The Iron Scroll

Opening Quote For 2012! ^___^

2012-01-17T17:36:00.000-08:00

"There's always an unexpected fighter who calls forth latent power, reversing the hopeless situation." - Panel 1, page 113 of Volume 10 of 'Beet, The Vandel Buster' by Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada. [San Francisco: Viz Media LLC, October 2006].

Let's hope that this year is a year that brings forth the latent power in all of us! ^_~

Mood Music: Little Wing (Opening song to "Scrapped Princess").

Oh Noes! An Experiment in Nepotism Goes Awry! ^O^

2011-12-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

Headline from a Yahoo news article by Dylan Stableford: "Critics on Chelsea Clinton’s ‘Rock Center’ debut: Boring!"

Is anybody surprised? o_O

She was chosen for her family background rather than for her talent. I might sympathize with the young Mrs. Chelsea Mezvinsky who was doubtless only thrust into this position because her parents wished to use her as a pawn rather than from any desire that she herself had for the post, but the fact is that this is not what she was trained in nor is it anything she had job experience in. I wish her well but this does seem to be what happens when someone is thrust into a job because of nepotism rather than because of skills. In any situation where technical competence or talent matter and the recipient of such patronage lacks it you will find that it is merely an act of cruelty both to the recipient and those who must suffer from her lack of ability.

However both she and ABC may comfort themselves with this....

1. At least none of them put themselves into the same position as the poor fools who voted someone into the Presidency with no more executive experience than that of being a "community organizer". Nor are they in the same position as the poor foolish "community organizer" himself who will go down in history for his outstanding incompetence. :P

2. If they learn from this that such nepotism as this is a very bad idea then they will have proven themselves quicker learners than the people of Illinois.

I think that those are solid items of consolation, don't you? ^_~

Poison in the Well!

2011-12-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

Quoth Glenn Reynolds: "Reliance on Bellesiles is scholarly malpractice."

I actually have to disagree with him on this one. The problem with pseudo-histories of the sort that Bellsiles practiced is that it is easy for them to become embedded down through the ages by virtue of the fact that even the most determined scholar cannot check every source. You and I might know that Mr. Bellsiles is unreliable by virtue of our knowledge of current events but can some innocent researcher of the 23rd century necessarily be expected to know this as well? This is how "scholars" such as Bellsiles and Parson Weems thrive. It's in essence the Livy vs. Polybius approach to history in action. Livy felt that the purpose of history is to create accounts of the past that would guide moral behavior while Polybius felt that the purpose of history is to provide accurate knowledge of the past by which we might learn from past mistakes and precedents and thus be prepared when similar events come our own way. As someone who considers himself political scientist and historian I am inclined to consider the approach of Polybius the correct one. The path of Livy is nothing more than poison in the well.

A Cartoon Worth Reading, Say I! ^_^

2011-11-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Glenn Reynolds is right. When someone seeks to censor a cartoon or a book or *anything* then the proper respoonse it to repost it as widely as possible so that as many people as possible may see it. As far as I'm concerned if Islam and Anime cannot share the same world in peace then Islam will just have to die! ^_~

A 2nd Look at the "99%" Courtesy of the Daily Northwestern! :P

2011-10-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

Headline from The Daily Northwestern of Monday, October 17, 2011: " 'Occupy Chicago' still evolving".

I can see how this might be exciting news from their point of view. At this rate it's doubtless that the Occupy Chicago people will eventually become multicell creatures. ^o^

But perhaps I shouldn't be snarky because on page one of that same paper Katie Glueck, the author of the article, informs us that the organizers of their Grant Park rally say that they drew about 2,000 people. Assuming that any demonstration's organizers can be trusted not to exaggerate the attendance of a demonstration that really is not a bad draw for a weekend. Or rather it wouldn't had this "Occupy" movement not claimed to constitute 99% of the American population. That deserves mockery. A LOT of mockery. Tons and tons of mockery laid on with a trowel. Katie Glueck on the other hand deserves praise. Faithful readers of this blog will know what I mean when I suggest that she has shown greater numeric precision than the crowd estimate of thousands given to us by CNN on a similar occasion. And unlike CNN, Miss Glueck was kind enough to provide the source of just where her estimate had
come from so that we might form our own judgement of both their knowledge and their reliability. This did represent a better work ethic than that shown by the CNN people and we hope that such diligence in research is not a hinderance to Miss Glueck when she graduates and seeks to take her place among her fellow "professionals". ^_^;

But all the same 2000 for a weekend isn't a half-bad draw at all. Were it not that the peeps involved boasted of being 99% of the population it would be worthy of respect rather than of mockery for pretentiousness could we be sure that the figure were accurate. By way of comparison an annual Science-Fiction convention named Windycon gets 1300 to 1500 people in a weekend. I guess that means that Windycon attendees are entitled to call themselves "the almost 75%"? o_O

But let us not forget that 2,000, if accurate, was a respectable figure considering that the "Occupy Chicago Movement" is a lot less important then the things that take place at Windycon and not nearly half as much fun either. As a second comparison let us note that Anime Central's attendence for 2011 was 23,183. If 2,000 people are truly "the 99%" I guess that means that our local ottaku are the 1089% after we take the time to round down? ^_~

Meanwhile, attendance at Gencon is 2011 was 36,733 . Does that mean that gamers outnumber "99%" of Chicago by 18 to 1? @_@

And yet even Gencon's attendance is well and truly dwarfed by that of the San Diego Comic-con which claimed an attendance of 125,000 in 2011. That it would imply that comic book fans outnumber "99" of Chicago by more than 60 to 1. n_n

And please note that I have been very carefully abstaining from mentioning the fact that Windycon, Anime Central and GenCon all charge for attendance while the Occupy Chicago people did not. But then again which sort of event would you rather be at? :P

Mind you, all of this doesn't even bother to mention that the population of Chicago is 2,695,598 so once again it appears as though our "99%" people are once more actaully less than 10% of 1% even on a weekend! >_>

But I'm sure they'll still "the 99%" in their mind! As long as we don't buy into their delusions I guess we shouldn't mind if they go ahead and claim to be the Queen of Sheba as well. ^_~

Mood Music: 'Run That By Me One More Time' as sung by Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. ^_^

99%, Eh? o_O

2011-10-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes numerate people can have fun when watching silly leftists in action. As you may already know, a herd of stooges has organized an "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration under the slogan "We Are The 99%". Let's call that datum one. ^_^

Datum two is the fact that on October 5, 2011, CNN breathlessly reports, "Wall Street protests swelled Wednesday to their largest numbers yet, after local unions pledged support to a third week of demonstrations against income inequality, corporate greed, corruption and a list of other social ills.

Thousands meandered from lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park..." (Emphasis mine).

Ooooo, Thousands! Now that could be any number between 1,000 and 9,000 or else the CNN peeps would have referred to "tens of thousands", but let's be charitable and assume 9,000 even though I'm more inclined to suspect a number a bit less than that (Peeps who organize demonstrations tend to count each finger, toe and tooth of a protester as an individual demonatrator in making their estimates of turnout and the press seems to tend towards dividing only by 10! ^_^;). Making that assumption then allows us to go to the next datum...

The currently estimated population of New York is more than 19 million. ^.^

And this is where the fun of being numerate comes in. n_n

In order to achieve 10% Of New York's population the protesters would have to have 1.9 million people in their ranks. In order to get 1% they'd have to be able to 190,000 people in their ranks. In order to get .1% they'd have to get 19,000.

So, even if we are being charitable and assuming that they got as many as 9,000 they still have failed to get even half of .1%. >_>

Which means that they are quite incorrect when they claim to be "the 99%".

After all, half of .1% is just a little bit less than 99%, wouldn't you say? ^^

Kind of shows what their word is worth when they claim to be the "99%", doesn't it? ^_~

There is no Such Thing as a Useless Superpower! ^_^

2011-09-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

Back in the 1990s Ookla the Mok made a splash with an interesting song about Aquaman based on their opinion that he was the most useless JLA member of all (Which unfairly ignored the existence of Snapper Carr, say I!). It was a good song and pretty amusing but is it necessarily true? Before answering that it may be useful to take a moment to remember the powers that Aquaman actually had:

1. He could breathe underwater and could with stand oceanic pressures to the point that he could take a stroll at the bottom of the Mariana Trench without hassle. In other words, he had the ability to go places Wonder Woman could not, that Flash couldn't, that few other members of the JLA could even think of. Places that represent 3/4s of the Earth.

Yeah, Superman, Green Lantern and J'onn Jonzz could try that too, but in Green Lantern's case he'd better hope he'd remembered to charge his ring recently before he tried it. The fact that only the heaviest hitters could hope to keep up with Aquaman in that place should be a hint right there that his powers weren't all that negligible.

This matters because if you need someone to take you to the sunken island of R'lyeh to stop a certain Great Old Underwater One then you'd better be grateful that somebody like Aquaman was a part of your expedition. And when it comes to fundraising? All the sunken treasures of the world were Aquaman's to retrieve when he wanted to, weren't they? In theory he could just take a year off, find a few treasure wrecks where the Spanish Treasure Fleets had been and pull up, at his leisure, pounds and pounds and pounds of gold that it would take other people millions of dollars to retrieve even should they find it. That's not a power *I* would turn down! ^-^

This leads us to another reason why he was not at all useless as a superhero...

2. You don't have the ability to survive ocean pressures at depths without a little bit of toughness on the side. As a result there is a certain amount of sense to DC's assigning the Silver Age Aquaman a greater degree of strength, toughness and sgility beyond the norm. In terms of the Champions RPG I would probably say he was a match for 4 or 6 regular agents and easily able to defeat 2 to 3 elite agents. The might not sound like much but when you're trying to punch through to the boss villain whose agents are trying to impede you it's generally good to have somebody on your tram who can play rearguard for you and come back alive and who also can be relied upon to tie up a few of the munchies so that your big sluggers don't have to. So when you stop and think about it he really wasn't all that useless on land.

But even this was secondary compared to one of his most potent powers...

3. If Aquaman ever were to accompany an expedition to the island of R'lyeh he could guarantee himself and his buddies as friendly a reception as they wanted. This is because he had the ability to communicate and command the creatures of the sea. Not just fish, but whales, seabirds such as gulls and ospreys, and plant life such a plankton as well. In addition he could use it to communicate with sophonts who didn't speak his language but who also lived underwater. In other words he was a classic xenotelepath - That is to say he was a telepath whose powers worked only outside his species as opposed to regular telepaths whose powers only worked within their species (Although it should be noted here that most fictional xenopaths that I recall, such as Telzey Amberdon, also had regular telepathy at their command as well even if their author would then go on to suggest that this was not
the norm). I'd consider xenotelepathy fairly potent even when you consider only the noncombat applications.

So let us note that we have established that Aquaman's powers weren't useless. Is there anywhere else we can go in our quest for superpowers? Well, there's always the ones whom the Legion of Superheroes considered useless...

The Legion of Substitute Heroes! ^_^

Why not? After all, this particular team was formed from their determination to demonstrate their powers were *not* useless. So there's really no reason why we shouldn't include them in any essay on the question of whether or not there are useless superpowers, is there? n_n

So let's consider them in this order;

1. Night Girl - Had superstrength in the absence of *direct* sunlight. The powers themselves are undeniably useful and the limitation upon them is barely a limit.

2. Polar Boy - The story involving his rejection makes it clear that it was hardly his *powers* that were useless but seemingly Polar Boy himself. Granting that auditions may be regarded as a stressful situation, the fact is that combat situations are even more stressful. So someone who sprays the field with his area effect attack when under stress is not necessarily someone you want along with you in those situations. Friendly fire is *not* a joke! ^_^;

I sure wouldn't want anybody too prone to that sort of thing along with me on any expedition either. Would you? That sort of thing happens enough in combat without courting it. So when the Legion told Polar Boy that his power was too dangerous to be useful they were being kind and tactful. But note that it was not the power that was useless. (Note also in fairness to Polar Boy that he did redeem himself both by his subsequent leadership of the Substitute Legion and more importantly by his subsequent conduct while on missions. Thus showing that there is really no such thing as a useless human being either, ne? n_n).

3. Fire Boy - Similar to Polar Boy in that his power was rejected as "too dangerous" rather than useless. Not *quite* the same thing when you think about it. In as much as there were no Legion of Substitute heroes stories where his powers did prove particularly dangerous to anyone but his foes it would seem that this was an expression of pyrophobia on the Legion's part instead of a legitimate worry. Not surprising when you consider there wasn't anything his power could do that a good flamethrower couldn't do as well. Perhaps the Legion was still gunshy from Polar Boy's audition? o_O

4. Chlorophyl Lad - Had the power to make plants grow real fast and real big right from the seed. In this case the fact that the Legion rejected him on the grounds that these powers couldn't help on the sort of missions they went on may have shown limited imagination of the part of the Legion audition directors rather than any problems with his power. Disastor relief and rescue was as much a job of the Silver Age Superheroes as crimefighting was and a power like his was something that could easily make a difference when combating the effects of famine. Rare healing plants would easily become "not so rare" around him as well. Overall, I would consider his power to be among the most useful of them all. I might like Brainiac 5's power of super-intelligence even more but this is definitely up there when it comes to being cool.

5. Stone Boy - He has the ability to turn into stone and also to go into suspended animation for 6 months without problem while in stone form. While I can see why the Legion would consider his power of marginal utility in combat situations given their preference for a combat style that emphasized mobility this is still a useful, albeit specialized, power.

6. Color Kid - Even more specialized. Has the power of changing color of objects & people. Given that the Kryptonite he transformed from green to blue in this manner was presumed to no longer be a threat to Superman or Supergirl we may assume that these changes were permanent ones. This does have useful implicatons. I'm willing to be more than one artist could think of applications for a power of this sort. While the combat utility of this power would require some imagination to utilize there may be a few illusion based or psyop based uses for this power as well.

So all in all, it would seem that the powers held by our Legion of Substitute Heroes wasn't that useless after all! ^_^

Now at this point perhaps we should take a step back and ask ourselves, "What do we mean by 'super', what do we mean by 'power', and what do we mean by 'useless'? Now as somebody who's played a bit of Champions my first instinct would be to say "A power is that which you pay points for and a disavantage or weakness is something that you *get* points for." but since I've had players who would try to get me to treat their disads as advanatages both in that game and in GURPS (("Stubborn" and "Bad Temper" mean that I'm immune to mind control attempts, right?") we clearly need to go a step further in defining these things. I suppose we could get all Socratic about this, but while I respect Socrates' *stated* maxim that common meanings to each word that's understood by everybody in the same is important in the search for Truth it just so happens that what I read of what Plato and Xenophon
wrote about Socrates rather than listening to what my high school teachers *said* about Socrates has sometimes left me with the impression that Socrates himself was pretty much a fast talk artist who used dirty tricks to browbeat people into agreeing with any old thing he wanted at the moment and that all his talk of "Truth", "common meaning" and so on was merely a smoke screen for that. I won't go as far as to say that he deserved to be made to drink hemlock (Though I will say that defense speeches that boil down to "Go ahead and do it, I double red dog dare you!" the way his speeches seemed to at times, both in Plato's account as well as Xenophon's, are not the sort of speeches I would select if I were serious about trying to get off the hook! ^_^;), but neither will I say that his death was necessarily the loss to philosophy that so many of his admirers deemed it.

Fortunately, a resort to the Socratic method in order to find a common meaning for those 3 words is completely unneccessary. We have a handy lowtech device that may be used in cases like this. It's called a dictionary. Thus does Noah Webster render Socrates technologically obsolete. ^-^

In turning to the "Scholastic Dictionary of American English (TX 327, copyright page lost) we find the following definitions:

1. super - 'prefix meaning "above", "going beyond", or "greater than others".
2. power - "2 ability to act or do(something)"
3. useless - "1 worthless; of no use:...2 producing no results; vain:..."

Thus a superpower would be an ability to do something that is greater than others and to be useless it would have to be of no use or producing no results in spite of this, which, as a moment's thought reveals, is a rather paradoxical requirement. The ability to wiggle one's ears is a power that might be considered useless (Although some of P.G. Wodehouse's heroes were reported to have used it to good effect in impressing girls at parties) but is hardly likely to be regarded by anyone as "super". Walking, reading and the ability to accurately do basic math inside one's head are all examples of extremely useful powers that we don't need to regard as super. But it would seem that using both these definitions and our previous examples would seem to mean that a power that is both useless and super would be almost impossible to find.

So where else can we go in our quest for a superpower that's truly useless? In Piers Anthony's Xanth series, Xanth is a land of magic-based mutants. They call their mutations magic powers instead of superpower in recognition of the fact that magic is what spawned their power but once you set the semantics aside it becomes evident that, as with Magic Girls, we merely talking about mutant superpowers rather than spellcasting here. Mr. Anthony's first book in the Xanth series, "A Spell for Chameleon" spells this out most explicitly. In that particular novel those who don't manifest such superpowers lose their citizenship and exiled from Xanth. One scene we can discuss here without going into any spoilers is when Humfrey is talking with Bink on page 136 about one person who was able to keep his citizenship without having to publicly demonstrate his superpower because his
power consisted of the ability to make his urine any color he wanted at will. I'd say that our search for a useless superpower stops here because it's hard to imagine anything with fewer applications than that. And yet, even this wasn't useless when you think about it because any superpower that allows you to keep your citizenship when you're in danger of losing it is a very useful superpower indeed.

So I tell thee once,...

I tell thee twice,....

I tell thee three times,...

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A USELESS SUPERPOWER!!! ^____^

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Mood Music: 'You've Got to Have an Ace in the Hole' by Dennis Adkins, as sung by George Strait.
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Randy the Fox is Right! ^o^

2011-09-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

His theory really does go a long way towards explaining modern politics! ^_^

Now that we ourselves would ever be like that, of course! ^^

Oh no, never ever! ^.^

Honest! ^_~

Mood Music: "'The One on the Right is on the Left!' by "Jack Clement, as sung by Johnny Cash.

Typical Chicago Democrat! :P

2011-09-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

Quoth Michelle Malkin: "The episode—confirmed by The Daily Beast in interviews with administration officials and the chairman of a congressional oversight committee—is the latest in a string of incidents that have given Republicans sudden fodder for questions about whether the Obama administration is politically interfering in routine government matters that affect donors or fundraisers."

My answer? Of course they are! Mr. Obama is a typical Chicago Democrat. His advisors are typical Chicago Democrats. So you know that's just what they're going to do. It's the way they run Chicago, it's the way they run Cook County and it's the way they've been running Illinois. Do you really expect Chicago Democrats to do anything else with themselves when this is the only thing they know? o_O

The earlier Solyndra scandal is merely another example of the same. This is what all Chicago Democrats are. Anyone who voted for Mr. Obama in the name of "hope and change" expecting anything else was merely kidding themselves. T_T

If you want anything better out of these guys then the only thing to do is to vote them out of office as a way of teaching them that America is bigger than Chicago! ^_~

Wisconsin Democrats Clearly Are Not Trekkies! :P

2011-02-28T18:10:00.000-08:00

If they were, then they surely would have known better than to be wearing red shirts while going into any conflict. Doing such a thing would clearly put the mark of Doom upon themselves and upon their entire cause. And yet, poor Mundanes that they are, that is precisely what they did. ^_^;

One can only presume that this is a sign that Mr. Obama, their very own version of Captain Kirk, obviously regards them as expendable. ^_~

Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds

Mood music: 50 Ways to Kill an Ensign by Joel Polowin

Charles Hennessey Rebukes Rahm Emanuel. :P

2011-02-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite scenes in Edwin O' Connor's novel "The Last Hurrah" came when a liberal "Hope and Change" stooge by the name of Kevin McCluskey, in the course of running for the office of Mayor of Boston, displays a TV commercial starring his family minus the family dog because it wasn't telegenic enough. (Not unlike the poor demented liberal who ran around screaming "We need more white people!" at an Obama photo op when you think about it. :P). And that was where the true fun begins in the novel for Charlie Hennessey, a rival candidate who was both intelligent and a technophile, did not miss the opportunity to give this sort of thing the sort of mockery that it deserved:

"It's a modern miracle, dear folks! If it wasn't for television there wouldn't be a one of us who would see him at all, for the simple reason his keepers don't let him out! Here's a big strong boy who wears size 11 shoes, a 44 suit, a 17 collar and a 7 1/2 hat, and they don't allow him out in the backyard even to play!...There's a lack of confidence there, dear folks! Sad! Disturbing! They don't want him to come out in the damp night air where he might be asked some questions! Dangerous! Very dangerous! _They like to keep him away from people._ They like to keep him in his own house where the only question is whether he wants a lamb chop or a pork chop for his dinner! Oh, I tell you, dear folks, if it weren't for the miracle of television we'd barely catch a glimpse of him at all! The keepers might put him in some sort of hen coop and trail him around the streets behind a horse, so's you could see what you were voting for but you couldn't catch up to him to ask what about putting rest rooms in public parks! Oh, evasive, dear folks!...It all goes to show you how times have changed, dear folks! Back in the old days when a man wanted to make a speech, he rented a tuxedo! Now he's got a tuxedo but he has to rent a dog!...Isn't that unbelieveable, dear folks? Isn't it amazing what I am telling you?...Would you call these the tactics of a sane man, fit to be the head official of this great city? Oh no, dear folks!", he roared. "I'll tell you what they are: THEY ARE THE TACTICS OF A NUTBOY!" [Edwin O'Conner, "The Last Hurrah", New York: Bantam Books, 1956, pp.262-263].

Now let's compare this passage from fiction, that was doubtless meant to be too far-fetched for reality, to a bit of information from real life...

Via Instapundit: "EVEN THE GENUINENESS IS FAKE: Politico: Rahm Emanuel’s ‘Glad to be home’ video filmed in Washington."

It looks as though Mr. Emanuel couldn't content himself with merely renting a dog but had to rent an entire city instead. Doubtless because he was ashamed of the one from which he came. Which does cause one to wonder just why it is our poor Mr. Emanuel would want to be the mayor of Chicago if he is so ashamed of both Chicago and Illinois. :P

Ah, but perhaps I am being unjust in attributing such motives to our pitiful Mr. Emanuel. And perhaps we would be unkind to infer hypocrisy from this. Washington D.C. is a drinking town, you know. Doubtless after their second or third drink of bourbon before breakfast neither Mr. Emanuel nor his staff can be trusted to know the difference between one city and another. But shouldn't we ask ourselves if this might not be a tad ominous if they were to continue such work habits when they attempt to run the largest city in Illinois? O_o

But wait! Perhaps I am unfair in adducing booze as the reason for Mr. Emanuel claiming to be in Chicago when he was really in Washington D.C. After all, Mr. Emanuel is very much one of Mr. Obama's little toadies. Who among us can forget that Mr. Obama was thick with a bunch of unbathed and smelly old hippies like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. So booze might indeed not be the reason for Mr. Emanuel's strange geographic lapse. Perhaps Mr. Emanuel and his staff were too busy tasting the color green to have any notion of just where they actually were? Then again, that wouldn't say anything good about their work habits either! ^_^;

But then again, I suppose it's entirely possible that the friends and supporters of Mr. Emanuel would resent my inference that Mr. Emanuel and his fellow Dummycrats had to have been completely stoned out of their minds to not know the difference between Chicago and Washington D.C. as a totally unneeded and totally uncalled for slur upon his moral character. Doubtless as his friends they would argue, and quite rightly so, that Rahm Emanuel is sincerely and completely that hopelessly dumb! ^o^

Let us note too, that there would be much to support such a view of the matter. After all, who can forget that the man Mr. Emanuel was employed by quite famously didn't know that America has 50 states? Given the sort of Presidents he has worked for perhaps we should be grateful that Mr. Emanuel knew enough to realize that Chicago is a city rather than a state and not be too hard on him for not being able to discern just where this city he wants to be mayor actually might be. ^^

There's only one problem with such a view; If he was truly that dumb and ignorant without the excuse of being drunk or stoned out of his mind then doesn't that make things even worse? o_O A man who gets drunk on a Saturday can sober up and be quite functional on a Monday, but a man who's allowed himself to grow up to become a hopelessly ignorant adult will probably still be hopelessly ignorant should any city make the mistake of voting him into public office. If he truly can't tell the difference between Chicago and Washington, D.C. then who knows what sort of further errors this might lead to? Perhaps he'll embarrass all of us by trying to tax the residents of Milwaukee for the sake of planting trees in the middle of Lake Tahoe? Or, worse then that, might he take it into his fluffy little head to tax Chicago for the sake of putting additional coffee shops into Seattle? Given the way the Obama "stimulus" worked would you really consider the latter to be beyond the bounds of possibility? O_o

And don't look to Mr. Emanuel's staffers to correct him when he does such things! Remember, they allowed him to make this commercial in the first place. :P

Truthfully, all of this reminds me of a D&D buddy of mine who had a fondness for martial arts movies and quoting from them. In thinking of Mr. Emanuel and his supporters one particular quotation that my friend was especially fond of comes to mind: "You see before you the scum, the refuse of the dock! Tired old men who don't know where they are and don't particularly care!"

Truthfully? If poor old Mr. Emanuel is too tired to know the difference between Chicago and Washington, D.C. and doesn't particularly care then perhaps the kindest thing we of Illinois can do is not bother to make him the Mayor of Chicago, or anything like that, but rather let him and his staffers stay in Washington D.C. for the rest of their lives in the hopes that their poor tired brains may heal. ^_~

Mood music: 'Finnegan's Wake'

The Importance of Due Diligence. >_>

2011-02-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder just how much trouble a lack of due diligence could cause? ^_~

Mood Music: "'The Haircut Song' by Ray Stevens.

Thoughts Brought About By The Contemplation Of Spam. @_@

2010-12-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

John W. Campbell often wrote that anything that "Everybody Knows" deserves to be examined closely because by virtue of the fact that everyone "knew" it they would believe it without stopping to think if it was still true when as when it was first said or if it had ever been true at all. He was quite fond of providing examples of those things that "Everybody knows" turning out to be completely wrong.

Since reading John Campbell I have often come across the phrase "Sex sells!" in more than one discussion of advertising.

But I wonder about that...

If it's true that "Sex sells!" then would porn sites need to spam? ^_~

Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering? @_@

2010-08-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Quoth SCC: 'Aldercreatures are our sometimes elected City Council. There are 50 of them for some reason and their conviction rate averages around one-a-year - we don't know how New York City gets along with only half that many with three times Chicago's population. Must be something in the water.'

A more accurate description of them than that would be very hard to find. ^_^

Quoth Glenn Reynolds: 'Environmentalists, like feminists, are just another arm of the Democratic establishment: “running dogs” to be loosed or reined in as politics require. It is thus unnecessary to pay attention to what they say, since it’s just politics anyway.'

True enough. If you allow your poltical party or faction to do your thinking for you and dictate what you may read, think and say - as pretty much all leftists have done since the time of Karl Marx - then you have allowed them to turn you into a trained parrot. And once you have allowed your party to turn you into a parrot then why should you be regarded as anything more than a trained performing animal rather than as a human being? o_O

Sucks to be either a feminist or an environmentalist but they did this to themselves! :P

Also from Glenn Reynolds: 'I guess the lesson is, if you want scrutiny of Executive Branch actions, vote Republican. . . .'

That does tend to be the logical consequence of Old Media having made themselves the lapdogs of the Democrat Party, doesn't it? I wonder if they themselves would ever be bright enough to appreciate the irony? ^o^

And, before we continue on to others, yet another from Glenn Reynolds: 'Personally, I believe that “fairness” consists in the fruits of my labor not being taken by corrupt hacks to redistribute to their cronies in exchange for votes.'

But, sadly enough, the patronage hounds and wardheelers who favor high taxes would seem to disagree. I wonder why that might be? :P

Quoth A. Jacksonian: 'Engineering is the Dirty Little Secret of getting energy.'

The fact that the Left is hostile to this basic truth is the reason that people like Mr. Obama and all his little toadies will never fit for office.

Quoth Claire Berlinski: 'The danger that Stroilov and Bukovsky faced was real and grave; they both assumed, one imagines, that the world would take notice of what they had risked so much to acquire.'

I suppose one does not have to be a ninja to know that the truly hidden is sometimes that which is within plain sight. >_>

Quoth Paul Mirengoff: '...Thus, NASA's primary mission is no longer to enhance American science and engineering or to explore space, but to boost the self-esteem of "predominantly Muslim nations.'

Given that any form of leftism seems to eventually require its adherents to become a bunch of technophobes should we really be surprised by this? o_O

Mr. Obama and his fellow Dummycrats have clearly forgotten the Dirty Little Secret of Energy that AJacksonian pointed out to us before and in doing so have quite firmly made themselves the citizens of Cloud Cuckoo Land! ~_~

Quoth Francis Turner:'The death of the traditional print business model was merely hastened by Amazon. The seeds of its destruction had already been laid by the earlier adoption of the grocery business model, however Amazon helped speed up the death spiral. Not that this is going to help Amazon much in the longer term. The problem for Amazon is that while the web helped them take sales from existing bricks and mortar stores because of larger inventory and lower prices, their success is gradually killing these stores. If (when?) the bricks and mortar stores go away then so does the casual reader base that buys bestsellers and takes an occasional chance at something else when browsing in an airport bookstore. These folks are the ones whose purchases support publishers and thus, eventually, the industry as a whole. Hence Amazon's gain at the expense of the bookstores looks like it could be rather temporary. Unless of course we can replace that casual treeware reader base with a casual electronic reader base....'

He's right. I've seen the same thing happen, albeit from different causes, in various hobbies when they cease to be newbie-friendly. It's not an accident that a trip to certain SF Cons can feel like a visit to a geriatric ward. And reading for the sake of pleasure is very definitely a hobby, albeit an important one!

Quoth Wretchard: 'A lot of Democrats who are now staring political death in the face may now be asking themselves what has changed since they were re-elected last. Who brought this pox upon their houses? The right answer would be the political and economic environment. But the obvious answer would be Barack Obama. He’s the obvious patsy. He’s what changed since last. As the President’s unpopularity bears down on his supporters like the albatross around the Ancient Mariner, the temptation to survive at his expense may easily infect a group of people who were opportunists to begin with.'

Actually, I suspect this may be a case where the rats aren't bright enough to desert the sinking ship. Because where are they going to go? They used their ideology to stifle their conscience and whatever very slim chance of political survival the Left still has depends on them hanging together in case things can somehow still be worked out. If I am correct then it's only when the election is over, and they find themselves out in the cold and truly hated by all, that the Left will then turn upon Mr. Obama and one another. But when they do so it will be in the manner of piranas and not a pretty sight at all. Any bets on the forms that it will take? ^_~

That said, expect more and more dirty tricks and cheating from the Democrats this year as their desperation begins to mounts. It's been the only thing they've had left for decades now and the more that the American voters have seen through them the more desperately they've continued to need it. I wonder if any of them could still operate in any other way or even imagine doing so? o_O

Quoth Dr. Jerry Pournelle: 'I did find it interesting that they kept counting until Franken won. And I make no doubt that will happen this November as well. It's always best to have a decisive win. Recounts generally go to the party employing the recounters.'

Worth remembering the next time any Democrat wants a recount, isn't it? :P

Just as it's worth remembering that the Democrats tried to use this trick to steal the 2000 election when Mr. George W. Bush legitimately defeated Mr. Al Gore. Remember what I said about dirty tricks being the only thing the Democrats have left? And even such tricks are nothing more than a double edged weapon with poison for them. Each time the liberals use it for a short term gain they lose a bit more of the public's respect, a bit more of their own supporters, and a bit more of their own ability to do things in any other way. Such things have postponed their collapse but only makes things worse for them on the day that collapse comes. I wonder how long it will be before we see their party go the way of the Federalists and Whigs? O_o

Quoth Tom Smith (The Right Coast blogger, not the filker!): 'I remember reading stories of women who got themselves sterilized because of the population explosion. Fewer dumb genes in the gene pool you may say, but it's not as if they can sue Paul Erlichman.'

It wasn't just the women either. I remember hearing about a lot of men who got vasectomies on the same account. Hardly the first time that people messed themselves over or were messed over because of the more wacky environmentalist beliefs when you think it. Nor will it be the last. If you doubt me then consider how many people may be messing up their lives or the lives of others here and now because they honestly think "Global Warming" something more than a scam that has been somewhat anti-science. For that matter, ask yourself where the 20 million children
who have died from Malaria because of Rachel Carson and her disciples go to get their lives back either? Especially when it's quite likely that these deaths continue at the rate of 800,000 per year? >_<

Something to think on the next time an environmentalist trys to sound a bogus alarm, no? But it's not as though anyone who is of the Left will ever be any good at taking responsibility for what they do, now is it? :P

And The Reason Why They Shouldn't Would Be?...o_O

2010-04-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Over at Easy Opinions, Andrew M. Garland tells the story of a ditz who complained about the birthday cake she herself chose to purchase with the remark "They are profiting from my needs!".

Offhand, I would say that the overall lack of common sense and general selfishness inherent in leftist ideology may be remarked upon not only in her scorn for other people making an honest profit from providing her a service that she herself freely chose to use but also in the fact that she regarded cake as a need! @_@

Mood Music: Promise.

A Very Liberal Regard for Art! u_u

2010-03-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Quoth a Congressional Democrat and subliterate cretin named Nick Levasseur: 'Anime is a prime example of why two nukes just wasn’t enough.'

Should we be surprised by this? It's already been established that liberals are the sort of people who get off on burning books. One could ask Mr. Levasseuer, "Dost thou think that because thou art a Leftist that there shall be no cakes and ale?" but the sad fact is that he and the people who supported him would probably respond by wanting to nuke England over the existence of William Shakesphere as well. That's just the sort of person anyone of the Left tends to be. :P

Mind you. from a leftist's point of view one can understand the way Mr. Levasseur feels. Anime and manga encourage people to think. How long do you think any leftist movement would last in a world where everyone chooses to think? Anime and manga encourage a concern with honor. How many Democrats of Mr. Levasseur's sort could ever be comfortable in a world with honor? Anime and manga go even beyond Science-Fiction in teaching not only that your opponent may not be evil but he need not even be misguided to be your foe even if it still remains necessary for you to defeat him. Do you think a bloodthirsty fanatic like Mr. Levasseur could ever be comfortable with the idea that one need not hate one's rival or foe in order to oppose them? Anime and manga encourage an interest in Asian culture and what is leftism of any variety but xenophobia given the dignity of an ideology? Anime and manga are fun and when did any leftist ever feel anything but resentment at
the idea of people being happy without their permission? Is it any wonder then that Mr. Levasseur as a typically bluenosed, leftist philistine - But of course the adjectives become redundant when the word leftist is used! - would be so fearful of the mere existence of a few cartoons that he would publicly wish that there had been an act of genocide to prevent them from having come into being? o_O

It cannot be denied that Eric Hoffer in his book "The Ordeal of Change", summed up the nature of Mr. Levasseur and his fellow liberals quite nicely when he wrote: "...there is a tendency in the untalented to divert their energies from their own development into the management, manipulation and probably frustration of others. They want to police, instruct, guide and meddle." - p. 89 of "The Ordeal of Change" by Eric Hoffer, (New York:Perrenial Liberary, 1967), and of course anytime that Mundanes of Mr. Levasseur's sort come across a realm of creativity where they cannot do these things it then becomes their desire to destroy it for ultimately the intellect of the Left as a whole is nothing more or less than that of dogs within a manger. Such is the nature of any who dislike either Anime or Manga in the manner of Nick Levasseur.

Let us be understanding of Mr. Levasseur to say this much...People like him are what all who supported Mr. Obama stood for whether they knew it or not. People like Mr. Levasseur are the only thing the Left ever really was. Cretins like Mr. Levasseur are the only thing anyone who still support Mr. Obama are ever going to be. Once you have said that you have summed up the entire intellectual and moral capacity of the Left! :P

Hence the reason the ideology of the Left will never be anything better than poison. ^_~

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.

Mood Music: Poison.

A Chapter of History in French Health Care.

2009-10-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

There are those who feel that the government rather than we should be responsible for our own health care and thus support Mr. Obama in his push to make this happen. Many of them give the health care system of France as a prime example of the way our own system should be like. But I am dubious that they would do so if their memories stretched back into history a mere 6 years ago. With that in mind let us turn to the month of August in the year of 2003 AD to remember just what the French Health system that some of them so dearly admire was like when it was put to the test.

I begin with Dissident Frogman's account because I feel his eyewitness testimony concerning what had happened with his own relative brings the matter to life in a way that dryer accounts might not. Let us not forget that this is a widely known event that took place a mere six years ago. That this was not a fluke may be seen here.

The way the French Health Care system released its patients after their treatment one way or another is also noteworthy in its fashion.

Independent verification that the events described here did indeed happen in August of 2003 is not hard to come by. I offer this post from Just One Minute from August 15 both as evidence that in fairness to the Chirac government of the day nobody quite knew how bad it was at first and as evidence that they did know there *was* a problem and that it was quite obvious even then that they weren't moving quickly enough on it.

Let's continue with some of the stories that cropped up in Instapundit at the time as taken from Instapundits archives. Note that this particular post represents the time period when they first found that the death toll had climbed to over 10,000. Let us then note that in this piece dated September 9, 2003 the death total had climbed over 15,000. It is worth remembering, as this September 26, 2003 post reminds us, that in spite of the fact that it was the same heat wave all over Europe the number of deaths still hit France disproportionately because of the poor performance of their national "health" service.

As Mark Steyn noted in his commentary, those senior citizens would have had a better chance at survival if they had been captured by Marines and put in Gitmo then they did under the tender mercies of French health care. Perhaps the real reason libs disliked the Gitmo camp lies in that fact? :P

I like this paragraph in particular: "In Paris this spring, a government official explained to me how Europeans had created a more civilised society than America - socialised healthcare, shorter work weeks, more holidays. We've just seen where that leads: gran'ma turned away from the hospital to die in an airless apartment because junior's sur la plage. M Chirac's somewhat tetchy suggestion that his people should rethink their attitude to the elderly was well taken. But Big Government inevitably diminishes its citizens' capacity to take responsibility, to the point where even your dead mum is just one more inconvenience the state should do something about."

From the USA Today of Sept. 25, 2003 we can read: "The new estimate comes a day after the French Parliament released a harshly worded report blaming the deaths on a complex health system, widespread failure among agencies and health services to coordinate efforts, and chronically insufficient care for the elderly...The heat wave swept across much of Europe, but the death toll was far higher in France than in any other country. Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei has ordered a separate special study this month to look into a possible link with vacation schedules after doctors strongly denied allegations their absence put the elderly in danger. The heat wave hit during the August vacation period, when doctors, hospital staff and many others take leave." (Emphasis mine!).

Any leftist who would like to deny that this occurred should keep in mind that an obscure outfit called the BBC also covered the event.

So did another set of podunk broadcasters called the NPR.

But make no mistake. This did happen. It happened on a large scale. And it was the failings of socialized medicine that caused it to happen. To adopt Obamacare would be to put our elderly on a death march and I do not consider that a good idea at all.

A Quick Look at British Health Care. >_>

2009-10-12T17:39:00.001-07:00

As the Gentle Reader may already know, Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats are pushing a national health care plan. With that in mind it may be worthwhile to see how well such a plan has worked in Great Britain:

1. Item: Hundreds of people report poor health care by the British NHS after initial report of substandard care is published. Reasonable extrapolations make it probable that this extends to at least a million patients.

2. Item: Newbies thrown into technical nursing positions after only a week of training. In the same report both a whistleblower and a former Labor minister indicate that the trained nurses regard certain basic tasks intrinsic to the role of nursing as too menial for their dignity.

3. Item: British hospital refuses to provide blankets for patient. Who can doubt that such concern for the patient is the essence of what public health care would be like? u_u

4. Item: British health care system leaves 85 year old woman without food or water while waiting for surgery. Tells her to wet her bed instead of providing her with needed assistance.

5. Item: Former nurse left in soiled bed clothes and own vomit and berated for waking staff at night to ask for a drink. Found by husband covered in dried feces because British staff couldn't be bothered to change her.

6. Item: 82 year old cancer victim has treatment switched to palliative without discussion with her relatives. Never receives visit from tissue viability nurse because said nurse was on annual leave.

7. Item: Man has to have appendix removed twice because the British Health Care system flubbed it the first time. During the second time he is left infected. Doubtless our leftist friends would argue that practice made perfect.

8. Item: Some of the English resort to pulling their own teeth because they have a hard time finding a dentist *or affording one*. Tsk. Weren't we told that government health care would prevent that sort of thing? :P

Is anybody surprised that Glenn Reynolds has a few snarky things to say about this? o_O

I wonder what it says about Democrats such as Mr. Obama that they would try to impose this sort of health care system upon America? @_@;

****************************************************

Omake: 10-22-2009

Ooooo, I'm so tempted to make this a seperate post but it actually belongs here; From both Instapundit and Small Dead Animals we learn the following item of interest - That the NHS of Great Britain is spending public money to give its employees private health care.

*snicker* ^~^

Kinda says everything you need to know about what any "universal" health care service is going to be like when even the universal health care employees vote with their feet against it, don't it? ^_~

The Democrats of Tax Day! :P

2009-04-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Tax Day, America! Today is the deadline for you to pay taxes. And while paying these taxes what better time to contemplate all the liberals and Democrats who would think you don't pay enough taxes and would like you to pay even more? ^_^

To begin with, let us all pause and be inspired by the example of Charles Geithner, Mr. Obama's Secretary of the Treasury and quite warmly endorsed by Mr. Obama as well. Mr. Geithner doubtless set a sterling example for all of us when he failed to pay his Social Security taxes. Doubtless paying taxes was all too petty for the man who is now in charge of the IRS, right? But as a loyal Obama toady we can be certain that Mr. Geithner is in favor of you paying more taxes. After all, don't you feel that you should pay more taxes to make up for the fact that Mr. Geithner didn't know how? :P

But perhaps the fact that the man to whom you pay your taxes thinks himself too good to pay his own share does not make you happy. Well then, why don't we turn and contemplate some of our beloved liberal Congressmen instead? ^_~

Quoth the Watertown Daily Times: "Others have allowed a sense of entitlement to obscure conscience and judgment. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., occupied three rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at below-market rents, failed to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income from a beach house in the Dominican Republic and has had to pay more than $10,000 owed in back taxes. Yet he still chairs the House Ways and Means Committee."

Oh dear! That doesn't sound much better, does it? Especially when you consider the House Ways and Means Commitee is the one responsible for writing our tax laws. ^_^;

Oh well! As a good little Democrat Charles Rangel doubtless feels that the tax laws he writes are all for other people and never himself. And who among the liberals would ever disagree? After all, don't *you* feel that you should pay higher taxes so that Charles Rangel can have beach houses in the Dominican Republic at your expense rather than his own? O_o

As you finish your tax form be sure and think about Charles Rangel and his belief you should pay more taxes. Because that's what Obama's "Change and Hope" is truly all about. After all, if you don't pay your taxes so the liberals don't have to then how would Christopher Dodd be able to afford his little "Irish Cottage"? ^_^

And in talking about the reasons why *you* should pay higher taxes in order to make Democrats happy let us not forget the most important reason of all: President Obama likes pizza and is so stupid that he has to order pizza to be flown by jet from St. Louis because neither he, nor his staff, nor his supporters ever knew that there are also pizza joints in Washington D.C. Hey, America! Don't you feel that you should pay higher taxes so that Mr. Obama can eat pizza at your expense rather than at his own? Mr. Obama clearly thinks so. And who can doubt that when he does this he governs in the style of Rod Blagojevich? :P

Happy Tax Day, America! This is what you get whenever you vote for the Left! ^_~

The Second Titan Departs; Farewell to Dave Arneson! ~_~

2009-04-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

We learn from Wired that Dave Arneson, who was Father of RolePlaying along with Gary Gygax, has died. In the creation of D&D he was the one who developed the concept of Hit Points, Levels, Experience points and Dungeon Crawls. Accounts of what he did in his own words may be found here and here
here respectively.

Once again, it is John Kovalic who sums it up best.

Farewell to you, Mr. Arneson. You will be missed. ~_~

Best.Summation.Of Old Media. Ever! ^_^

2009-04-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

Quoth A. Jacksonian: "They tried to put in dedicated delivery concepts, as if we all wanted a piece of paper with a lovely banner on it, when we just wanted the damned information."

Sad but true. Print journalism died from within in the early 1970s when newspapers decided to quit competing with television for giving the news and settled for a parrot-like repeating of what broadcast journalism had already said. Only the advantages of oligopolic conditions among the survivors served to keep them alive, or rather merely undead, this long after that. But now, the decay of the corpse that first found its form, along with an accelerated bias in favor of the Democratic party, during the Clinton years has eaten away the last of print journalism's flesh and has begun to dine upon its bones.

And having done the sort of work for the Democrats that they did I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that they would want their 30 pieces of silver that they hope will forfend their fate. But even if they get it I doubt that this will save them. Money of that sort does little good to those who have sold their soul.

Sucks to be them. But they were the ones who made such choices and those choices are the true reason that they are sinking into a tarpit of their own making. Technology changes the rules but it needn't have ended like this for them if they had chosen honor. >_>

The Democrats of April's Fool! n_n

2009-04-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Given that it's April Fool's Day what better topic could there be to start with than Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats? ^_^

After all, they work so hard year round to provide us with the material for this day, do they not? Or could it be that they merely exercise a natural talent for folly without conscious thought? o_O

But in any event, let us pause on this day of April 1 to remember the moment when 10,000+ Democrats were on hand to watch Mr. Obama blow his nose in public and cheer as though at a great accomplishment. Now the casual reader might be inclined to look at this widely-attested incident and say to himself, "Boy, are *they* an easily pleased lot!", and then blow off all Obama supporters as a gang of unthinking morons. But to do that would be merely to look at the surface and not see below to the wheels within wheels that made this a logical thing. ^^

To begin with, these are liberals we are talking about. Do you really think any of them ever had the technical competence needed to blow their own noses without government assistance? O_o

Now I know that April 1st is traditionally a day of merriment,...But please, let us all observe a grave moment of silence at the plight of the middle-aged Ecofreak who drowned in a pile of his own snot without realizing what was happening even as he spoke on the matter of Glowball Warming and the need for environmental awareness. T_T

And, on this particular April 1st, let us never forget the tragic plight of the Pro-Choicer who snuffled and snurfled it all back until the day her nose exploded. It was her body, her self. ~_~

Mind you, there were always those who were able to hit upon temporary expedients to sustain their own survival, at least for a little time. If you doubt me on this fine April 1st then ask yourself this: When was the last time those who protested either the Iraq War or Globalization ever struck you as anything more than a bunch of mouth breathers? :P

But all the same their problems continued. >_>

An example of this can be seen in the case of the PETA member who accidentally snurfed a hardened piece of mucus into the interior of his skull right through the bone while protesting against genetic research. Rumor has it that he was then expelled from his beloved organization because his brain had now become too large to permit him to remain a member. T_T

This being the case who can be surprised that they cheered Mr. Obama? His technical demonstration of how these things are done has provided the entire Democrat party with valuable knowledge that they had never had before and would never have been able to find out on their own. Can you be surprised that such Democrats would be loyal to him unto this day or would maintain the very same considerable mental quality (Let us not dwell too much upon how it might be considered! u_u) that had marked their lives before that demonstration of his technical prowess? Only thus can their cheers for him in that circumstance be explained. But now that the Gentle Reader knows the rest of the story I'm sure he will find it all understandable. What else can you expect from a party whose symbol is a jackass? ^_~

Fearful Indeed! O_O;

2009-03-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

The scary thing is, I've been in gaming groups where the other players really did function at just about this level of teamwork and overall usefulness. ^o^

Nancy Pelosi Orders Books Burned! ^_^;

2009-02-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

Think I'm kidding? Then check this out! Isn't it typical of the Left that they would be in the forefront of the destruction of books? >_<

Kinda shows what "Hope and Change" is worth when you think about it, don't it? o_O

Winter Wisdom from 2008. ^_^

2009-02-05T18:37:00.001-08:00

Jane Q Republican deserved to be quoted for great truth when she wrote: 'Character is who you are when no one is looking. Especially in politics.'

The post that prompted her comment may be found here.

I Would Argue That This Is Useful! ^_^

2009-01-30T18:47:00.000-08:00

Betsy notes sadly that there are many on the left who have made a little tin god out of Che Guevara and wear his face on their T-shirts. I myself on the other hand am inclined to see this as A Good Thing... After all, isn't it convenient when idiots designate themselves as too dumb for adult conversation? ^_~

Mood Music: 'Here's Your Sign!' by Bill Engval.

Obama's First Screwup! :P

2008-11-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

And the poor fool hasn't even taken the Oath of office yet. @_@

Isn't it nice to know that we can rely upon our good Jimmy Carter Jr. not to keep track of what he says from moment to moment nor even to realize that what he says or doesn't say might occasionally have a consequence? o_O

Typical Chicago Democrat when you think about it! :P

Reminds me of the end of an old Robert Redford movie called 'The Candidate' where the empty suit who runs for office and gets elected turns to his manager and in essence says, "I got elected. What do we do now?" What else can we expect? Mr. Obama spent all his time as a "community organizer" running for State Senate, all his time as a State Senator running for the United States Senate, all his time as a Senator running for President. Did anyone really think he would suddenly manifest the skills to govern when seeking the job rather than doing the job was the way he spent his entire life? ^O^

Mood Music: 'It's a Little Too Late to do the Right Thing Now!' by Tanya Tucker. :P

Congratulations to the Dummycrats! ^_^

2008-11-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

It's not that the voting public is stupid, it's just that they sometimes do stupid things! ^O^

In this case when they voted for the Democrats they clearly forgot the lesson of King Log and King Stork. :P

Not to worry! Jimmy Carter Jr., aka BarracKKK Hussein Obama will be certain to remind them in time just why it is that voting for the Left is always a bad idea and there will be much material for humorists among those of us who laugh at folly in the meantime. ^_~

But let us congratulate Mr. Barrack Hussein Obama for being Selected to become the Occupant of the White House for 2009 to 2013. n_n

Who can doubt that he deserves as much respect as the Left gave to President Bush? o_O

No more and no less! n_n

Who can doubt that in time of crisis he will deserve as much support as the Democrats gave Mr. Bush? O_o

No more and no less! n_n

(And if any Democrat among our Gentle Readers does not like the sound of that, then perhaps he should start thinking of ways he may make amends to President Bush before it is too late. :P)

All the same, congratulations to our Dummycrats. Who can doubt that the pursuit of Hope and Change will have the reward it so richly merits? ^_~

Mood Music: The Gods of the Copybook Headings, by Rudyuard Kipling. ^_^

Just Like Mr. Obama! :P

2008-11-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

Frontpage headline from the Friday, August 15, 2008 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times:"City layoffs: Everybody's a target".

The subtext of the Fran Speilman article reads 'Police, firefighters at risk. "It's a crisis," Daley says.PAGE 9'.

Over on page 9 of the same paper the interested reader will encounter such interesting phrases as "But pressure has been mounting for the mayor to come clean about the magnitude of the problem..." and "$420 million gap" and "fund raid". Sounds like pretty serious stuff don't it? o_O

Quick, Boys and Girls! Who's in charge of Chicago and what party does he belong to? O_o

That would be Mayor Daley and he's a Chicago Democrat! n_n

...Just like Barrack Obama! :P

But wait! Perhaps it's not Mr. Daley's fault. He's only been mayor for since 1989 for a mere 19 years! So he's still kinda new to his job, right? Maybe the problem lies in his City Council. After all, we all know the sort of social paralysis know as "gridlock" that can erupt when legislature and executive are of opposing parties, right? ^-^

So what party does the majority of the Chicago City Council belong to? o_O

Well, as it turns out these themselves are Chicago Democrats by an overwhelming majority! Any Republicans on that Council would almost be purely there as a decoration and would doubtless be dying of loneliness in a sea of Democrats. Otherwise, they are Chicago Democrats one and all! n_n

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

So clearly Mayor Daley does not have an obstructive City Council as his excuse for the incompetent management that put his city in such dire straits. Indeed, it would be rather hard to do so since the Aldermen of Chicago are nothing more than trained poodles who perform for his amusement. ^o^

But wait! Surely I am unjust in blaming Chicago's financial straits upon one party and one party alone, right? What of Mr. Daley's predecessors and the party *they* belonged to? Surely they must bear a part of the blame for the problems Chicago is now experiencing! After all, good men do struggle against hard constraints when they have to clean up the mess that incompetent boobs have left behind, right? >_>

So perhaps Mayor Daley can excuse his party by blaming this mess on the people who held office before him from 1933 to the present day, especially in the 1950s through the early 1980s, and blame the party *they* belong to for the problems he has now inherited. @_@

So what party did Mayors Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington and Gene Sawyer all belong to? o_O

Does the fact that it's a Republican who is cheerfully pointing these things out provide a helpful hint? ^_~

That's right! They were *all* Chicago Democrats! ^.^

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

In fact, Chicago has been a Democrat town (though hardly democratic!) from the time of "Tough Tony" Cermak in the 1930s unto the present day.

So maybe Mr. Daley can shift blame for this from the Chicago Democrats by blaming it all on the Chicago Democrats! ^O^

Then again? Maybe NOT! ^_~

But's it worth remembering that they were Chicago Democrats one and all.

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

But wait! Could it be that I'm *unfair* to imply that the administrative skills of Chicago Democrats are completely lacking? Could it be that I am unjust when I don't come right out and say it but strongly imply that Chicago Democrats are a bunch of greedy and incompetent boobs who wouldn't be able to count to 20 unless they took off both their shoes? O_O

Maybe Mayor Daley and the goons he has with him on his City Council are merely a collection of bad specimens? o_O

LET'S FIND OUT! ^_^

In an effort to disprove the hypothesis that Chicago Democrats such as Barrack Obama tend to be incompentant executives let us turn our attention to Chicago Democrat Todd Stroger and the doubtless superlative way in which he has run Cook County. After all, Mr. Obama endorsed Mr. Stroger when Mr. Stroger was first running for Cook County Board President so we may safely assume that his is the executive style Mr. Obama would seek to emulate were Mr. Obama ever to become President of the United States. So surely we may expect the administration of such a man whom an aspiring presidential candidate would endorse not merely within the county election itself but *within the party primary itself over all other Democrats as well* to be a superlative one indeed, right? o_O

Maybe NOT! :P

From The Chicagoist we read...

"Todd Stroger's Cousin Gets a Raise

Yesterday's Sun Times headline was all about the 12 percent pay hike Donna Dunnings - Todd Stroger's cousin and just one of many beneficiaries of Cook County's Friends and Family Plan - got out of the new 2008 county budget. When Stroger hired Dunnings, they both bragged that her salary would be far less than the previous CFO."

Oh dear, that doesn't sound too good, does it? But how can this be? Mr. Stroger is a Democrat and an avowed reformer.

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

But of course, it does get worse!

From the Chicago Tribune, we read...

"Judge fines Cook County Jail in lawsuit addressing living conditions
By Hal Dardick | Chicago Tribune reporter
8:43 PM CDT, August 22, 2008
Citing the failure to comply with court orders at Cook County Jail, a federal judge for the first time in nearly two decades imposed $1,000-a-day fines Friday in a class-action lawsuit addressing jail conditions and overcrowding."

Hmmm! That doesn't look too good either, does it? Is it good that a man who was endorsed by Barrack Obama would get into situations of this sort? If Chicago Democrats were competent executives would a situation like this arise in the first place? But perhaps I'm being unjust. So let us continue our examination...

From the Blogger News Network, we read:

"Cook County Hiring Practices Under Federal Investigation

...Although the FBI’s investigation began late last year, it first reached the public’s view just yesterday when agents stormed the human resource’s building (where hiring and personnel records are kept) wielding court ordered search warrants and subpoenas...Cook County has been in non-compliance with the court order known as the Shakman decree for three decades....Federal authorities believe Mayor Richard Daley’s administration found new ways to circumvent the decree. Daley’s patronage chief, Robert Sorich, and three other former city officials have already been convicted of fraud and other crimes in their efforts to circumvent the Shakman decree. Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his administration’s hiring practices are also under investigation."

But how can this be? All 3 gentlemen, after all, are Democrats one and all and gained their knowledge of executive practice in the city of Chicago. >_>

And let us note that, as with Chicago, Cook County has been blessed with the uninterupted rule of the Democrat Party from 1933 unto the present day! Democrats one and all.

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

But perhaps I am unfair in judging the executive performance of Chicago Democrats like Mr. Obama by the performance of the dweeb Democrats who operate at the city and county level? After all, that's pretty much the minor leagues to most international minded liberals, right? ^-^

So wouldn't we do better to judge the performance of the Chicago Democrats by that of their *real* pro? A man who as governor of Illinois is so confident of his execuitve prowess that he doesn't even reside in the state capital but sorta phones his job in from where he lives in Chicago? o_O

Who can deny that true fairness resides in judging any possible Presidency of our good Mr. Obama by the performance of Rod Blagojevich? ^_^

So let's review a bit of *his* performance as well. ^_~

To begin with, it is notable that, as with Mr. Daley and Mr. Stroger, Mr. Blagojevich is a man with a number of self-inflicted Budget woes.

But in fairness to Mr. Blagojevich a good portion of his budget woes stems from the lack of cooperation he gets from the majority party within the Illinois state legislature. It is safe to say that the members of this party majority are a collection of selfish twits who care for nothing save their own perogatives(?) and egoboo and would gladly see all the State of Illinois go smash rather than put either in jeopardy. Kinda a shame the Governor couldn't have people of his own party to work with instead, ain't it? T_T

O wait! These selfish twits *are* of his party! Mike Madigan and the other twits in question are Democrats one and all. Just like Mr. Blagojevich himself. And just like Barrack Obama! :P

Yet, in the spirit of charity let us note that this one may the fault of either man. The way Nancy Pelosi's incompetant and corupt Democrats can do nothing in our Federal Congress and the way these Democrats could not work well with their own fellow Democrats Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter counts as a hint that all Democrats within America who get elected to a legislative post are too pompous and corrupt to be able to play nice with *anyone* and that all Democrats within America who get elected to an executive post are incompetent boobs without a backbone because both varieties are more concerned with the skills and techniques by which one may acquire an office instead of the skills and techniques that would allow one to discharge one's responsibilities competently. It's not their fault. It's inherent in the fact that they are Democrats.

So we must conclude that the fact Mr. Blagojevich and Mr. Madigan are incapable of working together in spite of the fact that both are of the same party may be traced to the fact that this is inherent in the Left and merely shows that both are typical Illinois Democrats...

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

But surely we can take consolation in the fact that Mr. Blagojevich surrounded himself with men of honor? Perhaps *not*. O_O

Quoth the Chicago Tribune of Febuary 26, 2008: "Laying to rest the latest parlor game of Illinois politics, a federal judge on Monday made it crystal clear that "A" stands for Rod Blagojevich in the public corruption case against the governor's indicted fundraiser, Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

A ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve dispensed with an array of pseudonyms that had cloaked the identities of several people who allegedly benefited from Rezko's financial schemes, including Blagojevich. He had previously been referred to in court documents only as Public Official A."

Hmmmm! Involved with someone like Tony Rezko, eh?

Kinda makes our good governor a lot like Barrack Obama! :P

But, of course, our good liberal friends would argue that this was in Febuary and that a lot can change since then. And of course they are right. So let's take a look at how things have unfolded since then, shall we? ^_~

'FBI agents say they have enough to indict Rod Blagojevich'.

Oh my, with a headline like that you just *know* there has to be an interesting story for us to learn, don't you? O_O

But how can this be? Isn't Mr. Blagojevich of the same party and state as our good Barack "Change We Can Believe In" Obama? Do they not share a common ideology and indeed have a mutual friend in Mr. Tony Rezko? So how could Mr. Blagojevich have ever done anything wrong?

And yet...

Just as the old Mr. Fox tale would put it, it looks like it was so and is so and here is the link to show it. ^_^

Just the kind of executive we need in the White House, ain't it? After all, Mr. Blagojevich is a Chicago Democrat doing the sort of things we can expect Chicago Democrats to do.

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

So let's review! ^_^

Richard J. Daley is a Chicago Democrat backed by a Democratic City Council in a town that has been pure Democrat for more than 70 years and has been an incompetant executive that has presided over the ruin of his own community. Todd Stroger is a Chicago Democrat who has succeeded a Chicago Democrat and is back by a County Board controlled by Chicago Democrats who has been an incompetant executive that has presided over the ruin of his own community. And Rod Blagojevich is a Chicago Democrat who has been an incompetant executive who has presided over the ruin of his own community.

They are Chicago Democrats one and all. Generic liberals who could be traded back and forth between their offices with no discernable difference in outcome. <_<

Just like Barrack Obama! :P

Therefore, the Gentle Reader is invited to consider this particular post an exercise in Pattern Recognition and a reason to vote for Mr. McCain and his fellow Republicans when Election Day rolls around.

Because you wouldn't want America to go the way of Chicago, Cook County and Illinois, would you? ^_~

A Riddle for the Democrats! ^o^

2008-10-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

Quoth Greyhawk from the Mudville Gazette: "For those who claim they were deceived into supporting the war because "Bush lied": Are you frequently so deceived? Do you consider yourself a generally gullible person? Are you certain? How can you be sure someone's not misleading you now? In short, why should I trust your current position, if you demonstrably lack good judgment?"

Mind you, it is also worth remembering that anyone who held that the Democrats were gulled by Bush into a position they themselves didn't believe must also answer yet another simple riddle first posed by Bryon Preston - How was it that you Democrats yourselves were saying this back in 1998 as clearly demonstrated on Google in the links to many sources from searches such as here and here and here? o_O

Are those who claim that President Bush "lied" really trying to get the rest of us to believe that Mr. Bush traveled into the year 1998 in order to mind control weak-willed Libs and Europeans into saying things they themselves didn't believe? O_o

Just asking! But I wonder how many liberals or leftists would be brave enough to answer such a riddle? ^_~

Game Systems, Eh? @_@

2008-10-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

Shamus over at Twenty Sided asks the following questions:

"What gaming system did you start with when you were learning the game?
What’s your preferred gaming system when you’re running a game?
What system do you prefer as a player? (For some people this is different from #2.)
And because we live in an imperfect world: What system do you actually end up using?"

My answers for those who care would be as follow:

1.D&D boxed set. In the days before it became AD&D. (I think I may have just dated myself on this one. ^_^;).

2. I've a soft preference for GURPS, particularly when I'm running fantasy in worlds of my own devising. "Champions", "Justice Inc.", and "Danger International" as published by Hero Games would all come a close second. In general I prefer to DM games where you design your own characters to those where the characters are done by random generation.

3. As a player I can operate quite happily with just about any consistent and reasonably coherent rule system. I've reached the point where I feel a DM who knows what he's doing is actually more important than the particular system in play.

4. The game group I'm with is a "Meat and Potatoes" bunch so it's basically AD&D, AD&D and AD&D with occasional bouts of AD&D for variety. That's OK. By the sacrifice of a few sanity points I did get them to go along with GURPS when I'm DMing so I consider it fair. ^_~

For a bonus I will also answer a question that I don't recall Shamus asking but wish that he had: Which game world settings interest you the most?

These would be, in not particular order:
1. Glorantha. (RuneQuest, HeroQuest)
2. Tekumal(Empire of the Petal Throne)
3. Krynn.(AD&D)
4. The Champions Universe. (Champions)
5. Palladia (Palladium)

Ask me again at any other time and you might get a different set of published universes. I actually prefer homebrewed universes both for DMing and playing in, but do admire the literary quality that went into these published universes. ^-^

And of course, I will happily cannibalize any published universe for the building materials of my own! ^_~

A Legitimate Question! >_>

2008-10-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

Quoth Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit: "So while asking for McCain supporters to chill a bit, can we also ask the press to start doing its job rather than openly shilling for a Democratic victory?"

It's a good and legitimate question but, given the fact that Old Media has been nothing but a collection of PR flacks and occasional private gumshoes on behalf of the Democrats since the 1990s, I wonder how many of them would even know how? o_O

The fact that they didn't care enough about their own reputations and what it was doing to their profession to abuse the public trust sort of argues against it, doesn't it? O_o

Mind you, I wouldn't mind being surprised on this one! I don't think I would mind it at all! ^_~

Mr. Obama and Corvee Labor.

2008-10-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Let us start with a word from Karl A. Wittfogel from Chapter 2, Section F, Part 2, "The Power Of The Hydraulic State Over Labor Greater Than That Of Capitalist Enterprises" of "Oriental Despotism; A Comparative Study of Total Power":

"In both spheres the hydraulic state levied and controlled the needed labor forces by coercive methods...They compelled able-bodied commoners to work on them through the agency of the corvee.

Corvee Labor is forced labor. But unlike slave labor, which is demanded permanently, corvee labor is conscripted on a temporary, although recurring, basis. After the corvee labor is completed, the worker is expected to go home and continue his own business.

Thus the corvee laborer is freer than the slave. But he is less free than a wage laborer. He does not enjoy the bargaining advantages of the labor market, and this is the case even if the state gives him food...or some cash. In areas with a highly developed money economy the hydraulic government may levy a corvee tax and hire rather than conscript the needed labor. This was done largely in China at the close of the Ming dynasty and during the greater part of Ch'ing rule.

But there as elsewhere the government arbitrarily fixed the wage. And it always kept the workers under quasimilitary discipline." - pp. 47-48 of "Oriental Despotism; A Comparative Study of Total Power by Kurt A. Wittfogel, (New Haven and London:Yale University Press, 1957). (Emphasis mine!)

Now, having taken the time to read and digest that, let us look at the "National Volunteer Act" that Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats have espoused since the mid-1990s when in some locales they passed what they themselves at the time so charmingly named "Compulsory Volunteering"...

"Specifically, Obama’s national service plan addresses foreign and domestic issues....Under the plan, all middle and high school students would be required to do 50 hours of community service...".

Because, of course, Democrats and other leftists just know the world would come to an end if blameless students leading blameless lives were allowed to decide to do homework or play video games instead of working on a corvee labor gang to the whims of a leftist Chicago wardheeler, no doubt! :P

Isn't it interesting that Mr. Obama and his toadies would wish to remake America in the image of feudal China? o_O

Mind you, those beyond high school age would do well not to be too smug about this: When the modern income tax was first instituted it was limited only to those who made more than $50,000 a year. The modern taxpayer will doubtless note that such limits have fallen by the wayside. Who can doubt that such gradualist measures were the way corvee labor was first imposed in the various hydrualic states as well? And yet, the end of this was that those who consented to such things, whether for others or for themselves, ended by finding that they had become the property of the state. ^_^;

With this in mind, it deserves to be be remembered that a vote for Mr. Obama or any other Democrat is a vote to make yourself property. Property of the state but property all the same. I would suggest voting the other way instead! But then you knew that already, didn't you? ^_~

Mood Music: Chain Gang by Sam Cooke and Charles Cooke, as sung by Sam Cooke.

Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Obama? o_O

2008-10-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

Just as Hitler had the Hitler Youth it would seem that Obama is having his own minions engage in similar activities. ^_^;

Any bets as to how long it will be before the children in this nutziland camp are taught to goosestep and to chant "Heil Obama!" right in Obama's face? :P

Oh well, from the time of Karl Marx unto the present day the Left always did deem itself the Master Race so why should liberals be any different? Now we know why it is that Democrats always stress "leadership" as their primary virtue! ^O^

...Or in honor of this new development should we rather call what the quality the Left now prizes in Mr. Obama fuehrership instead? ^_~

Mood Music: Der Feuhrer's Face by Spike Jones. ^_^

Words to Contemplate as Autumn Comes Gently...

2008-10-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Quoth Wretchard at the Belmont Club: "The vast majority of true believers are not, as some would suppose, the soccer moms attending their Sunday church and leading their ordinary lives the rest of the week. The real compulsive joiners are those must attend the church of the co-op, pray at the shrine of the Global Warming, join political Action Wires and feel the “need to connect” without which their lives have no meaning. In the service of the new secular faiths all the old forms have been given new names. The medieval procession, sans the candles but with the molotov cocktail, has become the modern protest rally. Indulgences are back as carbon credits. Instead of a bishop on a distant cathedral altar, there is an orator before Greek columns at Invesco Field."

And it's true, all true! G.K. Chesterton once wrote in his Father Brown stories that atheists make the worst religious fanatics of all. It's strange to realize that as more than 100 years of Progress has gone by the Left has remained more frozen in time than the Amish. @_@

But then again, perhaps not so strange when we remember that many of the Left are such raging technophobes as to still bemoan the invention of agriculture...

Isn't it interesting that those who call themselves "Progressive" have such a xenophobic fear of Technology? Isn't it interesting that those who call themselves "Progressive" are themselves so afraid of Progress? Makes one thankful that we are those who embrace the Future instead of mere "Progressives", doesn't it? ^_~

Democrats and Girls...

2008-09-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Isn't it nice to know that we can always rely on Democrats to regard young girls as expendable? Isn't it nice to know that we can always rely upon Democrats to attack young girls? :P

And, lest the Daily KOS entry that Betsy discusses be dismissed as an aberration untypical of the Left, let us note with interest that this sentiment is openly endorsed by Congressional Democrat Barney Franks who apparently regards the fact that there are people who like Mrs. Palin's family as all the reason there need be to do as much damage to any of them as possible.

So who can doubt that all the Obama supporters are of the same orientation as Andrew Sullivan and Barney Franks in this particular matter? o_O

Who can doubt that this is the essence of what a Democrat stands for? Who can doubt that this is what everyone who is an Obama supporter really is? >_>

So much for the Democrats! So much for anyone who is a supporter of Barrack Hussein Obama.:P

Now you know what sort of people Obama's supporters really are! ^_~

Pravda Propagandists and Obama Supporters...

2008-08-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

...Seperated at Birth? o_O

...Dafydd reports, you decide! ^O^

Almost like they share a common ideology, ain't it? ^_~

How Very Liberal of Mr. Trudeau! :P

2008-07-10T16:16:00.001-07:00

There's a bit of an amusing rantage on the part of cartoonist Garry Trudeau in one of his recent Doonesbury strip as displayed in the Sunday funnies of the July 6, 2008 Chicago Tribune. In it he has a fictional Republican proclaim that "By mandating strict ID requirements, we can disenfranchise the poor, the infirm, students, minorities...". Left out of all this fun frothing at the mouth on our good Mr. Trudeau's part though was any notion of just how any of these people were going to be disenfranchised or even so much as inconvenienced by the strict use of photo id to in order to prevent cheating of the sort that was never unknown in Chicago and is not unknown in our day either. @_@

For example, just how are students going to be disenfranchised by this? I remember strict use of student IDs in both my high school and my college. Didn't seem to slow any of us down. I don't recall us having that much trouble with Drivers licences that had photos either. Alas, Garry Trudeau's strawman character can't explain! Presumably Mr. Trudeau feels students aren't bright enough to handle things that require literacy? Says a lot about Mr. Trudeau's own academic career if he believes that one! ^_~

Also unexplained is just how Mr. Trudeau thinks the use of photo ID on voter's cards would disenfranchise the infirm. Let's see, our hypothetical cripple would somehow bravely stuggle through howling winds (Barefoot and uphill *both ways*, of course!) bravely bearing a Voter's ID without a photo in order to collapse at the election judge's table to cast a ballot with his dying breath, but the addition of his own photo to his voter's card would cause him to expire before he even leaves his home? o_O Wow! That's some fevered imagination Mr. Trudeau has going there but somehow I doubt this scenario is very plausible either! ^O^

Then there's the question of how this would hinder the poor. Is Mr. Trudeau arguing that poor people aren't bright enough to handle photo IDs in defiance of the fact that many of them do indeed drive, or is he merely arguing that having their photo taken at state expense would somehow make them all homeless? O_o

Y'know, I have a hard time believing that one as well. And I can't help but feel it's a bit snobbish on Mr. Trudeau's part to assume that only people with money have enough brains to understand a photo ID. Perhaps this is a sign that Mr. Trudeau has joined Mr. Obama in overdosing on Arigula? >_>

That leaves "minorities". Without the "minorities" in question being specified. One wonders just how our good Mr. Trudeau thinks this will work. Does he believe each voter ID with a photo will broadcast a signal to the Orbiting Mind Control Satellites in the sky, and that they will then beam down a telepathic laser saying "You will not vote! You will not vote!" with the hapless voter then developing a glazed look in his eye starting to repeat in a monotone voice, "I will not vote! I will not vote!"? Doubtless, if so then Mr. Trudeau himself has hopefully been careful to wear some tinfoil in his hat. ^_^;

Fnord! ^_^

Sorry, Mr. Trudeau! I hate to spoil a perfectly good conspiracy theory for you but if we e-e-e-evil Republicans had access to that sort of tech then what people zapped with such a thing would actually be saying would be more along the lines of "Towering Barbarian deserves a billion dollars and a harem of 20 cute chicks! Towering Barbarian deserves a billion dollars and a harem of 20 cute chicks!". After all, one must always make certain to keep priorities in mind. ^_~

Unfortunately, I doubt Mr. Trudeau was so fanciful. More likely, it was a matter of Mr. Trudeau picturing his hypothetical "Minority" sitting in the same room as a student, a cripple, and a poor person as all of them drooled down the side of their mouth while saying, "Duh! I'm too dumb to use a photo ID therefore I can't vote. Duhhhh!". All in unison of course, because liberals and leftists are *very* big on "solidarity". u_u

So in other words, in the mind of Garry Trudeau no one has the brains to use a photo ID unless they are wealthy, middleaged, whites? O_O

I guess you can't get more Liberal than that! :P

Good thing for the rest of us that he's completely wrong, isn't it? ^_~

****************************************************************

Edit(July 11, 2008): Feh! Nothing like evil typos to mar a perfectly good title is there? ^_^;

Let us note that Mr. Trudeau has now had his name corrected from "Mr. Truseau" as it had been typed, in prior to correction, back to "Mr. Trudeau". I'd fire the baka who does the proofreading around here if the baka in question weren't me! ^o^

BTW,...

2008-07-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

Here's hoping everyone has a Happy 4th of July! ^_~

Mr. Obama, May I Introduce You to Mr. Obama? ^-^

2008-07-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Via Instapundit we get this little gem on how the things said by Mr. Obama's toadies contradict the things his own website say. :P

Never mind the flipflops. That's pretty standard for the Left. But I thought Mr. Obama and his supporters were supposed to be notably web savvy? o_O

If he can't manage his own campaign better than this then how will he run the country? ^_~

1 Thing to Remember...

2008-06-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

The best way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil would be to drill for our own! ^_^

Just a thought! ^_~

Too True By Half! ^O^

2008-04-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

As an ottaku I have to admit, there is a lot of justice to Sabrina's observaton in panel 5. ^_~

The Death of Islam? o_O

2008-04-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

Via Glenn Reynolds who expresses possible scepticism, we find this interesting post that reads: 'In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.'

We should not be surprised if this turns out to be true. After all, the imams and the jihadis have shown everyone that they don't care whether their own fellow Muslims live or die. Then again, it says something of what Muslims in Saudi Arabia think of Islam when you consider that they deliberately turned the house of the "Prophet" Muhammed into a toilet . ^O^

If you were a Muslim, wouldn't you be inclined to dump Islam after that as well? :P

Meanwhile, the fact that men like Zakarai Botros and Magdi Allam do exist and will not go away anytime soon is indisputable. And that is a blessing for which we may all be thankful. ^_^

Mood Music: "Onward Christian Soldiers" by Sabine Baring-Gould.

The Limits of the Wind

2008-04-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

Via Small Dead Animals we find this interesting reality check for those who believe overmuch in wind power.

Which is no surprise. If environmentalists like the Kennedy family thought wind power were any good they wouldn't have objected to a wind farm being built within their neighborhood, ne? :P

Zing! ^o^

2008-04-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

Quoth Tom Maguire: 'As a general rule, a Presidential candidate should not approach "Why do you love America?" as a trick question.'.

You would think Democrats wouldn't need to be told this. Apparently they do. :P

Thus it is that, in just one sentence, Mr. Maguire shows why Mr. Obama is unfit for the office of either Senator or President! ^_^

The Triumph of the Atom! ^_^

2008-03-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

Offhand, I would say that this counts as good news. ^-^

If I were mean I'd probably say something snarky about how Ralph Nader and his fellow Ecofreaks of the 1970s owe the rest of us an apology for keeping this from happening sooner - but better late than never, right? ^_~

Last Call? ^_^;

2008-03-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Someone truly liked his beer! @_@

A Titan Departs; R.I.P. Gary Gygax! ~_~

2008-03-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

Gary Gygax who, along with Dave Arneson, created D&D and thus became one of the two fathers of all roleplaying has now passed away. A description of his role in the hobby in his own words may be found here and here respectively. There are many things that could be written about what he did but no set of words I'd type could sum it up better than John Kovalic has done here.

Rest in peace, Mr. Gygax. You will be missed!

The Dumbest Statement in 2007! ^O^

2008-01-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

This really is something I should remember to conclude before the month of January, 2008 passes entirely - It was a field with many contenders but we do have a winner! ^.^

Via RWBD-J.F. Beck we get this remarkable statement from an Australian environmentalist: "The other thing is that space is not an infinite resource."

"..."

"...!"

Excuse me, Space is not infinite? o_O

And here I thought American Ecofreaks were a gang of ignorant Luddites! Compared to their Australian counterparts they at least have graduated 2nd grade and are therefore 2 grades more advanced. ^O^

The amusing thing? These are the people who don't want "Global Warming" to be questioned on the grounds of their "scientific" consensus and superior technical competence. Sorta shows what the "scientific" consensus of such people is worth, don't it? ^_~

Which Nobody Can Deny! :P

2008-01-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

Quoth Les Bates over at Living In The Surreal World: "Remember: A day without Socialism is like a day without slavery and murder."

The logical implication of this premise, when you think about it, is that anyone who supports Socialism is a participant in a very nasty little nutcult! ^_~

H3h! ^_^

2008-01-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

I sure don't blame Kevin for being nervous, do you? ^_~

A Useful Primer! ^_^

2008-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Offhand, I'd say This constitutes recommended reading for all ottaku, RPGers and wargamers alike. ^-^

People who are not of those hobbies might like to take a look as well. ^_~

Something for Illinois to Ponder...

2008-01-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Say what you want about John "Silky Pony" Edwards at least he is right on one very important point - The Senate is not a part-time job. You can spend your time being a Senator or you can spend all your time running for the Presidency but you cannot do both and still be a conscientous person. The fact that Mr. Edwards saw this is to his credit. The fact that Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Biden apparently still do not is certainly not to theirs.

Why should any of those three be entrusted with the duties of the Presidency when they are negligent of the duties they already have? o_O

More to the point, if these 3 Senators can wander off from their duties for months and years at a time without being missed then why should they not be replaced by people who would actually be missed? O_o

Just a thought! :P

Silky Pony With a Mohawk? O_O

2008-01-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

Back in the 80s, when the Punk Rock movement was more-or-less at its peak, one of the cartoons that appeared in the Chicago Reader that caught the eyes of our gaming group was captioned "Poodle With a Mohawk!". The joke to us being that a poodle with a mohawk is still just a poodle. Probably the only Linda Barry cartoon I ever respected or liked.

The reason this comes to mind? Now we have word from Betsy's Page that John "Silky Pony" Edwards has apparently decided the only way his campaign can succeed is by running as someone who wallows in anger and belligerance for the sake of anger and belligerance and tries to talk up his childhood fights as a way of establishing how tough a President he would be. :P

Which brings up an interesting question, I wonder if his Mohawk cost more than $400? ^_~

And So It Begins! :P

2007-12-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Begun in earnest the Cyberwars have. ^_^;

But isn't it interesting that PETA would be a role model for Al Qaeda? o_O

Cut Off the Head and the Body Will Die. ^_^

2007-12-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

Over at The Long War Journal Bill Roggio gives us an interesting account of how jihadi weapons trainers are being targeted and taken out in Iraq. Doesn't look like it's going to do Iran's efforts to destabilize Iraq very much good in the long run and I'm sure we all weep for that. ^_~

Pilgrimages Undermine Islamic Theocracy! ^_^

2007-12-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well this account from Strategy Page counts as amusing! n_n

"November 24, 2007: The thousands of Iranians crossing the Iraqi border each day to visit Shia religious shrines, are becoming a political problem. These pilgrims return with stories of how prosperous the Iraqis are in a democracy. In Iran, the Sunni Arab terrorism is played up, but the pilgrims rarely see any evidence of that. They do see freedom and prosperity, especially in contrast to what they have back home. Iran cannot stop these visits, which were allowed even under Saddam Hussein (who encouraged them during the 1990s, as a source of revenue for his embargoed rule)." (Emphasis mine!).

Looks like what America and her allies have accomplished in Iraq may have a domino effect in the rest of the Middle East as well. How do you keep them down on the theocracy after they've seen Bagdhad? ^_~

Quoted for Sad Truth! >_<

2007-12-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

Quoth Dafydd at Big Lizards: "I don't mean this personally or with any disrespect, but the Democrats surrendered to the Communists in 1974, and now they're trying to surrender to the militant Islamist terrorists in 2008."

The rest of his "Blood's a Rover" post is well worthy of a careful reading as well. ^_^

The NEA Betrays its Members? o_O

2007-11-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

Joe Katzman has the story over at Winds of Change.

I suppose that we shouldn't be too surprised. Frequent readers of Chaos Manor know that Dr. Jerry Pournelle often cites the Iron Law of Bureaucracy as being that any bureaucracy will ultimately exist to serve itself rather than its supposed constituents so we can hardly be startled when union officials prove no exception to this rule. :P

Libs in Glass Houses! O_O

2007-11-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Wretchard over at Belmont Club has a pair of very interesting posts on the subject of Mrs Clinton v. Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama v. Mrs Clinton.

The one concerning Mrs. Clinton v. Mr. Obama where she whinged about Mr. Obama not being experienced enough was amusing enough. My own immediate thought on the matter: "Is a girl whose entire political career was founded on who she slept with really in any position to taunt someone else on a lack of experience? o_O" still seems a legitimate one to me. :P

But then I read Wretchard's post on Mr. Obama v. Mrs. Clinton and I realized that, to be honest, anyone from Illinois really would have to award Mr. Obama equal honors for hypocrisy and raw stupidity when he "indirectly accused the Clintons of plotting to establish a political dynasty."

Now I invite my fellow Illini to ponder this: Does this mean that Mr. Obama would like to take a moment to say that it would be better for Chicago if Richard M. Daley were not the Mayor the way his father Richard J. Daley had been? o_O

Does this also mean that our good Mr. Obama would like to take a moment to claim that Gov. Blago, son-in-law to prominent wardheeler Alderman Richard Mell, and Michael Madigan father to States Attorney Lisa Madigan should not be Governor of Illinois and Speaker of the Illinois House Of Representatives respectively, and that their current display of incompetance in failing to pass so much as a state budget is merely a function of the fact that Mr. Blagojevich and Mr. Madigan are therefore unable to function as competent officeholders? O_o

How about Cook County, a place that even someone so busy with his presidential candidacy as Mr. Obama may have heard of? Will his denunciation of political dynasties include a moment to publicly state that Mr. Obama regards Todd Stroger as a selfish and incompetant boob and a fitting punishment upon Cook County for being stupid enough to vote for him when they knew what his father John Stroger was like? And in saying this will Mr. Obama apologize to the people of Cook County for having endorsed Todd Stroger during that election in the first place? Inquiring Minds would like to know. :P

Sorry dudes, but Illinois is the one state in the Union where no Democrat has any right to complain about nepotism or "political dynasties" to use the preferred leftist cant for it. Mrs. Clinton is clearly throwing stones from within a glass house when she talks about "experience" but the rock Mr. Obama throws from within a glass house is possibly even bigger. Does Mr. Obama really know so little about the state that elected him Senator? ^o^

Perhaps Mrs. Clinton might like to invite Mr. Obama to explain why Mr. Obama should be concerned about dynasties when he himself comes from a state so riddled from them? It shouldn't be too hard for her to get CNN to plant that question in an audience for her, now should it? ^_~

For that matter, perhaps Mrs. Clinton might have enjoy having fun by inviting Mr. Obama to turn his eyes towards the Senate and explain why it is he thinks Mr. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and a former Senator by the name of Albert Gore are clearly disqualified for office by whom their relatives were? ^_^

(In Dr. Phil McGraw-like voice)

Just remember boys and girls, whenever a liberal wants to flame other liberals then, as a Republican, I am here to help! ^-^

I'm sure that Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and all their little friends will be grateful for our continued assistance in this matter, aren't you? n_n

The Irony From Hollywood! ^o^

2007-11-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

Isn't it interesting that so many of those who scorned President Bush as "inarticulate" turn out themselves to be hapless to speak or perform without the assistance of writers? ^_~

A Truly Scientific Sentiment! ^_^

2007-11-12T18:53:00.000-08:00

Quoth Tatterdemalian . in response to a Tim Blair post: "Personally, I don't see mistrust of science as a bad thing. A true scientist can always prove his work, without requiring trust. A scientist who demands trust is a scientist with too much emotional attachment to his agenda to be trusted."

He's completely right, of course. Not merely for science but for all scholarship in general. Any scholar may speculate. Any scholar may guess or surmise or dream. But at the end of the day if you can't prove what you say, and lay that proof out for others to check, then you were not a scholar but merely a poser.

Tatterdemalian's entire post is worth reading twice. The post that inspired it might be worth a glance as well. ^_~

Moonbats Get Their Wish! ^_^

2007-11-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

Now let's see how well they deal with it. ^_~

Ha! Why Am I Not Surprised? :p

2007-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Kender found an interesting musing over at Daily Kos. Those who wish to read what the little Kos Kiddie said in all its subliterate glory are welcome to check out Jammiewearingfool for the link. ^_^

Actually, we probably shouldn't be *too* scornful. I've often felt that the true divide between many of those "anti war" types who were more or less sincere, rather than those Marxist pigs who were merely agitating on behalf of Saddam in the hopes that by doing so they might make the world safe for their particular brand of terrorism, was that they (Both as a group and as individuals) were too prone to despair to think with a clear mind. The fact that one of them might be beginning to recognize this counts as hope that the Left may someday once again become sane. ^_~

That said, I wonder how many leftists would still be leftists if Prozac were an over the counter drug? @_@

Karma for Syria! ^o^

2007-09-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

It looks as though Syria may be getting its comeuppance for the contributions it made towards the destabilization of Iraq. :P

Strategy Page: "...But that's not the only problem in Syria. In 2003, Syria was quick to provide sanctuary for Iraqi officials fleeing war crimes prosecution for Saddam era misdeeds. At first, it was only the wealthy government officials. But in the last year, thousands of low level operatives, and many more Sunni Arabs fleeing growing Shia anger against all Sunnis because of terror attacks, have crowded into Syria. There are now over a million of these Iraqi refugees in Syria. Most of these Iraqis are poor, and Syria has not got the resources to deal with the problem. So, just like hordes of Palestinian refugees eventually destabilized Lebanon and triggered a long civil war, Syria fears the same fate. To the average Syrian, the problems on the ground are far more threatening than Israeli F-15s overhead."

I wonder if the Baathists of Syria will appreciate the irony? ^-^

Sucks to be a patron of terrorists, don't it? ^_~

Now You Know Why Their Symbol is a Mule! :P

2007-08-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Quoth Glenn Reynolds on the Democrat Congresscritters and their latest screwup: 'Is it too much to ask that they read and understand legislation before they vote on it?'.

My own thought on the matter: 'But wouldn't that be like expecting liberals to know how to read and write in the first place?' @_@

Of course, there is a secondary question here: Perhaps an even better symbol for the "anti war" Democrats in Congress such as Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and John Kerry than the mule would be that of a fish? o_O

Just a thought! ^_^

Mood music: 'Would You Like to Swing on a Star?',
by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen.

Islam Worships Disease? O_O

2007-08-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

OK, this counts as weird. @_@

It looks as though the jihadi Moslem clerics of Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan are deliberately setting things up so that members of their own congregations suffer and die from polio.

From Strategy Page, we read:

"August 4, 2007: Radical Islam continues to kill people in places you never hear of.Islamic clerics in Pakistan and Nigeria continue to push the idea that vaccinations for diseases are a Western plot to poison Moslem children. This particular fantasy has been rattling around for nearly a decade, and has prevented the UN from wiping out polio. Like small pox (which was wiped out in the 1970s), once there are no people with polio, the disease is gone for good (it can only survive in a human host). The Islamic clerics urging parents not to vaccinate their children against polio, are providing the disease with hosts, and keeping it going. Last year, 24,000 children were not vaccinated in northern Pakistan because of this paranoid fantasy.

In Afghanistan, it was even worse, with 125,000 children denied vaccination by Taliban terrorists (who also attack the vaccination teams) As a result, at least 40 cases of polio were confirmed last year in Pakistan, and eleven so far this year. In Afghanistan, there were 31 cases last year, and 19 so far this year. Nigeria had 1,124 cases last year, and 562 cases so far this year.

When confronted by angry parents, the clerics say that it's "God's will" that the kid is dead or crippled from polio."

(Emphasis mine!).

Kinda shows what Shariast clerics think of their own fellow Moslems, don't it? o_O

I can't help but feel that this would indicate that both the jihadis who propagate this myth and the members of the Taliban who act as they do are actually secret worshippers of Malia. :P

Certainly were such to turn out to be the case, much would be explained about why the jihadis support Sharia in the first place. ^_~

Sane Democrats vs. Loony Democrats! ^_^

2007-08-03T18:46:00.001-07:00

Or should I define it as a battle between Democrats and Dhimmicrats? :P

News that the surge in Iraq is proving successful now has the Democratic Congresscritters being divided into those who want to support the Iraq war now that it is clearly working out well for America versus those who wish America to be a loser for the sake of their political ambitions.

Given that according to Zogby94% of the Democratic voters disaprove of the way the Democratic Congresscritters are mishandling the war in Iraq, let's hope that the former clean the clocks of the latter. It really would be nice to have 2 pro-America parties again instead of just one! ^_~

(Via Instapundit).

A Word From Machiavelli...

2007-07-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

"Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised." - Niccolo Machiavelli.

Anyone really surprised that Europe's leftist-inspired neglect of their military should come to haunt them in this fashion? o_O

A Transfer of Luck.

2007-07-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Campaign ideas can come from various places indeed. In
"Greek Religion" by Walter Burkert (translated by John
Raffen, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985)) on
pages 82-83, we come across the following passage:

"In Abdera, some poor victim is bought every year as a
purificatory sacrifice, Katharsion; he is fed
royally and then on a certain day is led through the
city gates, made to walk the walls and finally chased
across the boundries with stones...On dire occasions
such as a plague, the people of Massalia-Merseilles
resorted to similar measures: a poor man was offered
pure and costly food for a year, then decked in boughs
and sacred vestments, he was led around the whole town
amid curses and finally chased away." (Pages 82-82,
"Greek Religion" by Walter Burkert (translated by John
Raffen, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985).

This, combined with my enjoyment of "The Lady or the
Tiger?" sort of scenarios does bring to mind a notion
for FRP purposes: One fine day our PCs are approached
by the city fathers of a community undergoing hard
times with a proposition. In return for participation
in a special ceremony the adventurers would be given a
year of luxary living and free training (Up to 50
hours a week since the city fathers do want the
characters to honestly enjoy themselves for the
purposes of the ceremony and deem that there are
limits to how much somebody could spend in training
and still be enjoying themselves). Something that the
adventurers would be told upfront is that the purpose
of the ceremony would be to transfer all the ill luck
of the community from the community to the
adventurers.

Now the reason that the players might want to look
twice at this is that this might actually be a pretty
good deal. In game systems like Bushido, GURPS,
Runequest 3 and Traveler where downtime and training
can provide relatively risk-free and significant
character advancement, a year of subsidized downtime
like this should be a relatively tempting prize. But
of course this brings up a theme I enjoy playing with
now and again - In a world where magic exists how do
you distinguish between what is magic and what is
superstition? A ceremony for transfering bad luck like
this isn't going to be on many of the standard spell
lists of any FRP if only because such lists are
designed with individual spellcasters in mind. But
does this necessarily mean that such a ceremony
wouldn't work? Even if the City Fathers themselves
think it no more than a device to boost the town's
morale does that mean the ceremony itself wouldn't
necessarily have the stated effect?

The thing to remember is that, even under regular
circumstances, a genuine transfer of the bad luck of
3,000 to 50,000 people to a group of 3 to 5
adventurers is not necessarily going to be a good
thing for the longterm prospects of the 3 to 5
adventurers in question (At the very least, using
GURPS mechanics, I would feel justified in awarding
them a level of "Unluck" or "Jinxed" as a disad), but
in a community resorting to this because of plague or
famine such a transfer of luck would be very dire
indeed. (In the case of plague giving the characters
who underwent such a ceremony the "Terminal Illness"
disad might not be out of the question). If you were an
adventurer who thought the ceremony would work for
certain would *you* undergo it? ^^;

And yet, an entire community would have a wide range
of skills and spells to teach; the larger the
community, the better the range. If you thought for
sure the ceremony's only effect was social could you
afford to turn down the power boost such a year could
give? Mind you, if it turns out the ceremony's only
effect is a social one this could still affect the
adventurers in their dealings with other people. How
eager would *you* be to deal with a stranger if you
thought he was a carrier of bad luck that might be
contagious?

To make this of interest to players and DM alike the
following conditions would have to be in place:

1. The characters must have been in action long enough
that the players have an emotional investment in what
happens to them.

2. The characters should also be low enough in power
and material wealth that a year spent like this should
seem desirable. Note, by the way, that this is offer
unlikely to occur to settled adventurers who have a
community that cares about them. :p

3. The campaign setting should be one the characters
feel a connection to and the players should be the
sort who care what the NPCs think.

4. Within the campaign itself itinerant adventurers
should be relatively low in social status. (My own
campaign is Hyborian-flavored so most of the NPC
adventurers are of the "Never had a plan, just
a-livin' for the minute!" sorts.)

5. PCs in the Jack Vance, Larry Niven, Robert
Heinlein, and Roger Zelazney "We are good
rationalists. We know how to take the smooth without
standing still for the rough" mode might want to take
the offer, spend 10 or 11 months in training and then
skip town ahead of time. Let them. If the curse exists
then it's easier for such a curse to find them and
affect them with greater severity if there's a good
moral reason for the town to curse them. For
ceremonial purposes the connection was established the
moment the town took them in and the year beyond that
was the town's obligation for their benefit rather
than to the town's benefit in any way. In addition
they now get the benefit of a reputation as welschers
and doublecrossers. In a profession where your word is
your coin this is going to be its own reward. ^O^
(And note also tht this effect on their reputation is
independent of any magical oomph the ceremony itself
might have. ^_~).

6. The players may want money for their effort.
Burkert's writing suggests this ceremony preceded the
days when metal money was known but the reaction of
the community fathers who bring this proposition will
doubtless vary based upon their own temperment and the
resources that their community may command. A village
asking this might not have much more to offer in the
way of money than a fistful of coppers. A thriving
urban metropolis might be able to offer "as much gold
as you can carry". If the city fathers are nice
however, they'll point out something the sapient
adventurer will already know - this is a greed trap:
When the time comes for the adventurers to be driven
forth from the community on pain of death the
adventurers will need to be able to move faster than
the community enforcers who drive them forth. This
won't be the case if they load themselves down with
treasure. Another problem for them, if the surmise of
Burkert is correct, is that since such ceremonies are
basically watered down versions of human sacrifice
ceremonies the community won't lose much if an
adventurer's greed caused him to die in expiation for
the curse rather than merely be driven off, no? n_n

In any event, the community fathers are here to do
their own community a bit of good through honest
commerce rather than to enrich a gang of
good-for-nothngs at the community's expense. They are
interested in a deal rather than desperate for one,
and if the adventurers either demand too much or turn
them down that won't bother them a bit since they're
sure that the number of fools who would risk blighted
lives in the longterm for high living and free
training in the here and now is one resource that
really is inexhaustable! T_T

The players in my group tend to be prudent sorts so
I'll always make a point of having other scenarios
prepared whenever I spring this one on them. But in
addition to being a nice little exercise in
cost/benefit analysis and a useful way to explore the
way the players think the first time it's used, it
also serves as a useful element to give one's campaign
a useful feeling of both societal and temporal depth
that serves to aid the suspension of disbelief that is
always a necessary element to good roleplaying. ^_~

Columbo Goes to War! ^^

2007-06-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

It appears that one of the more potent weapons in the War Against Terrorism is old-fashioned police techniques in the cultivation of the stool pigeon and the jihadi pigs are hapless against it. ^_^

Sucks to be a terrorist! ^_~

I am Become a Trouble unto the Counsels of the Small and the Foolish? ^O^

2007-06-10T15:43:00.001-07:00

Back in my college days there was a joke around our gaming circles that had its origin in Tolkien: In "The Fellowship of the Ring" Elrond had wondered aloud "Who among us would have thought the day would come when hobbits would arise to trouble the Counsels of the Wise and the Mighty?". So in certain high level campaigns it became the fashion to call those who had become 10th to 15th level, the first set of levels at which it was deemed you could really have an effect on the world, "Strong enough to trouble the counsels of the Small and the Foolish". To judge by the events of today it would seem that I have reached that threshold of power today! :P

Somewhere around 4 PM to my best guess, My entire email inbox and drafts had been deleted. Since *all* unopened messages were gone I thought at first there had been a glitch in the yahoo system...Then I noticed that by happy coincidence all the messages in the folders labeled "Rough Drafts", "Posts not posted", "Old Blog Articles", and "Civics" had been deleted whether they had been opened or not. @_@

Hmmmmm! >_>

Not hard to guess what had happened at this point, is it? :P

The Left, it would seem, actually fears me. Enough to want my silence. >_>

Interesting, ne? o_O

Very interesting, say I! O_o

On one level this is a nuisance, but on the other? o_O

This is validation and proof that my blog matters! ^_^

After all, in all political life there are two measures of success as the Greek poets noted when they concerned themselves with being a boon to their friends and a trouble to their foes. The first measure of course is the praise and admiration of one's friends and allies. But the other measure is the howls of rage and dismay one attracts from one's foes and rivals. The former is of the greatest comfort and always desired but because one's friends and allies will always try to be kind and tactful (Because hey!, they're one's friends and allies!), it is the venom of one's foes that is the most *accurate* measure one can receive and therefore the highest praise. ^o^

And today,some poor fool of a Leftist twit has praised me very highly indeed! ^____^

So as I continue to trouble the Counsels of the Small and the Silly in the future pay careful attention to what is written here for they are things that you need to know. The Small and the Silly among the Left clearly think so! ^.^

After all, would they try to keep you from reading my words were it otherwise? ^_~

A Useful Metaphor! ^_^

2007-05-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

Over at The Gates of Vienna, Baron Bodissy introduces an interesting essay by Dimitri Kolb on the collapse of the Soviet Union. ^_^

Frequent readers of this blog are doubtless aware that I am fond of the vampire metaphor myself as evidenced both here and here, but who can deny that the Undead are indeed legion and that Dimitri has described quite correctly one of the nastiest vampires of them all? o_O

Let's just hope that the stake is of sturdy stuff and remains in the heart of that particular vampire forever! ^_~

Mood Music: "Hunter of the Damned" by Michael Longcor.

Why Does the AP Neglect Afghanistan? o_O

2007-05-27T15:52:00.001-07:00

Over in Captain's Quarters, Captain Ed joins Jules Crittenden in asking a simple question that is both interesting and pertinent: Why do the AP reporters not think our soldiers who died in Afghanistan worth naming? Since Garry Traudeau is playing a similar game in his comic strip it's worth asking why he doesn't think such soldiers worth naming either. Someone should explain to such people that Memorial Day is a day to remember *all* the troops rather than merely the ones they think they can use to score political points with. >_<

Oh well, as Sweetness and Light once pointed out, there were once Copperheads who opposed America's fight to survive in the days of the Civil War that started our Memorial Day traditions to begin with and sought to undermine the nation for their own selfish purposes even then. We should probably not be surprised that such Copperheads would be with us today as well. ~_~

A Look to the North.

2007-05-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Via Joanne Dow at Chaos Manor, Michael Totten provides us with an interesting look at the Kurdistan part of Iraq. Well worth reading for anyone who wishes to know more about the world in which we live. ^_^

A Tale of 2 Ecospheres...

2007-05-21T17:54:00.001-07:00

Bonnie tells us an interesting story of river dolphins and geese that gives us an interesting insight into the way of Life that most truly serves the preservation of Nature. ^_^

It isn't often that I say "read the whole thing" because I tend to assume that my readers are the sort of people who would do that anyway, but this time I will say that the whole thing is worth reading twice. ^_~

Slightly Disturbing...

2007-05-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

So via Instapundit we now learn Modern Physics is no longer required for an undergraduate degree in physics? O_O

This does serve to show what any "scientific consensus"of those
who believe in Global Warming is worth when you think of it. ^_^;

The Ghost of Futures Past...

2007-05-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

James Lileks gives us an interesting look at what SF Fandom was like in the past complete with prime examples of the sort of Reader Service the fans had back then. Those who would like to take another look at that time via fiction might enjoy reading a novel called What Mad Universe?"" by Frederic Brown which is its own way was the "Fallen Angels" of that day. ^_^

(Via Ed Driscoll (Although "elites" is very much not the word I would use for the Leftist zombies, noobs and lamers who worship at the alter of Doom! :P ), via Instapundit ).

Meanwhile...

2007-04-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

This counts as good news in the War Against Terror! ^_^

It's worth remembering that we wouldn't be scoring successes against Al Qaeda in Iraq if we weren't in Iraq to begin with.

Jihadi = Transvestite? o_O

2007-04-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

It would appear that the jihadis are all becoming a bunch of crossdressers and dressing up like girls. :P

"April 4, 2007: The army is recruiting women for counter-terrorism duty in the south. This is because the largely Moslem population tolerates terrorists disguising themselves in womens Islamic clothing (a burqa, which covers everything). Female soldiers can check burqa to make sure there's a woman inside."

One wonders if the reason male jihadis become jihadis is that because of doing so they hope to find a husband. Any bets as to how long it'll be before the male jihadis take to wearing lipstick and pantyhose as well? ^_~

The Power of Global Warming Revealed!

2007-04-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

BTW, at this rate should we start a betting pool as to how long it will be before we start reading headlines like "Global Warming Rally Canceled Because of Snow"? o_O

Just a thought! ^-^

A Study in Unintended Consequences. ^_^

2007-04-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

In honor of Earth Day let us note that Kyoto has had the effect of making air pollution worse than it might have been by exporting the use of energy to those nations that use dirtier methods.

One possibility that deserves to be considered is that Environmentalists themselves are the worst threats to the environment that anyone will ever have. ^_~

Environmentalists In the Mist! ^_^

2007-03-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

[Formerly "Surrender Monkeys On Display! :P]

Yeah, I reckon this, not worksafe though it may be, really *is* about the tech level most environmentalists truly operate at when you think about it. ^o^

Any bets as to how long it will take the more rabid environmentalists to discover language, the wheel and agriculture at this rate? ^_~

***********

Edit - April 5, 2007: Feh! Nothing like inadvertantly playing an early April Fool's joke on yourself is there? :P

As the discerning reader will have already noted, it was anti development environmentalists rather than "anti war" protesters whom Zombie captured on photo. And I clearly still had Surrender Monkeys on the brain at the time I posted this. >_<

I won't mourn too hard. Berkeley being Berkeley there's enough of an overlap between the local "anti war" crowd and the local environmentalist crowd that I doubt anyone was grieviously wronged by my mistake but, since the environmentalists in this case were the people whom I wished to discuss in the first place, this post will make better sense in having been corrected for accuracy.

BTW, those who would like to see Zombie's look at Surrender Monkeys who've put themselves on display might want to take a moment to click here. ^_~

All Their Sins Remembered... >_>

2007-03-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Oh my! O_O

And people thought *I* had a harsh view of the Dummycrats? o_O

I'm not as gloomy about the matter as Pierre Lagrand but I do agree that ever since Vietnam the Democrats have pretty much allowed themselves to become the "Surrender Monkey" party. It's not without reason that their decline and fall from political dominance can be easily traced from Jimmy Carter to the present day although I would argue that there is more than one reason for that fall. My own suspicion is that 2006 represented America giving the Democrats a last chance to redeem themselves rather than any endorsement of what they stand for.

That said, his post is a good reminder of just why it is I suspect that the Democrats will be Gollum-like in blowing their last chance at redemption if they don't wise up! >_<

It's Universal Global Warming! ^_^

2007-03-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are worried about Anthropogenic (i.e. manmade) Global Warming in the same way there was once much concern over Y2K or Acid Rain. Why don't we be nice and help these people out with evidence to support their cause? ^_~

Let us start by noting that there is now known to be Global Warming on Mars! ^_^

Isn't it just terrible how we nasty humans have been pumping CO2 into the Martian atmosphere? T_T

*blink, blink*

Hey, waitaminute! O_O

There is no human life on Mars. :P

...Currently! ^_~

That's OK. Let's still take a moment to help out all our environmentalist buddies by gathering some more evidence to show that global warming is indeed taking place. *Just because we are such *nice* people!* ^-^

Via Tim Blair we learn that this isn't just happening on Mars either but on Pluto as well. It would appear that there is "climate change" on Jupiter too. Such "climate change" is also occurring on Venus as well begging the question of whether terraforming Venus might not be trickier than I had initially thought. :P

And Saturn is getting warmer as well! ^_^

But none of them have any human life! T_T

That means that any global warming that takes place on them could not have been caused by human intervention. O_O

So, to help our "environmentalist" friends out let's review! ^_^

1. Mars, Pluto, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn *are* all undergoing Global Warming.

2. None of them have any human life.

3. The fact that these planets are also undergoing a warming period counts as evidence that the theory of anthropogenic global warming is nothing but a hoax to the extent that it is anything more than a manifestion of group hysteria.

Whoops! Did I write that last part out loud? O_O;

Oh well, I'm sure our environmentalist friends are all duly grateful for the help I've just given them anyway. ^o^ As far as I'm concerned they are entirely welcome to accept such help in the same spirit in which it was given to them. So pass the word onto your friends! ^_^

I'm sure they'll be amused to find out just how universal "Global Warming" really is. ^_~

1 Novelist > All the Clerics of Islam! ^_^

2007-03-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

1. The Ayatollah Khomeini was once angry with a novelist.

2. After a while the novelist wasn't very happy with the Ayatollah either.

3. The Ayatollah put a $1,000,000 open contract upon the head of the novelist because who would do the bidding of a mere jihadi cleric for anything less than that?

4. The novelist, by way of contrast, did not put any money on the head of the Ayatollah because who would ever think a Moslem cleric to be worth anything?

5. The Ayatollah Khomenei is dead.

6. Salmon Rushdie is still alive and well. ^_^

7. So much for the Ayatollah Khomenei! ^_____^

There's a lesson to be learned from that, don'tcha think? ^_~

A Lesson in Reading Enemy Propaganda! ^O^

2007-03-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

You just know America is winning when propagandists for the enemy side have to reassure their target audience that the enemy is resilient, ne? ^_^

After all, does not a headline like "Sunni insurgents show resilience in Iraq" imply that the "insurgents" do indeed have a need for resilence in the first place? ^_~

And lest anyone think I do the AP wrong by calling them enemy propagandists, however inadvertant it may be on their part, let us take a moment to remember the saga of Jamil Hussein. That is not the sort of thing that inspires confidence in them at all. ~_~

A Valuable Life Skill! ^_^

2007-03-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

From Strategy Page we learn that online chat is a more valuable skill than some people realize. When you stop and think about it that makes the Stephans bill seem even more maladroit than it does at first glance. <_<

Perhaps it would be wise for the voting public and politicians alike to consider the possibility that both Congress and the state legislatures could find uses for their time that are a bit more relevant to their own public duties than that of study hall management? o_O

They Were Sure of Victory, the Men of the Leftist Cavalry, as they rode on! :P

2007-03-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Wretchard has an amusing post on how the leftist Moonbats seek to rally behind Ward Churchill, the man infamous for calling those who died on 9/11 "Little Eichmanns" and saying that they deserved to die. Shall we take a moment to admire how much Mr. Churchill is obviously the Yellow Hair boy of the Left? ^_~

Mood music: Mr. Custer

The Russian and the Snake.

2007-02-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

This would go a long way towards explaining why it is that Russia feels free to play footsie with Iran without expecting blowback. @_@

Such expectations may not be prudent on Mr. Putin's part. Aesop shows us that serpents will be serpents and all terrorists are serpents by their very nature.

Most Amusing News of the Month! ^_^

2007-02-26T17:37:00.000-08:00

Not surprising, mind you, but *definitely* amusing. ^-^

'The FBI has found, for example, that its Arab translators become even more hostile to Islamic radicalism after listening to hours of people spewing their ethnic and religious hatred in wiretapped conversations.'

Thucydides wrotes several times of the Spartans that they had been "the most convenient of foes." I am coming to the happy conclusion that the same can be said of the jihadis as well. ^_~

I'm in trouble, aren't I? ^o^

2007-02-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

Via Tim Blair's blog we learn an interesting bit of sharia.

Looks like a good time to explain the use of Anime emoticons for those who don't already know them, don'tcha think? n_n

So, with that in mind...

^_^ = smile. The traditional ":)" would be it's American counterpart.

n_n = a beaming smile with closed eyes. If you've ever seen a cute kid in anime when he's happy then you'll have no problem understanding this.

^-^ = a cute smile.

^.^ = Feminine smile.

^^ = Tiny smile or neutral expression.

^____^ = *Big* smile.

>_< = a wince. Often used to convey frustration or pain.

T_T = Crying. Check out Soun Tendo when he's turning on the waterworks in Ranma 1/2 and you'll understand where this one came from. Usually used to indicate jocular sadness.

~_~ = Downcast eyes to indicate sadness. Tends to be used to indicate genuine sadness.

^_^; = sweatdrop. It can reflect either nervousness or excitement in the animes but usually nervousness when used in the message boards or blogs.

@_@ = spiral eyes. It can represent either dizziness or deep thought.

^o^ or ^O^ both = laughter. ^_~ = wink.

u_u = Rolled eyes.

:P = sticking out of tongue either at the person you're talking to or more often at fate. This one is borrowed from the more standard emoticons.

<_< = Eyes right.
>_> = Eyes left.

Both shifts of eyes imply a certain amount of watchfulness and desire for caution either from furtiveness or paranoia. >_>

o_O = raised left eyebrow.
O_o = raised right eyebrow.

Either might be legitimately used in any situation where you would raise an eyebrow. ^^

O_O = Total surprise or shock!

*^_^* = Blush.

If I learn or remember anymore to add I'll be sure to edit this post to add them in. But now as otakku let's go forth and show the Shariasts as much reverance as their little bluenose doctrine truly deserves by using the anime emoticons anywhere and anywhen we get the chance! ^_~

Edit: Have now added "~_~" and "*^_^*". Can't believe I forgot them. *^_^* (2/26/2007)

A Very Liberal Degree of Truth in Advertising...

2007-02-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Well, John Murtha has now gone on record as wanting to play politics with America's safety! :P

Doubtless he and his fellow Democrats will campaign in 2008 under the slogan of "Vote for the Democrats because we libs will always undermine national security!"? o_O

Now there's a slogan for the Left to be proud of! ^_~

The Slaughter of the Webcomics...

2007-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

Life is sometimes ironic. The day after I make the mistake of using an article from Wikipedia I read an item that made me regret it beneath the cartoon at You Say It First under the heading of January 15, 2007 as follows:

" About a week ago, Namir Deiter's wikipedia article was deleted for "failing to assert notability". Now, I feel that Namir Deiter is notable. ..there wasn't a vote. It was summarily deleted."

Continuing further, I read with interest, "Now, about fifty webcomics articles have been deleted in the last two weeks. Good webcomics articles. Not stubs. Not articles about comics with 10 strips and 5 readers. The Class Menagerie, Dragon Tails, Gene Catlow, Living in Greytown, Misfile, The Suburban Jungle, and Zortic, to name a few."

50 Webcomics? That seemed a bit much. To the best of my knowledge Namir Deiter has been operating on the Web since at least 1999. If you count Unlike Minerva and its sequal You Say It First as one comic started in 2001 then it too has been operating for about as long. And Zortic started in March of 2000. All three of them are older than Wiki (which claims January 16, 2001 as a birthyear) and would never have lasted as long as they did if they did not have a following. And there are people at Wiki who presume to say they aren't notable?

So the question has to be, who at Wiki is doing this and why?

The person who deleted these webcomics (including Namir Deiter) seems to be one Nanconkantari. This is what his talk page looks like. As of 8:16 PM (Midwest time) on January 17, 2007, this note was a part of that page.

"Could you please restore the following articles that you deleted to my User space, along with their associated talk- and history- pages? Thank you --Nekura 20:00, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

"Draco (comic)"
"Boat Anchor (comic strip)"
"Bobbins"
"Apathy Kat"
"Ashfield (webcomic)"
"Astounding Space Thrills"
"Acts of Gord"
"Abby's Agency"
"Namir Deiter"*
"Jack Story Arcs and Shorts"
"The Class Menagerie"*
"Carpe Diem (webcomic)"
"Akaelae"
"Altermeta"
"Living in Greytown" *
"Lizard!"
"The Cyantian Chronicles"
"Tales of the Questor"
"Tales From Band Camp"
"The Suburban Jungle"
"Purple Pussy"
"Poisoned Minds"
"Funny Farm (comic)"
"Gene Catlow"*
"A Doemain of Our Own"
"Goblin Hollow"
"TalkImpact" "

So let's add 23 names to the 7 Mr. Marks supplied and if that's 30 instead of 50 we are still clearly on our way. Let us note also that Nacontari has clearly been a busy boy.

The delection log for Zortic is here and reads as follows:

"View (previous 50) (next 50) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500).

12:51, 10 January 2007 Bogdangiusca (Talk | contribs) deleted "Zortic" (notability not asserted -- CSD A7) "

Bogdangiusca's talkpage is here.

The deletion log for Dragon Tails also yields the comment:

"* 22:22, 9 January 2007 Bogdangiusca (Talk | contribs) deleted "Dragon Tails" (CSD A7: "does not assert the importance or significance of its subject")"

A look for the Misfile article yielded a stub marked for execution that led to an interesting debate page.

Also of interest is this:

"Web-specific content[3] is notable if it meets any one of the following criteria:

1. The content itself has been the subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself.
* This criterion includes published works in all forms, such as newspaper and magazine articles, books, television documentaries, and published reports by consumer watchdog organizations.[4] except for the following:
* Media re-prints of press releases and advertising for the content or site.[5]
* Trivial coverage, such as (1) newspaper articles that simply report the internet address, (2) newspaper articles that simply report the times at which such content is updated or made available, (3) a brief summary of the nature of the content or the publication of internet addresses and site or (4) content descriptions in internet directories or online stores.
2. The website or content has won a notable independent award from either a publication or organization.[6]
3. The content is distributed via a medium which is both well known and independent of the creators, either through an online newspaper or magazine, an online publisher, or an online broadcaster.[7]

The article itself must provide proof that its subject meets one of these criteria via inlined links or a "Reference" or "External link" section. Even if an entire website meets the notability criteria, its components (forums, articles, sections) are not necessarily notable and deserving of their own separate article."

I think it interesting that by Wikipedia's own criteria Wikipedia itself does not have the right to be listed in its own encyclopedia. :P

In the case of Namir Dieter I should note that a look at Amazon.com gave me a strong indication that it is indeed sold there. We also have Wikipedia's own assurance that Namir Deiter was published by Iron Cat. So offhand I would say that Namir Deiter at least should continue to be listed given that it clearly meets criteria #3.

That said, where do we go from here? The first thing to say is that it seems to me that Wiki life would be a bit easier for article contributors, staff members and casual readers alike if the criteria by which articles were yanked were subject to greater transparency. In his post Terrence wrote, "I'm not sure exactly what counts as an acceptable webcomics article, and I'm starting to believe that just about any article we create would be deleted regardless of its quality." I myself can't blame him for feeling that way when it took me about 5 hours to locate Wikipedia's rules on web content through serendipity rather than by any easily located link on the deletion notices themselves. If it were easier for people to know what the rules were then this would be less work for the staff and less frustrating for everyone else. Such frustration cannot be good for Wikipedia's longterm reputation since the sort of people it offends are precisely the sort who buy ink by the barrel when they are unhappy.

This wholesale deletion of webcomics can hardly good for Wiki's reputation from another angle either when you consider this plays against one of Wiki's boasted strenghs that, and I quote, "* In contrast with many web resources, information added to Wikipedia never "vanishes", and is never "lost" or deleted."

I will leave it to my readers to decide if 30 to 50 deleted articles seems like information never vanishing or "lost" or deleted to *them*. If Wiki really intends to live up to this boast then they should restore these lost articles otherwise such a boast would seem to be better to have never made in the first place.

The second thing of interest to me is their criteria for "notability" seems too narrow in their presumption that nothing matters unless it happens off the Net as well as upon it and in their not taking into account the fact that regular production patterns over a long and sustained period of time genuinely is a reasonable criteria for notableness in and of itself. In searching through the blogosphere for blogs that might be of interest to my own readers I have been astounded and dismayed on more than one occasion to find just how many blogs there were that were started and then abandoned with less than 10 entries or sometimes merely just one. Less surprising albeit still unfortunate is the number of blogs that seem to peter out after no more than a year or 3 of production. There are enough sites of this sort that I would be inclined to pronounce a blog or a webcomic that is still active on a regular basis after 5 years of more to be both established and venerable and therefore notable just for that alone. This is especially true in the cases of comics such as Namir Deiter that are older than Wiki and are put forth with an energy and a level of reliability that makes it likely that it will still be around when Wikipedia itself is no longer with us.

Finally, there is the angle that bothers me and is the reason I will be somewhat less likely to have anything to do with Wiki in the future: Bogdangiusca deserves honor for being more forthright than Naconkantari in at least explaining his reasons, but at this point I myself must assert that there is such a thing as being arbitrary with the concept of notability taken too far that can leave one's memory cursed by the generations of social scientists to come. If the cave painting of Lascoux had been painted with whitewash because a random tourist had decided that they weren't anything out of the ordinary how happy do you think future generations of archaeologists would be? Should Classical scholars be happy if someone decided that the graffitti of Pompei was too trivial to be kept and whitewashed them away? If the Chessmen of Lewis had been tossed aside for being mere toys would the historians and folklorists of today thank the man who did it? How about those fools who think history itself an unnotable subject? Should their views be taken into account when the next round of article purges at Wikipedia goes down?

Anyone familiar with the works of Professors Dan Nimmo or James Earle Combs cannot help but be aware that the pop culture of any period does represent the collective subconscious mind of the societies from which they were spawned. This is as true for the minor works as well as for the major. It is of no assistance to either the serous scholar or the casual inquirer if his selection of the specimens to be examined are reduced in this manner.

For this, and all the other reasons I have stated, I would urge upon Wikipedia the restoration of those webcomics articles that have been deleted as the best action for all concerned.

Creatures of the Night?

2007-01-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

What do vampires, demons and Moslem clerics have in common? o_O

All of them recoil in terror from the sign of the Cross! ^O^

Given that Bram Stroker's Dracula at least could write a note of correspondance to his soliciters without having to omit the letters "x" or "t" one can only presume from this that those Moslem clerics who follow Sharia are more steeped in the darkness than even a vampire or a ghoul would be. ^_~

Censors Get Pwn3d! ^_^

2007-01-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

Go here for details. ^^

Don't just read the whole thing, read the links as well. Anywhere that Communists rule is a place where you will find this knowledge to be useful! ^_~

Pseudocode Exercise.

2007-01-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

10 REM This is a pseudocode program.
20 REM Normally pseudocode is used to design programs but in this case I am using it to make a point.
22 REM
30 Let $PC = I
40 Print 'Polls closed?"
50 If "Y" or "y" then End Program. If "N" or "n" then 60.
60 REM Let's have this represent a sample election
61 Let X = overall vote counter
70 Print "Sample Race for Dog Catcher"
80 Print "This race will be provided with an Audit Trail"
90 Print "Please select the candidate you prefer."
100 Print
110 Print "Candidate A"
120 Print "Candidate B"
130 Input C
140 If C = Candidate A then print Candidate A's Name to the Audit Trail
150 If C = Candidate B then print Candidate B's Name to the Audit Trail
160 Let X = X + 1
161 REM This advances the overall vote counter..
165 Let H = H + 1
166 REM The purpose of this second counter will be revealed later.
170 REM Notice that the voter is being provided with an audit trail for his own use, whether to the screen or as a printout, so "He can see what is being done with his vote"? o_O
173 REM
180 REM Now watch what happens next!
181 REM
190 If C = Candidate A then let Candidate A's total = A + 1.
191 REM
200 REM So far, so good, right? Note once more that the audit trail has already been printed.
201 REM
210 If C = Candidate B and H < 1000 then 275 Else 220
211 REM
220 REM Now the dirty work begins! :P
221 REM
230 If H = 1000 then let Candidate A's total = A +1
240 Reset H to Zero.
250 GOTO 30
251 REM
252 REM Whee!
253 REM
260 REM Did you just see what happened? o_O
261 REM
262 REM Any voter for Candidate B would get his receipt showing that he voted for his man alright but 1 out of 1000 votes would have their votes diverted without any way of being the wiser.
264 REM
265 REM If you stop to think about it there is no reason any printout has to reflect what the Computer is actually doing.
267 REM
268 REM And if *I* can think of this then I assure you that other
269 REM activists with a programming background probably already have
270 REM as well. ^_^;
271 REM
272 REM Now let's finish the rest of this pseudocode.
273 REM
275 Let Candidate B's total = B + 1
280 Let H = H + 1
281 REM
282 REM Alas, poor B! 1 vote out of 1000 is subtle enough that he would never know what hit him but would still apply a killer advantage in a large election that happened to be close. ^_^;
285 REM
286 REM Note by the way, that I have deliberately designed this in a botched manner to discourage any script kiddies who want to try this for real. :P
289 REM
290 GOTO 30.
291 REM
292 REM That said, I hope that anyone who reads this still sees my point.
294 REM
295 REM Now you know why I don't consider printouts or receipts to be any protection against vote fraud. ^_^;;
297 REM
300 End Pseudocode Exercise! >_<

Goodbye and Hello as Always? @_@

2006-12-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

Via Instapundit we learn that an interesting memoir of Rumsfeld's career is over here at Real Clear Politics. ^_^

The fact that Presidential campaigns take 2 years to prepare these days, combined with the fact that Mr. Rumsfeld was once an elected Congressman who would know how to put an election campaign together, does bring an interesting abeit whimsical notion to mind in a way that would explain the timing of his departure: Can you picture the way the anti-war activists would look in November of 2008 when they realize that they now have to get used to the idea of saying "President Rumsfeld"? ^O^

Just an amusing thought, but if it ever does come to pass please remember that you heard it here first. ^_~

A Useful Postulate...

2006-12-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

"I have a postulate for you to consider: IN any thinking-system, A postulate that says you can't do what you have to do must be rejected as futile.

Reason: A postulate is NOT a reality-truth; it's strictly a thought-tool...and a tool that won't work must be replaced with one that will."

- John W. Campbell, letter to Horace L. Gold on November 4, 1954. P. 263 of "The John W. Campbell Letters: Volume 1", eds. Perry A. Chapdelaine, Sr., Tony Chapdelaine, George Hay, (Frankin, TN.:AC Projects, 1985. ISBN: 0-931150-16-7 ).

Something to keep in mind the next time someone tries to sell despair when it comes to winning The War on Terror or indeed upon any other subject. After all, it's not without reason that Napoleon is said to have stated that "The Moral is to the Physical as three to one!" ^_^

The People Have Spoken!

2006-11-08T18:32:00.000-08:00

Well, the voting public has delivered its verdict. It is not the decision I would have made but it is the decision that they have made. For the sake of America I will hope that their embrace of the Democratic Party will prove wiser than I deem it. >_<