So while thinking about the NBA expansion into Charlotte, I found myself contemplating NBA contraction, since I firmly believe there are too many NBA teams. The talent pool is too diluted, and while an influx of Euros may counteract this, that influx would be even cooler if there were fewer teams. So who would I cut? Well, I’ve never been happy about the Canadian teams, but then the Grizz moved to Memphis and got Jerry West and you can’t cut a team out from under Jerry. Toronto can go any day, though. ...

The latest entry in Key 20’s 12 Games of Christmas (original) series is [Bloggomancy](http://web.archive.org/web/20250424002024/http://web.archive.org/web/20250424002024/http://www.key20.com/12games/BUA.html (original) “12 Games of Christmas - The Bloggomancer for UNKNOWN ARMIES 2d Ed!”) (original), a school of magic for Unknown Armies. Yeah, it’s what it sounds like. Both amusing and fairly playable, albeit a little slanted towards LiveJournal. Easy enough to fix that, though. Mind you, it says you can get a major charge for writing a new weblog/journal client. That probably ought to be revised; I’m not a programmer, and I could crank one of those out per day if I wanted. Easy fix: you only get the major charge if more than 500 people use it regularly. That also fits the theme of the other major charge gathering methods.

Largely because of this post, I’ve been thinking about Bush’s faith-based initiatives some more. Bunch of aspects to this. Let’s break ‘em down. First off, yes, this is advantageous to Bush politicially. As NPR pointed out a few nights ago, this will demonstrably and directly benefit some portions of society which have tended to vote Democratic in the past. I’m sure Bush knows that. I also don’t think it’s relevant to whether or not the initiatives are a good idea. ...

Notes from the Velvet Crypt is a cool little weblog about eroticism, science fiction, horror, and stuff like that. In other words, stuff I like when I’m not thinking about politics. If she ever says anything nice about Laurell Hamilton, though, I will be saddened.

Virginia Postrel commented on Bob Jones University (original) last year. Good stuff, and an interesting postulate which makes a lot of sense. I found the link in a recent post of hers regarding the nature of the Southern Christian right. No perma-link, alas. She says there that “the South-based Christian right is not a racist movement. Billy Graham won that debate. Bob Jones lost it.” I tend to agree with that, but I would add the caveat that if Bob Jones University is the sort of place that’s producing Southern Republican political candidates (which is her assertion in the earlier piece), then the nature of the Southern Christian right is not entirely relevant to the nature of Christian right-wing politicians.

When I mentioned imagination in skyscrapers earlier, I was thinking in particular of the skyscrapers of Dubai. Then I realized I’d never linked to those. So: here’s a page of drawings of Dubai skyscrapers (original), which will give you an idea of how inventively wacky and big they are. This page (original) also has drawings. The drawings there aren’t as good, but they link to photos of the buildings, which are incredible.

Perceptive souls will notice a Creative Commons license in the bottom of the left hand column. Or, if you’re reading the bare bones Population: One, it’s at the bottom of the page. I wound up choosing the very liberal Attribution license. This means that anyone can copy, distribute, or display these pages or works derived from these pages, as long as they give me credit. I doubt anyone will, mind you. This is pretty much just a philosophical statement. ...

Cold Fury clarifies his earlier statements, and I believe I thus owe him an apology. I can’t hold being closed-minded against him, either; I think that people on the left are just as likely to be closed-minded in exactly the same sort of a way. You think (say) Atrios believes a word Bush says without some sort of evidence? Nope. Nor should he, any more than Cold Fury should believe Democratic politicos. Hidden agendas are the nature of the beast. The Republicans accused Max Cleland of being a pacifist! Pointing your finger at the left as the only people who do this is simply silly. “Did you know John McCain has an illegitimate black child?” ...

Some further thoughts on assumptions; I continue to blame Mike. And of course Trent Lott, who has provoked a furor of discussion which could be useful but will no doubt turn to partisan bickering — oh wait, it already has. Trent Lott is, in my eyes, most likely a racist. While his most recent statement could be construed as flattery to an old man and nothing more, we have other evidence. We have similar statements he’s made in the past, one of them off the record (if it’s confirmed) and thus unlikely to have been scripted to win over the crowd. We have his appearance at rallies to raise funds for all-white private schools. We have his voting record. We have a preponderance of evidence. ...

So, yeah. Communication. This arises from some comments Mike made on my previous entry, which I very much appreciated. Most relevant: “… it just seems sometimes that both sides are longer even speaking the same language anymore. And that’s not a good thing.” I think that’s a really good summary of the problem. You can’t point fingers and say it’s the fault of any particular group of partisans. I can easily find left-wing blogs who are as shrill as anyone on the right. I can find blogs at any end of the political spectrum that are rational, calm, and very sensible even though I may disagree with some of the things they say. Wanted to get that out of the way first, although one suspects it’s no insulation against irate screeds. ...