Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent
McDonald's
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In 1960, Litton Cochran, owner of McDonald’s restaurants in Knoxville, Tennessee, started selling miniature deep-fried apple pies that came in a little cardboard pouch. They were so popular that Cochran had a hard time keeping up with demand.

By 1968, these amazing little pies had caught the attention of McDonald‘s owner Ray Croc and were starting to roll out to restaurants nationwide. They were wonderful. All in the world was right.

But McDonald’s giveth, and McDonald’s taketh away.

In 1992, for reasons that were never clearly explained, McDonald’s switched to baked apple pies. Nobody asked them to do this. Nobody was happy with it. The new apple pies are fine, I guess, but they’re not even half as good as the deep-fried beauties they replaced.

The world has been in a downward spiral since McDonald’s took our deep-fried apple pies away. Think of all the bad stuff that has happened between 1992 and today. Look at all the bad stuff out on the horizon coming our way.

McDonald’s can save the world. All they have to do is BRING BACK THE DEEP-FRIED APPLE PIES.

Now is the time. McDonald’s: We’re all counting on you.

Sign the Petition Here!

Trump Now the Presumptive Republican Nominee

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Former President Donald Trump (R) is now the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee. Although he has not yet attained the necessary 1,215 delegates, Trump’s last opponent—former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R)—announced today that she is suspending her campaign. Barring any unusual developments, Trump is now all-but-certain to win the nomination. He is expected to be formally nominated at the Republican National Convention in July.

Trump is a real estate businessman who was elected president in 2016 with no previous political experience. He served one term and was defeated by now-President Joe Biden (D) in 2020. Trump is a controversial figure; he was impeached (and acquitted) twice during his presidency and has faced numerous criminal charges since leaving office.

On the Democratic side, incumbent President Joe Biden (D) is widely expected to win his party’s nomination, but he still faces two minor challengers and has not yet won the necessary 1,968 delegate majority. The Democratic National Convention, where Biden is likely to be formally nominated, will be held in August.

Virginia Presidential Primaries, 2024

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Seal of Virginia
Seal of Virginia

Virginia’s presidential primary elections will be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The Democratic and Republican parties are both holding primaries this year. Off on a Tangent makes recommendations to primary voters in state- and federal-level races in Virginia and local elections in Loudoun County whenever nominees will be chosen through a contested public primary. Primaries for offices other than president will be held later in the year.

Political parties are private organizations that should have no formal standing in our political system. As private organizations, they are free to choose their nominees through whichever process they wish—common methods include conventions, caucuses, private “firehouse primaries,” and direct nomination by party leaders. But in Virginia and many other states, the Democratic and Republican party duopoly has given itself permission to hold public primaries at the taxpayers’ expense.

Public primaries in Virginia are “open.” Any registered voter may vote in any single party primary held on a given day, regardless of whether they are an actual member of that party.

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Whales
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And now for some more photos from my backlog.

Melissa and I made two trips to New England over the last year and a half. The first took us to Providence, Rhode Island; Lost River Gorge, New Hampshire; Mount Washington, New Hampshire; and Plymouth, Massachusetts. The second took us to various sites in Maine, including Bangor, Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, Cadillac Mountain, and the waters between Maine and Nova Scotia, Canada.

Enjoy!

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I’m still working through processing a huge backlog of photos for posting to the site. These are from two Caribbean Cruises in early 2023.

The first cruise was a short February getaway to the Bahamas on the Norwegian Sky out of Miami, Florida. The planned itinerary included stops in Freeport and at Norwegian’s private island, Great Stirrup Cay. The weather did not cooperate and the plan changed multiple times; ultimately, we ported in Nassau (which was not even on the original plan) and had an extra at-sea day.

The second cruise was a ten-day journey on the Norwegian Sky out of Panama. The journey began in Colon, Panama, went to the islands of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, then to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean, and finally arrived in Panama City, Panama. This one went exactly to plan—and it was amazing.

Enjoy!

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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.