This weekend we headed up to Vermont to see Sarah and CJ, who recently moved up there. Their new house is very nice and the area around them is gorgeous. A wrong turn on the way there had us seeing a lot more of the mountains than we intended, and the higher elevation combined with an overcast day meant for a while we were driving with barely any visibility. I’m sure that, could we have seen anything, the view would have been breathtaking. Sarah and CJ live in central Vermont, near Killington, with plenty of opportunities for such activities as skiing, snowboarding, rafting, hiking, and kayaking, some of which we plan to take advantage of with them. We also saw a lot of tapped maple trees, which I wish I’d gotten a photo of.

The next day the clouds burned off a little so we got to see a lot more of the landscape. I have some photos I need to put up later today. Having made the jump from the totally flat Illinois to central Massachusetts, and living near Mt. Tom and Mt. Holyoke, it was amazing to be shocked yet again by mountains that dwarf what we’ve come to already respect. We’re truly in another area now.

On the way back home we got stopped by the Border Patrol. They’re keeping the Homeland safe from, I suppose, Canadian intrusion, though their methods seem a bit questionable. Not only was their roadblock set up some 80 miles or so from the actual border, but to get past it, you had to follow the rigorous screening procedure of answering the question, “Are you folks American citizens?” with a response of “yes,” at which point you could continue on. A bizarre thing.

We then got back to another delightful thing. Apparently while we were in Vermont, my computer decided to keel over, and I came back to it locked up. Successive reboots resulted in diminished returns, and eventually the computer wasn’t powering up at all. I feared the worst, and visions of new motherboards tormented me. Since my computer is my office, I had to take a day off yesterday and hope I could get back up and running soon.

Thankfully the problem turned out to merely be a dead power supply, which was easily and inexpensively (by comparison) fixed, and I was back up by yesterday afternoon, with no loss of data. Many thanks to the good people at PC Warehouse for taking care of me.

The visit to Vermont has us ready for Spring, even though it’s still a bit chilly here. This upcoming weekend we have plans for some geocaching, and we also want to get set up with a new bike for me and a bike rack for the car. Evening walks are also being planned. We’re going to try to be good, healthy people, but first thing Saturday we plan to have a big pancake dinner with TJ and Mary (featuring fresh maple syrup.)

Sadly, we missed out on karaoke this week, so it will be two more weeks before I make my singing debut. I am assured, however, that once again ‘The Hammer’ nailed it every time.

I got this email in response to my posting of the Richard Clarke “60 Minutes” transcript:

you’re starting to sound as partisan and selective as the people you make fun of

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0323042clarke1.html

clarke is selling a book, not trying to do any great thing.

There are three parts to this message. The first is that I’m “starting” to sound selective and partisan. I would certainly hope that I started sounding partisan a long time ago, because I am. I’m not “fair and balanced” and make no claims to be. I’m not a news organization or a columnist or a pundit, just some schmoe with a website. I think I’ve made it pretty damn clear that I want Bush out of office, preferably covered with tar and/or feathers. But this is neither here nor there.

The Smoking Gun link is a link to Richard Clarke’s resignation letter, which proves only that Clarke has the ability to write the same BS resignation letters everyone writes if they’re smart. I’ve been in and quit enough crappy jobs to know that no matter how bad you’d like to burn down the building and spread salt on the ashes, you smile, thank them for the opportunity, and leave.

But the meat is the third line, about Clarke writing a book, and it’s the most telling. Yes, I totally agree. Clarke has a book he wants people to buy. For conservatives and conservative sympathizers, this seems to seal the deal — obviously this taints his claims and we can just dismiss them. Never mind that people like Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly constantly have books they’re trying to sell and yet we’re supposed to pay attention to what they have to say. Clarke’s book reveals the truth: he’s just drumming up publicity for book sales.

Well here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter if Clarke has a book for sale. What matters is the claim that he (and his book) make. None of those claims have been disputed, and in fact they’ve been corroborated by independent witnesses. True to form, nobody on the Right seems interested in the truth, in reality. It’s just all about making the other guy look bad. Remember, conservatives think, whereas liberals merely feel. Conservatives tackle the hard issues head on — by attacking the person who brings them up.

If a fellow jumps up and makes a claim that dogs can talk, it doesn’t matter whether or not he seeks to make money off of this discovery. If he writes a book or makes a movie about this discovery, it doesn’t affect the claim at all. The real question remains: can he produce a dog that talks? If not, then he’s a fraud. If he can, then no amount of books or movies can change the fact that the guy’s got a talking dog. The book or movie might explain why he chose to make a bogus claim, should the claim prove to be bogus, but it’s not the thing that torpedoes the claim itself.

The question is not whether or not Richard Clarke has a book for sale. He does. It’s not whether someone associated with him is now associated with Kerry. These sorts of ad hominem attacks don’t address the real issue here: is what Richard Clarke is saying true? So far that seems to be the case. Certainly nobody’s provided any evidence that Clarke is lying, they’re simply giving scenarios in which a person with an unblemished 30-year record of service under both parties who actually voted for Bush might suddenly start spouting lies about his administration.

It’s ironic, however, that to respond to Clarke’s bombshell — where he accuses the Bush administration of ignoring one threat in order to concentrate on another one — supporters of the President avoid the actual issue to go after a safer and easier target. A target that, unfortunately for them, doesn’t solve the problem.

I put in my comics order yesterday, and Grant Morrison’s “Seaguy” is not one of them. I’m sorry, Grant…there was a time when I’d buy practically anything with your name on it just because I knew it would be good. I bought Sebastian O, The Filth, and even considered getting The New X-Men, even though the last thing I want to buy is an X-book. But no more. Perhaps I’ll re-read the Filth some time and discover that I completely missed the point, and that it’s truly a bit of inspired genius. But these days you seem far more interested in being GRANT MORRISON!!! in neon with tiny stars sparkling around it and hip-hop/disco music playing than in actually being the Grant Morrison that wrote a bunch of really interesting, funny, and clever comics that I enjoyed reading.

This deserved its own entry. It’s absolutely jaw-dropping. Former terrorism Czar Richard Clarke exposes the shenanigans that went on by BushCo after 9/11. How Republicans can call Bush’s efforts against terrorism successful after this is beyond me. In a better world, Bush would not only not get a second term, he’d be worrying about being able to finish out his first one. Read this transcript.

STAHL: You talk about a conversation you personally had with the president.

CLARKE: Yes. THe president — we were in the situation room complex — the president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, ‘I want you to find whether Iraq did this.’ Now he never said, ‘Make it up.’ But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said ‘Iraq did this.’

STAHL: Didn’t you tell him that you’d looked and there’d been no connection?

CLARKE: I said, ‘Mr. President. We’ve done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There’s no connection.’ He came back at me and said, “Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there’s a connection.’ And in a very intimidating way. I mean, that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report.

STAHL: In other words, you did go back and look.

CLARKE: We went back again and we looked.

STAHL: You did. And was it a serious look? Did you really … ?

CLARKE: It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and down to FBI and said, ‘Will you sign this report?’ They all cleared the report and we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, ‘Wrong answer.’

Last week was a hum-dinger of a week. A tremendous fire blazed up at work that threatened to consume John and me. However, once the ashes were sifted through, we found out we’d put on our asbestos underpants and emerged without a singe.

Since then I’ve been trying to upgrade the tools we work with and was successful in learning enough about AWK, Perl, regexps, and grep (with a little help) that I was able to fix a long-standing problem with one of our scripts! Huzzah!

So I’ve been hard at work during the day — hence the lack of updates both here and in the Linktank. But here’s some quick hits to tide you over.

I read the first issue of Street Angel from Slave Labor Graphics and am hooked. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this title and believe me, it’s justified. It’s a hilarious fun book with a great energy to it. I highly recommend it.

In gaming news, Becky and I have been playing the hell out of a new game we got, Carcassonne: the Castle. Last weekend Dan and I headed up to Space-Crime and tried out some board games there; this was one of them. We enjoyed it so much, we both walked out with copies. I’ll talk about it more in an upcoming requested entry on good two-player games.

Holy cow, three positive things in a row! So as not to skew my statistics and confuse my readers, I’d better gripe about something…

Okay, here’s one. So I’m reading one of these stories about how it looks like Halliburton has been ripping off the government, overcharging them for oil and meals and stuff. And I’m just completely floored by it. Let me get this straight…you’re a multi-billion dollar corporation with worldwide holdings and projects, you’ve got the Vice President in your pocket, you’ve been given sweetheart no-bid contracts to basically print money in Iraq, and it’s still not enough? You still think you need to gyp Uncle Sam for what must be, to you, a couple of measly bucks? Too often when reading about billionaires and the government who loves them, I find myself asking, “How much is enough?” Most people play the game of “What would I do if I had a million dollars?” — these people answer with: “Try to get a million and five!” It’s insane. It’s like Rich Uncle Pennybags rolling a fourth-grader for her lunch money. Just absurd.

Also last weekend Dan and Jen and John and I went out to a karaoke bar (Becky was out of town). I didn’t sing, I’m ashamed to admit, but Dan busted out some Jimmy Eat World and Blink 182, and John (a/k/a “The Hammer”) gave us some Floyd and a blazing hot “Sweet Transvestite”. When we go again I think I’m going to debut with “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” by Cake and maybe add a little Elvis Costello. They have “How Soon is Now” by The Smiths and I’d love to do my best Morrissey and sit on the floor pretending to cry while singing it.

This past weekend Becky and I joined some of her colleagues for dinner and a movie in Northampton. After a very good Pan-Asian meal, we saw ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.’ The movie was okay, but I was greatly hampered by the fact that I didn’t want the two leads to get together. In a sort of romance, that kind of subverts the whole thing. Jim Carrey did much better than I expected, and I could look at Kate Winslet all day long. The subplots involving Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst seemed tacked-on and half-hearted, the latter one being (in my opinion) completely predictable and unbelievable, even given the rest of the movie. It’s hard to say much about the movie without giving too much away. I will say this: it’s the kind of movie that Hollywood thinks is very cerebral and deep, when it really isn’t.

Also this past weekend we got in a GURPS session and I was able to bring in my new character, the holy warrior Kurakor. His thing is that he believes he’s been fated by the gods to fulfill the PCs quest, and is therefore both blessed and invincible. That’s a lot of fun to roleplay. It’s especially nice that the dice conspired to help me out, allowing me to avoid two arrows to the head that by rights should have clocked me. I’m looking forward to doing more with this guy.

I’ll close out with some Doctor Who news. An actor has been chosen to play the new Doctor Who in the (supposedly) upcoming 2005 series. The gentleman in question is Christopher Eccleston, who I’ve never heard of but who looks like the love child of Christopher Lambert and Tim Roth. (I guess I saw him in The Others but I don’t remember him.) I’ve been trying to remain skeptical about this upcoming series, having had my heart broken by the BBC in the past, but it really does seem like it’s coming together.

Coming up soon: Two-Player Games, Comics Reviews, New Mix Tapes, Joke Websites, and my To Do List!

From the chatroom:

13:18:40 [legomancer] tonight on ESPN2: KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS!

13:20:32 [lanfaedhe] Announcer: It appears Crondar the Rogue is going to attempt to pick a lock.

13:20:44 [lanfaedhe] Crondar: I’m going to pick the lock. What do I have to roll?

13:21:15 [lanfaedhe] Announcer: He’s choosing a glittery d20…that’s 20 sided die for those of you just tuning in…

13:21:19 [legomancer] “A risky move, Jim. Crondar’s botched 33% of lockpicking attempts this season. It’s just not his year.”

13:24:44 [shasticon] “I tell you, Bobby, that’s not as risky as you might think. That particular d20 is Crondar’s special reserve. He’s never rolled less than a thirteen with it, which gives him better than even odds to pick anything under a DC 35.”

13:25:31 [legomancer] “Ooooh a 6. That’s gonna cost them.”

13:26:14 [lanfaedhe] “At this point they are better off depending on Horg’s brawny arms, aren’t they? Haha.”

13:27:41 [legomancer] “And at the half it’s Horg with 14hp, Azraenna with 22, Crondar with 16, and Rakanar with 6. We’ll be back after this message from Cohiba Cigars.”

13:28:09 [shasticon] “Just a reminder, tune in tonight at seven for the pre-game countdown to the international Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil All-Conference Pro Bowl.”

13:31:27 [shasticon] Shana: “OH NO, Horg fell out of character and used a modern movie reference - this is gonna be bad, Mike.”

13:31:47 [shasticon] “Yes, Dave. Seems the DM has noticed, yep - he’s rolling - oh no, random monster tables, Dave!”

13:34:33 [legomancer] better yet, a ref comes out and blows a whistle. “PENALTY! HORG! OUT OF CHARACTER! RANDOM ENCOUNTER!”

No, I’m not a geek. Why do you ask?

Well, he did it. Dave Sim finished Cerebus. 300 issues ago he swore that he’d take this thing all the way to #300, and he did it. This is quite an accomplishment. When Dave Sim first announced his plan, there was no way people took him seriously. In the late 70s, no one would have guessed that a black-and-white independent comic spoofing Conan with an aardvark would last three issues, much less three hundred. But it did.

Now, confession time: I’ve barely read any of it. Chris loaned me the first phonebook and I read it, but it just didn’t grab me. I returned it to him and didn’t request any others. What I’ve heard about and from Dave Sim since then hasn’t made me want to run out and grab any others, either. The man may have made a hell of a contribution to comics and performed an amazing feat, but he’s still a small-minded, misogynistic, hateful lunatic, and I’ve no desire to watch his inane tirades on parade.

That being said, though, the accomplishment of Cerebus is something I’d like to see taken elsewhere. I thought about the idea of a mega-series: a 300-or-so-issue undertaking with a definite goal and finale in mind. I would love to see such a thing applied to the classic superheroes: Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc.

I don’t read any of these current books, for a myriad of reasons, the main one being that I find them tiresome. I don’t need to see the same fights over and over again, have the same stories trotted out time and again, try and develop an understanding of a character who’s just going to be completely re-done next time sales flag and the creative team changes.

And that’s the most frustrating bit. Since the companies utterly refuse to have their characters develop past a certain point, they’re constantly being rebooted, so you get to see those same fights yet again. Look! Batman is meeting Catwoman for the first time again!

I would love to see DC and Marvel just scrap it all and do the stories for the final time, Cerebus-style. Announce, “Okay, here’s the deal. We’re doing a book called Superman Saga. It’s going to last 300 issues and is going to be the canonical, final, absolute story of Superman. His birth, arrival, life, and ultimate end.” And then these characters can get the treatment they deserve. Not watered down rehashes and contradictory crap, but a crafted story of these characters.

I know this would never happen. After all, what would they do at the end? I mean, they’d only have nearly thirty years to figure out what to do after Superman ends! And I know it wouldn’t please everyone. Many fanboys will be up in arms if the Batman Saga doesn’t include Ace the Bat-Hound, and other fanboys will be up in arms if it does. And despite my words above, there’s no guarantee I’d buy Superman Saga any more than the current crop of Superman books I don’t buy. Plus, if they ever give an award for “thinking and planning ahead,” I can tell you right now that nobody at DC or Marvel will get even a nomination. Even if they did start such a project, it’s even money that within five years the Batman Saga book would just be yet another Batman book that can do multi-issue crossovers with all the other ones.

But still, wouldn’t it be nice?

Anyway, back to reality. Congratulations Dave Sim, you batshit loony neanderthal.

The bodies of the terrorist victims in Spain aren’t even cold yet and already people have started to politicize the issue. No time to mourn the dead, we’ve got conclusions to jump to!

I’ve already seen a few people screaming that Spain must not knuckle under to terrorism and must fight back! The resulting Socialist victory has convinced these people that this is not the case, that Spain has merely bowed to the terrorists’ wishes by electing someone who won’t get tough with Al-Qaeda, who haven’t even yet been confirmed as the actual perpetrators of the attack.

In case you need parallel lines drawn for you, this is exactly what’s going on here. If John Kerry is elected, see, it’s a victory for Osama bin Ladin, since Kerry won’t be as tough on terrorism as George Bush, who has been keeping the world (except for Madrid, apparently) safe from terror.

Looks like the conservatives need yet another reminder of the actual events that took place before and after 9/11, because I’m sick of hearing how masterfully George Bush has handled the situation.

First off, Bush started out coming down hard on terrorism by ignoring warnings from out-going Clinton officials that bin Ladin was becoming a major threat and that Al-Qaeda was possibly plotting a terrorist event. These warnings were shelved.

Then 9-11 happened, and Bush responded by attacking Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Nobody opposed this - it was the obvious, logical response to the attack. I fully agree that this was the right thing for Bush to do, but let’s face it, it didn’t take a tactical genius to come up with it.

However, soon afterwards, we declared victory in Afghanistan, let bin Ladin disappear, and handed the country over to a bunch of warlords. In no time at all Afghanistan reverted to pretty much its original state as a breeding ground for terrorism, while Bush decided to take the fight to Saddam Hussein, who didn’t orchestrate 9/11, didn’t have ties to bin Ladin, and didn’t take part in the attacks. (He also didn’t have any large-scale weapons, but that’s beside the point.) All of our resources went to crushing Saddam.

Now that the election is looming, Bush has suddenly decided it might be nice to actually go after the guy that planned 9-11, so he’s starting to step up the hunt by making cosy deals with Pakistan, who, by the way, has been selling nuclear weapons secrets to all kinds of people, including North Korea and Iran. (And let’s not forget Bush’s pals in Saudi Arabia, the country that supplied the bulk of the 9-11 hijackers.)

So there’s your lesson in recent history, you crooked liars. Bush is coming out strong against terrorism? If anything, the Madrid attack proves otherwise. If it truly was Al-Qaeda, why aren’t you people wondering why they’re still getting away with crap like this? The facts speak loudly: Bush has done everything in his power to ensure that those responsible for 9-11 haven’t been brought to justice. Even if he captured bin Ladin tomorrow, the questions would still be why it took him over two years to decide to do so. Bush couldn’t be any less effective against terrorism if he was storing fertilizer bombs in the Capitol Rotunda.

Still, the fans of Bush are suckers for a boyish grin and snappy TV ad. If Bush’s ads and Bill O’Reilly says that Bush is tough on terrorism, then by God he must be. Once again, let’s not let the obnoxious tag-team of truth and reality interfere with Bush’s successes.