News You Can Use

Inside the European Sex Trade (or, why Prague is not as cool as your college friends would have you believe). ZOMG, actual reporting by someone willing to dig into a very dangerous and overlooke situation - is this actually the media?

A double whammy - McCain leads Clinton and Obama in a general election poll, explained by why the Democrats want to lose the presidency, but so do Republicans. Concise, opinionated, and right on. WTF guys. Seriously.

At least Obama has called the Clinton's racial bluff. This article is great on the basis of just one line: "A lot hangs in the balance. Ultimately, the choice will say more about our soul as a nation than about the candidates in this election." I couldn't agree more.

And for those who think Wahabiism is the foundation for modern terrorism, think again after reading this bio on PFLP founder and Christian George Habash. Religion's not the enemy here - it's all politics.

Finally, for you spy people out there, Robert Novak did a great writeup on the recent maverick operations of the CIA. From distruction of tapes that would be evidence of waterboarding to setting policy (thankfully, but not properly) by leaking the facts that Iran has no nuclear program, the CIA seems to be taking lessons from Jack Bauer on how to go about getting the job done. It's scary reading, but that's what the news should be.

And don't forget to remember 1-31-07, a day that shall live in infamy of stupidity.

Best of Craigslist

I think I found my favorite new killing-time website - The Best of Craigslist. There's some crazy shit on there, like the Pink Vagina Couch, a Dear John letter to internet porn, or the personal ad by an ogre mage.

'Scuse me, but I could be wasting some perfectly good time right now.

Ugh.

I wouldn't put this past them.

Goddamnit.

Another Reason to Avoid Baptists

I don't know how you feel about Heath Ledger's death - I'll miss watching his career develop and am most concerned if we'll see his pitch-perfect version of the Joker in The Dark Knight - but this goes so far beyond the pale...



We cannot let this people win the election. We cannot afford to empower them to bring this hate into politics. We cannot legitimize their prejudice masquerading as religion. WE MUST BEAT THEM.

Sorry, Huckabee, you seem like a nice guy, but I think a win or even a serious candidacy threatens everything our nation stands for - not just the serious-voting churchies, but the entire nation.

Obama: Political Abberation or Back to Basics?

You decide. Here's a good explination of my take.

Just Because This Video Rocks

Thirsty Monkey

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Revenge of the Blog

Hey everyone, happy New Year. Hope you and yours entered 2008 happily and safely.

After a long winter's "break" (which actually involved not only the holidays but a major purge/cleaning of our house, rewiring of my basement, and gutting and reconstruction of our bathroom), I'm back in the saddle and working away at a number of projects, including FantasyCraft (finally!).

First up is Cloak & Dagger, the fantasy espionage setting, which is actually coming along pretty well. It's fun to do a mishmash setting of some of my favorite ancient cultures in a genre that's both familiar and has plenty of room to play in. Espionage fantasy has been a subgenre that's largely virgin territory in nearly all media, so I'm hoping this grabs people where they live. There seems to be a fair amount of excitement from some of the diehards, so I'm hoping we can set it off :) If you haven't seen anything about C&D yet, click here for the teaser.

Aside from that and bathroom repairs, work is finally progressing on a board game I'm working on with a friend alongside my Crafty stuff. The first test went pretty well, with the game system holding up - now to add some more zip. Our playtest group was big enough to accomodate 2 tables and lots of good feedback, so it was a lot of fun seeing things running at the table. It's been a fun project to tinker with, and I'm glad to see my Spycraft-honed design chops are portable outside the box.

Speaking of which, World on Fire and 2.0 SP have *finally* hit the stands locally, but the good news seems to be retailers can't keep them in stock. I'm hoping that doesn't mean they stop stocking it, though :) Sales appear to be good, if the PDF and reports from the field are any realistic indication, and I think Mongoose's distribution machine is finally hitting its stride.

Well, I think that's it for my requisite "signs of life" post. Keep on coming back here or over in the Crafty blog for more info as we move forward...cheers lads.

Spam Spammity Spam

As a company owner, I get a lot of spam, print and electronic. A LOT. But rarely am I as entertained by spam as I was by this piece today...

------
(no subject)
From: "lavonnaufqzhd@aol.com"

Genuine degrees including Bachelors, Masters, MBA, and Doctorate Degrees.
Fully verifiable and certified transcripts are alkoxide available

Call 210-745-4230

24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Thank us later hemoparasite
-------

What a signoff. "Hey, you owe us one, you sonovabitch blood infection. Oh, and don't forget to send us that money we need." The use of alkoxide has me thinking the foreign spammer that cooked this one up grabbed his kid's life science book and dropped a few words in to look "more real." Makes you wonder sometimes how these guys get money out of this endeavor...and how vastly stupid the people that do put up money to spam emails must be.

Because Cory was Disappointed

Everyone knows Obama won Iowa (by 9%) last week. And by now, everyone knows that Hillary won New Hampshire yesterday (by just 2%). But does everyone know the following?

* New Hampshire traditionally votes against Iowa's results (out of spite or independance)?
* New Hampshire skews heavily towards establishment in its politics. The winners yesterday were the most politically seasoned and still electable (Clinton and McCain). Sorry, Bill Richardson, you're more seasoned but New Hampshire likes the "sure thing" (see below)
* New Hampshire's Democratic winner NEVER wins the general election (kerry in 2004, gore in 2000, tsongas in 1992, dukakis in 1988, mondale in 1984). The last time they picked a Democrat that won it all, it was Carter (1976)
* Obama's poll numbers (which showed him with a double-digit lead) did NOT include undecided voters - and 18% of NH democrats and independants said they made up their mind on Election Day.
* Hillary's win is not a "comeback" as she is now banging the gong Bill did with his second place finish in 1992 - she was up by double digits there just 2.5 weeks ago. So in the end, she's lost a significant amount of ground.

Just some food for thought. Oh, and here's the fantastic speech he gave yesterday.



Enjoy.

Holy. SHIT.

It's positive - the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was faked, and NVA used US arty to attack US units, according to declassified SigInt from Vietnam era.

There are simply no words, other than to say that we can't call the Bush Administration's skullduggery ahead of the war on Iraq unprecedented.

If you are too young to remember/care what the significance of Gulf of Tonkin was, check this out.