Robert J. Chassell's page focuses on various ideas, including the GNU Project, his books on Emacs Lisp and software freedom, his airplane, and includes various of his short essays. http://www.rattlesnake.com en-us I added `1' to the edition number because I added chapters and changed their order. Constraints tell us `what is'. Choices are what we `can do'. `Choice and Constraint' is intended as a description of `what is' ... not a `what is' of political scientists, but a `what is' that reflects the current world and of `what can be done'. It begins with the most basic constraints, including the political necessities for security and law as well as the civilized constraints of justice and the need for `graceful winners' and `graceful losers'. It goes from there. We live within systems that replicate themselves with error and error correction. Then I turn to forms of persuasion. Aristotle spoke more than two thousand years ago. Unfortunately, he is limited. I talk about modern methods of determination. And I consider what should be done? The new Texinfo, HTML, Info, DVI, PDF, and PostScript files are in the http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/ directory. Also, I just reread `Software Freedom: An Introduction', which is at http://www.teak.cc/softfree/software-freedom.html and find it excellent! It has been long enough that I am surprised at what I see, happily surprised. It is short, like `Choice and Constraint', but covers I want to say. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/Choice-and-Constraint.html A minor addition to `Choice and Constraint' that, however, I think is vital to our undertanding: that Aristotle did not define a "determinative" branch of oratory, only the three that focus on courts, legislatures, and public occasions. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/Choice-and-Constraint.html To make it hard for frauds or well-intentioned but faulty people from destroying its quality, one Web site randomly selects people to serve as temporary judges. Such a judge must be a long time regular, willing to serve, and respected by other judges. Such a person receives a number of points that expire quickly. After they expire, the person stops being a judge. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/reputation-implementation.html The political and constitutional changes that enable a just and sustainable society to succeed: consent, freedom, and law. The criteria for studying a political proposal: to protect, preserve, prepare, and provide. And the five qualities for evaluating a social recipe: reason, rigor, reality, honesty, and responsibility. Figuratively, the blossom of a flower ... http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/cooperation.html Is it helpful to think of the contemporary United States as a `rentalist' economy rather than as a `capitalist' economy? (This uses the word `rent' in the economists' sense of a return from a differential advantage for production, not as a return from capital or labor invested.) Should we expect 21st century conflicts to occur between rentalists and capitalists, rather than between those who promote different paths towards opportunity? http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/rentalist-vrs-capitalist.html Banks and insurance companies depend on trust. That is because they offer promises of future delivery, not anything that can be checked in the here and now. Encyclopedias are also based on trust since, as a practical matter, no one is able to check their articles. To be useful, you need to trust that the unchecked articles are good enough. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/trust-based-institutions.html After current Bush Administration policies fail, the U. S. Republican party will have to adapt. `Responsibility', `Frugality', and `Markets' provide the base for slogans that can also define policies. Moreover, U. S. Democrats could live with the policies suggested and the political process within the U. S. improve. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/responsibility-frugality-markets.html On computers, a single input can produce several output formats. What might you see in an editor (or `word processor') that provides two or more different surface expressions at the same time as a deep representation? In addition, the introduction of an occasionally useful third term, that of `intermediate expression'. (And I have been revising `Choice and Constraint'.) http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/multiple-output-preview.html A topical issue: in September 2004, people posting on the `Blogging of the President' Web site argued that the Democratic campaign will lose the coming US presidential election. The discussion is posed as a conflict between `modernism' and `post-modernism'. I argue this is wrong because neither offers a believable mechanism for determining a hint towards what is true. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/US-Democratic-party-failures.html People mostly work with the `surface expressions' or `renderings' of a document; they listen to it or read it. Every document produced with a computer has at least three such renderings in addition to the deep representation in which it is stored electronically. Often systems have only one read-write format for their multiple read-only renderings (printing on paper being a rendering that is always read-only). When you have only one such read-write format, it is better as a deep representation. That way no one inadvertently comes to think that a computer is a single output device. Unfortunately, by default, some programs have you edit a high resolution format for typeset output instead. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/single-multiple.html More than ten years ago, David Perkins published a book that enables us to judge an educational system. His underlying notion is simple: that people learn much of which they have a reasonable opportunity and motivation to learn. This concept defines the simplest of conditions for good schooling, which are needed if we wish to avoid disastrous decisions. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/Perkins-schools.html Energy and information are critical to contemporary states. In addition, legitimacy is necessary. Opportunity, along with compassion and justice, will provide legitimacy. In turn, this determines in part how a civilized state should work. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/energy-information-opportunity.html A topical and pessimistic issue: what if the current United States government deficit continues without the economic growth and security that enables it to borrow from abroad? Since the US can continue such a deficit for a generation or so, a deficit is economically rational for those who plan to take their money and abandon the country before the advent of the unemployment, higher prices, higher taxes, and other suffering that come from the end of such deficits. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/US-deficit.html I have revised `Choice and Constraint', moving various chapters and sections from one place to another and rewriting parts. The document needs more work, but it is getting closer to complete. The new Texinfo, HTML, Info, DVI, PDF, and PostScript files are in the http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/ directory. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/Choice-and-Constraint.html How the US conducts its efforts against Al Qaeda makes a difference. It is "about convincing those people that aren't sure who to believe who is right." Both the current notions associated with war and those associated with policing fail under modern conditions; and that supposes competent action. http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/not-sure.html Over the past few months, I have written a fair number of short essays, in addition to those written years ago. They are here. http://www.rattlesnake.com/