I just added JSON Feed support to my blog.

• All Posts: http://tidbits.tedchoward.com/feed.json
• Micro Posts: http://tidbits.tedchoward.com/feed-snippets.json

That moment when the file format you’ve been trying to re-engineer starts to make sense to you.

Jim Schutze, on the upcomming city council election for Dallas District 14:

Wood's waffling on the [Trinity River] park plan is concerning, but I'm too embarrassed to offer it here as a serious argument for anything, because that would be just too East Dallas deep-in-the-weeds hillbilly, and nobody outside of District 14 would even get it.

So let’s say this. The city is on the very verge of a huge change, a generational turnover of power and culture. That’s the hat. District 14 voters will have to make up their minds on that basis. And then we can cut each other’s noses off – that’s the part we really live for anyway.

There seems to be a philosophical disconnect between the two (broadly generalizing) sides of the health care debate. The technical way to frame the debates is this: should health care be an entitlement or not? In other words, should it be something everyone deserves to have provided for them, or should it be something that is sold according to free market rules. I use to be on the free market side of this debate, but I have since shifted to the entitlement side. If I were to distill the reason why I changed my mind, it’s this: When someone dies from a medical condition that could have been treated but wasn’t because they couldn’t afford the treatment, what is your reaction? If it’s, “well maybe that’s not a good thing, but it is fair and just,” then that places you on the free market side of the debate. If, on the other hand, that situation strikes you as unfair and unjust, then you are on the entitlement side.

Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault-finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store.

-- N. T. Wright, Lent for Everyone: Matthew, Year A (pp. 13-14).

It occurs to me that I’ve been maintaining a micro-blog for years at http://radio3.io/users/tedchoward/. I don’t think of it as a blog, it’s more of a way to share links. It also auto-posts everything to Twitter.

The DMN editorial board is calling out the Republicans in Austin, who claim to be for local control, but instead just want to be the ones in charge. They complain loudly about federal overreach, but then work to take control away from city and county governments. This particular issue, limiting the amount a city or county governement can increase the tax rate, is founded on bad stastics.

On a side note, I like the new trend of adding a What you can do section to the bottom of their editorials.

L.A. Weekly’s April Wolfe says La La Land is a propaganda film. I didn’t pick up on any of those points when I saw the film. I actually really enjoyed it. I’m now thinking about what that says about me and my perspective. What else am I blind to?

I’m experimenting with “micro” blog posts. Technically they are just regular blog posts without titles. The idea is that they are quick thoughts, not essays. They are the kind of writing that would normally be posted to Twitter or Facebook.