I really can't stand the idiocy of the anti-war crowd for many reasons. But one annoying constant is that peace protestors seem to lack any originality.
Please start by watching this video. Its from a group called "Improv Everywhere." Their ideas are pretty cool, and they create head-turning moments that I love. In this instance, they arranged for a couple hundred people to freeze in place for exactly five minutes, at the same time.
Cool... right?
Okay, now watch this video... also done in a train station.
I'd like to know what it is about the left lately, that their ideas have become so unoriginal. The left is supposed to be full of artist and free-thinkers. But more and more lately, they seem to be eating their own ideas rather then creating new ones.
Its annoying enough that they don't understand that they are undercutting the safety of men overseas by giving terrorists in Iraq hope. But do I really have to watch them plagiarize a great idea?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Obama starts to slide in the polls
But before I talk about polls, it's important to put Obama's support for Wright in context.
This might help.
Obama said that in April of 2007. Wright was on his staff at the time, and Obama had known Wright for about 20 years.
We are now asked to believe that in the 20 years that Obama had known Wright - a man who he describes as being like an "uncle" to him - he had never said anything racist in Obama's presence before.
Obama was interviewed by Chris Matthews about Imus that April, and he said that Imus should be off the air. "He would not be working for me," he said. "I don't want to be an enabler"
But Obama was an enabler, and the polls are reflecting that.
According to Gallup, as quoted on PollingReport.com, Obama is slipping dramatically in the polls. Call this the story that hasn't been covered, but since March 13th, his numbers have gone straight down. My summary... among Democratic voters:
Clinton Obama
3/14 44% 50%
3/18 49% 42%
That's a pretty big slide.
It might have something to do with how tone deaf Obama has been about this issue. According to CNN's Anderson Cooper who had an exclusive interview with him after his speech:
Yah. Right. Okay.
He was on the verge of retirement... a year ago. And Obama had him on his staff since then. Keep in mind what he said about Don Imus:
Apparently, to Obama, those were words... just words.
This might help.
"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."
Obama said that in April of 2007. Wright was on his staff at the time, and Obama had known Wright for about 20 years.
We are now asked to believe that in the 20 years that Obama had known Wright - a man who he describes as being like an "uncle" to him - he had never said anything racist in Obama's presence before.
Obama was interviewed by Chris Matthews about Imus that April, and he said that Imus should be off the air. "He would not be working for me," he said. "I don't want to be an enabler"
But Obama was an enabler, and the polls are reflecting that.
According to Gallup, as quoted on PollingReport.com, Obama is slipping dramatically in the polls. Call this the story that hasn't been covered, but since March 13th, his numbers have gone straight down. My summary... among Democratic voters:
Clinton Obama
3/14 44% 50%
3/18 49% 42%
That's a pretty big slide.
It might have something to do with how tone deaf Obama has been about this issue. According to CNN's Anderson Cooper who had an exclusive interview with him after his speech:
Asked why he didn't denounce the controversial comment when he first heard of them more than a year ago, Obama noted Wright was on the verge of retirement.
"I told him that I profoundly disagreed with his positions. As I said before, he was on, at that stage, on the verge of retirement. ... You make decisions about these issues. And my belief was that given that he was about to retire, that for me to make a political statement respecting my church at that time wasn't necessary."
Yah. Right. Okay.
He was on the verge of retirement... a year ago. And Obama had him on his staff since then. Keep in mind what he said about Don Imus:
I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group.
Apparently, to Obama, those were words... just words.
Monday, March 17, 2008
An Obama video that you won't see on Olbermann
There's a lot to this story, so please stick with me.
A pastor named Jerimiah Wright has a long history of making anti-American rants from the pulpit. O'Reilly put together a selection of his comments on a video that you can watch for yourself.
Its pretty amusing stuff to see a pastor say "G--damn America" for bombing Iraq, 9/11, and Nagasaki. Its a bizarre thing to see a relic from the black panther days suggest that if we don't find WMDs in Iraq, we will plant them there 'like the cops in LA' plant drugs on people. That's all part of Mr. Wright's patter.
On the Huffington Post, Obama tried to distance himself from his pastor:
So keep that in mind for a second... that Obama said that he knew about Wright's comments at the beginning of the campaign.
Obama further tried to distance himself on Olbermann's Countdown, and you can watch the video of it here. But he's careful to simply distance himself from Wright's comments, rather then the man himself. After all, Wright was his "spiritual guidance" counsler, and part of his actual campaign.
Obama has to make this small distinction of separating himself from Wright's comments, rather then the actual man, because even though Obama has said that he learned about Wright's comments at the beginning of the campaign, he praised the man as late as June of 2007.
Thanks to YouTube, you can see the video of Obama praising him.
If Countdown had any consistency, Keith Olbermann would play this video and then spend the next twenty minutes excoriating Obama for his outright lying.
But Countdown won't, because they aren't really a news program. They are Obama's cheerleaders, clear and simple.
The rest of the media still has a chance to show themselves as unbiased. Let's see what they do with the video, and if they cover this story as it should be covered.
A pastor named Jerimiah Wright has a long history of making anti-American rants from the pulpit. O'Reilly put together a selection of his comments on a video that you can watch for yourself.
Its pretty amusing stuff to see a pastor say "G--damn America" for bombing Iraq, 9/11, and Nagasaki. Its a bizarre thing to see a relic from the black panther days suggest that if we don't find WMDs in Iraq, we will plant them there 'like the cops in LA' plant drugs on people. That's all part of Mr. Wright's patter.
On the Huffington Post, Obama tried to distance himself from his pastor:
When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.
So keep that in mind for a second... that Obama said that he knew about Wright's comments at the beginning of the campaign.
Obama further tried to distance himself on Olbermann's Countdown, and you can watch the video of it here. But he's careful to simply distance himself from Wright's comments, rather then the man himself. After all, Wright was his "spiritual guidance" counsler, and part of his actual campaign.
Obama has to make this small distinction of separating himself from Wright's comments, rather then the actual man, because even though Obama has said that he learned about Wright's comments at the beginning of the campaign, he praised the man as late as June of 2007.
Thanks to YouTube, you can see the video of Obama praising him.
If Countdown had any consistency, Keith Olbermann would play this video and then spend the next twenty minutes excoriating Obama for his outright lying.
But Countdown won't, because they aren't really a news program. They are Obama's cheerleaders, clear and simple.
The rest of the media still has a chance to show themselves as unbiased. Let's see what they do with the video, and if they cover this story as it should be covered.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Why Obama won't win the presidency
He can't be beaten. Right? Everybody wants Obama for President. Right?
Okay.
So if that's true, then how come he's only getting 46% of the vote in this survey of the Democratic primary? Shouldn't he at least be in the 60-70% range among Democrats?
That's not exactly a among his own party.
Okay.
So if that's true, then how come he's only getting 46% of the vote in this survey of the Democratic primary? Shouldn't he at least be in the 60-70% range among Democrats?
That's not exactly a among his own party.
Friday, March 07, 2008
On the death of Gary Gygax
Like most geeks, I grew up awkward.
I loved chess and programming computers. I had my own TRS-80 Model 4 (That was one of the first home computers.) I made electronic kits.
I was the ultimate underachiever.
Somewhere around 1982, a friend of mine named Tom introduced me to a game called Dungeons and Dragons that changed my life forever. It was pretty complicated. It involved dice, but it didn't have a fixed playing board. You made up your own character and they existed in this other world.
I vaguely remember asking Tom what my character could / should do, and he said "whatever you want to do".
Anything?
A game where your character could do anything?
Dungeons and Dragons was the ultimate game that ever existed. It was only limited by the imagination of the "Dungeon Master" and ourselves. And if the Dungeon Master was feeling uninspired, he could buy an adventure (called a module) and let you explore that world.
It was a game that Gary Gygax had invented.
For the rest of my high school life, I spent way more time creating campaigns (worlds) for my friends to go through then I did on any of my homework. I created short programs on my computer to help me do the grunt work of creating monsters. At lunch, in the Cafeteria, my friends and I would play short adventures on graph paper, until our high school outlawed D&D. (They later overturned that ruling.)
Because of D&D, I knew at least five words on my ACT test that I wouldn't ordinarily know. I knew how to add and subtract extraordinarily quickly, because it was part of the game. I became adept at performing multiple characters, because as the DM (Dungeon Master) I was responsible for helping create the world that my friends entered.
I also got horrible grades because I was spending so much time on D&D.
For a number of years, my friends attended Gen Con (a convention of game players up in Wisconsin.) When I could afford it, I would go with. That became our pilgrimage. A "guys weekend" for us guys who were more geeky then the rest.
I learned of Gary Gygax's death through those friends. Although we no longer play Dungeons and Dragons on weekends, we still get together to play video games on occasion. That's been our social gathering for about 20 years.
Those weekends formed some of the most fun I've ever had with friends. We ate bad food, made stupid jokes, and argued about stupid things. But in the end, it was just a good time.
I owe Gary a thank you for a really good time.
...For the idea that I could go in any direction that I wanted on a map of a place that didn't exist.
...For the concept of a world where the good guys usually won, at least if they used their brains.
...For the notion of creating an adventure for my friends, and telling a story that they could take part in.
...For giving a creative outlet to a very quiet guy, who wasn't always the best at social interactions.
...For making me take pride in owning a set of "crystal" plastic D&D dice.
Its amazing to me how many of "us" know who Gary Gygax is.
I doubt that the World Of Warcraft would exist without him, or the game Hexen or Heritic which came before WOW. In my opinion, Gary started it all.
You can read the moving tributes of other fans here.
My friends are making the pilgrimage to Wisconsin for his funeral over the weekend. Once again, I can't go make the trip up North because of previous commitments. Which I suppose is fitting, but still bittersweet.
Gary, I had a hell of a lot of fun because of you and your game.
Thank you.
I loved chess and programming computers. I had my own TRS-80 Model 4 (That was one of the first home computers.) I made electronic kits.
I was the ultimate underachiever.
Somewhere around 1982, a friend of mine named Tom introduced me to a game called Dungeons and Dragons that changed my life forever. It was pretty complicated. It involved dice, but it didn't have a fixed playing board. You made up your own character and they existed in this other world.
I vaguely remember asking Tom what my character could / should do, and he said "whatever you want to do".
Anything?
A game where your character could do anything?
Dungeons and Dragons was the ultimate game that ever existed. It was only limited by the imagination of the "Dungeon Master" and ourselves. And if the Dungeon Master was feeling uninspired, he could buy an adventure (called a module) and let you explore that world.
It was a game that Gary Gygax had invented.
For the rest of my high school life, I spent way more time creating campaigns (worlds) for my friends to go through then I did on any of my homework. I created short programs on my computer to help me do the grunt work of creating monsters. At lunch, in the Cafeteria, my friends and I would play short adventures on graph paper, until our high school outlawed D&D. (They later overturned that ruling.)
Because of D&D, I knew at least five words on my ACT test that I wouldn't ordinarily know. I knew how to add and subtract extraordinarily quickly, because it was part of the game. I became adept at performing multiple characters, because as the DM (Dungeon Master) I was responsible for helping create the world that my friends entered.
I also got horrible grades because I was spending so much time on D&D.
For a number of years, my friends attended Gen Con (a convention of game players up in Wisconsin.) When I could afford it, I would go with. That became our pilgrimage. A "guys weekend" for us guys who were more geeky then the rest.
I learned of Gary Gygax's death through those friends. Although we no longer play Dungeons and Dragons on weekends, we still get together to play video games on occasion. That's been our social gathering for about 20 years.
Those weekends formed some of the most fun I've ever had with friends. We ate bad food, made stupid jokes, and argued about stupid things. But in the end, it was just a good time.
I owe Gary a thank you for a really good time.
...For the idea that I could go in any direction that I wanted on a map of a place that didn't exist.
...For the concept of a world where the good guys usually won, at least if they used their brains.
...For the notion of creating an adventure for my friends, and telling a story that they could take part in.
...For giving a creative outlet to a very quiet guy, who wasn't always the best at social interactions.
...For making me take pride in owning a set of "crystal" plastic D&D dice.
Its amazing to me how many of "us" know who Gary Gygax is.
I doubt that the World Of Warcraft would exist without him, or the game Hexen or Heritic which came before WOW. In my opinion, Gary started it all.
You can read the moving tributes of other fans here.
My friends are making the pilgrimage to Wisconsin for his funeral over the weekend. Once again, I can't go make the trip up North because of previous commitments. Which I suppose is fitting, but still bittersweet.
Gary, I had a hell of a lot of fun because of you and your game.
Thank you.
Clinton Aide Insults Ken Starr
According to this article from CBS news, an aide for Hillary Clinton landed the ultimate insult to the special prosecutor:
I'm sure Ken wasn't too insulted. After all, they were words... just words.
:)
A top aide to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday compared rival Sen. Barack Obama to independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr.
I'm sure Ken wasn't too insulted. After all, they were words... just words.
:)
Monday, March 03, 2008
Barack runs head first into press favoritism
Barack has run head first into his first tough questions of the campaign. While in San Antonio, an incredibly good reporter named Carol Marin - from Chicago's own channel 5 - started asking Obama specific questions about his brushes with fund raising. She asked him specifically about his real estate deal brokered by felon and Obama fund raiser Tony Rezko.
What makes this even more interesting is the reaction of those who are covering the campaign to this latest development: The first two articles I've read on his press conference, the one above and this one, have both accused Hillary of being the catalyst behind the questions.
Which leads me to ask: why does the press need someone to push them into asking these questions?
This study from the Project on Excellence in Journalism might give some of the answer.
Its a study on the coverage of presidential candidates during the campaign.
Gathering stories over a five month period in the beginning of 2007, the project sorted stories into "positive" coverage, "negative" coverage, or neutral. They looked at network news coverage, cable news, talk radio, newspapers, and online coverage.
What it revealed wasn't that shocking to me. Its what conservatives always knew...
Of course, those of us on the right are not surprised.
And as much as I've argued that Obama was benifitting from a plethora of positive coverage, this was the part that confirmed my arguments:
In fact, the only one approaching Barack's positive coverage number (47.6% of his stories were positive), was Rudy Guiliani (27.8%) and Hilary Clinton (26.9%)
The negative numbers were similiarly skewed. Only 15% of the stories on Barack were negative. The closest other candidate to him was Rudy, with 37% of his stories negative.
So yeah, I guess that number for Barack might actually go up to 16% negative coverage after this week. But since the press is blaming this on Hillary, I imagine her negative press coverage number will go even higher.
What makes this even more interesting is the reaction of those who are covering the campaign to this latest development: The first two articles I've read on his press conference, the one above and this one, have both accused Hillary of being the catalyst behind the questions.
Which leads me to ask: why does the press need someone to push them into asking these questions?
This study from the Project on Excellence in Journalism might give some of the answer.
Its a study on the coverage of presidential candidates during the campaign.
Gathering stories over a five month period in the beginning of 2007, the project sorted stories into "positive" coverage, "negative" coverage, or neutral. They looked at network news coverage, cable news, talk radio, newspapers, and online coverage.
What it revealed wasn't that shocking to me. Its what conservatives always knew...
Overall, Democrats also have received more positive coverage than Republicans (35% of stories vs. 26%), while Republicans received more negative coverage than Democrats (35% vs. 26%). For both parties, a plurality of stories, 39%, were neutral or balanced.
Of course, those of us on the right are not surprised.
And as much as I've argued that Obama was benifitting from a plethora of positive coverage, this was the part that confirmed my arguments:
Democrat Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, enjoyed by far the most positive treatment of the major candidates during the first five months of the year—followed closely by Fred Thompson, the actor who at the time was only considering running.
In fact, the only one approaching Barack's positive coverage number (47.6% of his stories were positive), was Rudy Guiliani (27.8%) and Hilary Clinton (26.9%)
The negative numbers were similiarly skewed. Only 15% of the stories on Barack were negative. The closest other candidate to him was Rudy, with 37% of his stories negative.
So yeah, I guess that number for Barack might actually go up to 16% negative coverage after this week. But since the press is blaming this on Hillary, I imagine her negative press coverage number will go even higher.
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