Greetings!  I hope you will find my reviews, advice, and political commentary useful and insightful.  You may agree and you may disagree, either way I thank you for reading my material.

I have a few goals here at Epinions.  My primary goal has changed, as of the past year or so.  I am now using Epinions as my soap box for my political commentary.  All of my original political commentary will be first posted at Epinions.  Some of it will be distributed to other media outlets, including my hometown newspaper.  My passion for issues that affect Americans and citizens of the world runs very strong, and I see it as my duty to keep up with the issues most substantive for fellow everyday citizens.  I try to write pieces that reflect my views on these issues.  I am thankful to Epinions for providing me with an outlet to present my views in an uncensored manner.

As we head to the latter part of the '00s decade, the following issues are especially important to me, as I see them important for everyday Americans and citizens of the world:

+ health care
+ equitable wages
+ affordable secondary education options
+ the environment
+ diplomacy-oriented foreign policy

I will focus on these issues.  If you have passion for these issues, please join me in writing about these issues and offer your opinions, here at Epinions or in your local newspaper's editorial section.  If you live in a large city, try writing letters to neighborhood newsletters or any forum in which your opinions can be heard.  We need progress in these areas and the only way to get that progress is to collectively mobilize.  There is hope!

My secondary goal at Epinions is to write about my personal experiences with products and services that I use.  I will always give products or services a fair chance.  A cardinal sin here at Epinions is to shoot off a review after you've used your copy of Windows XP for one day.  Give it time!  If you read a review of mine on a particular product or service, be assured that I have thoroughly used and tested that product.  I try to provide what I view as the most relevant information in all of my reviews.  I'm not a fan of the "Express Reviews," although I believe they have their place here.  I only write traditional, full-length reviews.

Most of my expertise (if I may call it that), is in the area of computers and electronics.  I use and have used a lot of computer hardware and software in my life, and computers and the Internet are big parts of my life and how I live.  I only review products which I know a great deal about and I only give advice when I think I know what I'm talking about.  I try to avoid speculation.  There is a difference between advice and speculation.

Some tidbits about me:

I hold a B.A. in Accounting from Gustavus Adolphus College (www.gustavus.edu).
I attend the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota (www.umn.edu).
I have been using computers since I was 7 years old.  My family purchased an Apple IIc in 1984.  We still have it.  I learned basic programming on that computer.

I enjoy sports.  I play golf, basketball, and tennis, primarily.  I am a member at Shadowbrooke Golf Course in Lester Prairie, MN (www.shadowbrooke.com).  My career low in golf is a 76, shot at Glencoe Country Club in 1998.  My lowest score on a hole is an eagle (no holes in one).

I love to watch sports on TV.  My favorite tennis player is Andre Agassi, but since he has retired, I have not yet found a new favorite player.  My favorite female tennis player is Justine Henin.  My favorite basketball team is the Houston Rockets.  My favorite NFL team is the San Francisco 49ers.  My favorite baseball team is the Minnesota Twins.  I enjoy watching the four "majors" tournaments in golf.

I am a history buff.  Among my areas of interest are the Vietnam War (1964-1975), World War II (mostly, the European theater), and World War I .  I enjoy studying the evolution of battlefield strategy and tactics.

I grew up on a fully functioning dairy farm near a rural town in Minnesota.  I still live on this farm part of the time.  I also live part of the time in Minneapolis.  I work full-time and part-time in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

I was born in early 1978, I am single, and I have never been married.  I do not have any children.

I consider myself to be a fiscal conservative and libertarian in many respects, but at the same time, I sympathize with many social causes and I consider myself a progressive on many social issues.  I cherry pick aspects of the right that fit my personal values and cherry pick from the left those that fit my personal values.

If I had to pick a hero of mine, dead or alive, it would be Robert Kennedy.  RFK's legacy is one of the driving forces for my passion for public service and participation in political discourse.

Thank you for visiting my profile.  Part of Epinions is the nature of the website in that it is a community of sorts.  I regularly interact with a number of the members here, some of whom I consider to be good friends.  Anybody can feel free to contact me for any reason, whether for praise or criticism, for feedback or questions, or to say hello.

Let there be peace on Earth, and goodwill to women and men.

Sincerely,

Brad.