tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36789712011-05-24T15:22:42.394-07:00In which the author, who is given to excessive word counts, contemplates the worlds of politics, fiction, and role-playing, and their intersections.Erasamusnoreply@blogger.comBlogger101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1119632387046632912005-06-24T09:36:00.000-07:002005-06-24T10:00:00.560-07:00

Democratic Elevator PitchesTheJew guesting over at Ezra's Place put together an elevator pitch inspired by the Republican one. I think it's a good idea, but I'd like to try a few pitches out myself.I think the three biggest principles governing Democratic (and democratic) values are: Liberty (covers privacy, protective rights, freedoms from government control), Justice ( covers security,

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1118175089868111052005-06-07T13:09:00.000-07:002005-06-07T13:11:29.873-07:00

Texas TalibanThis is why whenever so called "centrist democrats" and pundits call for the Dems to distance themselves from the women's movement or that part devoted to abortion rights, they need to be horsewhipped.

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1115823649502576092005-05-11T07:56:00.000-07:002005-05-11T08:00:58.040-07:00

Tom Ridge is off the reservation. Fascinating. For months during the election speculation was heavy that the terror alert level was being raised for partisan political purposes. Asked that very question on the Daily Show, Ridge denied that there was any such influence, but openly described the terror alert elevation as being the result of a group. I seem to recall he said that Cheney was also

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1115823103234413062005-05-11T07:48:00.000-07:002005-05-11T07:51:43.240-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, and I thought maybe I ought to blog more about the everyday than to wait for something upsetting enough to make me need to rant online.Let's see. Playing Vampire Bloodlines at the moment. Pretty good game, although the physics engine seems gimpy after playing Halflife 2 (note to self, still need to finish that game). I like the interface, the combat, the

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1110919841904158592005-03-15T12:33:00.000-08:002005-03-15T12:50:41.906-08:00

Bull-shit Moose In my agitation over John Chait's back of hand swipe at liberals online, I missed the nuance that Bull Moose Blog had stepped from praising Lieberman's rhetoric while ignoring his weasally voting record on the bankruptcy bill. It turns out that he spent another post keeping the topic alive by blasting the bloggers who called him on his support of weasalling. But he raises the

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1110918356131955352005-03-15T11:41:00.000-08:002005-03-15T12:30:28.506-08:00

Left Bashing and the Constituency of the StridentRecently John Chait took temporary reins of Joshua Marshall's excellent Talking Points Memo website which has spent most of the last few months documenting and opposing the attempts by Republicans to undermine Social Security. Given his apparent sensitivity to criticisms of his previous positions by the opinionated of the internet (I'm not sure

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1110210223176835752005-03-07T07:39:00.000-08:002005-03-07T07:43:52.660-08:00

It's been pointed out to me that I'm not updating my blog very often.So let's update.First: I am beginning to feel optimistic about my Mage campaign again. It's had a slow start, but the upcoming trip into the Umbra should let me get out of mundanities and into full on high concept fantasy elements.It may take two sessions the way I'm not imagining it, but I'm thinking to spend a while

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1109115111709134642005-02-22T15:29:00.000-08:002005-02-22T15:31:51.710-08:00

Goodnight, Hunter.I wasn't sure whether to post or not while I was still mad at Hunter for ending it ignominiously in the kitchen with a gun. I mean he's fought a lot of good fights, but somehow I wanted to believe that he still had enough fight in him to charge one more windmill on behalf of the rest of us. There isn't another like him now, and I have my doubts whether we'll ever seen someone

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1107819273275424052005-02-07T14:52:00.000-08:002005-02-07T15:34:33.276-08:00

On the precipitous drop in FrancoAmerican pasta or Niall Ferguson, and the Bully Pulpit I may have mentioned that Niall Ferguson (aka The Most Dangerous Sort of Historian or TMDSH) had a three part case explaining why the extremely sharp decline in European attitudes about American in the last several years is not the product of Bush's unilaterialist behavior, nor his aggressive, hostile

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3678971.post-1107798585529963172005-02-07T09:25:00.000-08:002005-02-07T12:25:54.143-08:00

Niall Ferguson - "The Most Dangerous Kind of Historian" I picked up the Atlantic Monthly this weekend, remembering their great coverage of the post-war planning gaffes in "Blind into Baghdad" and wanted to see what they've been up to recently. I found myself reading an insane tract of Orwellian inversion, and when I checked the author after about a page, I was relieved to see that it wasn't that

Erasamusnoreply@blogger.com0