The original customers for my LDAPHttp software had a few unique constraints that I had to design to. They were committed to Java for web development, but in their infrastructure they didn't have a J2EE application server, an engine for Java Server Pages, or the ability to install servlets packaged in the Web Archive (.war) format. Among the consequences, the original version of LDAPHttp was delivered as a less complicated Java Archive (.jar) file. This proved adequate, but if I want to make it easy for other people to install my software, particularly those using the free and open source Tomcat engine, I need to get with the times. The LDAPHttp gateway servlets are now delivered as a Web Archive file, gateway.war, making it even easier for you to leverage directory databases to build high performance web applications and services.

LDAPHttp Installation Instructions

This may seem long overdue, but I had previously set this task aside for my upcoming development cycles. Besides, there's plenty going on to distract me. For example, late one evening when my wife was on call at the hospital, I was interrupted from my work by my three your old son. He was out of bed with tears in his eyes, telling me he couldn't sleep and asking to stay with me. I turned off my computer and obliged him, because I could understand why he was scared.

You see, we live just a stone's throw from Hurlburt Field, and Air Force Special Operations base where they do a lot of weapons testing. Apparently, that evening some high ranking Navy officers from nearby Pensacola were visiting and so the demonstration of destructive capability was in high gear. For the span of over three hours, the outside was ringing with the dull roar of aircraft machine gun fire and the ground was periodically set to shaking with massive detonations. This is nothing new; it happens about twice a week (but with a smaller finale). It was the very same when we first moved here, before September 11th. Black Hawks and gunships regularly fly low over my house, and some of the night bombing has caused pictures to fall from the mantle. I've grown up in and around the military, so it doesn't surprise me. I don't bother complaining, and I note that those who do bring it up with letters to the local paper get a mega-watt American flag thrown in their face. After all, while these guys used to occupy themselves primarily with covert operations in Latin America, their mission is now global. They're busy on your behalf.

They're also demonstrably enthusiastic. It is an unfortunate truth: many contemporary Americans, perhaps the majority, love war. It's the frame for American foreign policy, the standard fare of our entertainment industry, and the metaphor used most often to describe any challenge. In recent years, the war on drugs has escalated (without demonstrating progress), the war with Iraq is inevitable, and the war on terrorism will continue to be fought "in all corners of the globe", increasing anti-American sentiments abroad and bringing us closer to a police state at home. I'm tired of hearing Republicans and military leaders give lip service to the phrase "nobody wants a war". As far as I'm concerned, George W. Bush wanted a war from the moment he set foot in office as president. The difference between calling nations evil and declaring war on them is a small matter of public support, which in the United States can now come as a function propaganda, rich friends, and time. Republican candidates in the last elections were literally coached to steer debate around the promise of war, and many of them won on that ticket. During the day in front of the cameras they all (now) play at reluctance and false diplomacy only to end their commiseration on the state of the world with resolve to fight and win. Meanwhile, I turn on C-SPAN in the hours after prime time to find some flunky and his buddy killing time on the Congressional floor waxing poetic about "the Camouflage Bible"...

Which leads me to ask: what would Jesus say? The right-wing has made a common practice of calling their opponent's (Christian) religious convictions into question, but this only works IMO because Americans are by and large out of touch with the true ministry of Jesus. I recently re-read the four books of the gospel, as my right hand healed. I have to confess, it had been a while. Although I found them again beautiful and moving beyond anything I've read elsewhere, there is nothing there to support the aims of the modern Republican party. In fact, I find quite the opposite. But don't just take my word for it.

Read the Gospel Online

The alleged patriotic conservative Christians who are now running this country are heterological on all three counts. They are defecating on the Constitution, wasting our shared resources with bloated, irresponsible government, and blaspheming Jesus' good name with their unrepentant love of wealth and warfare. They are the Scribes and Pharisees of today, filled with bigotry, destroying and disgracing humankind only to blame others. It may seem paradoxical to the uninformed and misguided, but I put the unaltered text of the gospel on the internet as an act of peaceful dissent, as an explicit protest against the scheduled war in Iraq. I believe the world needs to see a better example from America, just as my son needs to sleep at night listening to better sounds than gunfire and mortar blasts.

Peace

and may your sins be forgiven

UNCLASSIFIED 1983 $ UNCLASSIFIED

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