User:Jfhaugh

Introduction

I'm a geek.

I've been involved the

open software

, and now open everything else, movement since the mid 1980's.

When I'm not editing Wikipedia pages or otherwise messing with

Cajun food, brew beer and make my own wine. Although it's not a creative pursuit, I also host a colony of purple martins in my back yard. The peach

orchard I used to have has since been removed. Not enough fruit, too much work.

Politics

I grew up in the

Catholic city. Although I am generally non-violent

, it has been my observation (and that of other critics of non-violence) that non-violence assumes ones oppressors have a sense of compassion, otherwise non-violence just makes one an easier target. I recently edited the page on

Bill Jefferson, a Louisiana politician I volunteered for when he first ran for office in 1979

. Since then I've worked a number of campaigns, and even been to various state and local political party conventions. I ran for party office once and concluded that the office was such a boring position that people flipped a coin. The vote was 49.9% for me, and 50.1% for my opponent, if even that much.

My political influences include such diverse characters as

Martin Luther King, Patrick Henry and Ronald Reagan. I'm a first generation American (more or less), the child of an immigrant on one side, and another parent whose parents hadn't been here much longer. As such, my politics are heavily influenced by immigration

issues. I'm a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, which makes for some rather interesting beliefs.