For the curious, my GenCon schedule follows. Thursday Iron Ref (Judge/Player), 2 PM — 8 PM This is run by a couple I’ve sort of kind of known for a long time, and whom I had a great time gaming with last GenCon. The concept is also terribly cool. Quasi-fortunately, my other first choice for this slot filled up two hours after registration opened, so I didn’t have to make a choice. ...

A week or so ago, the WEEI morning radio jocks were pushing the “it’s no worse than a frat hazing” talking points on Abu Ghraib. This morning, though, there was some interesting mutation going on. Dennis and Callahan spent a lot of time talking about how admirable the people who tried to prevent it were, and how little attention the media was paying to them — which is tacit acceptance that a lot of the soldiers did do something wrong. They went on to talk about the psychological tensions that might lead to abuse, once again accepting the postulate that abuse did occur. ...

Our mashup for yesterday (cough) is another Ginger suggestion: “Games Without Frontiers,” by Peter Gabriel. It’s evocative as all hell — I can’t wait to see what people do with it. Me, I’m going to reverse it. Those fond of children may wish to avert their eyes.

A reliable source informs me that, while it is not advertised on their site, the Renaissance Hotel Aruba (original) has both wireless access and plenty of power outlets on their private island beach. Said reliable source spent part of his vacation playing City of Heroes while drinking marguritas and tanning. I’m both horrified and delighted.

Here’s what I get from this graph (original): If, on September 12th, 2001, you would have told a pollster that you did not approve of George Bush? You are in about a 10% minority. I’m in the same minority. Oh, sure, it’s also the case that Bush’s support is steadily slipping; you can be satisfied to realize that the majority of the country now agrees with your prescient wisdom. But still, I like being reminded now and again exactly how far out to the fringe I am.

I have to hope, I have to believe, that this was Brown vs. Board of Education. If I were to stretch an analogy, I’d call Gavin Newsome the Rosa Parks of the movement. What happened tonight in Cambridge was the unquestionably legal version. Freedom looks a little like this.

I wonder. Is it a bad sign that I’d sort of prefer a superhero parody movie night to a straight superhero movie night? I mean, hey — The Specials, Mystery Men, and The Incredibles vs. what? Superman, Spider-Man, and X-Men 2? I think the goofy superhero movies are winning. Not by a lot, but they’re ahead. Possibly The Incredibles will suck, but I would not bet against Pixar.

A while back I posted about a slew of identical letters to the editor from Americans in Iraq. It turned out that Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo wrote the letters and passed ‘em around to the troops to sign them. At the time, a couple of the soldiers said he didn’t actually sign the letter. One of them, Shawn Grueser, just posted in the entry linked above confirming that he didn’t sign the letter but saying in no uncertain terms that he would have. I still think you don’t forge a guy’s name without getting his permission, but if Sgt. Grueser doesn’t mind, that’s a pretty strong mitigating factor. And it sounds like he may have been pushed into giving the negative quote he gave at the time.

The source of those “identical soldier letters” came forward: Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo (original). He claims that every soldier who signed the letter did so after reading it carefully. This means that he’s calling Pfc. Nick Deaconson and Sgt. Shawn Grueser liars. How insulting.

The City of Cambridge will be issuing marriage licenses (original) at the City Clerk’s Office on Monday at the stroke of midnight. The City Clerk’s Office is in the City Hall, at 795 Mass Ave. I intend to be there with champagne, if I can convince any like-minded celebrants to come with. Anyone?