I just wrote up a little fictional piece, but it sucked and while I know what I need to write, I don’t currently have the brainpower to write it. So here’s the straight dope. Jerry Russell is a right-wing talk radio host at KTLK, in LA. He has a medium-sized and devoted following; he pushes the talking points of his ideological friends and runs down the opposition like any good talk show host on any side of the political spectrum. He rules the airwaves from midnight to 4 AM, and has always been a little nervous about trying to go daytime. In fact, he’s turned down opportunities more than once because he’s afraid he couldn’t compete with the big boys. ...

CNN: President Bush wants to work with Sen. John McCain to take legal action against “shadowy” outside groups that have been spending millions of dollars on ads criticizing the president and Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry, the White House said Thursday. Pesky free speech. What are you gonna do? The thing is, Bush doesn’t get credit for the moral argument against 527s. It is possible to argue that 527s are bad because they tilt the political playing field towards the people with the most money, which of course they do. However, Bush has demonstrated that he doesn’t care about that principle, insofar as he opted out of the public financing system in the primaries. If he cared about an even playing field, he wouldn’t have done that. The same applies to the schedule of the RNC; it’s unusually late so that Bush has more time to spend the money he’s already collected before public financing laws kick in. ...

Hillside Strangler was pretty much blah. If you’re in the market for fictional Hillside Strangler stories with semi-pro acting and over-used looping camera work, you’re good; otherwise it’s worth missing. In short, Samantha Stone is a psychologist who uncovers the truth behind Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi’s killings by finding out what Kenneth is hiding. It’s ploddingly predictable. Also, the subplot — Samantha breaking up with her drug dealer husband Jack — is pointless other than as an excuse for a lot of breasts. It doesn’t go anywhere and it doesn’t particularly reflect the main plot. Chris Fisher’s movies aren’t going to pass as an art film as long as there’s so much pointless exploitation riding shotgun. ...

A number of GenCon pictures, at varying levels of amusement value, can be found here.

From time to time, people talk about Mitt Romney running for President of the United States. For those uncertain, Mitt Romney is the Republican Governor of Massachusetts; he also ran the fairly successful (if you ignore the scandals) Salt Lake City Olympics a few years back. He is a Mormon. (Yes, Massachusetts has a Republican Mormon Governor. Please don’t let that shake your belief that Massachusetts is some kind of a Communist protectorate, though; it’s always fun watching people underestimate Massachusetts and its politicians.) ...

In case anyone’s missing my vital GenCon posts and wants to know where they are, they’re over at The 20’ by 20’ Room as follows: Wednesday night (original), Thursday (original), Friday (original), and Saturday (original). If you don’t care about gaming, don’t bother.

I just unloaded a bunch of FanTasia pictures from the camera in preparation for GenCon; my blog is the beneficiary of this wealth. It wasn’t a heavy picture-taking trip for me but I got a few good shots. Please keep in mind that Montreal is much prettier and funkier than one might think from my photography.

Worth noting: the BBC put out a call for people at the anti-war protests to send their digital snapshots to the BBC. Many responded. The BBC didn’t put up the raw results, which is perhaps a good thing, but I wish they’d filtered it a little less — we wind up with ten pictures. Still, it’s wild to see a major news publication doing this kind of thing.

Just when the news stories about Russian mobs and the NHL were starting to die down, it looks like the Russians are picking on another winter sport: ice skating. The idea of international gangsters fixing Olympic figure skating tickles me pink in a weird way. Eventually, someone’s going to say “Hey, wait… if they could own hockey players and figure skaters, where the hell else are they?”

The San Francisco Bay Area automated toll system, Fastrak, may be used to collect traffic flow data. Basically, they’re adding sensors along the highways which can pick up passing Fastrak boxes. They promise to keep the data separate from driver info, but since the existing Fastrak system is designed to track the passage of specific cars through toll plazas, you gotta figure the capability will be there. I figure the first time there’s a high-profile man hunt, the new sensors get used to track cars, for perfectly understandable reasons. Who’d want to tell the public “No, we’re not using every possible method to track that kidnapper and his victim.”? Not me. Better not to have the capability.