My name is Andrew Montalenti, and I want to make your life better. Through all my wandering, I’ve noticed that only two things have some potential of doing that: political change and technological change. And so, that’s what my website is about.

I’ve found that even though lots of great technology websites exist, and even though lots of great political websites exist, it is quite rare to find a blog which focuses on both technology and politics. I consider this blog a bit of a journey for me, since its major goal is to endeavor to find the way the intersection between these two topics can lead to general human progress. I am hoping that as I write about political and technological issues side by side, I will begin to see the connections they have to one another.

In any event, if you are the kind of person who could care less about technological issues, or political issues, then feel free to browse my site using the category system. For example, it’s very easy to visit my Politics section or Technology section exclusively, since those are the umbrella topics for just about all the other subcategories.

As for me, I’m a software developer. Technology has always been an obsession of mine, but not my only one. I still like to think of myself as a student, of Computer Science and other things. If I had all the time in the world and no money concerns, I’d get five undergraduate degrees, probably in History, Economics, Philosophy, Journalism and English. Since I don’t have that much time or money, I settle for reading about those topics and others in my spare time. In that sense, I take pride in my relative well-roundedness, especially for a bona fide computer geek.

I’m hoping this well-roundedness will eventually lead me to a way to apply technological advancements for political change; my big dream in life is to develop some piece of technology that reinvigorates the public discourse.

You’ll find less about my personal life here and more about such hot political topics as globalization, the media, corporate power, ethics and morality. On the technology side of things, you’ll find things related to computer science, operating systems, and perhaps more specifically Linux and programming.

For those who are interested, I finished my B.A. at NYU, and if you are a prospective buyer of my labor, you can have a look at my resume.

The name of my website comes from the United States’ founding document, the Declaration of Independence. Here is a reproduction of the preamble and first sections, with the relevant section highlighted:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government…

It is through this historical document that I justify my own criticisms of the US Government as nothing short of patriotism, and my yearning for change as nothing less than the true American spirit.