Even as Yahtzee appears to have started to wear out his welcome with the hardcore gamers (read “D00dz, 3y3 @m s0 733t!” gamers – excuse me, gamerz), I still find him incredibly fun and insightful. Witness this review of Saint’s Row 2 (language may not be appropriate for uptight workplaces).
What I want to know is not why the makers of Saint’s Row 2 were so insightful in recognizing the inherent nihilism of their audience.
What I want to know is why nobody has made the game described by Yahtzee in the beginning of the review yet! Dude, I’d buy that for the Wii. Hell, I’d buy an Xbox just to play that game. For that matter, I’d buy an entire system dedicated only to the playing of that game with no discernible disc drive so that no other game would ever be able to be played on that system. Come on!
Consarn it, people! I go to cuteblogs to get away from political news for a bit and unwind so I don’t turn into a little bundle of consumer-rights-driven and free-speech-defendin’ outrage! What am I supposed to do when you folks start launching politically themed cuteblogs?
C’mon! It’s all about Barack Obama holdin’ babies and givin’ da terrorist fist bump to kids! How can I reconcile my rabid political rantings with my instinct to go “Awwwww….”
Not only that, but in the middle of all the cute entries, you’ll find this particular picture that demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt why Obama is destined to succeed and usher in a new golden age.
With news about Palin’s no-holds-barred shopping spree circulating and in the process ticking off even the most loyal Republican donors, McCain’s campaign is quick to play down the story. The campaign that has depended on minor past associations and “he has a funny name” to smear their opponent now feels that we shouldn’t be talking about this when there are bigger issues to discuss.
But it actually is a big issue. Big enough that John McCain felt compelled to bring it up on the Senate floor at least twice. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Heck, you don’t even have to take the so-called “liberal media” at their word. You can look it up on the Congressional Record for the 103rd Congress, a word-by-word transcript of the proceedings on the Senate and House floors maintained by the federal government and published through the Library of Congress. Go ahead and browse through May 25, 1993. That’s when McCain had this to say:
Madam President, the amendment before the Senate is a very simple one. It restricts the use of campaign funds for inherently personal purposes. The amendment would restrict individuals from using campaign funds for such things as home mortgage payments, clothing purchases, noncampaign automobile expenses, country club memberships, and vacations or other trips that are noncampaign in nature.
Madam President, I want to emphasize I will be citing some examples of how campaign funds have been used which are extremely egregious, but I want to point out they are not illegal, and the purpose of this amendment is to restrict the use of those campaign funds because, if we are truly going to have campaign finance reform, I do not believe that campaign funds should be used for such things as country club dues, tuxedos, vacations, and other purposes for which they are now almost routinely used by certain Members of both bodies.
But that was just McCain’s comments on the introduction of his own amendment. Surely, I’m not going to hold one prepared statement given on the Senate floor by an elected official in favor of his own amendment against the guy, am I?
No, I’m not.
I’m going to hold two statements against him. Also in the 103rd’s Congressional Record, you’ll find January 31, 1994.
I want to remind my colleges in the Senate and those in the other House of Representatives, as well as the six FEC Commissioners, that on May 25, 1993, the Senate unanimously adopted my amendment to the campaign finance reform bill that restricted the use of campaign funds for inherently personal purposes. [...]
According to Ms. [Sara] Fritz, campaign funds have been used to buy such items as a jumbo illuminated globe from Hammacher Schlemmer, for trips to exotic locals such as Thailand, Taiwan, and Italy, and for tuxedos and an unexplainable $299 for bow ties.
I tell ya, that John McCain. He’s a real, straight-shootin’, do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do guy.
One of the things that has bothered me the most about the outgoing administration has been their willful ignorance. That is, not just that they don’t know something or they know it incorrectly, but frequently they refuse to let anybody correct them on it. This Presidential/Vice Presidential policy known, I believe, as “The Stick My Fingers In My Ears And Hum ‘The Song That Never Ends’ Doctrine,” has reared it’s ugly head time and time again, just like Pootin rearin’ ‘is head over Alaskan airspace, donchaknow.
Speaking of the Republican party’s last, best hype for the future, Palin has been executing “The Stick My Fingers (Etc.) Doctrine” with surprising ease. Almost as if she’s had lots and lots of practice.
At the one and only VP debate, Palin somehow managed to squeak by with people giving her a draw against Biden despite the fact that she clearly didn’t know anything about the Constitution. She declared the Constitution to be “flexible” on the role of the Vice President in government. It was Joe Biden who quickly pointed out the facts. The Constitution is not flexible on the role of the Vice President, the VP is part of the Executive branch and not some fourth branch of the government unto itself, and the VP’s assigned duties are very, very narrow with regards to direct influence on how the country is governed.
But Palin must have been in her fifth refrain of “It goes on and on, my friend” by that point, because Think Progress has the footage of her on the local news telling a kid that the Constitution gives her not only the duty of breaking ties in the Senate, but powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal legislators. No, she is, indeed, Super-Legislator!
Q: [Third Grader] Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”
PALIN: Aw, that’s something that Piper would ask me, as a second grader, also. That’s a great question, Brandon, and a Vice President has a really great job, because not only are they there to support the President’s agenda,—they’re like a team member, the teammate to that President—but also, they’re in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it’s a great job and I look forward to having that job.
YouTube on Tuesday rebuffed a request from John McCain’s presidential campaign to examine fair-use issues more carefully before yanking campaign videos in response to DMCA takedown notices.
“Lawyers and judges constantly disagree about what does and does not constitute fair-use,” YouTube’s general counsel Zahavah Levine wrote in a letter Tuesday. “No number of lawyers could possibly determine with a reasonable level of certainty whether all the videos for which we receive disputed takedown notices qualify as fair-use.”
“We hope that as a content uploader, you have gained a sense of some of the challenges we face everyday in operating YouTube,” she added.
I have very little sympathy for John McCain, who helped to pass the DMCA and has been firmly in the pocket of the MPAA and RIAA on all issues concerning intellectual property, including those that very clearly and obviously violated the rights of journalists, scholars, and critics in addition to consumers. As a critic and an independent television producer, I have had my work – protected under fair use – hindered by laws and policies that McCain has helped to create, and recently Bush signed into law the creation of a new office in government – the “Copyright Czar.”
But in particular I find McCain’s stance on the YouTube takedowns not just hard to sympathize with, but blatantly offensive.
McCain wants YouTube to grant him (and other politicians running campaigns) a special copyright complaint-free channel. In other words, a special section of the website that only politicians would have access to where they could post anything they wanted without the danger of a DMCA takedown notice.
It is offensive on many levels, but primarily on the concept that fair use – a protection for all – should have some kind of tier of privilege. By stating that YouTube should have a special channel, he effectively tells YouTube that he does not care about the fair use rights of anybody else on YouTube. All he cares about is that his own fair use rights be respected.
Tiered access to fair use is not fair use. You either fight for fair use across the board, or you’re just not fighting for fair use at all.
As he’s already proven with his stance on net neutrality, John McCain just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get technology issues, he doesn’t get intellectual property issues, and he doesn’t get any issues that grant rights to people outside of his own exclusive country club crowd.
If there’s one person in the world who knows his Palins, it’s John Cleese.
If there’s two people in the world who know their Palins, it’s John Cleese and Terry Gilliam.
If there’s three people in the world who know their Palins, it’s John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and – oddly enough – Ms. Debra Derbyshire of Lancaster Blvd, Lower Wessex. But that’s beside the point.
You’re here to watch John Cleese talk about Palins.
Lately, Sarah Palin has been telling people that there’s a fundamental difference between how she sees America and how Barack Obama sees America.
I’ll grant her this. If Obama’s anything like me, then he probably doesn’t see America as a giant snake devouring Alaska whole.
That cartoon above comes directly from the website of the Alaskan Independence Party. This would be the party that Todd Palin was a registered member of from 1994 to 2002, when he shifted to “undeclared,” and whose leadership – according to several sources – collaborated with Sarah Palin while she was in office and supported her bids for both Mayor and Governor.
The year before Todd Palin joined the AIP, their founder – Joe Vogler – was killed. If you believe Manfried West’s confession, Vogler was killed in a plastic explosives buy gone bad. If you believe Lynnette Clark, the chair of the AIP, then Vogler was executed by the United States government.
But that’s all ancient history, right? The Palin’s haven’t been associated with the AIP since 2002, right?
Well, she did record this video for their 2008 convention in which she tells the AIP “Keep up the good work, and God bless you.”
Vogler’s most famous quote by far is the one that the AIP itself likes to cart out when they talk about him. That’s when he said: “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”
Of course, if you happen to be passing by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, you could always stop in at the Oral History Program in the Rasmusen Library. There, you can hear an interview with Vogler from 1991, where he said:
The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won’t be buried under their damn flag. I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.
For that matter, you can also visit his grave. But not in Fairbanks. In Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. He didn’t want to be buried in the United States, remember?
Of course, Vogler was actually willing to talk to Iran. In fact, he did. And got Iran to sponsor his statement to the UN regarding American “tyranny.”
Here’s the AIP claiming Sarah Palin as a member (they’ve since said no, only her husband was a member) and discussing their support for her.
Lynnette Clark told David Talbot, “She’s [Sarah Palin] Alaskan to the bone … she sounds just like Joe Vogler.”
Would that include when Joe Vogler said,
When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.
BTW – If you stop by the AIP’s website, you can find that cartoon on their “Statehood Primer.” And you can also find that they favor forcing the federal government to give up all ownership of land in Alaska (including, presumably, national parks and military bases) as well as disenfranchising any member of the “federal military.”
Sure, it’s all over the news that Sarah Palin couldn’t remember the name of any Supreme Court case aside from Roe v. Wade.
But what about the fact that just four months prior to that interview, she had an awful lot of disagreeing to do with a Supreme Court decision that had just been made?
Sarah Palin: No short term memory, or compulsive liar?
