Plagued by Whiners

Blizzard put out another plague in their game World of Warcraft. Read the article to find out what the plague did, I don't really care. A lot of players got upset that their characters were dying and started complaining that they thought it was unfair. Poor babies. Why play a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game if not to see interesting changes with a large environment. You don't see rpg players sending square enix nasty letters because they just got hit with a silent spell and they thought it wasn't cool. Waah.

The Tao of Toctrine

I also could have called this the Dao of Doctrine, but it's not as much fun. So there is a Russian Orthodox Church in Cuba now. Hugo Chavez is having serious talks with the Russians for military support. I am sure that Monroe and Roosevelt are rolling over in their graves. I guess that was bound to happen though. When a person oversteps his bounds and starts telling other people how to live he is sure to find many disobey. That is the way of things.

Class Tech?

Oh sweet lord. Somebody get my protesting kit. Another teacher is trying to use technology in the classroom. This totally goes against my 29th Amendment right to not have my children influenced by the tools of the evil one... doesn't it?

They're People... and They Have No Homes

The title is the last part of one of my favorite lines in the movie Dirty Work. I can't believe it has been almost three weeks since I've blogged. Just to let you know what has been going on: I stopped hanging out at my wifi spot as much and started 'working' at a gym. I sat around all day to make sure the doors stayed open and nobody stole stuff. I've been working hard on this election and I'm feeling really confident that I'm going to do well. No matter how it turns out it has been a positive experience and I'm glad I have tried. Ok, now that we've caught up- on to the news.

The Georgia Supreme Court has said that part of the sex offender law that says that sex offenders have to register their address is unconstitutional because it is unfar to homeless people. Apparently, sex offenders started becoming homeless and since they didn't have a home to register they were getting arrested for breaking the sex offender law. I'm glad someone is making sure that all Americans' (except the fur-ih-ners) rights are being protected.

This brings me to my favorite line from Dirty Work: You know how I feel about the homeless, they're people and they have no homes.

When Unstable Markets Meet Unstable Nukes

Someone on the staff at Newsweek has been trying to let people know about Pakistan. The linked article is the most recent in a string of stories that claim that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the Middle East, and rightly so. It's even worse now that the global economy has done this...



I'm not even really going to try to go into great detail about their problems, I'm just going to try to list them. The Taliban is gathering increasing strength in the northern hills. India just signed a nuclear trade deal with us, which puts two enemies on the United States' ally table. Pakistan's relations with us are becoming more and more strained. The last president was kicked out and the newest one is the widower of the assassinated lead candidate. The United States is continually invading their territory to hunt down terrorists. Now there is no money. Power outages are wide spread. Why do they scare me more than Iran, Syria, North Korea (not Middle Eastern but scary anyway), Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the other Stans? Because they have nukes. Not in the way that Iran almost might have the technology to start thinking about nukes. They have nukes, in the current sense. They have a new government that is on very thin ice. Not in the way that Kim Jong Il is crazy and we don't know how to deal with him. There is no way of knowing if their government will exist in a year, in the junta sense. I am far more frightened of practiced terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weaponry in Pakistan than I am with any other situation in the Middle East. I'll bet India and Afghanistan and Saudia Arabia are too.

What is It Good For?

War? Huh? Yeah... we still aren't fighting a war. Congress is the only body with the power to declare war and they haven't done it yet. So the Bush Doctrine, as described in the linked article, is neither preemptive not preventative war: it it preventative military action. I know it doesn't seem like much of a difference and in a culture earlier described as lacking in the ability to maintain focus saying preemptive war seems easier it is still incorrect. Otherwise I agree completely with this guy's opinion.

No Company Left Behind

The newest attempt of the Bush administration to make sure that nobody feels like they are any less important than anyone else is the economic bailout. We cannot allow any student to fail because that would lower their self-esteem and make them feel like they aren't as much of a person as the one who passed. Now we cannot allow companies to fail because then the free market that we set up wouldn't be able to correct itself. Sorry Lehman Brothers, you guys flunked out before we were able to pass this landmark legislation. We are setting up a very dangerous precedent. What will stop a restaurant from asking for federal money when they start to go under. What makes the any less deserving of the money than AIG? That's the problem with federal money and federal legislation: it has to be fair for all, not the liked. An individual company can choose to loan out money to whomever they want because it's their money. But the government is not private, it's public. I wish I would have been able to vote for something this large. I also wish that we were allowed to vote on a lot of things. So much for democracy. I guess I, along with Washington, missed that day of class and was passed through to keep up federal funding.

Bad Economy

The Dow just lost more points this week than in any other week in history. The economy is falling down around us and I guess that makes Ron Paul a bit like Chicken Little. In fact, we are so poor (How poor are we?) that we are even becoming unable to pay attention. I liked the pun there, I hope you did too. The linked article is a couple months old and it describes how the internet is destroying our ability to pay attention because we skim everything. I am just as guilty of this as everyone else. Probably more. I 'read' 130 newspapers a day. I don't actually sit down with a massive stack of paper and go page by page. Instead I check my RSS reader and scroll through headlines trying to find articles that interest me enough to read. I don't remember the last book that I read from cover to cover. I have seven books with marks in them right now because I have to read each of them one chapter at a time and switch to a different book to keep my mind engaged. Fortunately I am still able to watch an entire feature-length film; but that's not exactly exemplary is it? Do any of you actually read the full article I link to? Or do you just read my opinion about the article? This hit me recently when I was talking to someone about news. If you watch CNN you do get a lot of news, but 24 hours is a long time. After a while they stop giving news and start giving opinion. Opinion is not news. I am not a journalist I am a blogger.

I have asked people to pay attention to something for even a sentence before and that much concentration was painful. To think about trying to maintain a single stream of conciousness for a couple hours is almost beyond society's grasp. Can we stop this? Sure, we could. Will we? I don't know, what's on another channel?

Photosynthetic Oil

I love the Taipei Times. They have a lot of really good research and commentary in it. The title article discusses a possible alternative fuel: algae. I don't even care if it works or not, it's good tom know that there are people out there thinking about this stuff. Developing nations are displeased with corn- and wheat-based biofuels because they drive up the cost of food. Most people are still afraid of nuclear energy. West Texans think wind towers are ugly. I just hope the algae aren't stinky otherwise we'll never find another fuel source.

Dirty Money

Massachusetts recently got some figures on how much money the state could make from allowing homosexual marriages. From hotels to restaurants to chapel rentals the income would be phenomenal. Who would have thought that allowing people to do what they want to do would make a lot of money? I know it's "icky" to think about members of the same gender being with each other, I disagree but who listens to me, but that's not really the issue at heart here. Government shouldn't issue marriage licenses, I think I've mentioned this once or twice before. It is not the government's place to interfere with a sanctified union between a man and a woman, if that is your personal belief on the matter. Likewise, the church should not tell the government who is and is not allowed to have visitation rights. Government is not supposed to be moral and church is not supposed to be egalitarian. Who was that guy that talked about this... hmmm... Oh yeah, Thomas Jefferson, one of those pilgrims who founded this country on Christian morals and values. I had forgotten.

Snack-tastic!

Parental advisory: bad language in the provided link. Once you've read the comic, go to Gamer Grub's website and click on the different varieties of the snack. It's trail mix!!! It's nothing new. It is just a different packaging for trail mix for people who don't walk on trails. They are missing the point of gamer snacking. That's why many nerds are starting to become more fit. With the rise of pc gaming (I mean mmorpg's that involve the entire keyboard) we are seeing fewer gamers who train themselves to eat and play at the same time. When I was a growing gamer, I would have a box of Cheez-its in one hand and a two liter of Mountain Dew in the other and I would proudly do my best to munch down a few carbs during a save point. I would slurp a few gulps of nectar while the announcer would count down time before the fight started. It used to be a conversation piece to describe to other nerds just how much you could do while you gamed. Even when I played an MMO, I maintained my eating regimen. Sure my keyboard got crumbs in it, that 's why they make keyboard cleaners. I'm not asking for anything much, really. I know that the business industry is trying to get as much money as they can out of nerds. Kudos to them. Unfortunately, new packaging means higher costs and nerds spend more on games than on snacks. Sorry old white guys who know nothing about gaming. We need the old nerds to teach young nerds how to effectively game and bring back the full box of Cheez-its and two liter of Mountain Dew. We need to stand up for ourselves and not be pandered to. We need to... man I'm tired, anybody got some Gamer Grub?


Tee hee! Seriously though, jerks, leave me alone. I snack just fine.

Why Can't I get Paternity Leave?

Sorry it took me so long to get to this article, dated July 14, but I've been a little busy running for office and all. All excuses aside, I have been thinking about this issue a lot now that Sarah Palin is running for Vice President. The article discusses how many of the benefits for women in Britain, such as a full paid year maternity leave, is now becoming more of a bust for women than a boon. My mother was off work for six weeks if I remember correctly when she had me. Our family happened to be in the position where Dad's job allowed him to spend more time at home. This raises my title question: why can't men get paternity leave? If a woman wants to go back to work the father should be allowed to get paid time off of work to raise the baby. Especially in an era where evidence is showing that fatherly presence is both lacking and of growing importance, this policy seems to allow the best of both worlds. Otherwise women, who have fought hard for these benefits, will find themselves jobless until 40.

If I recall correctly the purpose of the women's rights movement was equal treatment. Well, I'd like to be treated equally sometimes, too.

And the Fight Was On...

I don't think these guys have any idea what debating is. They keep talking to the moderator. The keep talking to the camera. What happened to a good old-fashioned fight? If I was one of those guys, I would call him out on every incorrect statement he puts out. How come Barack Obama doesn't bring up the $10 billion in spending every month in Iraq? 18 Billion in a year or in three years is nothing compared to the defense budget. This might be why they don't let me debate...