Month: February 2014

“You have made an enemy of the birds, my friend.” #pennyarcade #animaniacs

I laughed and laughed at this Penny Arcade cartoon about one of the odder aspects of Assassin’s Creed gameplay; but as my wife noted, this comic still lacks something.

It lacks… the Godpigeon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRW06RZ7aWw

A rare oversight by Penny Arcade, methinks.

THE STATEN ISLAND GROUNDHOG MAKES A BREAK FOR NEW JERSEY.

Well, *I* would.

So I can’t blame the groundhog. Probably worried about De Blasio’s proposed property tax hikes. ‘Wealthiest members of the city,’ my eye.

Moe Lane

PS: I call upon the Governor of NJ to offer the groundhog asylum.

PPS: Admittedly, it ain’t the ravens fleeing the Tower of London, but this isn’t the most auspicious omen in the world, either.

Labor unions utterly betrayed by #obamacare.

Try to restrain your evil laughter.

Labor leaders who have spent months lobbying unsuccessfully for special protections under the Affordable Care Act warned this week that the White House’s continued refusal to help is dampening union support for Democratic candidates in this year’s midterm elections.

Leaders of two major unions, including the first to endorse Obama in 2008, said they have been betrayed by an administration that wooed their support for the 2009 legislation with promises to later address the peculiar needs of union-negotiated insurance plans that cover millions of workers.

Continue reading Labor unions utterly betrayed by #obamacare.

Walp, they’re starting up Mass Effect 4.

No Shepard, but we knew that already.

Not much is known about the next Mass Effect game other than that the fourth entry of the popular Bioware franchise will introduce a new protagonist since the Commander Shepard trilogy has ended. Production of the new title, however, has now become to become more involved after the developer began working on motion capture recording for the next game. According to a report by Gameranx on Jan 31, Bioware Cinematic Director Ken Thain revealed that the initial motion capture work for the next Mass Effect title started on Wednesday.

After all, we all saw her die*.

Moe Lane

PS: Personally, I’d enjoy the hell out of playing out the war with the Turians. Although that might not be dramatic enough.

[OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING]

Continue reading Walp, they’re starting up Mass Effect 4.

Looks like California is poised to make the delta smelt extinct, THANK GOD.

Background:

Officials Friday said that for the first time ever, the State Water Project that helps supply a majority of Californians may be unable to make any deliveries except to maintain public health and safety.

They also said they were cutting releases from large reservoirs in the northern part of the state to preserve supplies in the face of what could be the worst drought in modern California history.

Very important point (same link):

The State Water Resources Control Board announced that it is temporarily dropping requirements for reservoir releases to maintain environmental standards in California’s water hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Continue reading Looks like California is poised to make the delta smelt extinct, THANK GOD.

I can’t see how Scott Brown stays out of the New Hampshire Senate race.

If he’s being told about polls like this…

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is tied with former Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown in a new survey of the New Hampshire Senate race — even though Brown hasn’t officially entered the race.

The survey, from bipartisan consulting firm Purple Strategies and first reported in The Boston Globe, gives both Shaheen and Brown 44 percent support among likely New Hampshire voters.

…the temptation must be strong.

Continue reading I can’t see how Scott Brown stays out of the New Hampshire Senate race.

Primaries and the eternal Establishment v. Insurgency debate.

I understand why Glenn Reynolds is bugged about this, but there’s a structural issue in the primary system that’s going to exist independently of how the GOP sets it up.  To wit: there are three groups in the GOP.

  • Group A largely thinks that while the political system can of course be improved, and in fact could be improved quite comprehensively, the system as such would work fine, so long as Group B would only stop messing with things that they do not understand before it catches on fire and kills us all.
  • Group B largely thinks that Group A has taken a perfectly good political system and smacked it sixteen or so times with a hammer, grabbed what fell off and used it for their own benefit, and is now actively trying to stop Group B from fixing the mechanism before it catches on fire and kills us all.
  • Both groups are dwarfed by Group C, which largely feels that whoever makes it through the primary system will be fine enough, and look, we have people in the party who worry about the politics for us, and they’re all patriotic Americans, right?

Continue reading Primaries and the eternal Establishment v. Insurgency debate.

#Obamacare refuses to pay for sick kids’ care in Seattle, Washington. Like it does.

Back when Obamacare was all shiny and new, I was in the habit of calling it ‘health care rationing.’ I did this because I knew that you can’t have ‘less people uninsured’ AND ‘lower prices’ AND ‘improved services’ – and I assumed that the government would choose the first two and let the third go away on the wind. I got out of the habit of using the term ‘health care rationing’ because before the Obamacare launch it became clear that the government wasn’t going to manage ‘lower prices,’ either – and after the launch it’s becoming increasingly clear that they’re not going to manage ‘less people uninsured,’ either. In short: the word ‘Obamacare’ itself is sufficient warning.

But it remains true that we’re rationing care now.  Kids’ care, too [link added: sorry!].  Continue reading #Obamacare refuses to pay for sick kids’ care in Seattle, Washington. Like it does.