The Idle Hierophant

No Agenda

2010-01-24T11:18:00.001-05:00

The Republicans has reason to gloat over the recent MA victory. The feeble organization and leadership of the Democrats with health care reform and the poor job they've done of communicating to the public the facts of healthcare reform are also noteworthy. We're going to lose seats in the next election, to be sure.

That said, the GOP has no agenda, no plan, and no leadership. Their health care plan is nonexistent, because they don't want health care reform, ever. If it doesn't benefit corporations or the super-rich, they don't want it, and saving the lives of people not currently covered doesn't register on their radar. So much for preserving the sanctity of life. (I guess once born, you're on your own.) Their crass excuses are becoming tiresome; "let's take more time on this" they say, and "this is the wrong time for this with the high deficit" they claim ... what nonsense. They want to slow down health care because slowing it is half-way to killing it. The economy and high deficits meant little to them when Bush was driving the deficit through the roof for their agenda, but now that its the Democrats turn, suddenly money is an issue. Please.

Moreover, the Republican Party suffers from a huge leadership gap. They have no real figureheads, save for the most extreme, polarizing individuals—Rush, Beck, Palin, and perhaps Cheney. The average moderate Republican voter must be desperate for someone, anyone, that has some real brains to step up. Until this happens, the Republican party remains simply the Party of No. Eventually they will have to step up with leadership and ideas—real ideas that benefit normal Americans and not simply the fat cats—or they will soon find themselves in deep trouble. It's easy to oppose the Democrats and spread misinformation during a period of bad economy (that GOP and Bush policies largely helped create), but after you start taking over the majority again GOP, then what? The tired GOP trifecta of opposing gay marriage, opposing abortion, and threatening other countries with military action won't cut it when it comes to restoring jobs or fixing the real problems that face us today.

Well said!

2009-09-09T22:49:00.003-04:00

The President tried tonight, but I fear healthcare reform is hitting the third rail. The GOP, trading in their treasured coin of fear tactics and lies, coupled with Obama's "loose reins" approach (a well-meaning intent to avoid the mistakes of the Clinton years), could well sink the public option. Or the whole reform. Meanwhile Big PHARMA has already rung out concessions from Congress. So the insurance and pharma companies will get richer and more people will go broke or die because of the ridiculous cost of healthcare in this country. [sigh]

The Bill Moyers Journal says it well here. Give a listen.

Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away

2009-07-25T10:43:00.010-04:00

Today is Sarah Palin's last day in office serving as governor (much to Alaska's relief, no doubt). Now it's off to make a fortune selling books to those "lower 48" states and to clean up on the lecture circuit. If we're lucky she'll earn just enough to buy a new, deluxe tanning bed and then she'll disappear.

I've heard right-wind pundits talk about how scared the liberals/progressives are of Palin. Damn right. We always fear the unholy union of naked ambition coupled with laziness and raw stupidity. We've had one president who didn't read newspapers, and look where it got us. Go back and watch the Couric interviews again ... the mere idea that this dingbat could make ascend to higher office and make decisions that could shape the course of world history is truly, truly frightening. Stephen King couldn't dream up during his worst nightmare something as horrifying as the prospect of this starry-eyed dolt signing laws that would affect me and my family.

Of course, given her current negative-approval rating of 53%, I suspect she would only lead the Republicans to another utter defeat in 2012. She's really the gift that keeps giving. I also suspect that the ranks of Independents (if not Democrats) would swell with yet more disaffected Republicans should she run, but there also that mindless contingent that will vote for her or support her strictly because of her conservative stances regardless of how obviously moronic and dangerous she is. (This week various experts on FOX "News" were calling Obama dangerous ... holy crap! Let's see, a choice between a man who taught constitutional law and a woman who skins elk and can't even name a magazine or newspaper she reads when asked twice...)

So I say to Sarah, don't go away mad, just go away.

Goodbye Mollie

2009-07-03T10:39:00.012-04:00

Mollie Sugden died July 1st after a long illness; her twin daughters were at her bedside. She was 86 years old. Mollie worked in theatre (where she met her future husband William Moore) and starred in such British shows as The Liver Birds and Coronation Street, but she is best known to American audiences as the fiercely outspoken Mrs. Slocombe on the britcom Are You Being Served?. She also later starred in the sequel of sorts, Grace & Favour, in which the department store coworkers attempt to make a go of a country bed and breakfast establishment.

A long-running joke on the show involved her references to her cat, Tiddles, also known as her pussy.

For a classic bit, click here and go to timecount 7:50. In this scene Mrs. Slocombe is speaking about her cat's pregnancy, but only Ms. Brahms knows she's talking about her cat.

Mollie, as Mrs. Slocombe, really defined Are You Being Served? a great deal. Much of the action and laughs revolves around her character, and she had a central role most of the Men's Dept vs Women's Dept action on the show. Her stance toward management is something many of us can appreciate.

Thank you Mollie for the many hours of laughter you've given me, and I am unanimous in that.

Crazy Like a FOX

2009-06-27T09:32:00.009-04:00

The story of embattled South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford broke on the FOX News network as it did elsewhere, but wait there's a problem...

"(D)"? They seem to have mislabeled a Republican in disgrace as a Democrat. Luckily, this has never happened before...

Oh.

In a word: owe up to your own, folks. The Republican Party has climbed onto its high horse and self-labeled itself the party of family values and the keepers of general morality, but the endless stream of shamed Republican politicians belie that notion. Newt Gingritch, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, John Ensign, Mark Sanford... Did you catch that scent? It's the smell of hypocrisy in the air.

Pitch Perfect

2009-06-22T22:59:00.010-04:00

Conservative criticism to the contrary, Obama's soft stance on the Iran voting crisis is dead-on. There are those who foolishly insist the President, speaking as the voice of freedom et al., insist that the revolting citizens are correct, the election was rigged, and so on. This is wrong.

The Iran hardliners and Ahmadinejad's camp would love to make this debate into Iran versus the Evil West rather than Iran versus many of its citizens. They have already warned the US not to meddle in a thinly veiled, weak attempt to do just that. A bold comment by the US would only give them the ammunition to make a valid case, swaying some citizens toward Ahmadinejad and inviting distraction at a time when a shocking minor(?) revolution is taking place.

This past Sunday, Monica Crowley, displaying a typically Republican lack of long-term vision, insisted that Obama take such a ill-fated stance. Lawrence O'Donnell immediately took her to task for the position, and pointed out that the result of such a statement would be ... well what? Would the elected individual step down? Would the Supreme Leader suddenly cal for a recount? Seriously, folks. The result—the only possible result—would be Iran shaking its fist at the US and crying foul. Their people lose or get distracted, they take a tougher stance (probably killing more protesters than they might otherwise), and our next series of diplomatic talks with them are automatically unproductive. Brilliant strategy, so we can—what?—feel we said the right thing? Anyone with a modicum of intelligence understands that the current Administration would love to see a power shift over there.

This is the difference between an intelligent, measured Administration and a swaggering, foolish one—giving thought to one's actions and their possible repercussions, lest you, I don't know, start a messy war or something.

100 Days

2009-04-29T23:21:00.005-04:00

Ever since FDR’s New Deal, all new presidents have been cursed with the “100 days” evaluation. Today President Obama has hit this somewhat infamous benchmark, and he is doing surprisingly well. The latest polls show his job approval rating at 69% (wouldn’t Bush have killed for that!), 90% feel he is a competent Commander in Chief, the Right Track/Wrong Track numbers have gone from 20/80% to 60/40% since Obama took office, and a poll this week in the Wall Street Journal (hardly a bastion of the "liberal media") ranked Obama's personal likability at 91%. The GOB pundits are crying foul at the levels of spending and his friendliness toward certain world leaders, but considering that only 21% of Americans label themselves Republicans according to their values it seems a safe bet we can ignore such chatter.

Obama promised to close Gitmo and reduce troop levels in Iraq, and prudent steps have been taken to make that so. He planned to inject roughly 800 billion into the economy, and Congress signed through approximately 787 billion. It’s been a good 100 days. He also signed off on absolutely banning torture his very first day, though some dislike that policy…

Torture

After the economy, the torture issue has been getting a lot of press recently (fueled in part by Dick Cheney’s incessant babbling on FOX News). What I want to know is, when did the use of torture ever become a debate? If you or your parents had been asked in grade school, “Do Americans torture?” the instant, authoritative answer would be “No, they don’t.”

So what has changed? Torture is still not an effective means of getting information (as saying what people want to hear and providing actionable intelligence are not the same). I’m also getting tired of the “we live in different times” or “this is a different kind of war” argument. Yeah, so? Were the days after Pearl Harbor a relaxing time for the country? All wars are different. Was Korea not different from Viet Nam ? Was Viet Nam not different from World War II? World War II different from the Civil War?

If we are going to yield our moral fiber, what exactly are we defending? There are those who would gladly permit secret government wiretapping of our own citizens and torture, yet they say we must defend ourselves against “evil” states. If we stoop to that level, we’ve already joined those states; the war is already over.

A Specter of Change?

Arlen Specter joined the ranks of the Democrats this week, bringing us closer to that filibuster-proof majority of yore. I knew I liked that tough old sage. Now if Al Franken’s lawyers come through, we’re off to the races.

Here’s to the next 100 days.

Good for a hoot.

2009-04-07T23:04:00.001-04:00

Old Rush got the business this week ... from one of his own party. (No photos today; I really don't want to see that pudgy face on my site.) Give a listen. Love it.

Bereft of Ideas

2009-03-27T20:08:00.005-04:00

We’re now 60 days in and counting, and the new Administration is rolling along fast. Despite the enormous challenges left gift wrapped at this Administration’s door, they’ve already worked nimbly on multiple fronts. Good. Now if they could only learn to screen their potential appointees a little better…

The Republicans have basically become the Party of No, desperately clinging to their long-disgraced economic policies and basically refusing to go along with anything, yet offering precious little new ideas in return. In the meantime, they longingly search for a scandal, any scandal, to hang around the new president’s neck.

Mass Amnesia?

Most amusing are the complaints coming from these guys. I too worry about the debt of future generations, but where, pray tell, was this great concern about the mounting deficit (at least 1.3 trillion of which President Obama inherited) when they were happily lining up without complaint behind George W. Bush’s wild spending sprees, tax cuts, and other excesses?
Now that the spending is actually to be applied to things that can benefit future generations—better education, lower healthcare costs, greater environmental safety, and true energy independence, rather than filling the coffers of the super-rich—these guys suddenly turn fiscal conservative on us. Convenient.

Mitt Romney appeared on Sunday television a few weeks ago and mocked Obama’s plan to half the deficit in 4 years. Where was his scorn when Bush said he’d cut his deficit in half in the next 10? (I’ve personally always found it amusing when a current president states they’ll achieve a fiscal benchmark well after their term expires—talk about passing the buck!)

Not that it matters. As usual, the last departing Republican president has upheld the tradition of leaving a deficit-happy fiscal disaster for his Democratic successor, so it’s truly doubtful that meaningful changes will be forthcoming because now we simply don’t have the capital.

Equally amusing (though it’s really infuriating) are their cries about Wall Street bonuses and their cries for investigations. Oh really? No mention of investigations about secret prisons, wiretapping of Americans, torture of prisoners, secret meetings with energy executives, screwed up invasions, botching of Katrena, bad treatment of veterans (shall I go on?), but some contracted bonuses have them in a huff. They act Populist to gain public sympathy while ignoring their continual cries over the previous 8 years for less Wall Street regulation and “ownership society” policies. It would appear, intentionally or not, they have short memories indeed.

Clinging to the Old

The Republicans, if really they wish to gain public trust, rebuild their party, and milk the current Populism, need to stop their endless policies to benefit only the rich and the corporations. They are painfully transparent, and it’s getting old.

As recently as this month, good old Newt Gingrich (whose intelligence I respect, if not admire) pushed in editorials for lower capital-gains taxes (gee, who would that benefit?) and lowering the business tax rate to match Ireland’s (at 12.5% currently). This is just another version of the tired voodoo, trickle-down economics, and it doesn’t work. If you give companies greater profits, they don’t suddenly give all their workers a raise, the company leaders simply take a greater profit. Many is the time I heard companies slash raises and such because of bad economic times, but never in my life have I seen a company say “Hey, we’re making great profits and the economy is surging, so look for a bonus in your next paycheck!” But hey, maybe it’s because I don’t work in lower Manhattan.

Today the Republicans brandished their “new plan” under Obama’s nose, deriding claims that they had no new ideas. I haven’t yet read it, but I’ve heard it’s a trifle light on numbers (as in few if any) and I’m willing to offer excellent odds that it keeps the deficit-burgeoning Bush tax cuts, encourages at-home drilling at the expense of our children’s environment for the enrichment of oil companies, and gives more fiscal benefits to employers than employees. Any takers?

Just Basking

2008-12-03T19:29:00.004-05:00

So many things to comment about... so little time.

How about some quick takes?

Hillary. Good choice?
My take: Yes. She quick on the uptake, and she'll be surprisingly loyal. If Obama will give Bill ambassadorship of, say, Antarctica, he'll be all set.

Bill Richardson. Good pick?
Hell yes. We even got the beard-free version.

Detroit. Bail 'em out?

Yes. They are idiots, embracing failed models, too many brands, and they're far too slow to build good, reliable cars that aren't SUVs, but the loss of jobs would be devastating. I say we exact huge promises out of them before they see a cent. No more battles over increasing the millage of their cars.

Gotta run.
But in the meantime I'm going to bask in the presidential victory. Ahhh. Petty perhaps, but I sincerely hope that all the idiots that wrote into the newspapers crowing about Bush's supposed mandate and "political capital" back in 2004 put the election results in their collective pipe and take a good puff. Change has come. As usual, the other side has left us a horrendous mess to clean up, on more fronts than can be counted, a legacy of a obviously failed administration that embraced incompetence and tunnel vision when not swaggering with unearned bravado or buckling under its own misguided ideolology—but such is life. It's a new day.

A Letter to Aron

2008-10-30T16:42:00.003-04:00

Great story. Great candidate.
Read all about it here.

Cutsie yeah, but I'm a sucker for the hype.

Hey There Sarah

2008-10-14T00:25:00.006-04:00

I've spent weeks reeling in horror from the possibility that Sarah Palin could possibly be one position removed from being President of the United States. Yikes. These two videos say it better than I could, and honestly, this dingbat doesn't deserve my writing time. Enjoy the show.

"Hey Sarah Palin"

Jack Cafferty Speaks About Sarah

Lies

2008-09-22T18:30:00.005-04:00

Events have been unfolding fast in this Presidential campaign, too fast for me to keep up it seems (I've also been very busy these days), but it does appear that a clear path of attack for Obama has opened up—one that even the continually and tragically befuddled Democrats can employ: The McCain camp has been lying like hell. Continually.

On TV and on the stump, whether it Palin's pathetically false "Thanks but no thanks" statement about the so-called bridge to nowhere that she ardently supported (before it became a public embarrassment to Alaska anyway) or the McCain ad claims that Obama "supported comprehensive sex education for minors" when Obama actually supports a program to help children recognize and avoid sexual predators, they've been playing beyond loose with the facts.

Both sides traditionally stretch the truth in negative ads and attacks, that is American politics, but as Joe Klein mentions in his most recent TIME op-ed, this time McCain has completely sailed beyond the edge of normal politics into Fantasyland, even repeating lies again and again that have been proved demonstratably false to anyone with an IQ above 50.

Even when the McCain camp complains about being called liars, they lie.

It's pathetic, and doubly so because McCain, whom I once admired, promised to run an 'honorable campaign" and supposedly holds personal integrity in great regard. Were is the honor in baseless allegations, lies, and smears?

Should He Stay or Should He Go Now?

2008-07-19T00:05:00.008-04:00

Should I stay or
should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double
—The Clash

The McCain staff isn't giving Obama a break. So much for running a "respectful" campaign. The amusing part is the flip-flopping, "try whatever sticks" attacks (usually delivered by a lackey).

First they critized Obama for saying he would bomb in Pakistan. Then later they commented that Obama was wrong to consider terrorist actions a police matter (something he's never actually said) and eschewing military action. Well, what's the problem—not enough force or too little?

Now they're going on about Obama's travel plans. McCain wouldn't shut up about the fact that Obama hasn't been to Iraq in years (since 2006 actually, so say a year and a half). Now that Obama is heading over there, killing their favorite line of attack, they're calling his trip a campaign stunt and saying he should concentrate on issues here at home instead of "campaigning abroad" (their term). Sigh.

Aren't folks getting tired of these tired, it-worked-last-time attacks?

And now some guy in Florida—I think it's Florida but I really don't care enough to check—is putting up 9-11 billboards advertising a song about not voting for a Democrat.

A quote from the CNN story on this dipshit:

"I believe 9/11 could have been prevented if we'd had a Republican president at the time," Meehan said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."

Um ... hello? A Republican president at the time, eh? Who was in the White House at the time, Billboard Guy, Al Gore? Of course, perhaps he was playing that favorite of Republican games, blame the current mess on the last president (it's a favorite of theirs every time they screw up the economy yet again), but that too falls factually short since Clinton in 2000 authorized deadly force against a certain 9-11 terrorist mastermind the current Administration stopped mentioning a few years ago...

(Amusingly, another fellow claims the song name was stolen from him, and he's responded by not only insulting the Billboard Guy but also by posting his receipt for a $250 donation to the Obama campaign. Love it.)

I'm getting too old for this. Is it November yet?

Cookie-Gate

2008-06-17T19:46:00.008-04:00

Yeah, I know, I've got to move on to better things—like John McCain's ridiculous plan for "fixing" our economy—but I couldn't resist touching on smaller potatoes.

Evidently Cindy McCain has posted a few "family recipes" on the official McCain website. One can appreciate this rich lady wanting the American people to see her happy home-maker side. One problem: she lifted them from elsewhere. Don't believe me? Take a gander of a side-by-side of "her" recipe and one that was previously posted at the Food Network's site. I put them right next to each other for your viewing pleasure. Go ahead and click on that image to enlarge it a bit, be my guest.

Evidently Mrs. McCain has pilfered her recipes from a variety of sources. Back in the July 2008 edition of Family Circle she submitted a cookie receipe, only to have an eagle-eyed reader realize the recipe had been copied from Hershey's website. Oops.

See here and here. (I believe the blame was laid at the feet of an intern, who was fired.)

I guess she's back to her old tricks.

In the big scheme of things, this doesn't mean a whole lot perhaps. Rachel Ray is taking it in stride (and using it in an attempt to get Cindy on her show). For me, it's a good glimpse of how they operate—both the McCains and many Republican operatives in general, however. They assume we're not paying attention. They assume we're stupid. And they'll lie about things great and small, often with impunity. Let's all remember to pay attention between now and Election Day.

No More Sundays

2008-06-13T18:00:00.004-04:00

Tim Russert died this afternoon, apparently of a heart attack (although details are still emerging). He had recently returned from Europe and was in his offices across from the White House preparing for his evening show when he collapsed. He was only 58 years old.

I am terribly, terribly saddened by this news. Tim’s face was a regular one in my household, and scarcely a Sunday passed without my watching Meet the Press. Tim took over the show in 1991 and molded into a powerful creation of his own making—if you wanted to be taken seriously in the world of politics, or indeed by the world at large, you went on Meet the Press. Period. His insidiously subtle style of grilling important people, even presidents, often confronting them with their own words or broken promises, was famous. Yet he did it in a respectful, gentle manner, and almost always the guests left laughing or smiling.

To this day, I have no idea what Tim’s political leanings were. He was fair, grilling both Democrats and Republicans with equal aplomb, wit, and style. His knowledge of politics was incredible, and he was tireless in doing what he so obviously loved. The image of the crazy 2000 election night for me is defined by Tim Russert scribbling furiously on a tiny whiteboard, once again making sense of this country’s political bedlam for us mere mortals.

This is truly a loss for the entire nation. I will mourn you Tim. Thank you for all the great Sundays and all the great words of wisdom over the years.

Scott Speaks

2008-05-27T23:08:00.006-04:00

The latest in a long, long line of critical Administration "insider" books will be released next week, as former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dishes out what looks to be a surprisingly harsh tome.
McClellan was known to be extremely loyal to Bush over many years, so it is shocking to see some of the tidbits contained in the book excerpts:

“The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

and

“History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder. No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”

Whoa. I'm starting to think Scott may not be welcome at the next Crawford clambake.

Sounds like a good read by the fireplace.

Shedding the Knife

2008-04-05T11:47:00.003-04:00

I'll keep this short. StoryCorps never fails to amaze and delight me, as people from all walks of life share their special stories. Often it is the most mundane, ordinary people that present the most courageous and inspiring tales. Enough of my chatter; check out the link. If possible, listen and don't just read it. But do check it out.

A risky thing to do. Probably. But such brave actions change our world for the better, one person at a time.

Welcome Spring

2008-03-24T19:04:00.005-04:00

Spring is here!
Today I'll present a reading selection. Enjoy, gentle readers.

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
By George Orwell

Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water. Something--some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature--has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year from time to time--at any rate, I have more than once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of the summer.

At this period, after his long fast, the toad has a very spiritual look, like a strict Anglo-Catholic towards the end of Lent. His movements are languid but purposeful, his body is shrunken, and by contrast his eyes look abnormally large. This allows one to notice, what one might not at another time, that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.

For a few days after getting into the water the toad concentrates on building up his strength by eating small insects. Presently he has swollen to his normal size again, and then he hoes through a phase of intense sexiness. All he knows, at least if he is a male toad, is that he wants to get his arms round something, and if you offer him a stick, or even your finger, he will cling to it with surprising strength and take a long time to discover that it is not a female toad. Frequently one comes upon shapeless masses of ten or twenty toads rolling over and over in the water, one clinging to another without distinction of sex. By degrees, however, they sort themselves out into couples, with the male duly sitting on the female's back. You can now distinguish males from females, because the male is smaller, darker and sits on top, with his arms tightly clasped round the female's neck. After a day or two the spawn is laid in long strings which wind themselves in and out of the reeds and soon become invisible. A few more weeks, and the water is alive with masses of tiny tadpoles which rapidly grow larger, sprout hind-legs, then forelegs, then shed their tails: and finally, about the middle of the summer, the new generation of toads, smaller than one's thumb-nail but perfect in every particular, crawl out of the water to begin the game anew.

I mention the spawning of the toads because it is one of the phenomena of spring which most deeply appeal to me, and because the toad, unlike the skylark and the primrose, has never had much of a boost from poets. But I am aware that many people do not like reptiles or amphibians, and I am not suggesting that in order to enjoy the spring you have to take an interest in toads. There are also the crocus, the missel-thrush, the cuckoo, the blackthorn, etc. The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site. Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road. There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.

The Hip Boots Requirement

2008-02-27T18:09:00.007-05:00

Whilst riding home from work today, I caught a great mini-interview on NPR. Robert Siegel was speaking with Bill Cunningham, host of the Cincinnati radio program The Big Show with Bill Cunningham on WLW. They were of course discussing Cunningham’s recent flap with John McCain, and some of the things Cunningham said regarding Barack Obama. When warming up a crowd for McCain, the radio host repeatedly referred to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as Barack HUSSEIN Obama (emphasis his).

Robert Siegel asked why the emphasis on the middle name. Bill Cunningham rattled off a number of famous presidents that used their middle names and said he merely did it to present Obama is a more respectful light.

Siegel, rather incredulously, asked if, as widely reported, Cunningham was trying to link Obama via his last name to Muslimism and he noted that Cunningham had incorrectly added other, false middle names to Obama’s on his radio show. Cunningham stated that 98% of the time he was right, but on his radio show he had been wrong (he blamed it on Internet sources that misstated Obama’s full name), but anyway, he was just using Barack’s full name as a sign of respect and not to stir up trouble.

Listen here.
Or read here.

Riiiight.

Cunningham also said he had been invited to “throw red meat to the crowd” and that now, given McCain’s apology for his commentary, he would “sleep easier” seeing Hillary in the White House. Obviously a loyal guy. And a popular show host for the Radical Right. Let’s see: you distort and fear-monger onstage, then lie about it, then smear your host. I can see why the Republican crowd loves him.

His commentary, what little I’ve heard, was typical rants about how—woe is us!—the press gives Obama and company a pass but picks on Bush and Cheney, and how they should criticize everyone. Well, Mr. Cunningham, perhaps if Obama cherry-picks intelligence to engineer an expensive war that costs us nearly 4,000 lives (and counting), lies about secret CIA prisons and torture, or jerry-rigs an election, perhaps I’ll agree it’s time The New York Times got on his case too.

Until then, you and your adoring crowd can just hold your breath.

Thus ends today’s sermon. Thanks for your indulgence.

And now a word from our contestants...

2008-01-08T22:23:00.001-05:00

Mitt Romney: I'm in. No, I'm out. No, I'm in, I've had a change of heart.

Rudy Giuliani: Not 9-11 worried 9-11 because 9-11 we'll 9-11 get 9-11 them 9-11 in 9-11 Florida ...

Mike Huckabee: I'm coming in third in New Hampshire? Praise the Lord. And you over there, straighten that bookshelf.

John McCain: !!$#@!!! whippersnappers.

Fred Thompson: Zzzzz.

Hillary Clinton: Shit. Bill? Shit. Do I cry yet, or is that scheduled for tomorrow?

Barack Obama: You'll get no details from me, but don't I look great saying that? Yeaah!

John Edwards: Grrr!

Joe Biden: Hey, I was right about Rudy at least.

Ron Paul to Dennis Kucinich: Had enough? Good, Deep Space Nine is on, and I've got some beer in the fridge.

Christmas Songs – Top 10

2007-12-24T18:27:00.000-05:00

Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite Christmas songs:

Bonus Track! 11. Happy X-Mas (War is Over)
In this song, John Lennon begs the world for peace … a valuable sentiment, in any season.

10. All I Want for Christmas is You
Ye gods, a Mariah song I like! It’s true. It’s rather cutsie, but I like it.

9. Please Come Home for Christmas
A blues standard. There’s actually a surprising amount of X-mas blues tunes out there, but this tops my list. The Eagles gave it a good effort, and Jon Bon Jovi does a shockingly good cover of this, but for the real McCoy get your hands on the Charles Brown (no, the blues singer) version.

8. Santa Baby
Eartha Kitt first sung and recording this in 1953, and she said it was a favorite song of hers. Smoky, bluesy, with a touch of sultry greed … this one charms with its bald-faced honesty.

7. Holly Jolly Christmas
Johnny Marks wrote a number of good Christmas songs, this among them. Burl Ives wasn’t the first to record it, but his happy voice is probably the first folks think of when this song is mentioned.

6. Let it Snow
A great love song that never bothers to mention Christmas, this tune has been covered at least 30 times to my count. Great stuff.

5. Christmas Wrapping
In 1981 the New Wave band The Waitresses spun a great tale of love lost, and found, and lost, and found… Charming, humorous, and something that touches a common chord.

4. What Child is This?
My favorite version of this lovely song is the Vanessa Williams version, well sung and passionately rendered.

3. White Christmas
The film Holiday Inn made this Irving Berlin tune immortal, and with good reason—no one does it like Bing Crosby.

2. The Christmas Song
This wonderful tune was written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells during a particularly hot streatcch of summer, when Wells jotted some wintery-sounding thoughts on paper to cool off (mentally at least). Nat King Cole recorded several versions, beginning in 1946. Others have made covers of the song, but to me Nat's buttery voice invokes hot rum cider sipped before a warm fire.

1. Jingle Bell Rock
A fast, spirited song that, to me, sums up everything cool about holiday music. It gets me in a good mood every time I hear it for the first time in the season, without fail. That’s enough to earn it first place!

There are many, many more songs I could have mentioned, but this list is good enough for this year!

Get the lyrics and hear many of the songs mentioned here.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the very best going into 2008!

A Dispatch From Cuba

2007-12-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

National Public Radio’s This I Believe segment today aired a wonderful piece by a former Guantanamo Bay interrogator. This isn’t a segment about torture; it’s a passionate soliloquy about enemies coming together and finding passive, mutual redemption. I was moved by it, and I urge my readers to please follow this link and read the piece, or, much better yet, listen to it.

Perhaps one day all the people of the world will realize we’re not so different after all. A naïve belief perhaps, but I certainly hope so.

Mordor Bound

2007-11-12T00:37:00.000-05:00

This weekend saw us pulling out the long-buried Lord of the Rings RISK (LotR RISK) box for a try. It had been a while since we played this particular version of RISK, and I had never used the full, Trilogy version game board.

Note: For those unfamiliar with the Hasbro-related controversy, the original LotR RISK set had a game board that stopped above Gondor and Mordor—which was particularly odd since the ring travels toward Mordor throughout the game and because one or more players play the forces of darkness. It appears that because the initial release was tied to the Peter Jackson films, and The Two Towers had just been released at that point, the minds at Hasbro disliked the idea of revealing the full board. As a result, the buyers got a truncated board, and when the so-called Trilogy edition was released instead of containing an add-on board piece, as was expected, it contained another whole game with a full board. Folks who had purchased the initial set felt screwed and felt as if they had to buy the whole game again to complete the set. They complained. Loudly. Hasbro soon stepped up to the plate and made a “filler set” (my term here) available for a small fee.
I purchased the add-on, and for about $16 I received the full board, a full set of game pieces (some in different colors than the original set), and new rules and cards—basically everything in the Trilogy box except the box itself, it would seem! (A nice bargain.) To add to the confusion (and insult for some), a UK version actually did include just an add-on board piece, which also had a new, additional siege game printed on the reverse side!

At game start, the players had the majority of their holdings as marked in the large graphic below.

Initial turns saw Larry easily take most of Gondor, right to the edge of Mordor. He largely abandoned pursuit of other areas elsewhere.

Markus, having deposited virtually all his troops up north, made an early and expected push for Eriador (light green on map). Here came the first game-changing sequence of events… The Shire, held by Larry with one brigade, held off a huge force of elves, costing Markus numerous brigades. After seeing six or seven brigades fall to the mighty halflings(?), Mark quit his assault in disgust. It was a major blow from which he would never fully recover. He took his required three countries and ended his turn.

Meanwhile, in the south, Willie and I prepared for what I thought would be a hideous war of attrition in Mordor (dark grey on map). We both began with even holdings in the region, as well as him having some above and me beneath—a deadly clash seemed inevitable. I feared we would destroy each other, leaving the crumbs left to Larry’s hordes. Then—shock!—Willie proposed a plan: he would leave Mordor and Haradwaith (gold) to me, and he would move his troops north to mass on Rhovanion (brown). He asked that, in exchange for awaiting his peaceful withdrawal, that I limit my incursions onto Rhovanion. I happily accepted his terms. In the long run, it probably helped him more than I, but it certainly prevented a dual extermination that would certainly have destroyed one or both of us right from the start.

Soon, as expected, Willie gobbled up most of Rhovanion and also made some inroads into Rhun (burnt umber). Strengthened by a lucky, early trio of cards (netting me an additional 10 brigades) I took portions of Mordor and Haradwaith, and moved to clash with Larry in a deadly face-off that would decide the fate of Mirkwood (dark green). Some of the elven brigades in the Anduin Valley turned traitor (thanks to a played card) and I finally took the forest.

Subsequent turns saw Larry secure Gondor, although Willie skirmished with him frequently in Ithilien and South Ithilien (the far eastern area of Gondor near Mordor). He nudged his troops slowly northward as well. I gobbled up the strongholds in Mordor one by one, beginning with Barad-Dur, and I took Mirkwood from Larry. Soon Haradwaith was mine as well. Willie took the rest of Rhovanion, clashed with Larry outside Mordor, and steered toward Fangorn and the Gap of Rohan.
Markus meanwhile took over various northern countries but failed to take a continent. I continued to bolster a contingent of men I had placed in Eriador—mainly to prevent his taking this region early on—and their presence seemed to dissuade him from making a push for Eriador due to his lack of troop strength.

Late turns saw multiple attempts to slow the ring and everyone tried to complete missions (I think only Larry was successful in this) and secure regions. I finally took Mordor, only to watch helplessly as Larry invaded via sea to seize 90% of Haradwaith for his own. I unleashed my northern hordes to take 90% of Eriador and I took all of Rhun but a single country (which was inhabited by Willie’s ogre force).

Willie continued to assault the edges of Gondor and ruined Larry’s chances of securing that continent. Willie marched on Fangorn.
Markus eventually took and lost different northern and central countries, and used his final turn (the last of the game as it turned out). As the One Ring plunged into the fires of Mount Doom, Markus attacked Moria and Carrock in a successful attempt to play “spoiler” and disrupt our control of Rhovanion and Mirkwood, respectively. (I stupidly never claimed all of Rhun or Eriador, losing complete control of two regions by one country each.)

When the smoke cleared I edged to a clear point victory, helped by the numerous strongholds I held, and Markus and Willie tied for second. Larry, despite the best starting plays of the game, fell short of victory. I was a great, edge-of-the-seat clash between four very evenly matched forces (and players)!

Halloween Treats

2007-10-29T00:20:00.001-04:00

I love Halloween; it's probably my favorite holiday of the year. Halloween weekend in my house always includes a few frightening movies, played back-to-back and viewed with friends (beer, coffee, and chips also in abundance). This year, in addition to a few “scary” Three Stooges shorts inserted to break up the gloom, were two offerings I had never seen before: The Descent (2005) and Saw (2004). I often prefer older, classic movies—such as The Omen—so this year I went for the new(ish).

The Descent

This movie involves a group of six women who partake in a yearly adventure-sport outing. Shortly after a white water rafting trip in Scotland, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) loses her husband and young daughter to a grisly automobile accident. Her strong-willed friend Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) and Beth (Alex Reid) convince her to join the next expedition—a caving excursion in a scarcely populated area of North Carolina.

After arriving and entering the cave system, things begin to go badly wrong. The women are trapped by a cave-in, and Juno admits that, rather than exploring the ‘boring” cave system they had planned to visit, that she purposefully led them to an unmapped, unexplored cave system. The ladies hunt for a way out, struggling with injuries, short supplies, and each other, and just as things can’t apparently get worse they do—something else in the caves is alive and wants to feed on them.

The film worked for me. This is straight-up horror. The film-makers don’t bother with gratuitous topless scenes or silly humor—this is pure horror, like it or not.

The six characters, while not all well defined, are realistic and reflect all stripes from the reckless and headstrong to the meek and over-cautious. All the major food groups of horror are represented: claustrophobia, darkness, fear of heights, painful injury, being trapped, being hunted, and friends you cannot trust. Jump-at-you scares are coupled with rising dread well. My biggest complaints: at times, especially as the action picks up in the last third of the movie, it’s difficult to tell whom is with whom or where people are in the caves; the creatures also could have used a slower revelation, in that once the women become clued in that they may not be alone, the creatures are there in abundance attacking them. The creatures themselves, described as “crawlers” in the credits, were well played and frightening.

Saw

This film has become a popular franchise, so a I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw it. For the uninitiated: the plot of this first installment finds two men, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell) awaking in a dirty room, chained to the wall. Neither one appears to know the other. They discover cassette tapes in their pockets and, after obtaining a recorder clutched in the palm of a corpse lying between them, play the tapes. They are being held captive by Jigsaw, a serial killer know for placing his victims in devious deathtraps where they must undertake almost unthinkable actions to survive. Following slim clues, they find hacksaws that are too thin to cut the heavy chains that bind them … but perfectly adequate for cutting off their feet. Meanwhile Dr. Gordon is told that he must kill the increasingly untrustworthy Adam by 6-o-clock—or his family will die.

For a series of films known for its gore (the third installment is reputed to be particularly gruesome) I found this film very “blood light” and far more of a mental exercise. This is not to say it doesn’t work—it does. At times the plot gets stretched a bit thin, and the film must be viewed tongue in check, but watched in that light I thought it to be an effective, interesting bit of psychological horror. I was happy to see Danny Glover in the role of an obsessed detective, and Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannel (who also co-wrote the movie) turn in reasonable performances.

I wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

A Yawner

2007-10-10T22:45:00.001-04:00

The recent Republican debate was a bit of a yawner. True to form, most of those on stage tried hard to invoke the spirit of Ronald Regan—they summon him up like the Ghost of Christmas past, it seems. Or they wish they could. Tax breaks, tax breaks … yeah, yeah. How is it that the conservatives, who are so xenophobic at heart, don’t mind if we borrow money from China like there’s no tomorrow? What happened to the financial conservatives anyway? Doesn’t anyone have a problem with the mounting (actually it’s already a mountain) debt? (And please, for the love of Pete, don’t tell me we live in a different kind of world now. Bankrupting your country isn’t the first sensible response to terrorism that leaps to my mind.)

Eventually national security came up, as it always does with these guys, but I lost interest before Rudy could invoke 9/11. Ron Paul was the only one onstage to speak any truth to power with regards to foreign policy, the purposeful limits of presidential power, and the utter lack of a direct threat Iran poses us. His reward was to be cast as the nut of the group, the one so far behind he can howl away as he pleases and occasionally speak common sense—sort of the Dennis Kucinich of their side, I suppose.

Fred Thompson’s debut was also a major yawner. He started a bit unsteadily, but gradually got into the role. Given that he’s used to working off a script—I love him as an actor, by the way—I personally thought he’d do better. He was OK, but okay doesn’t cut it for Thompson at this point. He’s got to emerge at a run and impress the voters, and I seriously doubt he did that. Indeed, as John Stewart so ably said on Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, we’ve already had one fairly lazy, gloss over the details, leaving the thinking to others, drawl as I speak -type president and Thompson is just more of that… it’s time we had a thinker in the White House.

I passionately agree.

Foregone Conclusions

2007-09-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday and today General David Petraeus met with Congress to deliver his much awaited briefing, although at this point most folks (including on the Hill) have already made up their minds about his testimony.

The event just leaves me sad, and feeling somewhat empty. I believe Petraeus is basically an honorable man. I believe the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times was a bit over the top and insulting as well. I also believe that the White House—even if they didn’t “write his report”—probably put one hell of a lot of pressure on the man to spin the facts like a top.

I basically believe what he says—but it isn’t what I want to hear. Readers of my blog know I’m pretty liberal (although I try hard to be fair), but I must disagree with the left-most elements of the Democratic Party that are pushing hard for immediate withdrawal. That could be a catastrophe, not just for Iraq but (more importantly) for our troops.
Leaving hastily now would simply make our troops vulnerable. We need a steady draw-down, slow enough that the contractors and equipment can be evacuated in an orderly fashion. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have been pretty straight forward in talking about this, saying not what folks want to hear but instead bravely saying what must be said.

While overly harsh, the MoveOn.org ad does focus some light in a good direction—the Bizarro World numbers in some of the Department of Defense’s statistics. It is true that car bombings—even those such as the enormously deadly and obviously sectarian-driven bombing in northern Iraq a few months ago—are not considered in the “sectarian violence” death and injury counts. In World War II terms, this is like counting up the damage by individual German soldiers sneaking into Britain but ignoring the Blitz.
Other times Petraeus’ charts began at differing start times, from weeks to years ago, always in service to the best numbers. It’s true that security gains in some areas have been made, some of them significant, but the White House trumpeting them is hardly deserved. The worst offender is the President’s continual citing of "our success in Al Anbar province"—a region that owes its lower rate of violence far more to tribal leaders turning against outside terrorists months before the surge even began, in the interest of protecting their own families (and sometimes their smuggling operations). In other areas violence is "down," but from when? Last year, when it was far higher than the year before?

I also have anger about the situation aplenty. Anger at the Administration’s decision to go to war, that put us in this intractable mess in the first place. And don’t let the pundits try to spin that, with all the “all the world’s intelligence agencies believed Iraq was a threat” and “read all these quotes my Democrats back then” nonsense. And that’s what it is—nonsense. This administration alone slanted the intelligence to push their case for war. This administration alone orchestrated a huge media push and talked about mushroom clouds, conflating 9/11 and Iraq and playing upon the feelings of a wounded and grieving nation. This administration alone ignored the UN and inspectors and the view of other countries and pushed relentlessly toward war, just as they would now begin to do with Iran.

I look at many of the Republican forerunners with fear and amazement—fear because they are so very much like Bush and amazement that some folks enjoy tough talk and yet still fail to see the emperor has no clothes. Rudy Giuliani in particular is demonstrating—at least in public now, before the general election—a slew of dangerously familiar traits: the tendency to wrongly and purposefully conflate varied countries and terrorist groups, stubbornness, a preference for military over diplomatic solutions even when the former is likely to fail, unwillingness to understand the enemy or the reasons terrorism begins, etc. It’s truly scary.

As far as the “surge” goes, let’s remember that the whole purpose for the surge wasn’t simply to clamp down the violence—something one can assume will be automatic if you dump a huge mass of troops into any one area—but to allow Nouri al-Maliki’s central government a chance to bring the warring factions together.

“And the first step for success is to do something about the sectarian violence in Baghdad so they can have breathing space in order to do the political work necessary to assure the different factions in Baghdad, factions that are recovering from years of tyranny, that there is a hopeful future for them and their families. I would call that political breathing space.”

Press Conference by the President, February 14, 2007, Washington, DC

“These troops are all aimed at helping the Iraqi government find the breathing space necessary to do what the people want them to do, and that is to reconcile and move forward with a government of and by and for the Iraqi people.”

President George W. Bush delivers a statement on the War in Iraq during a visit Monday, April 23, 2007, by Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of the Multinational Force-Iraq, to the White House

Well, there we have it. We give them some security and the Iraq government goes on vacation for a month. Ryan Crocker today admitted the dysfunctionality of the central government. Meanwhile, the GAO report on Iraq’s progress is dismal (even after desperate attempts to slant the report from the White House) and we’ve determined that the Iraqi National Police are hopelessly corrupt, untrusted by the majority off the populace (certainly the Sunnis), and dysfunctional. The citizens of Baghdad, long used to continual electricity before the occupation, still don’t average more than 6 hours of electric power a day... Oh, and our Army and Marines are nearly at the breaking point. Wonderful.

This was the Administration that told us the Mission was Accomplished. They told us the resistance was in its last throes. Food for thought.
So now, aided by a fully inept and dispirited Congress, the war plods on, giving Bush time to pass off the ball to the next sucker and ultimately leaving America with two choices: leaving behind chaos or more years of lost billions and needless American deaths. That’s a hell of a choice.

9/11

Finally, I wish peace to all those that lost loved ones six years ago today. The fallen are all heroes, merely by their innocence, or their dedication to family or work, or perhaps because they tried to help others in their final minutes. They will never be forgotten.

Godstorming

2007-08-12T14:33:00.000-04:00

Last night Schizo, Larry, Willie and I met once again on the field of battle—this time the selection was Risk Godstorm. Bellies full of BBQ and chips, we descended on the board like a plaque of locusts.

Two plague zones fell in useless spots—Roma and southern Nubia—but two other blocked off Europa nicely (falling on Seythia and Phonecia if memory holds). I ended up (due to random placement) with a large number of Germania holdings, plus a few scattered in Asia Minor and 1-2 each in Africa and Europa. Schizo was spread mostly Germania (the “British Isles”) and Africa, plus one Atlantis country. Willie dominated Atlantis, starting with three of four areas, but was otherwise spread around everywhere but Germania. Larry started strong in the central board (see map below), in Europa and neighboring Hyrkania.

The initial game (indeed all of it) went poorly for me. I purposely underbid in the first turn bid, in an attempt to secure an early death god and powerful death cards, with which I hoped to turn the tide of war my way. This placed me third in the initial pull.

Schizo came out of the game strongly. His initial placement suggested that he didn’t desire to yield Atlantis to Willie or Germania to me without a major, protracted struggle. I had dumped many troops at strategic points in Germania to stave off multiple attacks, and threw a war god in Asia Minor with a small force. My troops held Germania against Schizo’s determined assaults, but the many “split decision” rolls weakened us both greatly. It was the first blow from which I was never to recover.

Willie and Schizo battled over Atlantis. Despite some early progress in areas, and a huge card lead (many powerful relics) Willie never took Atlantis, and instead moved to strike my flank in southern Germania. The combination of the multiple Germania assaults forced me to consolidate my forces around Thule. My forces in Asia Minor did better, seizing a few countries. Meanwhile Schizo made some serious inroads, as did Willie, in Africa.

Larry, during the first two turns, placed conservatively. He made minor gains, easily took Hyrkania (the first continent taken), and stood unopposed in Europa. (Europa was never taken by anyone, despite the relatively low number of troops there and the blocking plague zones.)

The next several turns were marked by tit-for-tat scuffles. I took much of Asia Minor, only to lose it to Larry. Africa battles swept back and forth, with numerous godswars. (I desperately clung to a Death card that banished all war gods and sky gods, even after I had neither, because of a high faith cost I could barely afford—a bad mistake, given the number of battles I saw won due to the tie-winning abilities of the plentiful war gods in play. Willie pushed back hard into Atlantis (still amazingly never conquering it) and I watched, bemused, knowing a card I held could sink the whole continent at any time. (A loose 1-turn truce I held with Willie prevented this action, as I wished to secure his orderly withdrawal from Iheria (southern tip of Germania).

The fourth turn was huge. Larry destroyed Willie’s many relics (and several of his own) with a single card. He swept aside my defenders in Varangia and moved into Germania. At this point He controlled almost everything save Africa and Atlantis. Much of Willie’s and Schizo’s strength were in the latter places, and I was holed up in Thule. I was quickly eliminated from everywhere else on the board except Germania. My pitiful income never allowed me more than 4 incoming troops and my sole temple has long since fallen to Willie’s earlier attacks. The numerous crypts I help in the Underworld secured me several bonus Death cards, all of which were two expense to make use of easily. They sat unused. I won a godswar or to and rousted Schizo from the British Isles. Willie forged into Hyrkania and Asia Minor, while Schizo raged around Eqypt.

The final turn saw me sweep out from my sole country—Anglia in the ‘Isles—to peck away at Larry. Good defensive rolls prevented my breaking his continent at the gates of Hyrkania. Larry, taking no chances, stole Pandora’s Box from me, denying me a free Death card play the final turn (and I didn’t have the faith to play my other cards). The others nibbled away at Larry’s vast holding as well, reducing the size of his empire. It was not enough. Larry earned a well-deserved victory. Schizo came in second, with Willie and I limping behind. It was a frustrating game for me, as I never got a “good headwind” due to the multiple earlier attacks I was forced to repel, but it was a good game nonetheless. I await with much avidity our next bout. I shall learn from my mistakes and the Ancient Empire shall tremble! (Hoo hah!)

Scooter Scoots

2007-07-02T19:39:00.000-04:00

Yawn.

Is it just me, or is the White House getting predictable?

President Bush, not 24 hours after the federal appeals court ruled without discent that Libby was not entitled to avoid jail (while he was appealing his conviction on four felony charges), lets Scooter of the hook. Never mind the recent, similar decision in a similar case. Never mind law and order. Bush bowed to his hardline base, the only fans he has left. His poll numbers have already long-since sank below Nixon's worst, and things might get worse yet.

The White House issued a lame statement speaking of the considerable fine that remained. Sure, right. A Yale-graduate lawyer, backed by millions in donations by fellow Republicans, should have real trouble paying that fine. Please.
I've tried mightily to present thoughtful arguments here, and be polite, and be even-handed to all sides, but the mountain of hypocracy and bullshit has grown to the point that King Kong might well try to climb it.

Oh, and read this for a hoot:

Had enough yet?
That's my bumber sticker for the day.

No Confidence

2007-06-11T18:20:00.000-04:00

Today marks another sad day in our democracy.

As I write this, it appears a test-vote of no confidence for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will not be going anywhere, as most Senate Republicans—even those that directly told Gonzales during testimony that he should resign—will not vote expressing their lack of confidence.

I need not belabor Gonzales’ wrongful actions here. The recent and blatant politicization of the Department of Justice, a department with a long-established tradition of political appointees acting nobly apolitical after hire, is (yet another) black mark on our country’s honor. The Hatch Act was enacted to prevent such nonsense, but to the current group in power truly nothing is sacred.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa), a fierce critic of Gonzales, said today
"If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no. I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales." Specter has had concerns about the no confidence vote and its affect on his party, but it appears he may take the high road. Bully for him if he does.

The President, true to form, has backed Gonzales. In this administration loyalty to one’s stooges far out-weighs competence, but of course in this case the “decider” doesn’t overwhelm in the competency department himself, so it’s almost understandable. The President has called the vote “pure political theater” by the Democrats, despite the harsh criticism several important Republicans have heaped on Gonzales these past few months. Perhaps the vote of no confidence should be directed somewhat higher up; that may be the only way historians, given 20 years or so of objectivity, can conclude that Americans back in 2007 had any sanity left.

Reaching the Top

2007-05-22T21:49:00.000-04:00

On May 16th, Samantha Larson achieved her goal: she reached the top of Mount Everest. Larson is 18-years-old, the youngest foreigner to reach the top. Samantha made the climb with her father. It was the last of the so-called "seven summits" — the tallest peaks on each of the seven continents — all of which they have climbed.

In this time of constant bad news, how wonderful to read of this accomplishment (by a blogger no less). Check out Samantha's blog and first-hand account here. This serves as a good reminder for all of us to never stop reaching for the top.

Mission Never-Ending

2007-05-01T21:59:00.000-04:00

.

It was apt that the Democrats sent Bush the war funding bill on this, the fourth anniversary of his over-eager victory march and press opportunity. And, sadly, equally apt that he would veto it.

There's no great psychological analysis to be done here folks, the motive is simple: in football terms, our President is running out the clock. To watch troops leave Iraq sans "Mission Accomplished" would be for the man to admit defeat, to admit that the advice of his star-headed neocons was wrong, and to admit that the biggest decision of his presidency was the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history. He simply won't let himself be saddled with that sort of legacy.
Instead he'll do what they often do, pawn it of on the next guy. A word of advice: observe what an incoming president inherits. Does he enter office with a surplus, or with a deficit? With America respected in most of the world or hated? Pay attention, and remember who did what. It'll help you make sense of things in the long run, because there's an amazing amount of people with pretty crappy memories, and many are part-time pundits.

Some in Washington has gotten the message of reality, even as they run the spin cycle full tilt on the public. A translation: when a Republican senator utters the words "mistakes were made" regarding this war, it's code for "we fucked up royally, so royally in fact that even though it's our policy to never, never admit mistakes, there's simply no hiding it"—but even then the very prose deflects blame onto some unknown third party. Not "I was wrong" not "Bush was wrong" but simply acknowledging the horrendous mistakes in the barest of terms, as if they occcured in a vacuum. Nice try though. If things had gone the way they planned and expected, they'd be crowing off the rooftops, not palming of lame apologies masked as acknowledgments of a war gone poorly.

Being a patriot is tough. There are sadly those who will attempt to wrap that flag around your eyes and stuff it in your ears to block out reality. But true patriots do more than mouthe the words. They worry about the care the troops receive after they arrive home wounded (physically and otherwise), they don't dishonor our nation's heritage, and they think before they act because all actions have consequences. I fear this country will be paying the cost of the "Mission Accomplished" for years and years to come.

I hope and pray we can bring home all our troops safely, and soon.

Goodbye John

2007-03-08T17:50:00.000-05:00

John Inman, 71, died today. I'm greatly saddened at the loss of such a talented, funny man.

The actor is best known for his hysterical portrayal of Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries, a sales associate at Grace Brothers Department store in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? John's emotive style and comedic timing were great, and he conveyed things purely through his eyes or the use of a pause to the perfection of many funny scenes. His scenes with Dick Lucas (Trevor Bannister) and Mrs. Slocombe (Mollie Sudgen) were especially good.
John died after a long bout fighting Hepatitis A. He will be greatly missed by his long-term partner Ron Lynch, fellow comedy actors, and many fans.

Truth to Power

2007-01-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

Here’s to Chuck Hagel, senior Senator from Nebraska, a Republican, for having the guts to buck his party line on the recent Iraq resolution. Senator Hagel blasts all his colleagues in this wonderful clip.

Timothy “Chuck” Hagel has recently shown a rare spirit in Washington, putting the lives of Americans and the truth above his own political salvation and false nuances of the sort both parties have become so well versed in. Senator Hagel, sir, I salute you.

Five Minutes to Midnight

2007-01-17T18:37:00.000-05:00

Today scientists will update the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, a symbolic construct designed to reflect how close the world perches to total annihilation. Perhaps it’s ironic that, 60 years after the Clock’s conception in 1947, we are right back to where we started … a mere 5 minutes to midnight. The clock has changed times over the years, but we’re almost as close as we’ve ever gotten.

No great statement or moral here. Only the hope that, together, the people of the world can reverse the course we’re on. Maybe we can buy a few minutes more.

Talking Points

2007-01-10T19:35:00.000-05:00

On this cold and growing ever colder January evening, I’m steeling myself for the President’s speech tonight. At this point, tuning in is like waiting to get struck with a cream pie – it’s like a bad joke you can’t help but turn away from. We’ve been promised a rhetoric-free speech, but...

I’ve decided to keep a quick tally and keep score:

• Uses of the word “victory” = –5 points per instance
• Uses of the word “success” = –5 points per instance
• Uses of the word combination “victory/success in Iraq” = –5 points points per instance
• Reminders of the danger we face if we leave “without achieving victory” = –10 points*

• Admitting mistakes made already in Iraq = +5 points per mistake (+10 if he admits personal responsibility)**
• Stating specific goals or strategies, beyond the obvious (improving Bagdad security, etc.) = +10 points
• Stating promise to end war before he leaves office = +20 points

*It's a valid point that leaving Iraq in the throes of a civil war is dangerous, but the neocons should have thought about that when they hatched this war.
**I expect that, quite early in this speech, we’ll hear a frightfully rare admission of mistakes made from Bush — it’s required to build any credibility whatsoever for the speech — so I’m basically starting him out ahead here.

A negative score and he fails. A positive score he passes and I’ll score it a good speech (never mind the idea that a surge will actually do anything, but that's a subject for another post). I’ll keep score and meet you back here later.

Alright, I'm back ... and here's the score:

• Uses of the word “victory” = –5 x1 = -5
• Uses of the word “success” = –5 x1 = -5
• Uses of the word combination “victory/success in Iraq” = Ouch! –5 x5 = -25
• Reminders of the danger we face –10 x5 = -50

• Admitting mistakes made already in Iraq = (A big hit for Bush here!) +10 x1 = 10
• Stating specific goals or strategies = (general goals mentioned only, but I'm feeling charitable) +10 x1 = 10
• Stating promise to end war = +20 x0 = 0

Grand Total = –55 points
We'll give this speech a score of lame.

Sorry folks.
It's worth noting that the name of this new White House initiative has been titled "A New Way Forward"; the name of the last plan was simply "The Way Forward" ... what's next? Let's see, Yet Another Way Forward, A Way Forward That's a Bit Saner, A Way Forward After I'm Outta Here, the mind boggles at the possibilities.

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-24T14:52:00.000-05:00

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy 2007!

You can read a bit about the holiday’s traditions and history here.

If you aren’t big on holidays, you can get your Festivus pole here.

Ho ho ho!

Comfort Food II (and healthy too!)

2006-12-20T18:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while ... the holiday time gets a bit nuts. Perhaps I'll be better come the New Year.

A few weeks back we decided to cook up something a bit more healthy—a nice salad topped with sliced chicken. In addition to the grilled chicken flavored with red pepper and grilling spice, we threw in some red onion, diced tomato, and sliced avacado. Dinner cost us less than 5 bucks, and it was pretty healthy besides. Yummy.

Boardgame Night Recap: World Domination

2006-11-13T14:27:00.000-05:00

Saturday night Schizo, Larry, and I met for a good round of Risk 2210. This was the first time I remember playing with only three people (we had a last minute cancellation), and the lower number of players made for an interesting dynamic.

We also played using fan-made simulations of two of the Hasbro Frontline expansions, these being add-ons for R-2210 that were distributed as tournament prizes but never officially marketed or produced.

The first Frontline expansion presented a new playing board of Mars and two moons, to be used in place of the regular Earth and Moon playing boards. The second Frontline expansion added a new commander—the Tech commander— to the mix. The Tech commander adds a variety of new, weird cards to the pool, with new cards that allow energy investment (with a random payoff), the ability to move through an area with a devastation marker, and similar rule-bending weirdness. The majority of the cards involve energy-related plays.

The third expansion, and arguably the most popular, presents Factions. Each player now begins with a slightly different set-up: number of energy chits, type of commanders, number of moon bases, etc., and each gets a unique power. The Havoc faction, for instance, starts with a mere one energy but gets a Nuke commander (in place of the Diplomat) and has the ability to draw three nuclear cards at the start of that player’s turn, examine them, and play one immediately for free!

The fourth and last expansion to the Frontline promotion was “Invasion of the Giant Amoebas” and offers a scenario that involves landing and breeding aliens that infest the board and are immune to command cards.

The guys were game, so we tried using the Tech Commander and Factions expansions. (Two of the six factions get a tech commander to start, so the second and third expansions fit together well.) We randomly determined starting factions—Larry drew the Havoc (Nuclear Anarchists) faction, Schizo the Silicon Knight (Technologists), and I the Fusion Conservancy (Conservationists). My power involved gaining a tech commander and getting an 20% energy bonus at the start of my turns. Schizo too got the techie, as well as the fearsome ability to choose and play certain cards from the discard pile.

Play was fast and aggressive, except for one turn in which everyone seemed content to solidify their holdings. I usually end going for the western half of the map, but my random starting placement put a majority of my men in Asia (a rarity for me) wih a few others scattered on all the continents except S. America. I loaded up troops in three spots in Asia (including the Middle East, in case Larry actually took Africa (a move I would later be thankful for) and I placed a moon base next to Europe to help prevent incursions from that quarter. Finally I placed two small heaps of men in North America, so Schizo wouldn’t simply roll over the continent.
Schizo, true to form, went after and quickly secured Europe and began with a majority in America as well. He also began by placing additional troops in America, but made only small forays there for the next two turns.
Larry seized Australia and Africa on the first turn(!) and soon moved to dominate South America (a continent that eventually changed hands three times). This was scary; he literally controlled most of the southern hemisphere.

As the game progressed, America soon stood at an impasse, with three colors (most Schizo and I) present. I desperately tried to seize and hold Asia (something that proved as difficult as expected, despite a fortuitously placed devastation marker) and Larry easily grabbed all of South America, marking him as a front runner. I was largely unable to defend Asia against multiple attacks, due in part to lousy defending rolls on my part, and I had to sit and gaze helplessly at the largely defenseless America. By Turn 3 I was the dark horse, and only my 2-point Moon continent saved me from ruin.

At this point we all had barely used our special abilities, and I began to purchase cards in earnest, using my extra energy to good effect. We all used missile strikes to good advantage, especially when striking a country inhabited by a single commander (basically instant, unstoppable death for the commander). I bagged a large number of commanders, taking three from Larry in one turn. Meanwhile Larry spread into the uninhabited sea areas (giving me extra Asia entry points to worry about) and used his bonus nuclear cards to create havoc. Schizo sent his own contingent to the Moon to attack and nearly eliminate mine and also pushed hard through America and into South America (failing only to take Argentina).

The endgame was marked with large pushes by all players. I used a special card to swap bid places with Schizo, getting my fourth and fifth turns back to back. This was a huge risk (no pun intended), as going first the last turn leaves you completely at the mercy of the players to follow. My gamble was to cash in on a complete Asia (something that wouldn’t stay intact for long), buy plenty of cards, and ravage the globe. If I hit the other guys hard enough, they wouldn’t have the troops or energy to respond with much force. An existing treaty with Schizo prevented Asia-to-Europe conflict, but a strike via Africa was possible… I pored troops through most all of Africa and also rampaged through America, carefully leaving chokepoints of troops at the obvious Asia entries. I also killed Larry’s naval commander in an attempt to prevent sea entry and seized a small sea area.

Larry responded in kind, taking back pretty much all of Africa, restoring his naval commander, and easily slicing into lower Asia—so much for holding Asia! Schizo also did well, killing off my key commander holding the Middle East and taking back much of America. My death traps slowed him but didn’t stop him from taking many countries. When the smoke cleared Schizo and I were tied for points, with Larry coming in third.

It was a great three-player game. The night also featured a bout of dice weirdness, in which Larry and I, rolling dice to determine who went first after a tied turn bid, rolled six-sided dice and tied four times in a row. I enjoyed the Factions experiment—hopefully next time we’ll use our powers a bit more. Risk 2210 has easily proved to be the best Risk update IMHO, lacking the randomness of Risk Godstorm or the unexciting nature of Lord of the Rings Risk, and I look forward to our next encounter on future Earth!

Victory?

2006-11-08T23:58:00.000-05:00

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Exit Polls

It's over. The Dems came through, and their victory march delivered a strong message to Washington.
It was a long night for most newscasters, and I understood. As expected, a few Senate races are nail-biters (and Virginia is still up in the air as I write this, although AP has declared Webb the winner). We'll just have to wait and see.

Me, I already happy that that crazy, looping biorhythm that is American politics has swung up again. A decade from now the people will probably get tired off it all again, and another cry of "Throw the bums out!" will be heard across the country, but for now it's enough to see Carl Rove and his hyper-partisan, 51% style of campaigning thrown for a major loop. He didn't see this one coming, at least until it was too late.

For now I will bask, pleased that the Congress has turned in a new, less fanatical (if possibly more gridlocked) direction.
I hope the President has the wits to work with his new Congress, a Congress that will actually implement that rather quaint custom of oversight.
I hope all the mandate-braggers of 2004 put this election in their pipe and have a good pull.
I hope we all, even me, realize that politics is politics but we do have soldiers at risk and we need to pull together if we are to get out of this Middle Eastern mess.
I hope we heal as a nation.

I hope.

The Final Push

2006-11-07T18:59:00.000-05:00

It's Election Day, time for the final push, and the time to see our democracy in action.
It's exciting. I love watching the results, much as others might watch a horse race or a sporting event, but beyond the mere sport of it, the very Americanism of it all, lies the stakes—Iraq, our foreign policy, our security, and our very rights as Americans—the stakes simply couldn't be greater.

The usual negative nonsense has appeared on television, just like clockwork. The movie-style announcer voices, the grainy black & white, mugshot-like photos, and the awful smears. We've struck a new low this year, on both sides. Some of the worse spots I've seen, no great surprise, slammed the Democrats. In Tennessee, Corker ran an ad (quickly yanked but endlessly replayed for free over the next several news cycles) that suggested that Corker’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Harold Ford, who is Black, chases after White women—a blatant play on the last lingering racism in the area (although most Tennessee folk quickly rejected the ad, bless their hearts). Another choice ad attacked a Democratic House candidate in New York for calling sex lines with taxpayers’ money (in fact, an aide misdialed an office number by using the wrong area code and hung up immediately, costing the tax payers a whopping $1.25 for the error). And so on.

Now it’s down to the wire. I’ve already voted and served my civic duty, and I can only sit back and wait for the exit polls to come in. Control of Congress hangs in the balance, and by this time tomorrow I’ll know the story … the suspense of it all!
Will the country get a new direction? Or worse gridlock in Congress?
Will we get some real oversight and direction in Iraq? Or yet more of the same profiteering and ignorance in the face of reality? (Sorry, my biases are showing.)
Only time will tell.

God Bless America!

Gen Con Sunday in Pictures

2006-10-21T15:40:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a whirlwind, our last day at the Con.

We arose early, hurriedly packed, and raced over to the Convention Center. Our first stop was the Miniatures Room. Many folks had departed. but there were still plenty of gamers left and lots of awesome dioramas.

We hit the dealer room yet again, picking up the creepy art collage we had purchased earlier and checking out a few of the newer boardgames. I also dove headfirst into boxes of obscure game supplements, while a stood patiently by. Some many bargains, so little time!

There was definite “Sunday atmosphere” on the floor, and most of the dealers seemed low-key, somehow chatty yet tired and looking forward to the chaotic roll-up that was to come later that day.

I stopped by to take a good look at the awesome (and awesomely expensive) Ptolus book. It was beautiful and had the highest production values of any gaming book I’ve ever seen. Sue & Monte Cook were there, so we chatted with them for a few minutes. Monte is evidently a Spock’s Beard fan, and my ‘Beard t-shirt was a big hit. A meanwhile chatted with Sue about editing. (It seems most “designer wives” end up handling some editing duties one way or the other.) Both Monte and Sue were great to meet.

Our next stop was Atlas Games, so I could pick up my copy of Gloom. We bent Michelle Nephew’s ear for a moment and she was very nice and willing to chat. At one point she was demonstrating Gloom for a would-be customer, and every several minutes this guy would swoop past the booth and grab one of the Gloom demo cards sitting out on the table. I watched amazed as this goon zipped by at least three times, picking off a card (they were there some people could see what the game looked like, not to be taken) each time. Dude—just buy the game, for crying out loud!

Ratatosk’s Final Booty List
• Battlebox accessory (Fiery Dragon)
• Dungeon Crawl Classics #31:The Transmuter’s Last Touch (Goodman Games)
• Dungeon Crawl Classics #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms (Goodman Games)
• Gamemastery Item Pack cards (Paizo)
• Gary Gygax’s Hall of Many Panes (grabbed for $10) (Troll Lord)
• Gloom game (Atlas Games)
• 1 size 2XL “Roll the Dice … It Builds Character” T-shirt (a present for Markus)
• Larry Fine sticker (Stylin)
• Some cool Q-Workshop dice (half presents for the Willster)

And some used items (basically all in new condition except I4):
• Ravenloft, Silver Anniversary edition (TSR)
• Module I4 Oasis of the White Palm (TSR)
• Dragon magazines # 297, 310, 326
• Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (a snap at $18) (Wizards)

Soon it was near time for my signing, so I hustled over to my booth and sat behind the draped table for about 45 minutes, talking to customers. It was very cool being on the other side of things for a change and talking to people about my adventure was great.

Dice city!

Soon after we both beat a hasty exit and fled for the airport. (There I grabbed a bright red “INDIANA” t-shirt as final memento.) I spotted a group of people near our designated gate, sitting on the floor and playing Shadows Over Camelot in a last ditch effort to squeeze yet one more game in. Sitting a few rows ahead of us on the return flight was Chris Doyle (author of Goodman’s DCC #7: Secret of Smugglers Cove and ENnie-nominated DCC #11: The Dragonfiend Pact)—little did the passengers know they were surrounded by adventure authors! Less than two hours later—our flight was early this time—we were back safely in New Jersey; it was over.

Gen Con Saturday in Pictures

2006-10-01T18:10:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning we were knackered and we overslept somewhat, and then got to a late start because, idiot that I am, I misplaced the seminar tickets I had picked up the day before. (It turned out I needn't have worried, as reported online the seminars are basically walk-in affairs and even the popular Paizo seminars could be entered with nary a glance at a ticket. Much ado about nothing.)

After a quick bite we headed off to our first seminar, Paizo's "Writing for Dungeon Magazine" seminar. RPG companies take note, this is how it should be done. Erik Mona, Publisher of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, ran a tight, well-orchestrated event. Moments into the seminar he laid out the plan, telling the attendees exactly what to expect, and then he and his staff went by the numbers, beginning with explanatory stuff for the newbies, giving advice, running through a collaborative workshop exercise, and finally answering questions. It was informative, professsional, and fun.

The next seminar was hit and miss, the subject being tie-in writing. There were some good, experienced writers at the table, but between the tired between-author quips and ego-stroking the point sometimes got lost. These authors were giving their time to teach others, and I really appreciate that, and it shouldn't all be deadly serious, but people are there to learn first and foremost... not be entertained (which most of us were not) by endless joshing among the participants. 'Nuff said.

At this point, after a good 3 hours of seminars, A and I exited the Hyatt and walked down to the Indiana State Museum. It was already hot, and my ever-heavy backpack was thumping against my back in a steady rhythm. We checked out a few sculptures outside the nearby Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art and then walked into the museum proper, following a state-by-state walkway that lead finally to Indiana as you reached the door. The welcome cool air washed across us as we stepped inside. The museum was small by our jaded New York City standards, but it contained a lot of cool items and was heavy with Indian artifacts and Hoosier lore. A history timeline of Indiana started literally with the forming of the Earth and fossil records, so these Indiana folks are thorough, I'll give them that! I marveled at the ancient arrowheads and we got a kick out of a 1980s memorabilia section that included a Mac Plus computer in with the Pop culture tidbits.

After we ducked back into the convention center for another run-through. As we exited the Dealer Room, we stopped by a large display of card houses. A young gal, barely visible behind the towers of cards, invited me in to aid the construction but I declined, fearing that one poorly timed sneeze on my part would cause a disaster.

I discovered later that at a certain time that evening a mob armed with coins would gather, pelt the card constructions until all were flat, and the coins are gathered for a local childrens' charity.

We finally staggered over to The Ram for dinner. The place was mobbed but the atmosphere was there—Return of the King was blasting at full volume from the large sports screens, to the delight of most of the diners. The place was draped with banners from Wizards and Privateer Presss and they even feature a fantasy-themed appetizer menu during the weekend. Props to The Ram for rolling out the red carpet for Gen Con attendees.

Smackdown!

2006-09-25T19:03:00.000-04:00

Standard fair warning: This blog is my opinion, and sometimes things get political here. I respect your opinion if you don't agree.

I'll really want to get back to my Gen Con postings before my memory dims, really I do, but the pre-election b.s. is really flying and the constant warping of reality is beginning to bug me. I feel obligated to add my 2 bits, you know?

Dig Bill Clinton fighting back in a recent FOX news interview ... love it.

Here are some great, well-researched books about just how incredibly fucked up this war effort has been, from the initial selling of the war, to the bad planning (what there was), and the associated corruption:

Okay, enough politics! I'll try to be good and hold myself back next time.

The current score:

Spinning 9/11

2006-09-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

Standard fair warning: This blog is my opinion, and sometimes things get political here. I respect your opinion if you don't agree.

Last night sadly marked yet another attempt of Bush to sell his failed Iraq policy. Despite the White House claims to the contrary, the "non-political" speech last night was just that, an 18-minute speech of which barely 2 minutes addressed the tragedy and heroes of 9/11 and the rest of which continued and summarized a series of recent speeches in which Bush has tried to bolster the sagging support for his war in Iraq.

I couldn't say it better than MSNBC, so I'll quote them here:

"The power of his rhetoric is in marked decline, and that's no reflection on the quality of what he says, which is still very high," said Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a neoconservative scholar who has been sympathetic to Bush's anti-terrorism policies. "There's a desire in the country for more deeds, not more words. . . . We are losing a war right now, and there is no way to get around that."

Three previous times in the past 18 months, as public opinion has slipped, White House officials have announced that Bush would embark on a renewed effort to explain and defend his Iraq and anti-terrorism policies. None produced a lasting positive effect on how Americans view either the president or his policies.

This Administration, worried sick about the upcoming November elections, is trying desperately to connect Iraq to the overall war on terrorism, the only strong point the Republicans have left (unless they drag out flag-burning again). Most of the public wisely isn't buying it. The Administration has demonstrated a stubborn adherence to a failed policy began under false pretenses and their failures are manifest even to the blind or hopelessly partisan at this point. They hope to shape the argument into, as one Republican strategist put it, “do you believe we’re at war?”—but the true question is, “do you approve?” Do you approve of an America in which you are branded unpatriotic for questioning the actions of your government? Do you approve of an America that condones torture, secret prisons, spying on its own people, and a complete lack of oversight? Do you approve of the current conduct of our leaders, the level of honestly versus obfuscation they have displayed, their promises kept, and their demonstrated competence?
Only you can decide that. It is your right, and I’ll not brand you “un-American” regardless of your opinion.

I urge my readers to listen to Keith Olbermann’s special comment in full.

Dick Cheney stated to Tim Russert this past Sunday on Meet the Press that, knowing what he knows now about Iraq, he would do it all again, the same exact way. If that doesn't frighten you, I don't know what will.

9/11 Five Years Later

2006-09-11T18:41:00.000-04:00

Today all of America came to grips with the still-fresh memory of a national tragedy. The wound is still fresh, and the pain still great.

Tempted as I am to launch into a discussion about foreign policy and decisions made by our leaders, I don’t feel this is the proper time.

I can’t bring myself to speak about world unity either. My desire for peace and understanding is great, but I’m also realistic, and as the famous quote from former British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston goes, “Nations don’t have friends, nations have interests.” It’s sadly true, and don’t fool ever yourself into believing otherwise.

I don't claim to be impartial; I worked within sight of the Towers and I recall my horror from that day still. My brother, a fireman, was there the day after the event, breathing toxic fumes while unearthing grim artifacts. My then next-door neighbor, a loving father and all-around nice guy, parked and then stepped out for a bagel and just missed being crushed to death along with his car. He spent that night wandering in his backyard in shock, trying to make sense of it all.
I myself was lucky to not have been directly affected, indeed barely touched by the event, and I am eternally grateful for that.

Today I have but one wish: I wish peace to those that were hurt or lost someone in this event, and I hope such a thing never occurs again.

Gen Con Friday in Pictures

2006-09-06T17:57:00.000-04:00

Friday was busy indeed.

We grabbed a quick free breakfast with the other chowhounds at the Embassy, and quickly headed over the Exhibition Hall.
Folks were flowing through the Hall easily and it was actually cool inside the massive space. I took this as a good omen. I spent the next few hours with A wandering up and down the rows, checking out the various booths. We paused for a quick demo of the latest Ticket to Ride boardgame at the Days of Wonder booth (they don't take unsolicited submissions anymore, damn them all to Hell!), perused the latest Osprey books at their booth, examined assorted minis, and marveled at all the varied Cthulhu merchandise.

I wandered amid the booths in a near daze, surrounded by hordes of gamer geeks happily hip deep in their element. Some vendors had set up gaming areas, particularly for the board games (there's no better advertising than watching other folks obviously enjoying a game) and tables of gamers played away, seemingly oblivious to the throngs of customers streaming around them.

Afterward we worked our way over the Art Exhibit (Jeff Easley was there sketching away—how cool is that?), and soon fell in love with a morbid collage print by Rick Sardinha. It wasn't really for sale, but was basically hanging as an example of non-fantasy work, but after a bit of conversation we made arrangements to pick it up toward the end of the show, glass and all. (This is not to say I don't like Rick's fantasy work—especially his awesome blue dragons—and we had sympathy for a man that drove all the way to Indy from Rhode Island!)

A dead guy plays a few hands of Award Show (Twilight Creations):

A highpoint of the day was having a book signed by Ed Greenwood (author and creator of the popular Forgotten Realms setting). He wasn't hawking a thing, merely signing whatever folks brought up, and I was embarrassed to only have a book that he co-authored for him to sign. All the same, he was quite cool and rather funny. (The rather serious-minded fellow just before me dropped off a mysterious manilla folder with "Ed Greenwood" scrawled across the front and said, "My friend made me promise to deliver this to you, he wants you to read his thoughts on some matters." Ah, the price of fame.) Down the desk from Ed sat Eric L. Boyd and Steven Schend—all the great 'Realms minds in one place!

For dinner we struck the Rock Bottom again and were promptly recognized by our waitress from the day before. Alas, they were sold out of the ribs!

Surviving the Con

2006-09-04T23:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it’s over. We survived Gen Con 2006, and it was great.
Rather than making a mondo-post, I’ll post a summary of each day separately.

Let’s start with Thursday night.

Our late-afternoon flight out of Newark Airport was a nightmare. I’ll spare the gentle reader most of the details, but the London business meant that the morning of our departure we suddenly had to leave behind all the travel-size cosmetics and such we had purposefully purchased ahead of time. No shampoo, toothpaste, hair gel, deodorant … you get the picture.

Fearing the long security lines at the airport, we left early, very early. We ended up zipping through security and having nearly 2 hours to kill in the airport. (We also spotted Lee Iacocca standing on the sidewalk a few feet away, thanks to A's sharp eyes, but that's another story.) We then boarded the plane and sat there on the tarmac for 2 and a half hours before the plane even took off—for a less than 2-hour flight! At one point, after an hour of taxiing around the runways, an exasperated passenger across from me asked the flight attendant for a status update. “Well, we’re number ten, and there’s a 7-minute space between flights. Do the math,” came the brusque reply.

Eventually we landed in Indianapolis and a quick taxi ride brought us to Embassy Suites. My expected arrival time of 5-o-clock was shot to hell; it was now 7:30 and we hadn’t eaten since grabbing fast food in the airport at 1-o-clock. So much for my industry party that began at 7:30! Down the street from our hotel was the Rock Bottom Brewery. There we grabbed dinner, including ribs to die for. We resolved to return.

Downtown Indy was nice; elevated walkways, plentiful microbrew restaurants (I made a private note of the location of The Ram, a place known for its Gen Con attendee -friendly atmosphere), and friendly folk. Everywhere milled many young people, many of them bearing backpacks, costumes, or other assorted gear that marked them as fellow gamer geeks in town for the Con.

We eventually arrived at the party at nine-thirty. The party was held at Jillian’s, an eclectic place that I described that night as “a Chuck E. Cheese’s for adults.” I embarrassed myself “shooting” pool and we chatted with our host and assorted folks including Andy Barlow (miniature sculptor for Magnificent Egos, etc.), Luke Johnson (Etherscope developer), Todd Rooks (tournament GM extraordinaire), and his friend Brett.

It was well after midnight when we headed back, but the halls of Embassy echoed with the cries of gamers. (My mind instantly harkened back to the "old days" when I used to spend a full weekend playing D&D with no thought of sleep...) Youngsters!

My Tarot

2006-08-17T21:09:00.000-04:00

So here's how I did:

You scored as XI: Justice. The blindfold arbiter weighs the evidence and passes judgement without fear or favour. There can be no appeal. Justice is not necessarily the same as Law. True justice seeks out the spirit of the law, not just its letter. If a law is bad then true Justice will set that law aside. This is the sacred responsibility of those given the power to judge. If well aspected in a Tarot reading, this card can indicate settlement of disputes, the achievement of a just outcome. If badly aspected this card can indicate corruption and failure of justice.

XI: Justice

88%

II - The High Priestess

69%

0 - The Fool

69%

XIII: Death

69%

X - Wheel of Fortune

56%

XIX: The Sun

56%

I - Magician

50%

XV: The Devil

50%

VI: The Lovers

50%

VIII - Strength

44%

III - The Empress

44%

XVI: The Tower

44%

IV - The Emperor

25%

Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Hmm.

That's all for now. I'll post something(s) regarding Gen Con 2006—which I recently and happily attended—when I've got more time. Stay tuned.

Boardgame Night Recap: Night of the Green Knight

2006-07-30T14:10:00.000-04:00

We tried out Warrior Knights last night, and found it to be a great game, even with only three people. We all found it incredibly intuitive after a while, and the color-coded cards and bits really help on that end. A good, multi-dimensional game that forces you to keep several plates spinning in the air at one time (so to speak) if you wish to claim victory. As Giles Pritchard says in his review of the game at boardgamegeek.com:

One of the things everyone I have played Warrior Knights with has said is, ‘there is so much going on’. A difference that is important to raise at this point is the gulf between ‘so much going on’ and ‘a lot to take in at once’. Many heavier Euro or American wargames fall into the category of being rules heavy and quite counterintuitive, having read about some of the issues people had with the Warrior Knights rules on the Boardgamegeek I was concerned that it would have those same issues. Warrior Knights is not a lot to take in at once, but there is certainly a lot going on.

Especially fiendish are the mechanisms related to the Head of the Church and Chairman of the Assembly positions. To utilize these positions at maximum effectiveness requires lessening your hold on the position itself. For instance: if you are the current Head of the Church, the position allows you to spend your faith tokens to vastly alter events to your favor (or against the interest of another), but by lowering your number of faith tokens you increase the chance that someone else will become the Head of the Church! This leads to a delicate balancing act.

Now on to a very brief recap:
This was a very pacifistic game—there were almost no player-on-player attacks until the very end of the game. (Having only three players admittedly made it easier to stay out of each other’s way!) Instead, we roamed about and used the siege attack to take most cities, trading speed for safety.
Schizo immediately grabbed the Chairman of the Assembly position and maintained a steady death-grip on the position, using it to net himself a huge number of noble offices by winning numerous tied votes. He didn’t lose the job until the penultimate turn, when Larry (in an attempt to gain two medieval pensions, no doubt) held down the job of both Head of the Church and Chairman of the Assembly! I myself held the position of Head of the Church a few times, only to end up a “double heretic” at game end! Call it my fall from grace.

Militarily Schizo got off to a slow start, while Larry and I netted a couple of cities each. A law that granted 10 gold to each taking of an overseas city helped keep Schizo and I rolling in lucre much of the time, and we all learned (through one devastating Wages phase) to keep enough money around to feed our troops! All three of us had got so caught up investing (read: betting) on overseas trade expeditions that we left dust in the treasury!

Other amusing occurrences included Larry’s seemingly perpetual state of poverty, my cursed luck in general, and a triple-whammy of three revolts (two off which struck a very poor Schizo).

The end-game came suddenly, as we all realized that there was only a turn or two to go and money soon became almost meaningless. Despite his enormous success in the Assembly, Schizo was somewhat behind on influence points, so I concentrated my attacks on Larry and made a late-game assault on his stronghold. Alas, the stronghold held (by tying an incredible 4 victory points!) and Larry went on to win the game (by one point, grrrr)—the nobles shall clash again soon and the fate of the kingdom shall be decided anew, I promise!

Veto Conundrums

2006-07-28T18:10:00.000-04:00

Standard fair warning: This blog is my opinion, and only my opinion. I have strong feelings about some subjects and occasionally air them here in-between the lighter fare. I try to back up what I say with details and facts, as best I understand them. People have varied and strong views when it comes to the question of how life is defined—I make no attempt to answer that. I respect that everyone has their own opinion.

President Bush marked the momentous (and long overdue) moment of his first veto with a horrible bout of grandstanding and theatrics. The bill blocked would have permitted federal funding for research on new embryonic stem cells, and had the support of over two-thirds of the American public. I would like to assume that it was purely a political play, designed to motivate his sagging base, but I suspect otherwise—that it was partly personal belief and conviction on his part—leading me to further question his sense of logic and common sense. I believe that Bush is indeed a man of faith, and I respect that, but I believe this veto and the way it was presented was a mistake.

Surrounding himself with so-called “snowflake” children was an especially overblown touch. In the last 9 years there have been approximately 130 such adoptions, a paltry number compared to the estimated 400,000 embryos that will be frozen this year alone. Understand: this bill did not prevent or forbid these adoptions. This carefully-phrased bill would only allow government funds to be used for research using embryos that would have been discarded. These were not embryos slated for adoption, they were slated for the garbage can. The bill also only allowed access to these 3–5 day-old embryos when the donor gives written permission.

So where's the logic? How are lives saved? The choice was simple: simply allow the excess frozen embryos to be discarded or allow embryos that would have been discarded to be used, with the donor's permission, in research that probably holds the highest hope to solve many of our most debilitating illnesses: Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease … the list goes on. Bush chose the former.

In his testimony before the President’s Council on Bioethics, John Opitz, a professor of human genetics, obstetrics, and gynecology at the University of Utah, stated that millions of embryos — between 60 percent and 80 percent of all naturally conceived embryos — are flushed out of women’s bodies during the normal menstrual flow process unnoticed. What about the “lives” being lost there?
On average, 30 to 40 extra embryos per woman are produced as a byproduct of the in vitro fertility procedures and are later discarded. That’s thousands and thousands of discarded embryos each year. Where is Bush's outrage about that?
No, nothing is said about closing down fertility clinics nationwide; evidently Bush is smart enough not to commit political suicide. It's also worth noting that, surprise, Bush's two daughters were both produced as a result of, you guessed it, fertility treatments.

The research will carry on, regardless, but stem cell research is so expensive in the U.S. as to be near-impossible without government funds. Already many of our talented scientists have relocated to Singapore to conduct their research there. We are nearly 8 years behind much of the world in this critical field of study.

It's bad enough the current Administration has seriously hurt our standing in the world, run our deficit through the roof, committed human rights abuses, hurt our environment, and shamefully exploited a tragic national event to begin an ill-planned (but long-desired) war; but now we can add to the list the decline of America's position as the scientific leader of the free world. Well done.

Marathon Madness

2006-07-03T21:01:00.000-04:00

This week bring many things with the Fourth of July holiday, including a favorite of mine—the Sci Fi Channel’s annual Twilight Zone episode Marathon.

I won’t belabor why I like the Twilight Zone here, as the series has been endlessly talked about elsewhere … sometimes to the point of far overshadowing some other decent shows of a similar vein, including The Outer Limits (which I felt was faithfully adapted into the newer series by Showtime).
Instead, I’ll present two lists: the first is a list of five episodes that are recommended viewing for those who have never experienced the show (are there such unfortunates??) and the second, a list of my personal favorite “second-stringer” episodes—these are not the episodes that first leap to mind as the best (some of which I mention in my first list) but rather a number of episodes that are less well-known but in my opinion noteworthy nonetheless. I’ve purposely skipped over some famous episodes (“It’s a Good Life” and “The Invaders” spring to mind for a start) here and tried to go for other, less obvious choices, though I’m sure the more TZ-savvy will be acquainted with most or all of them regardless. On to the lists!

Five Must-Watch Twilight Zone Episodes

1. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
For me, this is the quintessential Twilight Zone episode. It embodies that deeper fear that all human possess … to encounter something fearful and have no one believe you, no one at all. Adapted from the brilliant Richard Matheson script (and short story) and well played by William Shatner, who generates sympathy not only as a frightened man no one believes, but also as a man desperately afraid he may soon question his own sanity. Matheson once looked out a plane window while flying and thought, “what if I saw a man out there?” and this lead to what may be one of the most famous episodes of all. The episode is doubly good considering that it aired during TZ’s Fifth Season, when most TZ concepts had already become painfully cliché.
The somewhat goofy gremlin design (a William Tuttle mask coupled with a furry suit from wardrobe) fails to undermine the pure horror Matheson evokes here.

2. Where is Everybody?
The original pilot and a good intro to the series. Here the fear of being alone is well tapped. The scene in which Mike Ferris (Earl Holliman) desperately pushes against a phone booth only to realize it pulls open came from a similar experience Rod Serling had in which he panicked inside an airport phone booth.

3. A Stop at Willoughby
Who can’t feel empathy for a man who feels overworked, underappreciated, and stressed out by life? It's easy to feel the need for escape, and this episode implies that for some, death is the ultimate escape.

4. Time Enough at Last
This episode usually is named on most best episode lists. A charming performance by that TZ veteran Burgess Meredith (who starred in three other episodes of the show) as the goofy but endearing Henry Bemis, victim of a harsh wife and unforgiving boss. The cruel, ironic ending lingers long after the closing credits.

5. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
Serling often wrote episodes that warned about the dangers of mob mentality (“The Old Man in the Cave” and The Shelter” are two such episodes that come to mind) and here he does it best in a story that demonstrates that our own worst enemy is indeed ourselves.

Runner-Ups: It’s a Good Life, The Invaders, The Lonely

Which is your favorite episode of these?

Current results

Ratatosk’s Oft-Overlooked Twilight Zone Episodes

1. Nick of Time
A couple in love, sitting in a sunny diner being served by a good-natured counterman—not the place to find evil unless you are deep in the Twilight Zone. The creepy machine (which you may be able to purchase here or build yourself!) was probably based on the popular Ask Swami diner machines of the 1940s. It is a real co-star here, a little tin tyrant quite willing to consume your life if you give it half a chance.

Nice episode summary here.

2. The Midnight Sun
One of many frightening episodes dealing with the breakdown of society after a natural disaster (man-made or otherwise)—something that I’ve always found scary myself. Here the Earth has broken loose from its normal orbit and tumbles ever closer to the Sun. The words of the neighbor Mrs. Bronson at the end are haunting, “Yes, my dear … it’s wonderful.”
(Astute viewers might recognize the actress here—Betty Garde—as the sarcastic Thelma the Maid in an episode of The Honeymooners.)

3. Back There
In this episode Russell Johnson (much better known as the Professor in Gilligan’s Isle) tries to undo the assassination of President Lincoln—and learns that it isn’t easy to change what has already happened.

4. Mirror Image
An eerie episode that explores man’s hidden fear of losing his own identity.
I’ve had people tell me that they’ve “seen my twin” more than once, and one time, long ago, I experienced a bout of folks waving to me and addressing me—by another name. I often wonder what that other me is really up to…

5. To Serve Man
Probably the most popular episode on this list, maybe too popular, but worth a note. No great moral here except to always look a gift horse in the mouth. (And the crabby Russsian diplomat in the UN scene is right!)
This great episode always make me think of Charton Heston’s shrieking “Soylent Green is people!” years later in 1973.

6. Living Doll
Scary. You couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Erich Streator (Telly Savalas), even if he is an ass. I’ve always found dolls creepy and this episode is a major nightmare come to life for many. Comparisons with other works, such as Ray Bradbury’s brilliant “A Small Assassin” aren’t unjustified. “My name is Talky Tina, and you’d better be nice to me.” Yikes! And to think June Foray, who did the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, gave voice to this small creature.

7. Mr. Bevis
It’s a Wonderful Life told in a half-hour. A charming performance by Orson Bean as the child-like Bevis. A gem.

8. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up
A classic “who done it?" story told in pure Twilight Zone style. Two policemen, a bus driver, and seven passengers huddle in a snow-bound diner—the problem: one isn't human. (Why do all these weird episodes take place in diners, anyway?) Great surprise ending.

9. The Arrival
An episode with an engaging mystery that keeps us watching. The success of the episode is somewhat lessened by the less-than-fulfilling ending, but Harold Stone’s performance easily makes up for it. Watch as Inspector Sheckly begins with a business-like, iron-clad control and slowly loses control of everything around him even as he struggles to make sense of it all.

10. The After Hours
Another creepy episode. This one runs a bit long but still delivers.

Happy marathon watching and
a happy 4th of July!

Surprise, Surprise

2006-06-03T17:44:00.000-04:00

About two weeks ago my significant other threw me a surprise 40th birthday party. Despite subtle clues I should have recognized she needn’t have worried—I hadn’t a clue. (They said I actually frowned at first, a telling sign—Ratatosk tends to frown at true surprises.)

It was a great party. Many friends and close family were there and once I relaxed (about an hour in) I had a spectacular time. A lot of folks worked hard to make a great day of it, and it showed. (I thank folks for all the wonderful prezzies as well, key among them the great Phil Gordon book on Hold ‘Em from Schizo and new figs from Markus! Woo hoo! I also ended up with enough gift certificates for Barnes & Noble that if I used them all in one drop I’d need a wheelbarrow to haul away my purchases…)

I didn’t want to celebrate my fortieth. I considered my forties a time when I truly had reached Middle Age, and I still haven’t reached a great many goals I set for myself long ago. It’s the time when you start thinking more about what you can manage instead what’s only dreamt of, what you can afford instead of what you want, and other such subtleties that totally conflict with my dreamer nature. I want to have my options open. I still want the choice of being a fireman, teacher, author, or astronaut, dammit, and I don’t like Father Time weighing in on me. (I’ve actually passed the age were I can apply to be a fireman or policeman in New Jersey, the state’s rather insulting way of saying I’m past it.) I often think hard now when listening to the Pink Floyd song on Dark Side of the Moon (wanna guess which one?) and the upcoming birthday was really starting to depress me. So I told A I didn’t want any big celebration. No party, and no surprises!

Luckily she didn’t listen. I now have a great memory and the day served as a great reminder that I have people that care about me, and I am terrifically blessed. The death of Nick at such a young age (see my very first post to this blog) was also a wake-up call—something that reminded me to enjoy every minute. I reached some goals, most recently this May with the publication of a RPG supplement I authored, something I’ve always wanted to do (and moreover known I could do if I really worked at it) and more lie within reach if I am willing to stretch for the brass ring a bit.

I’m not going to dread my forties any longer; I’m going to embrace them. Damn the touches of grey in my hair and twitches in my back when I work out at the gym! Many great things lie ahead, and I’ve been fortunate in more ways than I can count. I going to make my forties sing like a canary.

Sitting at Starbucks

2006-05-25T19:09:00.000-04:00

I sat in Ridgewood today, outside the Starbucks, reading the newspaper and killing time whilst my significant other got her hair cut. It was a nice break and the weather was beautiful, with just a touch of breeze. Good people watching for an “always writer” like myself.

The first thing that struck me was the number of people with cell phones. (I’ve resisted the siren call of that particular technology thus far, but I know my days are numbered.) It seemed like every third person going by, most of them women, was chatting away into thin air. This used to startle me, but I now realize that these folks aren’t deranged and talking to themselves (but perhaps just deranged). If the scenario Stephen King envisioned in Cell ever happened in Ridgewood, the Luddites wouldn’t last 10 minutes—the place would be Zombie City.

A gal that sat behind me chatted steadily away to one person after another. She looked professional, perhaps half-Oriental, maybe 30 years old, and was dressed neatly in a black blouse and crisp slacks.

“I’m telling you, he’s not that hot. He’s not shown me anything to justify $250 an hour.”
$250? Holy shit, I thought; for that kind dough I’d almost consider walking the docks during Fleet Week.

“I’m not into promising deliverables unless we can deliver. No, no, he’s just BAD. I mean, the village idiot could read that White Paper and understand the multi-level tier architecture; the man’s supposed to be a storage consultant.”
Hmm. I was still thinking about how many lattes $250-an-hour could buy.

Eventually the call ended and the woman was soon joined by a man and several young children. The woman immediately switched modes, and chatted happily with the children about watching Narnia that evening; gone was the chatter about ending people’s careers and pleasing the customer. They’re probably sitting around a table finishing dinner as I write this, getting ready to fire up the popcorn and sit before a high definition television with Dolby 6.0 surround sound.

I’m fascinated by other people’s lives but not envious. I respect her sense of duty to the customer, and work ethic, but I also rebel against that sort of smug, high paid, latte-sipping confidence. (Hypocritical for me to say I suppose, being that I finished my own latte just before she left.) For me it’s an interesting glimpse into a world I doubt I’ll ever inhabit, and that may not be a bad thing. I’ll contentedly roam around the edges instead. No great moral here. Just a wish to improve myself and increase my admittedly weak ambition and stay true to myself and those I care about. That’s good enough.

Getting Both Barrels

2006-04-29T17:46:00.000-04:00

Bush hit the road this week, touting our economy and paying heed to the topic of high gas prices for a change. Gas prices are on the mind of basically everyone, because these increased prices are a very “in your face” increase that can’t be ignored or denied away by political spin. The average price of a gallon has gone up 88 cents over the last year, hitting a national average of $2.80 at the time I write this and expected to rise another 5% before the summer is over.

This is killing the Administration. Unemployment is down and the stock market is doing relatively well, but gas prices and our unbelievable deficit have finally struck a nerve with most Americans. Good. As Winona would have said in 1994, sometimes reality bites. I personally think it's good that sometimes the consumer actually feels the fiscal fangs strike home. “Why don’t Americans have a better view of the Economy?” they ask. Simple answer: We can’t afford anything. Medical insurance has gone up. Gas prices are up. We’re getting nickeled and dimed from every direction and hey, guess what, the company is downsizing your regular increase this year and you should be happy, at least your job wasn’t outsourced to India!

Some of Bush’s recommendations include:
—Ordering the EPA to temporarily suspend clean-burning gasoline rules
Great! First he advocates drilling in Alaska (every Texas oilman-turned-politico’s dream) and now he’s found another environmental law to repeal in the name of lower consumer prices. Brilliant!

While we’re on the subject of Alaskan drilling, here’s a good quote:

“A recent report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s own Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that even 20 years down the road, when Arctic Refuge oil would be at or near peak production, gas prices would only be affected by about a penny per gallon. The United States sits on just 3 % of the world's known petroleum reserves. Government estimates indicate that there is less than a year’s supply of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and even the oil industry admits it would take 10 years to make it to US markets.”
[Statement of Carl Pope, Executive Director of Sierra Club, April 27th]

—Suspending the summer deposits to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve
During the 2004 campaign, Bush chided Kerry for this suggestion, and he’s also criticized Clinton in the past for touching the SPR, but now it’s okay. Good thing Bush isn’t a flip-flopper.
Here’s a great blast from the past. Only $2 a gallon? Holy crap!
Here is another.

—Launching aggressive efforts against price gouging, headlined by a Federal Trade Commission investigation in conjunction with the Justice and Energy departments
Back in May 2004 ten Democratic governors sent a joint letter to Bush, that said, “We strongly encourage you to direct the Department of Energy to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the entire gasoline pricing structure, the profits currently enjoyed by the industry and the cost being passed on to consumers,” The letter was signed by the governors of Arizona, Iowa, West Virginia, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine. The letter was ignored.

Bush has steadfastly rejected a “windfall tax” for the large oil companies. Hmm.

This past January, Texas-based Exxon Mobil posted the highest quarterly and annual profits of any U.S. company in history: $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the whole year. Exxon Mobil Corp. also made an $8.4 billion profit in the first quarter of 2006—a 7 percent increase over last year.
Don’t worry about Exxon’s biggest rivals however; ConocoPhillips announced record profits this week. On Friday Chevron announced $4 billion in profits for its first quarter, a mere 49 percent increase. Combined, the three oil companies earned $15.7 billion during the first three months of the year.

Looking back at the profit increases from 2004–2005 isn’t much better (for the consumer anyway):
Exxon Mobil profit increase—218%
ConocoPhillips profit increase—145%
Shell profit increase—51%
ChevronTexaco profit increase—39%
BP profit increase—35%

Going back even further:
In 1999, U.S. oil refiners made a 22.8 cent profit per gallon of gas.
In 2004, U.S. oil refiners made a 40.8 cent profit per gallon of gas—an 80 percent jump.
[1988-2003 Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Marketing Annual, annual reports and 2004-Energy Information Administration, Petroluem Marketing Montly (April 2005)]

Houston, we have a problem here! These guys are having a riot.

In fairness, Exxon Mobil and other oil companies post huge exploration expenditures in the search for new oil supplies. But isn’t this just good business for them too? Let us not forget that oil companies receive tax subsidies from the federal government either.
Per Edmund L. Andrews, NY Times, March 27, 2006:
“But last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful.
‘The big lie about this whole program is that it doesn't cost anything,’ said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who tried to block its expansion last July. ‘'Taxpayers are being asked to provide huge subsidies to oil companies to produce oil—it's like subsidizing a fish to swim.’”

About a third of the oil consumed in the United States is drilled domestically, about 150 million barrels a month, give or take, and they shouldn’t be any more expensive to extract in 2006 than in 2005. Yet it seems all the oil costs are being based on the Middle East price-per-barrel model. So, up goes the price for domestic oil too, a pretty good bargain.

Brian Lehrer of WNYC recently asked an oil business expert on his show why, if oil companies were simply raising their prices to keep up with their own per-barrel costs, why the increasing windfalls? A satisfactory answer wasn’t forthcoming, at least to this listener. (Brian probably felt the same way, as he immediately repeated his question and unsuccessfully tried a second time.)

Our country is at war. The American people have been asked to sacrifice—perhaps not enough in some ways—but government revenues that could have gone to cancer research or medical care for the helpless are being spent in Iraq. Moreover, our soldiers are making the ultimate sacrifice every day. It’s high time the oil companies got with the program and kicked in their share.

Poker Safari

2006-04-21T22:43:00.000-04:00

Last night, after no less than three aborted outings, I finally got in some cards with the poker gang at work. I missed playing a few hands of cards, and these guys didn’t seem too hardcore, most of them anyway, so I figured I was on equal ground.

We were to meet at Tonka’s place, on the cliffs across from New York City. I dreaded the trip, as I’ve always found that area in near the New Jersey-side entrance to the GW Bridge to be confusing as hell, but I was free to play and didn’t want to cancel again so off I went.

I spare the gentle reader the tale of my reaching Tonka’s apartment, as I did indeed get very, very lost. I blew about a half-hour fumbling around River Road and finally found the steep, winding road up to Tonka’s. When I arrived the guys—Tonka, Steve, and Rob—were gathered around a thick hardwood table gobbling down cooling pizza (pepperoni, of course). Chips and two decks were already out on the table, as was a frightening stack of greenbacks (“change money” set out by our host that largely went unused except as a mood prop).

All personalities were represented: Tonka, a serious online Hold ‘em addict who rarely folds and bets big, Rob, educated on neighborhood poker and a fairly tight player, and Steve, our resident wildman and “let’s try this game” player. This was going to be good, worth my miserable trip there.

We broke out the cold brews and soon set about the task at hand, each dropping $30 onto the table and receiving our chips: red worth $2 each, blue worth $1, and white worth 50 pips. The stack looked very small.

My fears were soon confirmed as we started out with a round of Texas Hold ‘em. I’ve never been particularly good at the game, although I understand the basic strategy. Tonight my main tactic was simple: Fold early, Fold often. I wasn’t about to let an Ace sucker me into sticking around with an Ace–seven coupling or what-have-you. I needn’t have worried—my first pull was a mighty 3–5. I folded so quick a sonic boom echoed over the table. A man can’t even bluff that bad a hand with a straight face. Subsequent hands were no better: deuce–4, 4–10, …where were the good hands the guys got on TV anyway?!?

My steady decline continued until I considered holding a Congressional vote to raise my debt ceiling. I only had about 4 chips left, and had to constantly make “chip change” by betting with larger-denomination chips and pulling back 50-centers. As Daffy would say, “How humiliating!” I got out my wallet and gingerly pulled out a ten-spot. Barry, my old radio station manager, used to have a saying: “That is the bad road.” Well, pulling out that greenback sure seemed like the bad road alright. Rob happily accepted my $10 and my chips grew a wee bit. I kept playing as tight as a sumo wrestler’s mawashi.

We played through a progression of games … Follow the Queen, Five-Card double-draw, Baseball, Pass the Shit (their version off Pass the Trash), and more. I introduced them to Chase the Ace (really just Follow the Queen) and Control. I made jokes about Tonka’s pair of $25 decks that were so slick and new I could hardly hang on to them, forget shuffle them properly. My stack of chips again dwindled and I pulled another $10 from my wallet with a curse.

Then came the moment … Steve, who, with Tonka, was happily ahead hesitatingly asked, “You guys alright with some Acey-Ducey?”

A blossom of hope appeared in my heart. Acey-Ducey is probably the most dreaded of games for most poker players, either because it doesn’t remotely resemble poker or, moreover, because it can create terrifying pots. I’ve seen $30–$70 Acey-Ducey pots appear in nickel–dime–quarter games before. It’s the great equalizer—equally capable of turning poor players into rich or reducing sharks into mere minnows. A few lucky pulls and I would be back in business. Worse yet, these guys played the goalpost rule, meaning that hitting one of the bracketing cards with a similar card meant paying double your wager. Going for a large pot and striking the post was pretty much destruction for any player, or in my case, eating a Snickers Bar lunch for the next few days.

I went for broke, getting reasonable spreads and pulling the pot twice. Steve groaned and steadily threw away his chips into the center. Rob kept pulling sequential cards. And I kept winning. Soon the pot, fueled by numerous bad hands and crappy luck, had grown to a good 15 dollars. I drew a Queen–3. Not a great hand, but the best in a while. I wordlessly waved my hand over the pot and forced a grin on my face. Steve threw down my card with great deliberation … a 9. I was back baby!

Things progressed quickly after that, and fortunes changed. Tonka began throwing good money after bad and Rob, who had been ahead, was doing so poorly he now had to borrow money from me! Hoo-hah! God, life is great when your luck improves in poker. Steve continued to win hand after hand, and he seemed to be a wildcard loadstone, often having two wildcards showing on the table and being forced to bet low just to keep someone in. Rob found Steve winning so odd that he called it Bizarro World and, later, "a Twilight Zone episode in which Steve actually wins." Tonka was shaking his head and muttering in Turkish. Craziness. I bluffed one good hand, driving out Steve and Rob (both of which had high three-of-a-kinds) with my pair of 9s. Like I said, craziness.

Eventually came the vaunted best hand of the night (confirmed later unanimously). The game was Five Card, double draw, fours wild. I started brilliantly with two aces and a wildcard, not quite believing my luck. The bet was mine first and I went soft, as not to scare away what I felt would soon be easy pickings. Rob bet high, a bad sign. Steve instantly called him, another bad sign. Tolga matched and looked pleased. Uh oh. Still, three aces were three aces. I dumped my two garbage cards and received more garbage in return. The others exchanged one or two cards each. They looked even more pleased. Double uh oh. Still, three aces were three aces!
I gave two cards to the last exchange and Tonka flipped me two back. Rob took one. Steve took one. Tonk took one. I bet $4, one of my highest of the night, in an attempt to scare off these brigands. Rob immediately saw me and raised two fins. Steve, a wild gleam in his eye, raised that.
“How much is all that?” asked an exasperated Tonka.
“Eight dollars to you, I think,” replied Rob.
Tonka waged an inner battle and after a very long pause cursed and tossed his cards aside. “Call them, dammit!” he cried.
“You’re toast!” cried Steve, and threw down four Jacks with an Ace kicker.
“Not so fast,” cried Rob, stopping Steve’s hand as he reached for the pot, “get this—four Kings! Beat that!”
I held up a hand. Rob turned.
I dropped my cards on the table … two Aces and two (wild) 4s … four Aces.
“Aw SHIT!” yelled Rob.
Everyone screamed and laughed at that. Tonka’s new girlfriend(?) from upstairs, who had joined us in the meantime, nearly fell out off her chair. Tonka meanwhile, who I think had been clutching a straight, thanked the Almighty that he had ejected when he did. I raked in the loot, feeling like a million bucks.

We continued with more Seven Card and more Acey-Ducey (the second time wasn’t the charm for me) and I managed to get back the $20 I had hocked and turn the biggest profit of the night to boot. Steve won nearly as much. Rob and Tonka were down by roughly the same amount when the smoke cleared. How fortunes change!

I followed Steve and Rob to Steve’s car, when Steve realized he had left his keys behind.
“Oh man, Tonka’s gonna be pissed, he’s probably involved in something personal.” I ferried them back to the apartment, as Rob apologized to Tonk on his cell phone. Soon the keys were captured and we again headed out, me carefully following them as not to get lost. Suddenly, after about a mile, they pulled over. I slowly drew up next them, mindful of the still-busy near-midnight traffic. The window rolled down and they were in tears, hysterical.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“I forgot my keys!” Rob cried, and we all howled as that.

After that we separated, them heading back to the apartment again and me winding my lonely way toward Route 4.

Judo—a chop, chop, chop!

2006-04-17T22:20:00.000-04:00

I think he means it.

Only in Manhattan.

Board Game Night Recap: Larry Commits Seppuku

2006-04-09T19:30:00.000-04:00

Last night saw the gathering of the gentlemen for our monthly board game night. The game: Samurai Swords, the reprinting of Milton Bradley's excellent Shogun game. Both Samurai Swords and the nearly identical Shogun are difficult to find, and I was delighted to nab my then-sealed Samurai Swords game on ebay a few years ago.

Last night was techincally our first full-length game, excepting Schizohedron, who had some Shogun experience years ago.

Willie immediately set up shop on the Island of Shikoku and Schizo established a major power base on the larger island of Kyushu. Meanwhile Dom, Mark, and I landed the bulk of our troops on the "mainland" of Honshu—Dom to the west, me to the middle, and Mark to the south. Dom and Schizo also esatblished minor strongholds down south, as did Willie, and I claimed nearly all the small northern isles for my own.

The arrows flew fast and the initial combatants took much ground on Round One, leaving Mark—the last in line for combat—worrying just what he would have left to attack with come his turrn at bat (or at sword?). Willie attempted to rid Shikoku of my one-province presence. He attacked my province of Iyo, triggering the appearance of my hidden ronin, to which he responded by deploying ronin of his own! We know each other's tactics well it seems! A long battle resulted, and what should have been an easy task left Willie severely weakened and me no less for the wear, mainly due to a series of cursed rolls by the Willster. Willie swore revenge on me.
I then made good inroads on Honshu, marking me as an early leader. Schizo quickly consolidated his hold over Kyushu, taking 90% of the island and out-doing my own conquest. Dom meanwwhile stayed conservative and planted the first castle smack in the middle of Honshu. When Mark finally got his chance, he was reduced in forces but made some gains. Dom and Willie took losses in Honshu. No one hired the ninja this first turn.

The following turn saw more ronin deployment and multiple castles being built. Dom upgraded a castle into a fortress, a move that would prove wise down the road. I hired the ninja. Schizo gobbled up the rest of Kyushu while Willie, Mark, and I traded blows on the mainland. I cursed "stranding" some extra troops up on various islands. I had intended the tiny islands to be "fall-back bases"—places to where I could retreat if things went badly and not be eliminated from the game, but it was a mistake. I wasted koku on more ronin that were soon triggered but proved useless due to lame die rolls. Mark attacked multiple provinces and I responded by assassinating his daimyo with the ninja.

The third turn was Mark's last, as he had to leave the proceedings early. He attacked my army with his and I again assassinated his daimyo. He was so depressed his army was immobilized I let him attack anyway, a decision that left both our armies weakened. Schizo meanwhile made inroads into Honshu from the south, Willie spent every cent rebuilding his forces, and I placed my second castle down in the center of Honshu. We randomly distributed Mark's provines after his departure, trading out colors. Mark had been running a fairly successful game and we each gained a good 5 provinces. This effectively brought Willie back from the dead.

The next turn was momentous.
Willie hired the ninja and attempted an assassination on Dom's daimyo—a failure! Dom rolled for the ninja counter-attack and missed by one.
Dom ("Larry") then began two battles that nearly destroyed him. The first (against a castle I think) wiped out his first army group. The second battle saw him ignore a 1-spearman province held by Schizohedron and instead attack Willie's neighboring army head-to-head. Their rolls had all witnesses on the edge of their seats, as the dice mirrored each other: loss, loss, win, win, loss, loss, win, win. Every time Dom would score a hit Willie would return a balanced amount of damage, leaving their armies nearly equal at all times. Dom's daimyo now led two bowmen and Willie's daimyo led a bowman and gunner. We expected Dom to call for a cease fire, but no, he kept going! Soon only the two daimyos remained. Dom rolls a miss, immediately mirrored by Willie. I knew in my gut this would lead to a double-daimyo-death. Sure enough, when Dom finally rolled a hit Willie returned in kind! Boom—two armies destroyed. We were incredulous!

I continued the turn with the same self-destructive spirit, targeting Dom's fortress with my army. There was a method to my madness: I already had two nearby castles, and taking the fortress would yield me a solid line of castles across the neck of Honshu, potentially allowing me to push westward and eventually weaken Schizo's island stronghold without worrying about my rear. When the 5 ronin actually appeared on the table I thought about the odds and began to worry. Alas, the 5 ronin that joined Dom's spearmen did a number on my army. My skrimishers did some damage, but I soon was forced to retreat and the fortress remained in Dom's hands.

The end game saw a large push by Schizo north and west, including several successful naval assaults with large forces. He branched out from his island and even began a brave attack on castle territory. I ran rampant over Honshu. Dom and Willie took nibbles here and there. As the clock approached 3 am we decided on a 5 province margin to declare a victor. It looked like it would be Schizo or me, and we both had pushed our forces to the limit in an effort to take a maximum number of provinces. The end of the last turn saw Schizo easily win the game with some 27-odd provinces. I followed in Second and Dom and Willie were tied for Third Place. Meanwhile, Japan had seen so much warfare it looked as if Godzilla had taken a stroll. A good game enjoyed by all!

I Want to Believe

2006-03-31T18:50:00.000-05:00

Whoa!

Weirdness.

Dare you check it out?

Click here.

Rah-Rah-Rah–BOOM–de-ay

2006-03-22T02:33:00.000-05:00

An advance word: I welcome intelligent comments on any of my posts, and I try to keep an open mind, but play nice or your comments get booted out the sandbox, okay? Politics is something I'm passionate about, so I'm including the subject here on occasion. If you disagree that's your right, but don't get snarky about it here. I make no apologies for my politics, but you're always welcome to roll your eyes at my musings and depart this page. Cool, we're good then. On with the show.

The third anniversary of the Iraq adventure has arrived. I think if the current administration put as much forethought into planning the invasion as effort toward selling it to the American people, we'd be out of there already. Instead, the administration rumbles on, unaffected by reality. Our troops deserve more.

I don't have the space here to fully list the many errors made in this war, but they are legion—from "Mission Accomplished" to the latest flare-up of "sectarian violence" (Bush-speak for low-grade civil war). This past weekend Cheney (whose poll numbers have now dropped lower than Nixon's during the height of Watergate) stated on Face the Nation that his earlier statements about "the Resistance being in its last throes" and our being "greeted as liberators" were accurate. Huh?

General Casey meanwhile made the rounds, looking noticeably nervous under Russert's blanket of questions on Meet the Press. He looked like a man terrified of being quoted saying anything negative. It seems the prediction he made a year ago about there being a "fairly substantial reductions in the size of our forces" in the Spring or Summer of 2006 if the training of Iraqis proceeded according to plan will fall flat. When questioned on this, he said that troops were already being drawn down, and cited his not accepting additional troops offered in December. Sorry buster, not accepting new troops isn't what I'd call a draw-down. Tommy Franks had also predicted drawing down to 30,000 troops before the end of 2003. Oops.
I know war is an unpredictable business, but if we had been right maybe once, I'd have more confidence in these guys.

I don't vote for a hasty pull-out—we've created enough chaos as it is—but it's time for the drumbeat of reality to reach additional ears in Washington. It's time for a few people to get sacked, as the British say, beginning with Rummy. It's time to bring in new ideas. The neocon agenda, while it may have our nation's best interests at heart, has been a disaster. Forcing democracy at the point of a gun doesn't work, especially if your intelligence gathering and pre-war planning stink. Encouraging nations to democratically elect leaders also doesn't always go according to plan—just ask the folks in Israel about recent elections in neighboring states. Political history has demonstrated that organized groups tend to win elections and fanatical groups can often be surprisingly (if unfortunately) organized.

During dinner tonight A mentioned that she feels that the criticism of the Press is correct, in that they don't run much good news. It's true, there are good things happening over there, but we rarely hear about them; watching the troops rebuilding a village well isn't as exciting or ratings-worthy as blood on the street I suppose. Worse yet, at this point the White House Press Corps and the White House are playing a distressing game of tag. This Administration is more secretive than most, and their reluctance to give straight answers (or even take unscripted questions at times) is at least partially responsible for the reporters acting like a pack of hungry wolves. David Gregory, perhaps realizing that viewers expected to find him rolling on the carpet with Scott McClellan soon and losing credibility by the day, has since dialed it back a notch and even speaks more moderately on the talk shows. Good.

I'm not letting the Democrats off the hook either—their ranks haven't exactly swelled with good Iraq ideas, beyond sitting back and eating popcorn while the President stumbles. The best way for them to earn some respect (for a change) is to come up with a valid plan, rally behind it together (another foreign concept that), and sell it just as hard as the President sells his "stay the course" strategy. That would be a start.

Like it or not, we're over there, and our security is still important. We are dumping 150 million dollars a day into Iraq, and folks are dying. We need to face reality, admit where mistakes have been made, and come up with a better game plan as one united nation.

Board Game Night Recap: A Pharaoh Rises!

2006-03-12T14:57:00.000-05:00

This past Friday we played Age of Mythology. We were looking forward to this, especially after much Willie-bragging about future victories via e-mail. It would be our first gaming night after losing Nick (see A Time Too Short below) but I felt the return to some normalcy would be welcome; when the pizza came I dealt out an extra paper plate for Nick so he knows he’s with us in spirit in this and future contests.

Initial set-up: Dom and Mark pulled the Norse culture, whereas Willie and I drew the Egyptian. We considered swapping someone out for Greek, but decided to let fate rule, after shifting table positions so duplicate cultures were not back-to-back.

The game started fast, with early recruitment. Mark quickly played to type and beefed up his army, with the clear strategy of taking the Largest Army victory cubes at the end of each turn. He also built the first Tower to guard against attack on his fields. Willie meanwhile spent his money on buildings, favoring that route. Dom and I concentrated on acquiring land and made small additions to our armies.

Mark lead with an early attack on yours truly, but my chariots and war elephants held off the Norse hordes. The Egyptian spearmen easily held off larger units and after several units dropped with no losses on my side, Mark’s forces retreated. This gave me the opening I needed, and I quickly recruited mortal forces to my ranks, bolstered by a phoenix or two, to assume role as owner of the largest army. Dom meantime leaped ahead into the Classical Age, catching everyone by surprise.

Following turns saw Mark recruit and attempt to rebuild his weakened forces, Willie continuing to build, and everyone else jumping ahead into the Classical or Heroic Ages. I attacked Dom in an attempt to net a few victory cubes (Willie had grabbed an early lead in cubes and had no intention of losing his edge) and butchered his mortals with my chariots and scorpion men, taking a field. Willie soon attacked Dom, destroying his storehouse. Dom had never really gotten a foothold army-wise and this reduced his forces further, eliminating any real threat from my Norse neighbor to the left (a good thing, since Mark loves combat in AoM and similar games).

Latter turns saw Willie jump into the Mythical Age first, still leading in victory cubes. I managed to tie his amount of buildings and deny his latest Most Buildings victory grab. Willie attacked Mark and ended up in a war of tit-for-tat attrition, taking the worst of it. Mark later responded by inexplicably attacking me (I was doing well, but Willie was clearly leading and approaching the point of buying the Wonder). I eliminated a few of Mark’s large units, including a Troll, and my only loss, a single phoenix, was restored by my priest during the combat; Mark soon retreated.

The endgame saw me buying more spearmen to bulk up my army to 15 units, and then using a special card to change 3 of them into mummies (here’s to mummification!). I tried to keep pace with Willie’s Trump style building progress. By this point folks were quite savvy about using the Gather action at the right time to deny others resources. Dom in particular came out on the losing end so many times that throwing Dom a single cube almost became a running joke. Dom responded with a last, well-placed Gather action that gained him most every cube available. Willie played a special card that gained him his Mythical Hero—yikes!! I pleaded with the others to mount an attack on Willie and reduce his number of buildings, as I could not battle him directly (AoM limits attacks to those sitting next to you).

Alas, it was for naught. Willie reduced his building costs and succeeded in building the Wonder. The final victory cubes were assigned and Willie won at 11 cubes, just ahead of my 10.

It was an awesome game, enjoyed by all. We’ll have to give Willie his bragging rights this time, but I want a rematch (perhaps with Schizohedron joining us)! After all, losing by a mere cube is a lot to take…

Side Note:
An AoM fan named Michael Doyle has designed some beautiful alternate pieces and cards for the game. His ultra-cool site can be found here!

Sweet Geek Relief

2006-03-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finally took got a break after many days of toiling on my latest project for a RPG publisher. This project was a collaborative effort, and I'm pretty excited about it. That being said, I've spent days buried in books and stats and Excel sheets, getting the numbers right. Writing RPG stuff is harder than it looks, and sending my files off to my project editor (via e-mail of course) carried that same sense of relief mixed with excitement that probably every novelist dropping their latest boxed manuscript on her publisher's door feels.

Now I'll sit back and enjoy an imaginary cigarette ... at least until my editor's comments arrive or I remember that novel I half-finished a year (or two or three) ago that still needs finishing.

Ahh, it was good while it lasted.

Comfort Food

2006-02-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

Today was a stressful day in a month full of them; work's been crazy and life seems to be going by at 78 RPM.

Time to slow down with organic chicken breasts cooked with shallots, mushrooms, fresh rosemary, and wine (champange actually). Mmmm.

But It's Free!

2006-02-21T18:12:00.000-05:00

A trip to the mall on President's Day with my significant other was the usual exercise of fun coupled with routine annoyances. The shopping part was fun; we haven't done a good mall run in a while, and we actually got a great many things we needed around the house. The one thing we noticed immediately however, and yesterday wasn't the first time, was that every time we were being rung up by a salesperson we were forced into the following exchange:

Salesperson: Do you have a [INSERT STORE NAME HERE] card?
Us: No...
Salesperson (now in earnest): Would you like to sign up for one?
Us (wearily): No, but thank you.
Salesperson (more earnest): But it's free!
Us (more wearily): No, that's okay.
Salesperson (dubious): Okay...

We experienced varied versions of this same exchange about five times. It didn't matter whether we were buying sportswear or videogames, the riff was the same annoying beat. After a couple hours of this, coupled with dodging poorly-steered strollers, lackluster food-court Chinese eats, and looking at endless racks of what seemed to be identical pairs of jeans, I began to feel as if I was being flogged with a cat-o-nine-tails.

We spoke about getting buttons made up to wear: NO STORE CARDS THANKS. YES, I KNOW ITS FREE, DON’T CARE. I find the whole "free" thing dubious. Years ago discount cards were a good way to ensure customer loyalty—shop with us, get a discount. Winners all around.
No, now these companies have gotten greedy. I actually signed up for one card yesterday, and I was asked for my name, phone number, address. Guess were that info is going kids? They'll sell it off to be placed on a marketing list, and we know the wonderful security employed by such companies in guarding our info from identity theft, which is, well, pretty much no security at all. One wonders if that immediate $5 savings on a videogame and future 10% discount on used games is worth the ongoing hilarity of having your identity ripped off, or of simply being spammed to death.

I doubt it.

A Time Too Short

2006-02-14T20:55:00.000-05:00

I lost a friend this month. Indeed, writing this is difficult and I purposely gave myself some time to get some distance, so to speak. It's funny perhaps that my first true entry here is regarding death, but preachers always tell us that death is only the beginning and so maybe it all fits together.

On Friday, February 3rd I got that call that no one wants to get. My good friend Dominic was calling to tell me the news: our friend Nick had passed away the night before. Nick had just turned 43 this January. I was disbelieving, but Dom's demeanor made it clear he wasn't joking. I spent the rest of that afternoon in a daze, feeling like I'd been kicked in the stomach, and I didn't relish the thought of telling the other members of our circle the news.

I met Nick back in 1987? 1988? It was long ago, nearly twenty years now. I was working for a computer rental company, then one of the largest in the country (now long since dissolved). I worked in the "back lab" with the less-experienced techs and one day I met a fellow recently transferred from the warehouse. (In those days guys moving from the warehouse into the lab and learning the ropes wasn't unusual.) It took me a while to get to know Nick. He took a lot of good-natured ribbing from his ex-warehouse buddies and seemed like a nice guy right from the start. One fellow in particular, one Glen, always got after Nick for buttoning the very top button of his shirt. Glen would chase Nick around the warehouse every other day and nag him until he reluctantly undid the offending button. Nick had a style all his own, even then, and we all assumed he always had. Nick was a big guy, but gentle and soft-spoken, and he walked with a silent but shuffling gait.

Eventually Nick and I became friends in that easy-going way, where you hardly remember how it happened but instead it just feels like the other person has always been there. It was a relaxed friendship that waxed and waned those first years; we shared a love of Def Leppard and heavy metal (as it was in the '80s) in general, and we went to a number of concerts—'Leppard, KISS, and others, including the 6-hour "Monsters of Rock" at New Jersey's Giant Stadium. We traded CDs, grabbed lunch, and helped each other at work. Several years running our little work group—consisting of Nick, me, our mutual friend Dom, and whomever else we could grab—headed over to the local watering hole and shared a December holiday toast by belting down a shot of dark rum. Nick and I gained work experience and moved into the front lab. Eventually I shared a face-to-face worktable with Nick and when I later left the company in 1991 he inherited my vaunted "notes"—a stack of worn index cards filled with crabbed notes about jumper settings and techie data that he accepted as gingerly as if I had offered him the Dead Sea Scrolls.

As the years went on Nick was always there. Nick, Dom, and I made a yearly summer pilgrimage down to the beach and it became tradition--ride down, get breakfast near the boardwalk (always at the same place, although it changed owners at least three times), hit the beach for a few hours, grab lunch on the boardwalk (pizza or sausage sandwiches was key, this was the Jersey shore after all), play miniature golf on the rooftops (who paid was often decided by a skeeball competition earlier), hit the arcades, and then stop for dinner on the way home. Those dinners were great vehicles for long discussions about work, life, and family. We didn't care if we sat in the middle of a fancy Italian restaurant stinking of sand and Coppertone, our hair askew in that unique beach style; it was about fellowship. Those trips were some of my best times with Nick, and one summer we even spent a long weekend at Wildwood in an attempt to extend the experience.

Nick drifted easily into my larger group of friends, and he was happy to join in whatever we did. Nick played D&D with us (more on that later), went to movies, did lunches. Nick never stood out as a leader, but he was always present and his humor and unique nature was always an obvious and welcome presence. We had many lunches at Bennigan's (where Nick happily ordered the gut-busting Death By Chocolate every time) and many, many Chinese dinners in which we would grab James, Dave, or whomever we could, circle around a big round table, and share everything.

My memories of Nick are legion: His inept shuffling of cards at a poker game (I missed the event but came in as everyone was doubled over with laughter) or the hasty evacuation of all players once Nick raised (Nick couldn't bluff and the rare event of a Nicky raise often led to cries of "Nick's got a full house!" and insanely rapid folds) and the time Nick lost so much money playing one night that I, to the bemused delight of everyone else, made a show of giving Nick 35 cents toll money for his ride home. (For a better telling on Nick's poker days, see the great write-up at http://schizohedron.blogspot.com/) I can remember Nick on the beach wearing black socks and sandals, or his rubbing suntan lotion on his chest and his dense chest hair (we didn't nickname him Sasquatch for nothing!) turning the lotion into a useless white shampoo. I recall Nick lumbering into the shower at Mark's shore place and stepping on the tiled shower lip and collapsing it, to Mark's horror. I remember a white hair, white knuckle ride Nick took us on once as we followed (read: tailgated) another car down the GS Parkway (Nick was deathly afraid of getting lost). More often than not Nicky simply cracked us all up with something he did, or more often tried unsuccessfully to do.

Nick was a favorite D&D player. He wasn't what you'd call a hardcore gamer by any means, and he didn't pore over the rules they way Mark or Willie or I do, but he always offered helpful suggestions, tried to decipher what must have seemed impossibly complex rules, and in his usual selfless way participated just because it made us happy. Playing with Nick was always fun because he didn't know every rule or monster, and so the rest of us saw things through his fresh perspective and the magic came back to the game. I was in the process of rewriting Nick's character sheets the week he died, and our tiny group will save Buckey the Halfling Thief and Roth the Cleric for future adventures.

Nick also faithfully joined us in huge RISK battles (he never won but he came dangerously close in one of our very last games and the thrill on his face was great to behold), and would regularly play the other weird boardgames I regularly throw at our group. Nick particularly liked Puerto Rico and Bohnanza ("the bean game" in Nick-speak). Our last boardgame night was New Years Eve, and we played Puerto Rico and Bang! and toasted in 2006. Happily, I snapped off a few pictures that evening. It was a good night. I had to fight off the urge at Nick's wake to surreptitiously slip a game die into Nick's coffin, in case he ever wishes to join us in our future games. He will always be a presence at our table, whatever game we play.

I miss Nick already. I think of his goofy but lovable way. I think of him gaming with us. I think of him walking into my place and always giving Mojo (my tabby) a peck atop the head (Nick's gentle nature made him one of the small group that could actually hold Mojo without the beast immediately going into a panic). I think of those shore trips and the Chinese dinners. I'm sorry he will no longer be there for these things. I'll miss that child-like naivety he possessed. There will be a void in our group, and even an old agnostic like myself must believe he has gone to a better place.

I'll always be your friend Nick and somehow, someway, we'll meet again.

My First One

2006-02-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

Done it. I've joined the masses and decided to post my thoughts for the eyes of the world.

I've been driven to do this by forces that I cannot control, but there is no choice but to go with the flow and see what develops. I'll try to write when I can, keep it interesting, and keep you guessing, gentle reader.

Stay tuned!