Welcome....

...to Alpo! This is my first post, and my first weblog. I decided to do this because, well, I have a lot of thoughts and opinions. Some are pretty interesting; some are very conventional; some are just plain weird. Either way, I'm hoping people will find them entertaining.

A Little About Me

My 'real' name is Nick Henderson. I work as the Program Director for a summer camp in the woods of northern Minnesota. This camp serves children with AD/HD and similar needs. I hail originally from New Zealand, which is where my family still lives. I fell in love with the US generally when I first came here, and with my wife Amy in particular. My university education had an emphasis on psychology and politics, but I think many of my ideas were grown in the hothouse of family discussions as I grew up. My family are pretty unconventional, to say the least. More on them later.

What I believe

I believe that everyone should have three rights.

1) The right to be safe.
2) The right to learn as much as you can.
3) The right to have fun.

These, funnily enough, are the 'three rights' we use at camp. They are hung up inside every cabin. I truly believe that if these rights were extended to all human beings, we'd be in better shape as a planet. The key thing to remember is that the first right trumps the others, similar to Isaac Asimov's famous laws of robotics. For example, your right to have fun vanishes if it impinges upon someone elses right to be safe. Many of my ideas could probably be described as 'libertarian', except that I also believe that society should help those who need it. Because I support a welfare state, most libertarians would cross the street rather than talk to me. Oh well.
I should also come clean - I'm supporting Kerry in the upcoming election. I'm sure many posts in the next few weeks will be taking shots at the Bush administration - which sure deserves it. Okay, that's it for now. I'll post again later. Thanks for reading.