Category: Uncategorized

I think the Iranians have the better case here:

But the simple truth is that, unless Iran’s regime gives up both its terrorist ideology and its weapons, we will never be safe.

And after Iran, who’s next? After all, we only have troops stationed in 141 countries around the world. The neocons don’t understand that it is aggressive American behavior that endangers the nation; we may have been the good guys on the international scene back in 1944, but that’s simply not the case any longer.

We can’t complain about Iran invading Iraq when we did it first. We can’t complain about them wanting to obtain nuclear weapons; we’ve already got them. We can, of course, argue that our form of government is better than theirs, but after 20 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush rule – and looking at another eight years of it – there’s even room for argument about that.

Starting a war with Iran would be even more disastrous than the Iraqi one has turned out to be. If the lesson of Vietnam and Iraq is that it’s a bad idea to launch a war without the full consent of the American people and a Congressional declaration of war, what on Earth are these neocon lunatics thinking?

The real danger to America isn’t from Iran, but from Mexico, China and Washington DC.

UPDATE – VDH writes an interesting column on military history that tangentially touches upon this matter:

It would be reassuring to think that the righteousness of a cause, or the bravery of an army, or the nobility of a sacrifice ensures public support for war. But military history shows that far more often the perception of winning is what matters. Citizens turn abruptly on any leaders deemed culpable for losing. “Public sentiment is everything,” wrote Abraham Lincoln. “With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed. He who molds opinion is greater than he who enacts laws.”

In these terms, the attempt to install American democracy in Iraq has already failed. It’s over. Attacking Iran will only make matters worse, much worse.

The NYT spells out the discrepancy in reported sexual partners for defensive feminists and the mathematically challenged:

0-1
—-
M 16.6%
F 25.0%

2-6
—-
M 33.8%
F 44.3%

7-14
—-
M 20.7%
F 21.3%

15+
—-
M 28.9%
F 09.4%

Yes, I suppose that probably was redundant.

I knew 98 of the 100. I missed mitosis and orthography; no doubt the former will amuse Mr. Hatfield. I thought my notion of moiety would be wrong, but it turned out to be correct.

How did you do?

I’ve decided to use Mike Shanahan’s as a template:

In 2001, Vox Day joined the exclusive club of writers to post weekly columns on WorldNetDaily, he finished his first year tied for fourth most-popular on this ultra-impressive list of columnists, seven of whom are nationally syndicated.

His stunning record as a syndicated columnist places him in the legendary class of H.L. Mencken, William F. Buckley, Chuck Norris, Patrick J. Buchanan and Ann Coulter as one of six writers with back-to-back national syndications.

However, whether measured by record or achievement, he does not rest on his laurels, nor allow his team to even though in the past six years his overall record of accomplishment has been unmatched. His accomplishments since taking command of his WorldNetDaily column are far greater than most writers have achieved in entire careers, yet Vox Day does not live in the past but puts all his ample talents and energy into success for the present.

Every successful news site has one key writer, and those organizations that have achieved the greatest success have an ultimate writer – an individual combining exceptional talent and literary skills with the dynamic ambition to inspire others to success. For WorldNetDaily, that individual is unquestionably Vox Day.

Despite the almost unparalleled level of success attained in the last six years, complacency and satisfaction are qualities completely foreign to Vox Day, a brilliant columnist and writer who is perpetually driven by the goal of convincing humanity of the essential truths required for its continued survival as a species.

I completely agree with this nameless veteran NFL figure:

“I have never been impressed with Michael Vick to begin with,” the club personnel man said. “Is he a dynamic player? Yes. But is he a championship-level quarterback, a leader of a team? He has never shown that. So what are you really getting once he comes back? What has Michael Vick done in this league other than be promoted by the league and by his marketing people and the companies that he has endorsed for? I can’t answer what he might be facing in two years, because I don’t know that I value what he is as a quarterback.”

Vick will likely prove to have been the most overrated player in the history of the game. I disliked him, I disliked his Pittsburgh predecessor and I will dislike the next stupid, strong-armed, speedy black quarterback who will inevitably be lionized as the potential revolution of the quarterback position in the process of leading his team to a playoff one-and-out.

(Nothing against black quarterbacks who are smart enough and disciplined enough to actually play the position. I’m still hoping Daunte can somehow return to form and that Vince Young will realize that Manning is the model to emulate, not Vick.)

Vick was a basketball player in the NFL. He is a gifted athletic freak and fun to watch, but football is a true team sport where athleticism is less important than performing your role. He was the epitome of most of what is wrong with the league before there was ever a peep about his interest in dog-fighting.

Speaking of football, VPFL coaches should email me so that I can send you the registration info.

Pintopolis asks something rather more up my alley:

Who do you think are the best and most innovative Game Designers working today. I was always a fan of Chris Crawford.

Chris Crawford is very well-regarded and will always have a place in my heart for starting the Computer Game Developers Conference, even if you won’t find me at the conventional convention that it’s grown into. I was actually thinking about this the other day, as I had the chance to chat with one of my old heroes, Richard Garriott, recently, and another old acquaintance who is also at NCSoft asked me who I’d most like to work with.

I think Lord British is still tops, as he’s doing some interesting work with tactical AI that borders on StratAI in Tabula Rasa. He’s been a pioneer several times over and continues to lead the way. Also, he’s got a savvy business sense that makes him that much more valuable as a designer.

I think very highly of Chris Taylor, who’s now at Gas-Powered Games. I’m still in touch with him; unlike most “strategy” game designers, he fully understands the difference between tactics and strategy, a difference that he exploited brilliantly in Supreme Commander.

I still harbor great appreciation for John Romero, who is a much more sophisticated thinker than most people realize. Yes, he had the benefit of being paired with the ultimate game technologist, John Carmack, and perhaps his ego may have gotten a little out of hand during his Ion Storm days, but even his post-id failures are failures of execution, not design. He’s pushing in the right directions, in my opinion, whether he can actually pull it off or not is unknown. People forget nowadays that he designed some very good Apple II games as well as the Commander Keen series. In case you’re interested in a little game trivia. he had some influence in my decision to return to the industry last year.

Marc Miller, who designed the Traveller RPG, is underappreciated and underutilized these days. He actually foresaw the connection between computers and role-playing; if you look at the Traveller system you can see how it could almost be plugged as is into a modern MMO and it would work. Julian LeFay is another great RPG designer; I’d very much like to know what he’s up to now.

Obviously, there’s Miyamoto and the guy who did Tetris, but those sort of games neither interest me nor have any influence on the kind of games that do. I’m more impressed with Charles Moylan and Steve Grammont, who came up with a unique and elegant way to solve the 3D combat/tactical problem (one that worked much better than my decision to use emergent AI) and showed that it’s still possible to exist as an independent development/publishing house. I’m frankly surprised that the Combat Mission approach hasn’t been used by anyone else yet, even if the forthcoming version has received underwhelming reviews.

I think Chris Roberts might be my biggest disappointment. He did such great work with Times of Lore and the first Wing Commander, but then the movie bug bit him; I wish he’d return to doing games. Actually, I’m more disappointed in my own track record, but I am in the process of rectifying that situation.

Ron Paul beats Giuliani and McCain:

Final results of Thursday’s Illinois straw poll:

1. Mitt Romney – 40.35%

2. Fred Thompson – 19.96%

3. Ron Paul – 18.87%

4. Rudy Giuliani – 11.61%

5. John McCain – 4.12%

I’ll have my starship detailed black on black. With lasers:

Two German physicists from the University of Koblenz claim to have broken the speed of light…. They say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons – energetic packets of light – travelled “instantaneously” between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to three feet apart.

That sound you heard yesterday was the science fiction writing community’s ears collectively perking up….

I fought back the urge to shed a tear for those poor, derided atheists of the past, as Pintopolis writes:

I’ve yet to hear a christian exhibit concern for the centuries of derision that many among them have pointed at atheists and non believers. When that bad habit can be acknowledged by those criticizing New Atheists then I’ll take the criticism of New Atheists seriously.

Why should they when the distrust on which their predecessors based that “derision” was completely justified by subsequent events? John Locke’s stunningly prescient recommendation in 1690 that atheists be individually tolerated, but not permitted a position of dominance over others may be the most accurate long-term political prediction in the history of Man.

I have no objection whatsoever to the hostile tone in which Dawkins and Harris have framed the debate. (They’re saying very little today that Meslier didn’t write in 1729.) I love that bright lines are being drawn. What the New Atheists don’t understand is that the derision they experienced before will be as nothing compared to what is coming. They will not be able to take the heat that is going to come at them from a thousand different directions, not with all their easily demonstrated logical errors and verifiable factual inaccuracies.

UPDATE – I suppose post-facto reconciliation isn’t all that bad, especially when it’s funny:

THE descendants of Papua New Guinea cannibals who killed and ate four Fijian missionaries in 1878 have apologised.

On second thought, don’t laugh. If PETA ever takes over, your descendents are going to be tearfully apologizing to cows, pigs and chickens.