Tag: fair and balanced

Elwood Blues.
Raymond Stantz.
The House of Blues.

Could Dan Akroyd be cooler?

Yes. Check out his Crystal Head Vodka (the video is worth the price of admission alone).

Oh, wait. He does.

This guy was obviously ambushed by plants… until an official from the McCain campaign shows up and shuts him down.

Another note. The plants accuse him of being "a racist."

(ahem)

Islam is a religion, not a race.

Amazing little video.

HIM: Did you see Sarah Palin on SNL?

ME: Not yet.

HIM: Republicans really don’t have a sense of humor.

ME: There’s no humor in the Republican Party, but there’s a lot of comedy.

HIM: Ouch.

In context of what he said at last night’s debate, all I have to say is this.

John McCain is an FUCKING ASSHOLE.

I’m drugged. Wwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I’ve been accused of being a liberal. Hell, even an online quiz–always a source of truth and accuracy–has accused me of being a liberal. I’m not a liberal. I’m just John.

I’ve also been highly critical of the Republican party. I’m not a Johnny-come-lately to this dance. A quick look through my LJ should demonstrate a complete lack of confidence in the Bush Administration since the election and a general lack of confidence in Republicans since then as well. Although, I have to say, it isn’t a sweeping judgment. I have friends who are members of the Republican party. We have discussions, debates and disagreements; then, we sit down and game. No, I do not have any problem with most of the ideological stances of the Republican party.

No, I have a problem with what The Good Doctor called "anti-intellectualism." And it seems the Republican Party has embraced this philsophy right up to the hilt.

Asimov’s term is a little lofty for most folks, so I’ve come up with something that’s a bit easier to understand. I call it "Proud to be dumb." Willful ignorance. A desire to remain detached from the world.

***

Quick aside here. A gamer reference. Don’t worry, it’ll pay off in the end.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I don’t understand any sentence that begins with the phrase "I don’t want to learn…".

"I don’t want to learn a new game system," is the one I heard most when pitching the L5R CCG. Folks were so invested in M:tG, they didn’t want to learn something new.

I mean, it was so common, it was a cliche. In the office, we could go through the conversation word-for-word.

"Yeah, your game is really cool, and I like it a lot, and I see how it imiproves on a lot of things from Magic, but I’ve got so many magic cards…" and then they’d trail off. That’s because they didn’t want to say what logically follows:

"I’ve bought so many Magic cards, I’d feel like a sucker if I didn’t keep playing this game. I’ve already spent thousands of dollars on Magic. I don’t want to learn another game."

It’s the investment that makes them step back. They’ve invested time, money and memory to a card game. They don’t want to learn another card game–even when they recognize that they’d like this new card game more."

If someone didn’t like games as much as Magic, that’s a different issue, and I respect their choice to dance with the girl they brought to the dance. But if you don’t like it anymore, if you like this new game more, and the only reason you’re sticking with the old game is your "investment," then I have to say, "Grow up."

Again, I’m not talking about sticking with a game because you like it. I’m talking about folks who really didn’t like the game anymore, but they play it because their friends do, because they already have a ton of cards, because they’ve already spent a ton of time… but don’t really enjoy the game. And they see a game they really do like, and now they’re unwilling to ditch the old one because… well, of all the reasons above.

Investment. I heard it time and time again. I especially heard it from Warhammer fans. They’d complain about the rules, they’d complain about the army lists, they’d complain about the cost of miniatures, they’d complain about the other people playing the game, they’d complain about the lack of playtesting… and they’d keep playing. Why? Because they were already invested.

And I’d ask, "Okay, so I understand why you don’t want to get into another game, but why do you keep sinking money into something you don’t like."

"Oh, I like it," they’d say–moments after admitting they didn’t. They’d immediately backslide and go right back into justifying why they kept playing a game they didn’t like, weren’t enjoying, etc.

Invested.

Magic fans. Warhammer fans. They’d sound identical.

They’d sound exactly like the Republicans I knew.

***

I told you this would go full circle.

Invested.

There’s another issue here. An issue of pride.

In picking a favorite CCG, there was always a sense of pride. Maybe because CCGs are so competitive, we’d always wear our choice like a badge of pride. (Like a Clan mon.) You could always tell a Magic player or an L5R player. Same thing with the folks I know who play in Vampire LARPs. The hate spewing forth between Camarilla Club and OWBN members is toxic sometimes. Why? Because your choice is a matter of pride.

Just like choosing a CCG. Just like choosing a LARP org. Just like choosing a political party.

Invested.

I know a lot of people who are invested Democrats or Republicans. And when something goes wrong, when one of their own makes a tragic mistake, they know the right spin to justify it. They aren’t willing to look at their party and say, "Yeah, that was a gaff." No, everything is intentional. Everything is part of a larger plan. And I can’t switch to another party. No.

I’m too invested.

The current incarnation of the Republican Party looks and sounds like a parody of the last eight years. You don’t need to tune in to The Daily Show or The Colbert Report to mock the Republican Party. They’re doing it all themselves. And while there are Republicans who aren’t towing the line–watch Hardball with Chris Matthews and you’ll see one Republican who is pissed off at his party–too many are marching along, lockstep, arm-in-arm, right up the gangplank of that famous ship called The Titanic. Why?

They’re invested.

They can’t admit their party is going through a civil war. They can’t admit their party has been overcome by religious fanatics and idealogues. They can’t admit the Reagan "de-regulate" mantra has failed-failed-failed. They can’t do it. They just can’t do it.

They’re invested. They’ve already bought thousands of dollars of cards/miniatures and all their friends are still doing it and I really don’t have a bad time playing the game. It’s not a bad game.

I just don’t want to learn anything new.

Actions speak louder than words.

(from FactCheck.org)

McCain and Obama debated for the second time, in Nashville. We noted some misleading statements and mangled facts:

• McCain proposed to write down the amount owed by over-mortgaged homeowners and claimed the idea as his own: “It’s my proposal, it’s not Sen. Obama’s proposal, it’s not President Bush’s proposal.” But the idea isn’t new. Obama had endorsed something similar two weeks earlier, and authority for the treasury secretary to grant such relief was included in the recently passed $700 billion financial rescue package.

• Both candidates oversimplified the causes of the financial crisis. McCain blamed it on Democrats who resisted tighter regulation of federal mortgage agencies. Obama blamed it on financial deregulation backed by Republicans. We find both are right, with plenty of blame left over for others, from home buyers to the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

• Obama said his health care plan would lower insurance premiums by up to $2,500 a year. Experts we’ve consulted see little evidence such savings would materialize.

• McCain misstated his own health care plan, saying he’d give a $5,000 tax credit to “every American” His plan actually would provide only $2,500 per individual, or $5,000 for couples and families. He also misstated Obama’s health care plan, claiming it would levy fines on “small businesses” that fail to provide health insurance. Actually, Obama’s plan exempts “small businesses.”

• McCain lamented that the U.S. was forced to “withdraw in humiliation” from Somalia in 1994, but he failed to note that he once proposed to cut off funding for troops to force a faster withdrawal.

• Obama said, “I favor nuclear power.” That’s a stronger statement than we’ve heard him make before. As recently as last December, he said, “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.”

• McCain claimed “1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay.” Actually, only 724,000 persons in the U.S. have income from eBay, and only some of them rely on it as their primary source.

For full details, and additional quibbles, please read our Analysis section.