Colbert's guts

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Kudos to Stephen Colbert for having the guts to go through with this bit at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this weekend. Apparently, Bush wasn't too amused. How ironic is it that a fake newsman exposes Bush to more truth than Fox News ever will?

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!

Because really, what incentive do these people have to answer your questions, after all? I mean, nothing satisfies you. Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write, "Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!

To The Editor

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My Great-Uncle Reimert Ravenholt had a Letter to the Editor published in the New York Times today, regarding the talk of aid to Africa:

To the Editor:

Proposals for helping Africa that ignore the need for birth control are bereft of good sense. Without birth control, all food and other assistance are wasted, and the problem is enlarged, as during the last 20 years.

Resources divided by population equals the human condition.

Africa needs not only oral contraceptives and condoms in every village and household, but also ready access to safe surgical services for tubal ligation and abortion for all women in need. Readily available throughout the wealthy world and in China, these services are desperately needed in Africa.

R. T. Ravenholt, M.D. Seattle, July 3, 2005 The writer was director of the United States Agency for International Development's Population Program, 1966-79.

Gamer's Manifesto

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As someone who has wasted numerous hours of my life playing video games, I have to link to this Gamer's Manifesto, with which I totally agree, especially number 10:

10. And while we're at it...

Let's rid games of all arbitrary barriers.

Don't show my character casting magic meteors that smash mountains in one scene and in the next send me all over the dungeon trying to find a single key to a rickety wooden door that looks like it could be knocked in with a strong shoulder. Make it a magic door, a huge door, fine, but don't make it an arbitrary door that only remains closed because that's what the plot requires.

Also, don't have me toting around 500 pounds of high explosives, 2 different kinds of missile launchers and a nuclear fusion cannon and still make almost every pane of glass I come across totally unbreakable. It was cute that I could shoot Coke cans off the tables in Doom III. But then I shoot the magazine sitting next to it and it doesn't even show scuff marks. It's 2005! Give me environments that realistically react to what I do! Yes, it matters. It's immersion, bitch!

[via Slashdot]

Scarborough Country

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Karen's SleepingFor those who haven't gotten their daily dose of the Republican Talking Points, my sister-in-law, Karen Kaufman Salic, is going to be on Scarborough Country tonight on MSNBC. They'll be discussing this case which made the national media. Karen is the County Attorney (aka Prosecutor) in that county, and she was on the Today show already this morning, where Katie managed to mangle her name twice, much to our amusement.

Update: Due to "late-breaking" Michael Jackson news, Karen's appearance has been canceled for tonight, though she may be on tomorrow.