it is old but need not be any less grand.

Robert George

Anyone who idolizes you is going to hate you when he discovers that you are fallible. He never forgives. He has deceived himself, and he blames you for it.

Elbert Hubbard

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are people in government who don’t want other people to know what they know. It’s just another example of elitism. And I spit on elitism. Show me an elitist, and I’ll show you a loser.

Tom Clancy

If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.

Thomas Sowell

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Oliver Wendell Holmes

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth—anonymously and posthumously.

Thomas Sowell

The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of one’s self is difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbor’s faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the player.

Siddhartha Gautama

You’ve got to be optimist to be a Democrat, and you’ve got to be a humorist to stay one.

Will Rogers

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Will Rogers