Gygax: the Remembering

So, gaming as a pasttime has affected my life in innumerable ways. I can say with absolute and complete certainty that I would not be the person I am today had I not picked up those d6's in the 4th grade and made Thorin, my Dwarf, to fight against the bats and carrion crawlers of the red box dungeon. While Gygax, like Marx, is a man whose ideas have been taken in vastly different directions by different followers, some good and some bad,(I'd extend the metaphor, but I don't know who really counts as the Pol Pot of the gaming world) those ideas have influenced my life in many ways. There follows a list-
( Ways my life is better/different because of Gaming )

In all, I think I have a lot to thank Gygax for, because gaming made me the man I am today.

Obama vs. Clinton: a pragmatics approach

McCain is the Republican nominee. In selecting an opponent it is important to consider politics not as a 2 party option, but as a sliding scale with a republican right, a democratic left and an independent center.

Now, McCain does not have significant appeal to the Right, as he has frequently acted not in accordance with the religious right or the neoconservative movement but as a "maverick" more in line with the center leaning wing of the republican party. While this gives me greater respect for him as a Senator, his recent efforts to cozy up to the conservative elements leave me uncomfortable with his potential politics and skeptical of his political positions.

Hillary Clinton has some decent appeal to the Left, though many consider her hawkish positions on the Iraq war and her support of a number of Bush policies to bring her leftist cred into question. Hillary however, is a significant opponent to the right, who view her policies as directly hostile to their agenda and have disliked her since her terms as first lady.

Barack Obama has some decent appeal to the Left, though his policies tend to be more centrist than a true leftist candidate such as Gravel or Kucinich or 1996/2000 Nader. Obama has also shown a great deal of cross-party appeal with many independents and Republicans voting for him in open primaries.

These differences emerge in potential splits along the political spectrum based on potential match-ups.

( crude charts underneath )

This is why from a pragmatic systematic perspective Obama is the logical choice.

I'm a posting maniac!

( FCC okays nudity on TV if it's Alyson Hannigan )