Month: August 2015

Bernie Sanders campaign rendered impotent by #blacklivesmatter fanatics.

See if you can spot the mistake in this tactical response by the Bernie Sanders campaign in dealing with race-baiting professional activists who, to use Hot Air’s phrase, are “successfully performing like a small pack of wolves who have found the weak bison in the herd.” Bernie Sanders was speaking in Seattle, or at least trying to, when this happened:

“We’re shutting this event down — now,” said an activist who suddenly leapt on stage. She approached the microphone where Sanders had just begun speaking, thanking attendees for welcoming him to “one of most progressive cities in the United States of America.” An event organizer attempted to stop the activist, and a heated exchange ensued as the crowd booed.

Eventually, activist Marissa Johnson was allowed to speak.

Continue reading Bernie Sanders campaign rendered impotent by #blacklivesmatter fanatics.

What the Ohio Democratic Senate primary tells us about the state of their state parties.

There’s an interesting – in the ‘Chinese curse’ sense of the term – thing happening in Ohio’s Democratic Senate primary.  The not-really-short version is that national Democrats have told themselves a marvelous fairy tale about how they can take back to the Senate in 2016: unfortunately, state Democrats actually have to make that a reality somehow. And they’re being hampered by the way that national Democrats managed to blight state Democratic political gardens in 2010 and 2014.

Case in point: Ohio. The Ohio Democratic party leadership has seized upon the elderly (74) Ted Strickland for their Senate candidate, despite the fact that the former governor got beaten in his reelection bid in 2010 by John Kasich. Why? Because there isn’t anybody else at Strickland’s level. The Democrats got wiped out in the Ohio Congressional delegation in 2010, and have not recovered. In 2010 they had ten seats to the GOP’s eight; today they have four seats to the GOP’s twelve (Ohio lost two seats after the last Census). The state legislature is also heavily Republican, if not quite at this level. There are no Democratic state-wide elected officials in Ohio. And the previous Democratic gubernatorial candidate? …Well. Continue reading What the Ohio Democratic Senate primary tells us about the state of their state parties.

A couple of new movie trailers, with unnecessary commentary.

Via BigGator5 comes the first trailer for Vin Diesel’s The Last Witch Hunter.

I will admit, Vin Diesel’s dialog comes across as a little choppy and flat, but that’s a common problem with trailers. The concept looks awesome, and Diesel’s good at these kinds of roles. Hopefully the next trailer will be able to do better at highlighting his character.

Continue reading A couple of new movie trailers, with unnecessary commentary.

Economics majors, take note: The Secret World MMORPG is going through a currency revamp.

It’s very exciting, really: they’re going to convert ten currencies down into two (Black Bullion and PAX), then introduce a third one (Mark of the Pantheon). Additionally, there’s going to be a forced cap on Black Bullion holdings; excess BB will be converted into PAX at a ruinous rate. It’s all incredibly statist, and I can’t wait to log on and see how all of this is causing the secondary item markets to go into a full-fledged meltdown. It’s going to be a seller’s market…

Moe Lane

PS: If anybody ever wants to try The Secret World, let me know. I can pass along a 72 hour try-it-out that gets me bonus points for people who buy the game afterward. Mind you, this game is all about conspiracies and whatnot (with bad language), so it’s not necessarily everybody’s cup of tea.

Prejudice is a horrible, horrible thing.

I refer, of course, to this stubborn hatred of Pumpkin Ales:

https://twitter.com/jimmiebjr/status/630518598210068480

And pumpkin-flavored comestibles generally. Can’t get enough of the stuff… what’s that?  Oh, by all means: feel free to vehemently disagree with me on that.  I’m well aware that most of you think that I’m one of the monsters that subjects the rest of you to this seasonal horror every year.

In the Mail: Feng Shui 2!

I will be honest; I was kind of expecting not to get it. I have, after all, been away for a week. But the postman, thank God, managed to cram it into the mailbox rather than leave it out on the front porch (where it could have very well gone walking with Jesus). So I’ve got that to peruse properly over the next week or so.

For those who don’t remember, Feng Shui 2 is basically action movie roleplaying.  It’s very heavily drawn from Hong Kong action flicks, wuxia, martial arts movies – but if the genre can handle the idea of somebody driving through a glass window in a motorcycle while shooting a machine pistol, this is probably the game that you want to use to model that. It’s one of the classic RPGs, in other words.  I should get Robin Laws to do an interview on it, actually…