Posts

I’ve been chewing over these two posts from Kevin Drum about the Texas Republican Party platform. First off, I agree with him: the platform as a whole is pretty damned radical. I would certainly be interested in hearing President Bush, who presumably has signed a similar document, talk about whether or not he supports all those positions. And much of the platform is way the hell out of the mainstream. However, it’s wrong to say that the platform has no place in American politics. For example, there is absolutely no reason to recoil from the sight of a politician who wants to return to the gold standard. It might not be a bright thing to do, but it hardly signifies the destruction of the republic. Most if not all of the economic planks fall into that bucket. Dumb ideas? Maybe. Radical? Sure. Shouldn’t be discussed in polite company? Uh… ...

The implication of this Metafilter post is that someone is providing soldiers with pre-written letters which they simply sign and send to newspapers. Or, according to this article, someone is signing the letters for them. This kind of thing has been nicknamed astroturf — i.e., a fake grassroots. The Republican Party is fairly fond of it. I think it’s more than usually repugnant when it’s used to misrepresent what our soldiers think, however. The men dying in Iraq deserve better than to have their views hijacked by a public relations flack.

In this Dear Brother letter, we find out why Ben was hung on a ferris wheel and how Black got laid in Las Vegas. It’s always the other PCs getting lucky…

I dare say your local baseball fans aren’t building a replica of their ballpark in Iraq. What an amazingly goofy and magnificent idea. I’d like to see a picture of that. For that matter, they ought to see if they can find an Iraqi team. By the by, this entry is courtesy of the Grand Coffee House in lovely Union Square, which has good free wireless. And couches.

Jay Allen is writing something named MT-Blacklist (original) to fight MovableType spammers. I get a couple of people posting spam comments every week, and it’s getting dull, so I’ll be pleased to have this.

Nobody but Tarantino could have made Kill Bill. Which, if you have a taste for the coppery scent of Tarantino’s oeuvre, is about all the review you need. It helps to have seen Switchblade Sisters. Um. OK, so it’s insane grindhouse cinema turned up a few notches. The extended Japanese scenes are an homage to Japanese samurai flicks. The Texas scenes taste like Sergio Leone, just a bit. There’s a touch of blaxsploitation. She’s wearing Bruce Lee’s jumpsuit. ...

The schedule for discovery in the White Wolf v. Sony case is currently as follows: Each party can serve 5 interrogatories and 4 document requests. Responses are due within 15 days of the services. Following that, White Wolf can take depositions from Wiseman, Grevioux, and McBride; Sony can take depositions from authors of the copyrighted works. Depositions have to be completed by 10/24/03. (Perhaps the cause of the recent subpoenas on White Wolf authors?) ...

O’Sullivan’s Pub in Somerville has burgers that are two inches thick, made of ground sirloin, and if you want they’ll put garlic on it. Or roll ‘em in pepper. Or whatever. Also, the french fries are slabs of potato. The beer selection isn’t great, but they have Bass on draft, so that’s OK. I’m feeling very content, food-wise, just now.

WISH 68 (original) wants to know about something I don’t have a lot of experience with: Have you ever played in or GMed a game with more than one GM? What was your experience with it? What were the strengths and weaknesses of having multiple GMs? Was it positive or negative? Would you do it again? If you’ve never tried it as a GM or player, would you like to? Why or why not? ...

The White Wolf Underworld lawsuit has involved Ken Hite (original). Fresh from his bi-weekly column comes the news: Or, in my case, with a subpoena, subcompetently served on my wife while I was out running my GURPS game. I’d like to thank everyone involved in the White Wolf-Sony lawsuit for that. Having seen Underworld (and thoroughly enjoyed it, in a cheap and tawdry fashion), and keeping in mind that I’m not a lawyer, I don’t think it was worth pestering my wife over. ...