Executive summary

Things I like

TMQ returns

Gregg Easterbrook has been roundly and justly bashed for his silly religio-scientific bongology. Oh yes, and that money grubbing Jews and the violent movies they love thing. But his football column is great, and happily has returned, hosted for now at the also great football statistics compendium, Football Outsiders. And TMQ is even better with the addition of a comment thread.

SSX3

I don’t like track-based racers—F-zero GX is the least-fun game I’ve paid for in years. And I’m not even interested enough in trick-based games like Tony Hawk to bother to find out whether I like them or not. But somehow, the wedding of dislike and disinterest is pure genius. SSX3 is easily the best snowboarding game I’ve ever played. Wacky tricks, excellent tracks, whooshing speed, and a non-annoying soundtrack. If you are a console owner and you don’t at least rent it, I’m going to be very upset with you.

TAPPED

Is it the ineffable Yglesias mystique? The extra incentive of bylines on the posts? Whatever. These days, TAPPED is more fun to read and more informative than the love child of Jon Stewart and a Civics textbook.

Well, maybe not. But it’s a whole lot better than it used to be.

Kicking Ass

Speaking of good blogs, the Democratic National Commitee’s new-ish offering, Kicking Ass, does its name proud. It’s good to see the DNC finding a voice and using it, loudly and without apology.

CAP

Speaking of unapologetic liberals, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress is fantastic (aside from having the worst URLs I have ever seen), and something we on the left have needed for a long time. Consistent message. Good research. Intelligent argument. And the money and connections to get that consistent message out to the press, as the right has been doing so much better than we have for so long.

Rios Montt loses

Efrain Rios Montt, one of Ron Reagan’s pet genocidal maniacs, tried to slime and bribe his way back into power in Guatemala. He failed. And he will now lose his Senate seat and immunity from prosecution for directing a government that saw fit to slaughter 200,000 of its own people. May he rot in jail and then in Hell. Or the other way around! I’m not picky.

Things I don’t like

Arthur Silber’s predicament

and Atrios readers’ response to it. Arthur likes Ayn Rand. I think Ayn Rand is silly. So what? I don’t have to agree with him to like him, or enjoy his writing, or to sympathize with troubles he’s been handed by the LA transit strike. Such is not the case for a few classless losers who can chuckle over his misfortune while thinking they are liberals. Hey, idiots: think for a minute about how you are mad at right wingers for their intolerance, unconcern for the plight of the down on their luck, and arrogance, and be ashamed.

Thinking like a loser

Kevin Drum doesn’t think Howard Dean is electable. That’s a reasonable position, though one I don’t share, and one I think has little empirical support. But his reasoning for thinking Dean is a loser is not good.

Without going into tedious detail, just try to imagine that it’s April and the $200 million attack machine has geared up. And think about what the ads are going to look like, especially to moderates who aren’t true believers in the Dean phenomenon already. (Go ahead: use your imagination. And try to be brutally realistic.) To me, they look devastating.

Could this be any more defeatist? Politics is rough stuff, Rove is a rough guy, and no matter what, he’s going to put dishonest ads on the air that say rough things about our nominee—whoever it may be. We can’t tailor our message to avoid Rove’s darts. That way lies no message at all, because the darts are inevitable. What we should be looking for is a candidate and a campaign staff who are not afraid of what names the nasty bad men will call them, but who instead are devoted to the expression and transmission of their own ideas—and clever, creative, ruthless and tireless in fighting back. Unapologetically. Is anyone detecting a theme?

Thinking like a loser II

If this is the plan, we are going to lose in Iraq. We told the Iraqis we were there to liberate them from Saddam, not from life, limb, and property. The only way to beat a guerrilla insurgency is to turn the people against the guerrillas. It is difficult to do this while bombing them and knocking their houses down.

Halo

Halo finally came back to its rightful platform in September. Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad game. It's just so much less than it could have been. I'm biased, of course, by having seen how it began and by knowing some of what was lost in the Xbox shuffle. Even so, the final product seems rushed, and it falls dramatically short of the mark set by Jason Jones' earlier work. Too linear, too claustrophobic, too limited in vision and too boring once the Flood appear. Sorry guys.

Things to think about today

/me signing off

A Marine's Girl writes daily about her marine, still serving in Iraq. Occasionally she posts logs of their IM conversations. Conversations occasionally interrupted by incoming fire. It's hard to imagine what it must be like to have a loved one log off to go see who is trying to kill him. Or how you can wall off enough of your brain from worry to function, when he says things like:

Marine: We had a RPG fly right over the top of the LAV today, missed us by a foot or less. Scary ass stuff. Remember what the LA of the LAV stands for?

[]

Marine: It has been a mad house here, I swear it is worse now then during that “major” combat.

Ted Barlow’s usual eloquence

As applied to the subject of Veterans Day, thankfullness on.

Questions for tomorrow

Or anytime, really.

Where are the WMD?

And why are we in this war, again?

Who outed Valerie Plame?

And who is covering it up? And how long will they get away with it? And why is the same press that hounded Clinton over a bad land deal now completely silent about this actual crime?

Why is football more fun to watch than baseball?

Though I care more about the baseball teams I follow, I wouldn’t dream of watching a baseball game between teams I don’t follow. And yet, I’m happy to watch a well-played football game, no matter who is playing. Theory: baseball is, in fact, boring.

Filed under: notes