Light posting for a bit

I am on a video game vacation for the holidays, and politics is too depressing right now anyway.

Gee, ya think?

Some elements of the GOP are angry with Senator Elizabeth Dole's Senate Republican Campaign Committee. I wonder why ...

Another warning

After a fashion (read "installing a DVD drive in my old computer without drive rails), I am working my way through Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king. ... Sorry about that pause. I needed to take a breath after that long title.

Nice game. But if you buy it expecting just Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II with more Witch-king of Angmar, you will be sorely disappointed. This game is a lot harder. Better AI. New units. I'm having to create new strategies because my old ones won't work.

I guess that means it's a good game.

A sad Christmas Eve tradition

While other people celebrate Christmas Eve, the NFL has decided to stick us with Browns home games these past two seasons. Both games have been particularly dreadful. Christmas Eve 2005 brought us a 41-0 loss to the Steelers. Christmas Eve 2006 brought us a 22-7 loss to the awful Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I really can't overstate the sense of hopelesness that has overtaken us Browns fans. We feel cursed. We sign a very giood free agent class led by LeCharles Bentley and they all get injured, rather freakishly and devastatingly in Bentley's case. Reuben Droughns has a 1,000-yard season in 2005 -- the first for a Brown in 20 years -- signs a contract extension, then goes into the tank. Our two star skill position players, Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards, are immature jerks, and Edwards in particular has become a cancer. All the receivers drop passes with annoying regularity. The offensive line is pitiful, riddled with injuries, and tackle Nat Dorsey is so bad he might as well turn around and sack the QB himself. Notice I didn't put a name with the QB, because Charlie Frye has a broken wrist and Derek Anderson has a separated shoulder, so now we are down to Ken Dorsey, last seen being thrown like a rag doll by Cie Grant in the 2002 National Championship Game.

The defense looks good on paper, but seems cursed. We have three quality cornerbacks in Leigh Bodden, Gary Baxter and Daylon McCutcheon and they all suffer season-ending injuries, possibly career-ending in Baxter's case. Mel Tucker is a genius as defensive backs coach getting decent performances by Daven Holly and Ralph Brown. All our linebackers are injured except for Leon Williams and Kamerion Wimbley (10 sacks). The defensive line sucks, led by Ted (Too Old) Washington.

The coaching, except for Tucker, seems uninspired at best. Romeo Crennel decided to fake a field goal and pooch punt at the Tampa Bay 27. Idiot. He's looking more and more like Art Shell every day. I know we've had injuries, but Crennel can't even maximize what he has.

And while we're on the subject of injuries, let's talk about the quality medical care the Browns receive from the world-famous Cleveland Clinic. They lead the league in staph infections. Both Frye and D'Qwell Jackson had to get second opinions because they did not trust the opinion of the Browns medical staff.

We seem cursed. The fans at Cleveland Stadium aren't half of what they used to be, as the season ticket holders give up their seats to idiots who don't know how to watch a football game or care.

So the end of Browns season is now welcome. Normally the end of the season means I take down by Browns stuff and put up my Steelers stuff for the playoffs But the Steelers are out of it as well, just not as pathetic as the Browns.

But we do have an unusual situation with my Chargers now making the playoffs. Out come the lightning bolts. All over the house.

May my Bolts carry on where my Browns have failed.

An outrage

There had better be a plan substantially well along for the funding of a new arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh. Today's awarding of the Pittsburgh slots license to Don Barden's PITG Gaming will be an unmitigated disaster for Pittsburgh and inexcusable malfeasance by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and Governor Ed Rendell if there is not.

Isle of Capri Casinos had promised to build a new arean to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh if they received the casino license. By most accounts Isle of Capri had the best proposal and was supported by the majority of Pittsburgh public officials and the people of Pittsburgh. The Steelers opposed Barden. Yet the Gaming Control Board ignored that and awarded it to Barden.

Now, to be fair, Barden has promised to help fund a new arena. But it doesn't match Isle of Capri's proposal. And he is not bound to do so as Isle of Capri would have been.

One has to wonder what -- or if -- the gaming commission was thinking. The commission supposedly wanted diversity in awarding its licenses, and Barden is black. The people of Pittsburgh have been accused of racist tendencies (see, e.g. Barry Bonds versus Sid Bream, only one of whom is villified in Pittsburgh but both of whom deserve to be hated). That's no reason to deny a license to Barden if he had the best proposal, but because of the issue of the Pens' arena, Barden's group will come under scrutiny. It has already been suggested that Barden got the license simply because he is black.

If the Penguins end up moving and the perception becomes that it was because the gaming board awarded the Pittsburgh license on the basis of racial bean counting instead of the best interests of Pittsburgh, you can bet that there will be serious resentment (some racist, mostly not) against Barden and his casino, which could drive it out of business. It's not fair to Barden and it's not fair to the City of Pittsburgh unless there is a plan for the arena seriously along in spite of Isle of Capri's losing out.

The gaming board could not have been this stupid. Nor could Ed Rendell. Could they?

Rendell has shown an inclination to screw Pittsburgh in favor of his home of Philadelphia. And liberals have a tendency to argue for diversity as long as someone else is paying the price for it, which in this case would not be Rendell's friends in Philadelphia, who got two licenses.

Candlerant

I went to Cracker Barrel the other night. While waiting for our table, we stood by the scented candle section. It was there that I noticed all the scented candles -- pumpkin pie, macintosh apple, mistletoe, clean cotton (?), fresh linen (?), various flowers and leaves.

And I thought, is there anything more useless than scented candles?

I mean, let's even ignore the fire hazard they cause (my workplace has banned them). They never smell like what they're supposed to, typically smelling like some artificially engineered deal intending to be perfect, but with something vaguely distasteful about it, like pine-scented Lysol in a hospital room with a patient with bladder control issues.

Plus, the smells themselves are artificial, and in some cases just plain stupid. I mean, clean cotton? I opened the candle jar and it smelled like All Tempa-Cheer. My gawd, did they actually pay someone to come up with this?

How about some candles with everyday real-life smells? If I was actually useless enough to come up with my own line of scented candles -- the Pro Cynic ProCandle line, we'll call it -- we'd be much more creative with our scents:

Decomposing flesh

Compost pile

Freshly caught fish

Men's locker room

Idling bus

Steel mill

Coal mine fire

Airport security checkpoint (yes, I've noticed that since they started making everyone take off their shoes thanks to dumbass Richard Reid, the checkpoints and terminals smell horrible)

Sewage treatment plant

Frat house toilet

Oil refinery

Pig farm

Bleach

Men's bathroom at Fenway Park

Salton Sea (SoCal only)

Onion

Burnt popcorn

Swamp

Any place in northwest Pakistan (ever seen the pics of the home of our adversaries in the War on Islamofascism? They may think they got this godliness thing cornered, but they certainly don't have the cleanliness thing down. Yo, UBL! It's called "soap." Look into it.)

University of Michigan campus

BMV branch

Feel free to send any ideas you might have for causing fire hazards with creative smells. Then I'll take credit for them.

Warning

I found out a few months ago that Bethesda was going to finally release some new Star Trek video games. Good news, I thought. Because they had had a decent run with the Armada, Starfleet Command and Away Team games. Then Universal got into some kind of dispute with the games' publisher, Activision, if memory serves over what Universal considered Activision's lack of marketing of the games, or perhaps Activision felt that Star Trek was getting kinda old. Anyway, they had a rather nasty divorce and had to reach a legal settlement.

Enter Bethesda Softworks, makers of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. They were to come out with a few new Star Trek games this year. One was Encounters, for PS2. Purported to be an arcade-style game. Not quite Starfleet Command, but not bad. The real gem was supposed to be Legacy, which was billed as the best Star Trek game ever, building on Starfleet Command. To be released for PC and Xbox 360.

Unfortunately, I found out that the PC specs were to be way above my own 5-year old PC's specs, or really above pretty much anything out on the market right now. I mean, 2.6 Mhz CPU as a minimum? Dumbest thing since Buick made a Regal back in the 1970s requiring 94 octane, when 94 wasn't even available. But I wanted the game, so I went and got an XBox 360 so I could get Legacy.

Legacy ended up being delayed a month. But it was finally released, and I picked up my copy of it last night.

And it sucks. Really, it sucks. I rarely, if ever say a game sucks. Most all of my games I play and get something out of. Maybe I got my hopes up too high, wanting and expecting an updated Starfleet Command that even included the Jem'Hadar, which has been underexamined in Star Trek gaming.

I don't even know where to begin describing how bad this game is. Bad controls, too linear a single-player campaign, no open-ended conquest mode, too few races, can't re-run completed missions.

I can't believe someone actually thought they could release a game like this. This game is so bad it borders on consumer fraud.

Heaven

I'm working on a couple substantive policy posts dealing with criticism of judges, the responsibility of self-defense and the use of proportional force. None ready right now, though. So, in the meantime, how about some Cali photo blogging? Say hello to my favorite spot on Earth, Cardiff-by-the Sea.

Where have I been?

On vacation. Specifically, here:


But, more importantly, here:


Just like I often drive from Indianapolis to Cleveland to suppot my Cleveland Browns, this past weekend I flew from Indianapolis to San Diego to support my SAN DIEGO SUPER CHARGERS!!!

I'll have many, many more SoCal thoughts later, but in the meantime, what a great day for America!

What is going on in Iran?

I caught this very interesting post at The Corner:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is lying in a “royal suite” in the spiffy Vanak hospital (that’s its old name, which most Tehranis use) in Tehran. He wanted to leave today but the doctors would not permit it. I guess doctors have the last word, even in a dispute with the Supreme Leader. Heh. He arrived there late yesterday afternoon local time, after feeling cold, breaking out in a cold sweat, and losing feeling in his feet. The initial examination found low blood pressure and a slow pulse rate. They originally feared internal bleeding, but have tentatively concluded that he “only” suffers from a weakened heart. On top of his cancer, that is.

More tomorrow, I hope. But note that this coronary crisis coincides with a very intense power struggle within the regime itself, leading up to the elections of the Guardian Council. In recent days, there was a very suspicious airplane crash that killed several top Revolutionary Guards officers, and the recent draft law in Parliament that would effectively reduce Ahmadinezhad’s term by a full year.

The Republican Congress sucks

They can't even pass a measure to increase the area for allowable oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

How 'bout all the other things they couldn't do. Can't pass ANWR. Can't consistently get good judges confimred. Or John Bolton, for that matter. Couldn't secure the border. But they could muster the will to "protect" Terry Schiavo.

The Dems in control of Congress will be an abject disaster, but the GOP has been an ajbect failure.

Winter happiness

There is something most satisfying about walking in downtown Indianapolis in 20-degree temperatures in the early winter with the leaden sky and the cold wind, wearing two coats to keep warm ...

that both obnoxiously display the words "San Diego Chargers."

Just makes me feel all warm inside.

The title game is finally set

and Ohio State is playing Florida. This will probably strike Michigan fans as unfair, and certainly Fox's sleazoid jerkwad analyst Barry Alvarez doesn't like it. Typically, though, if Barry Alvarez doesn't like something, it's a good thing. Alvarez was a disgrace at Wisconsin and he's a disgrace now.

As for Michigan, picking them to play Ohio State could have set up a split National Championship if Michigan had won the Fiesta Bowl, which defeats the purpose of the BCS.

And as for USC, who really diappointed me, they definitely took UCLA lightly. As we Buckeyes learned to our detriment against Michigan under John Cooper, you never, EVER take a rivalry game lightly.