Ramblings of Lefty and Right

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I enjoy this song and what it makes me think of...
So the song is "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked"which I first heard last night and have been enjoying immensely today at work, as has my co-worker.

But what it makes me think of: The British Empire of the 18th through 20th centuries.

I'm a weird duck, very weird.

Rage...all consuming mental rage at our government....
Look at this, LOOK AT IT! Unacceptable! I cannot believe in the past that members of our own citizen-base have argued if water-boarding someone was torture, argued about what constitutes torture, and attempted to jump through hoops to debate what "torture" means. Okay, I'm going to say this as neatly and cleanly as I can: when you get out sharp knives and start cutting people, let alone cutting sensitive tissue like genitals, YOU ARE TORTURING PEOPLE! I dare any court in our land to rule that the use of knives to cut up living human tissue, without benefit of pain killers and for non-medical purposes is not torture. I swear to the high heavens if some legal twisting comes out of this with a court ruling "well in these cases and under these circumstances its not really torture" then I look forward to the next serial killer who makes a vest of human flesh bouncing up and down in court and saying "I may have killed people but I didn't torture them, see your own rules."

I'm doubly disgusted because we are a founding nation behind the ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document I might add that we signed, no one made us agree to it, hell we have an unconditional veto in the UN and we did not use it, which means we agreed to play by these rules as a nation-state. Now is the time for us as a nation to actually stand the hell up and back up our language with action, it is time we put those responsible for allowing this to occur on trial. Now I know that there will be those who argue that those who engaged in torture did so under orders and should not be tried, never mind the fact we have already well established the principle that "following orders" is not a justifiable excuse for such conduct. (Nuremberg people, Nuremberg, unless of course those sorts of rules only apply if you obey orders under this flag rather then this flag.) Oh and please do spare me any arguments about necessity or the need to gain information to save lives or protect the integrity of the US government, those who were tried at Nuremberg faced punishment not just for the death of civilians but also for the use of torture on political prisoners as well. (Many of whom were Communists and deemed a threat to the security of the Nazi state, a mantra we took up ourselves in the 1950s.)

I am sorry but even through the most careful and happy twisting of the rules and arguments I think I am on quite solid ground saying that the US government engaged in torture, to gain information from suspects, and did so as an authorized and directed policy approved by its serving Chief Executive at the time. This is not a policy I endorse as a citizen, it is not a policy we endorse as a nation by our principles, AND IT IS A POLICY WE AGREED NOT TO USE, to put it in its most blunt form. We, along with the other nations of the world, agreed in 1946 not to do this. We, as a nation, along with the other Allied powers HUNG political and military leaders of a defeated state, in part, for doing this.

But you know what, I'm willing to let this be settled by the courts, as it should be. I'm even willing to grant a waiver to those who "just followed orders" (but on a condition that a whole list of Nazi's found guilty of war crimes should have their records exonerated, I'm sorry, but if you want to play that game you don't get to two-face it.) No I say we give our good former President, Mr. George W. Bush Jr., whose signature is on the memo authorizing these policies, have his day in court. Not our courts mind you, executive privilege, but the International Courts. Let him bring lawyers, let those who advised him stand next to him, and let our former leaders face the rule of international law. Did they endorse torture? If they are so sure they did not, let a tribunal of judges trained in the law from around the globe rule on their policies. If they are so sure they were in the right let them stand before those trained in international law and determine if their actions were right.

Let them bring advocates in the law to argue for them and let advocates rule against them. They applied this policy on a global scale, they applied it to non-US citizens, so it is a matter of international law.

Oh and if they are found guilty of torture, of approving policies that are crimes against humanity, well we already have a punishment that has been found fitting for those crimes, ranging from prison terms of many years to death by hanging. (Oh and if anyone was killed as a retaliation for September 11th, well we have a precedent for punishing leaders for that sort of personal justice as well.)

But hey - I'm just a citizen, I have no voice beyond voting and the US government will never hand a former President over to an international tribunal for trial, that would set a bad precedent. I mean look at the awesome things we do pay attention to as a nation, like Michelle Obama's dress at the first formal state dinner by the President, and it is a smashing gown. Plus what do I know, I'm just a citizen, not an expert on international law or a member of government, so let me, for a moment, speak on a subject I do know well, history.

Every generation believes that the political entities they live with, the states that exist for them, are permanent, they might change or shift but they won't vanish, and these people are right - until in a relative blink of an eye they are suddenly wrong. Governments rise and fall quickly, change hands quickly, power shifts, and those defeated or removed from power have things taken from them. The United States is a powerful nation-state, we've not faced a serious potential rival since the fall of the USSR in 1991 and, honestly, they were losing the battle for world dominance since the early 1980s. The US has never faced a war with an enemy that could take be expected to take territory from it by force since 1812, (although the worry of a Germany and Japan triumphant in World War II haunted FDR with fears of the US and the Western Hemisphere facing an actual invasion.) Currently there is no nation-state on Earth powerful enough to defeat the United States in a conventional war nor one strong enough, even in combination with others, to seize US territory or curb our military power easily.

But things change, power shifts, those who were strong weaken, those who are weak strengthen, so mark my words, even as one tiny screaming speck in a vast horde of humanity, mark them well. There will come a day in the future, a day when the US will be called to task for its past actions, and the more blood debts we amass now the more we will get to pay when the time of reckoning comes. For the good our nation does we may gain aid, for the evil we do we will gain punishment, I hope when our next time of tribulation comes we still have more friends then enemies and partners. But at some point this vast powerful edifice we have built will fall, they always do, and when it happens something new will come to bring order to chaos and to extract riches and blood from those defeated. We have done it to others, in turn it will be done to us.

Some random thoughts...
It has been a while since I've posted, between work keeping me busy and the demands of the LARP and everything else, it has been a few weeks since I've had time to post anything interesting. I am going to work on the FistOfHistory blog concept as proposed earlier, I think that putting my skills as a historian to work writing nice general history posts that are short, reviews of movies and books, and lambasting the history channel when it does something really goof-tastic, would be a useful addition to the online world.

Plus it gives me more incentive to read history books and I love my history books.

I was bemused to read today about "secret tips" for Black Friday shopping,my amazement knows no bounds, merchants attempt to trick you into going into their store by offering deals too good to be true? Wow, will wonders never cease! More critically though in some ways Black Friday to me feels a bit like Vegas, you are going there to try to get a better deal then you know you should, they are attempting to get you in the store to empty more money then you anticipated from your pockets. That said though I have no intention of ever lining up in front of a shop to buy anything, no matter how cool or hyped, unless my life literally depends on getting that product. Which, on a side note, amuses me immensely about the recent burst of hype over the newest movie in the Twilight series, the many people saying "I just can't wait to find out what happens next" on the news - tip, read the book, I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts they will be quite similar.

Also I was shocked to read about the increasing number of icebergs floating off the shores of New Zealand, yet another indication of climate shift and what happened the last time this occurred? They flew a sheep to an iceberg to sheer it as a publicity stunt. Okay people, officially, I'm looking at my species and saying "you guys win the special bus award."

I read about an interesting game mechanic today, the one used in Fairy Tale, which is a drafting mechanism for a fixed number of rounds. I admit I admire the idea of drafting and passing hands between players coupled with keeping a subset and discarding a subset. The follow-up ability to flip and manipulate cards has an appeal as well. Of course I'd want to do a space theme for my own version of this sort of game, probably based on the theme for Outpost because I'm a geek like that. However, and this is key, I promised Gabe I'd actually go back and do a revision of a game idea that I had a while ago that people apparently really liked, as a prototype it got played more then once and some players actually asked to play it twice.

The thing of it is the game had basically four tracks of advancement on it and was about getting victory points, you had three types of connections to place, Trade, Military, and Cultural, and the strength/appeal of each was a measure of one advancement track. You had a fourth track of technology which covered how far you could project your power on a hex map and the total number of connections you could place in a turn/have on the board. The other tracks indicated how strong your connection was in appeal compared to other powers and how many of each type you could have maximum on the board of that type. (So if you had a Tech of three you could project a relationship up to three hexes out and have up to three sustained, but if your Culture was only two you could not have more then two cultural relationships out there.) This was complicated by the fact that the game had three epochs, each having a fixed 'ranking' of power for the relationships, and the rule was a higher ranked relationship could replace a lower ranked one and if the two were of the same type, then the higher valued one would replace the other. Finally there was an Empire whose chits were put out on the board as well, with the same rules but it was more powerful and gradually declined. The board was fixed and I designed a few different ones to give it some flex in play.

Now Gabe loved this design but I've had a few problems with it over the years, first I never liked the idea of the three types, their names, and second I never really liked the way the Empire played, randomly placed chits on the board. I know I would keep the idea of the chosen starting locations and the hexes with point values, I'd also make the board smaller (fewer larger hexes) and with a random initial setup (with the Empire in the middle and projecting outwards in all directions) but the cornerstone piece I still want to develop is the four tracks idea and the replacing of connections/ranking. Cornerstone parts of my original design but I think they can be improved.

Thank goodness it's done at this point - UCON 2009
Well my weekend was a mix of frustration and fun, but a major task that was facing me is done. The LARP ran, UCON 2009 got off and done, the dealers room functioned (for the most part) and I even got to play a couple of train games. The last things I need to do at this point are make sure my graduate applications are done, (Calgary needs my attention still) and write up a campaign setting and adventure path for the Friday and (now) Thursday groups.

I also in a moment of madness signed up to do NaNoWriMo this month but have gotten only a minimal amount of writing done. In a moment of complete abandon I tried again with a junkie novel started now, rather then my serious initial attempt, and I'm torn. It would take about 4000 words a day to finish my novel in time and I don't want to do it, at all. But the ego part of my mind says "Come on, you could do it, you'll have time off to do nothing but write this weekend and Thanksgiving weekend, why not try for it?" I am attempting, for my own sanity, to crush that little part of my brain. We'll see how that goes for me.

Project Mongoose is Done - thanks to help from Gabe
As of 12:18 AM Project Mongoose, the Star Wars LARP, is fully done. Thanks to awesome help from Gabe!

Why my brain is evil sometimes....
So I'm tired today but also officially "thinky" and that has lead to a couple of fun ideas which, because I have a blog, I get to put out there for the world to enjoy. I loves the Internet:

- Slavery and Abortion: I'm currently reading a basic book on the Jacksonian period in the United States (1810s to 1850s for those wondering) and the current chapter is describing Jackson and the issue of slavery. What struck me though was the chapter begins by giving a brief overview of the slavery and abolition movements of the period and I was struck by the similiarity to the divisions in the US over the issue of abortion. It has most of the same themes, people on both sides of the issue deeply affected by passions, to the point of using violence and terror to advance their outlooks. It has an issue of states policies and laws versus federal laws, it even has a controversial Supreme Court ruling that angered people on both sides of the issue (Dred Scott Case.) I was even struck by the fact that states with this issue passed laws either requiring state officials to refuse to assist in helping retrieve escaped slaves (abolition states) which seems somewhat similiar to the controversy over the "right of conscious laws" being batted around today. Even the action of the Underground Railway has some links to the actions of anti-abortion groups in the US that raid/bomb abortion clinics. (Not a tactic I even remotely agree with but to a southern slave holders perspective the Underground Railway must been seen in a similiar light.)

Even religion plays a huge role in both and the issue of morality.

Even the matter of the need for special laws to cover an obviously unique problem (humans as property, fetuses as people) seems present. One could not draw any conclusions from such gross generalizations because, honestly, similiar as the issues are in some ways they are also quite different, but I will say that I think I'm safe in arguing that abortion as an issue will most likely not be settled comfortablely in our lifetime, maybe not even for a full century. Slavery was a bane since the founding of the nation and a major problem for over thirty years, resolving its legacies is something we are still hammering out, gradually.

But this makes me feel happily geeky for having another history linking moment. It is moments like these that remind me just how much I love history and how much I want to play with it professionally. People ask me sometimes why I want to study history, it is moments like these, and the chance to do that professionally, and to talk to people about it professionally, makes me happy.

- Walt Disney: I love Walt Disney in some ways, the machine and efficency of it, and it struck me today that Disney Parks have a lot in common with Vegas casinos (stay with me.) Vegas casinos have an interest in obtaining your business, keeping you in the casino to spend your money only there, and providing you with a total entertainment experience so that you return to give them business. Now Disney is in the same business but it does not use the same techniques as casinos because Disney does not feel it has the same sort of competition as a Vegas casino. If you want Disney World, there is only...Disney World. If you want the magic of a Disney vacation...you have to go to Disney. But on the counter token Disney is also competing in general for vacation dollars.

But I had an idea to improve Disney World's operation, because I do that. If you stay in a Disney resort you should get a plastic ID tag, RFID, that you can wear on a lanyard. (You can still link it to their impressive biometric scanning system.) Now that plastic ID should get you discounts on food and things you buy in the park, because you are part of the Disney total package. That plastic ID tag should get you on the rides AND it would improve the ride system. See Disney works by having you either sit in line for the ride OR you can get a "Fast Pass" where you give them your park pass and they will issue you a pass that will give you a line skipping appointment for later in the ride. Good fun that...BUT with my plastic ID imagine this:

You stay in a Disney resort, the night before you go to the park, you use your in-room TV based system to inform Disney what rides you want to ride that day. Disney takes all that, schedules it, and the next day when you wake up you have a printed scheduled itinerary of your requested rides with times. When you show up at the ride you wave your ID and boom, off you go.

Plus Disney could now track all this data and use it to give you even more custom experiences that you will enjoy, which is what Disney does to make their magic more magical. Hell imagine if you linked that to cell phones, you get a message in the park reminding you when to ride a ride due to your appointment or that provided you with an invitation to a meet and greet with a character your kid likes. Oh and I know part of Disneys plan is to have you wander through the park waiting for rides, get bored, and buy things. Trust me, you can handle this planning to move people past stores to tempt them. If you add in a minor discount package with your plastic ID program and boom, you've got people eating this up.

Disney in turn gets data on you, the customer, the kind of data that would let Disney build a profile of your connections to Disney to offer even more custom packages and temptations which makes the Disney experience that much more magical. Which, in turn, should further help get people coming back year after year for magic.

I'm back from vacation...weee
Last week I was out of town enjoying the warm embrace of Florida, about which I will post more goodness later. Let me say though that Key West is lovely and Disney is far more captivating then I had originally hoped, although honestly it also takes Whimsy to a professional level. Look at it this way, during my time there I got to see Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and had these tunes running through my head for days because they played them over and over again in the park. (Although the parade was pretty cool.) Of course then you see this highly disturbing/amusing video of cast members at Disney Paris behind the scenes in costume, which actually makes me happy because it reminds me there are people as twisted as us all in those costumes.

Currently I am reading a book on Jacksonian Democracy (I've got a bit of a US history buzz going at the moment) and then it will be followed up by a book on the Civil War (part of the Politically Incorrect Series) on the grounds that anything that gets me snorting mad based on its cover alone should probably be read. Which means at some point in December expect a long rant on the subject.

Projects wise I've gone into the seventh bowel of insanity at the moment, I'm working on tying up the dealers room for UCON, writing a LARP for UCON as well (Project Mongoose which is actually making some solid progress although I requested to reduce the number of maximum players from 24 to 16. 24 honestly was just too darn ambitious at this point, I don't think I can write enough solid material for 24 people, but I can write for a total of 16 people. As the event has currently sold all of 2 tickets and needs 8 minimum to run, I'm not sure it will happen but I'll make damn sure I'm ready for it.) I also, as a final burst of madness, elected to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year and I have to still finish up some PhD application paperwork. (Ordering the last batch of GRE scores, sending in a packet of supporting materials to a university, and financial aid paperwork for a couple of schools.)

It promises to be a most fun and demanding month...but I'm feeling geeked (albeit also ill.)

We live in a weird and wonderful world - personal moments
First off I want to send my powers of evil mind influence, limited though they are, at Disney for producing this version of Zippity Do Da, because I can't get it out of my head. Once it got in there it nested, fluffed up its feathers, and has sense dug in and began crooning in an odd high-pitched voice. Darn you Disney and your special skills at planting cultural memes.

Now while I was poking around on Youtube for music I came across the power of Hava Nagila (traditional Jewish song) done to a techno beat, which in turn lead to finding this. Watch closely at around the 20 second mark, I want to know what that telethon was for and did they really need the giant circle of dancers dressed as rabbis bouncing around the human dreidal? I'm part of Team-Jew so I'm allowed to look at moments like this and ask "Really? Really? Did you really have to go there?" Amusing as it is and also amusing as my parents for several years have told me I'd have made a fine Rabbi myself, because I like to argue the fine points of religious law. I see myself more as the sort of religious figure dancing around the human sized holiday toy. (Although in looking at techno hava nagila I also found this surf rock version which is actually pretty damn kicking.)

So my first personal moment that must be preserved for all of the future (and the amusement of all) was a glorious moment on Thursday when I attained true "dumb ass" status for a moment. My lovely (and highly intelligent wife) and I drove out to Pontiac Michigan to deliver a copy of a DVD to a large haunted house attraction/TV studio for broadcast this Saturday night. On the drive to and from the haunted attraction my wife had noticed signs for Pontiac Trail which lead me to say, in an exact quote, "Wow I did not realize Pontiac Trail came all the way up here!" To which my wife, giving me the look that only a long suffering wife can give, replied "Yeah, amazing, the road named Pontiac Trail happens to reach the city named Pontiac." She burst out laughing at my response scrunchy pouty face and protesting that it was possible the road did not happen to make it all the way up here followed by an even more pouty "Shut Up."

Just because I have an advanced degree does not in any way mean I'm actually bright.

Although the drive down Pontiac Trail was, although long, quite lovely. There is something about road trips on back roads.

Ooh...shiny news stories that make me shake my head....
So the first thing out of the gate to warrant my shaking my head is the following AP story: Weapons failed US troops during Afghan firefight. Apparently one soldier in a firefight in a remote part of Afghanistan had both his carbine and a machine gun fail on him when he attempted to use them in a firefight. Ignoring the wonderful comment frenzy below the article (MonkeyBama...you know it is amazing how certain insults seem to come back up over and over again) what amazes me is the fact this made the news. Apparently most Americans know so little of modern firearms that they think a weapon failing is an amazing and newsworthy event...actually firearms fail in modern combat all the time. His double failure, although statiscally amusing, can happen, bad ammunition, poor maintenance, environmental conditions can all lead to weapons jams and malfunctions.

What really got to me though were these two articles on atomic weapons and if Iran gets an atomic weapon, the second arguing that it would be a minor irritation and Iran as an atomic power could be contained and it would prove a waste of money and the first arguing that in sheer destructive power atomic weapons are not capable of destroying civilization, because based on the amount of area it can devestate an atomic weapon is not capable of shattering all the cities of the world. Lets go with a simple answer to this problem, check out this map of proven oil reserves in the world, notice they high concentration of oil reserves in countries bordering Iran at the moment, Iraq, Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. All of these nations are well within the strike range of current Iranian missile and fighter deployable technologies and, even more amusing, most of these fields are clustered together densely near the Persian Gulf region. Now nukes deployed in that area could not destroy the oil fields, but the infastructure to gain the oil, yes, that could be destroyed quite handily. With that gone then you would find oil prices spike.

Such focused strikes on a global scale by Russia and the US could result in widespread disruption of vital communication and transportation hubs as well as production centers. There is a reason generations of planners feared all out atomic war and it was a good one.

A professor approved game nugget!
Normally when I have an idea for a board game I run it by a couple of friends who are professors/PhDs in computer science, mainly because they have large brains and can help see problems with mathematical game models as well as with predicting game behavior. I talked about my zombie euro-game idea and the professor marked that an optimal play would be to guard the minimum number of cities to ensure stability and not move ones forces, ergo I'm thinking of adding a "recovering civilians to a safe location" concept as well as the idea you can trade in civilians for more military units. (Nothing says caring government like extra military forces.)

BUT...my idea for a 19th century Victorian Era Euro Game recieved a professors Seal Of Approval as "interesting" which makes me extremely happy. One of my other design goals was to create a game to mimic the theme of Pax Britannica which had the potential to be quite impressive but actually was a very math intensive ten hour game. My mechanic idea, at its core, is each player at the start of the turn grabs one piece of territory from those unclaimed on a map of the colonial world. Territory seized you as a player control however you score no points for its control. Each territory has a rating on it that represents the total number of trade chits that can be in a territory, your trade chits are what gives you victory points. Possibly some territories are worth more per chit then others.

The cornerstone idea is that each turn a player can grant to any other player access to territory under their control, effectively you control the access to the victory points but you have to give the victory points to other players and, in turn, have them give points to you. Some of the other bits that make it a fun concept - first what you can grant you can also expell, after the player scores for the points that turn. After a certain point players are given "conflict" tokens which can be played in territories and those territories for the turn in which they are in conflict are worth no points. However territories in conflict allow a player with a trade token to upgrade it to a possesion token, allowing co-dominions. (In that case all new trade relations and all standing ones must be approved by both but can be rejected by any.) Fleets from Pax that control access to parts of the board and, finally, event cards flipped up at the start of each turn AND a handful of event cards that can be played rather then laying down a trade token. (I think each power, unrealistically, should be able to lay the same number of trade tokens per turn plus any "expelled" in the previous turn.) Indepedent states (a key part of Pax) simply don't allow anyone to take possesion of them unless in conflict but do allow trade tokens to be placed in them like any other territory.

Finally Pax had a fun mechanic for ending the game, WWI breaks out after either a fixed number of turns OR if enough conflict occurs to warrent it. I think I'll keep the idea that as conflict markers are placed on the board (players can pass or place, if all pass it ends) that war can break out early ending the game before its normal end.

Things that make me chuckle inside...headlines wise
So first off yesterday I read a lovely article (which now I cannot find) which was arguing that Americans need to save more money so they can better retire and how saving money, rather then borrowing money, is the engine for personal wealth development. All points I agree with, however what struck me in reading the article was their advise for building wealth: "Now if instead of eating out each week you put some of that money away in savings you can save $200 per month as a working professional, which in an a safe investment paying 10% interest will grow to...yadda yadda giant wads of money." Which made me pause for a moment, just where in magical twinky fairy land are their "safe investments" that pay a ten percent return on your money? Now if you are borrowing money an interest rate of ten percent is easy to find, in fact far higher rates are there for the taking, but look at the rates of payment offered by my credit union, UMCU, on savings accounts. If I deposit $10,000 or more into a 60 month Term Savings Account I get...2.27% return on my money. Kicking! Now of course those are really safe investments, so apparently we need to take a bit more risk in our investing to get that magical ten percent rate of return.

Per this site the annual rate of return for the stock market, adjusted for inflation, is around six to seven percent per year. Still not that magical ten percent that will make my money rub itself into a collective ball of happiness, plus the stock market is certainly not "safe" as an investment. Individual results may vary and, to quote another comment in the same original article, "the climate of business in the next fifty years will be highly volatile and unpredictable, especially with many highly skilled jobs and traditional manufacturing sectors of economic growth moving overseas." In other words...because of the new spite of globalization predicting future growth segments and market trends, domestic versus international, will be rather hard over the next half century. I don't know about you guys but for me the next fifty years is likely to cover the rest of my life, retirement, and personal final checkout.

Other points that amuse me, this article talking about how the goverment health care overhaul bill has gotten steam up again, using clever illness analogies to help people better "grasp" what the author is talking about. I love these articles because they include quotes from "the man in the street" to help bolster up the numbers with a human element, such as this gem from Andrew Newcomb, 28, in Florida:

"I don't want my tax money to pay for some pill-popper to fake some injury and go to the hospital when I don't ever go to the hospital," said Newcomb, adding he can afford to go to the doctor and pay $60 for a checkup.

Thank you Mr. Newcomb, I'm glad to know that your concern is that the government not get involved in healthcare reform or providing healthcare so that we can avoid the horrid specter of "pill-poppers" flooding the hospitals faking pain and injury to get medication on your tax dime. I'm also glad to read that you don't got to the hospital when ill Mr. Newcomb, can we as a nation hold you to that in the event you are uninsured and fall suddenly ill? We are all counting on you to continue to show that rugged individualism you apparently hold dear in the even of serious or even life threatening illness. That or if you do need to go to a hospital I'm sure that we can provide you with an accurate assessment of the projected net worth of your estate, liquidate it for you, and provide you with care up to your dollar amount.

I read the following post on Afghanistan in the New Yorker, honestly I don't know if stability or even regional stalemate is really an achievable goal in Afghanistan at this point. That would require a considerable and open-ended investment by the US in arms, equipment, training, and economic aid to help provide Afghanistan with the sort of well armed and well equipped moderate forces to offset other movements seeking to create a new Afghanistan with Islam as the central guiding and unifying pillar of the nation, Islam coupled with extreme xenophobism and anti-Western outlooks. Honestly what I am curious about is are there any moderate but respected religious leaders in Afghanistan around which such moderate groups could be based? If there are such seeds that might prove a solution point the US could use for its mission of nation building.

Of course on a crude level the problem still has a major foundation component, angry young men with poor economic prospects and plenty of hatred aimed at percieved "powerful forces" holding them back. Add to that boil a strong sense of proto-nationalism and anti-colonialism/anti-Western outlooks and you have yourself a powderkeg little can calm down.

Board Game Wish List - what I'd love to see/develop
The past couple of weeks have been a swimming mess of board game ideas because I've had an active brain in that regard, which has lead to my putting up a LOT of posts to record board game ideas. But in looking over my stacks of notes and ideas it has struck me that I should, perhaps, focus myself a bit development wise on a theme and a mechanic or two I rather like and try to come up with something useful and fun.

In that line I have two ideas I think I'd like to actually work on:

Strategic Level Zombie Board Game - one of the games not out there, nor really developed as far as I can see, is a strategic level board game based around the idea of defeating a zombie threat on a strategic level (national in this case.) A game like this is more about flavor then mechanics so my plan would be to simply cannabalize mechanics from other "pop game" types of games and focus on flavor more then anything else. Borrowing from countless other games and, in particular, "Monsters Ravage America" and "Invasion USA" I'd have each of the players controlling a branch of the armed forces (I'm thinking Army, Marines, National Guard, Partisan Irregulars, Special Forces) and each player has two kinds of units. Basic game mechanic is you have a handful of units that you move around a board, adjacent space to adjacent space, from fixed starting locations, and roll a die for each unit to kill a target. Either have a fixed "kill" number for all military units and different kind of die for some of them OR set varied kill numbers based on quality of unit and have a fixed die. After all the units have gone for the players the zombies are rolled, on number X or above they kill a unit, on higher number Y or above they "infect" a unit. "Kill" result and the unit is removed from play, "infect" result and the unit is removed and a zombie counter added to the space. Some fun twists would include cards that players can buy for an extra "edge" (which is where the Navy and Airforce will come in I think, as well as Nukes among other fun.) Income is based on the cities and how many zombies are in each city so clearing out cities will give more money, which is divided up by the rotating first player (the Emergency Government.) Zombies generated by cards and randomly added to the board. Finally a victory condition - for a fixed amount of money, if a city is completely clear of zombies then the players can "Fortify" it making it immune to future zombie placements, if enough cities are "Fortified" then the game is over. I'm not sure if I should make it a cooperative game or have individual winners (if I do probably based on Zombies killed.) Oh and as well two other indicators players need to juggle, four tracks for "Countryside Zombies" which rise based on cards and need to be battled with units assigned to the back country and also a "Panic Indicator" which rises as civilians get more scared and run to the hills to hide.

Bidding Down Game Mechanic - this is a mechanic more then a theme, but the theme I have in mind for a start using this would be "Building A Moonbase/Extra-Planetary Base." The game would be based around having to achieve a certain set of building goals by all the players, mainly the game ends when the base has a certain set of stuff completed at a minimum. Each turn a series of improvements are flipped up, one by one, and each improvement has a fixed resource cost and maximum VP point value. (Probably each player gets to flip an improvement and get first bid on it.) The player can bid any number of VP, highest being the maximum VP value on the improvement, or below that value, for the right to build the item. Each player has a fixed set of resources that they can spend each turn on building things and the player who bids the lowest VP "income" for an improvement wins the right to build it, spending the resources. Obviouisly you cannot bid on an item if you do not have enough resources to complete it available. Some of the improvements give advantages to players like extra resources per turn to play with once built. (As an added wing ding you could also have some improvements allow you to draw a Research Card or Technology Advancement card giving you a better, but more focused advantage.) Players can pass on building an improvement and if no one can build it the improvement goes on the bottom of the improvements pile for recycling later in the game. Finally every improvement also has a habitation rating and after each player has had a chance to bid up an improvement each player, starting with the first player, for a fixed resource cost can put crew into the space station. Crew are worth a fixed VP amount each. Final couple of fun bits - when the station has reached the required configuration for the game the bidding continues until each player has flipped an improvement and had a chance to put up crew, then the game ends. At the end of each turn each player must remove a certain fixed number of crew of their color from the station, after they are scored for bonus VP, representing crew rotation home.

Abstract Space Game - the theme of this game is that the Galactic Empire of Miscelleanous nature is collapsing and each of you is a high ranked member of the old order, it is time to back one of the newly rising powers. It uses the same reverse bidding mechanism as the space station game [each card has a fixed resource cost and a maxium VP worth for the card printed on it as well as what faction it is.] A number of cards equal to the number of players plus one is flipped face up into an array. Starting with the first player each player selects one card from the array to put up for auction, only players with enough resources may bid on a card. A card goes the player who will take the lowest VP value for the card, paying the resources for it. A card everyone passes on is discarded from play. The player who claims a card gets the VP amount they bid to for the card. Twists on this game idea: there is an array of cards randomly shuffled at the start of the game and three are flipped face up. Each faction has two cards in the array, plus two non-faction cards, and each turn one additional card is flipped up. At the end of the game the factions with cards in the last three slots score points again, equal to the original maximum VP total on the cards. If a faction is fortunate enough to have both of its cards in the final spots, it scores twice! I think one of the two faction cards will also allow a lesser amount of points to be scored, some of the more powerful faction cards have a lesser VP number on them in a small box so that players invested in that faction aren't completely hosed. The non-faction cards keep the information flow a bit variable and make the ending less fixed.

Long ideas but they are both games that I think I could actually develop and at least prototype and get the monkey of wanting to design some sort of board game off my back.

For those kind souls patient enough to read the above which do you think would be more fun to start with, the zombie game, the space station game, or the space empire game?

What a shock - a disaster movie about 2012 *face palm*
So this weekend while I was watching television with Gabe what appears as a preview for an upcoming November disaster movie but a film titled 2012, a film based around the idea of massive global disasters that devestate the planet and civilization in a series of violent earthquakes and geologic events. (Check out the preview if you have not seen this little gem advertised as of yet.) It amuses me to see that this little worry has reached film stage and the earth is depicted as collapsing in on itself like some sort of giant overbaked cake.

Of course I think, for the kids, since the world is going to end 23 December we should move back Christmas to 22 December for that year, so they can open their gifts. I'm sure Santa will be down with that and, parents, go ahead and buy them that hot toy because guess what, you won't have to pay the bill off! It's shopping heaven time!

Crazy board/card game idea...
A dull post for all those out there but I've had this one rattling around in my head for a while and I wanted to post it:

Based on Elfenland this game is themed around Dwarves building roads on contract with the local Dwarven king who wishes to expand his trade empire. The board map shows a bunch of cities, each connected by a route. However each route has on it a table listing combinations of cards that allow a player to build a particular route to the city. Each city has a VP value attached to it. Players may build any road segment on the board and, once built, they mark it with a color cube. Cards are acquired using rules similiar to Ticket to Ride, from face up cards that are visual or face down cards from a draw pile. But each card has on it a cost in VP, so when you score the final value of a city you deduct the cost of the cards you use to build the road network from the value of the city and score the net total. Probably there will be a bonus in the end for linked roads.

I've got a similiar idea using the card combinations mechanic for a trading game, if you have a particular combination of cards you can lay them down and score a cities VP value for delivering goods. (Using types of cards like Elfenland and each city has a particular set of combos that can score it, reflecting various routes to the cities.) However each time a city is scored a token is placed on it, a city can only be scored up to its value in number of times in a turn. At the end of each turn each city has one token removed from each of the cities, reflecting market forces on rare trade goods.

Post Two - Gaming Thoughts
So first off on my simple deterministic hex game that I outlined before I plan to make two additional changes, after talking with a good friend who has a keen eye for board game design issues. I intend to change the "Defend" order to one that allows the player with the "Defend" order to actually remove the order chit of one other players fleet in the same hex. Multiple fleets can be allowed in a single hex by the same player and I think multiple order chits might be appropriate at this point, putting one beneath or on top of each fleet in a hex. The next trick is the players process the map one hex at time, with the first player chosing the first hex and then the next player picking a hex and so forth until all are processed.

The big issue that I still need to figure out, as suggested, is how to make the terrain useful in the conflict (why one hex matters over another.)  I think one change I'll play with is the idea that some hexes require spending two influence to replace one influence of another player while others only take one influence to replace. The other thought that comes to mind is to remove the idea that fleets are worth one VP each but add the following idea: to replace an influence of one player by another player the replacing player must spend influence up to the difference in fleets between the two in the hex. (For example of Player 1 has three fleets in a hex and Player 2 has one fleet in the same hex Player 2 would have to discard two influence to make up the difference before he/she could replace Player 1's influence with one of his/her own, making a total of three influence used to replace one influence.)

More broadly though I'm actually thinking of a different board game idea combining some mechanics I rather like with a theme I like, it would be a very "Ed Centered" game. A variable hex map (Settlers of Catan) with each player getting an equal starting stack of chits representing their presence on the board (many games.) Players start by picking a starting hex on the map (18xx series for determining first player randomly) and then each turn players select one card with a role/power that each player then completes in that turn with the selecting player getting a bonus aspect to that power (Twilight Imperium, Puerto Rico). Combat and movement is resolved by picking up chits from the board and then place them in stacks with a simple equation where you must match any opposing stacks and/or terrain bonuses to remove chits from the board (Small World.)  Victory points are scored depending on the terrain actually controlled on the board with each hex being worth VP to the player who happens to be holding it. The theme would be conflict between different factions on a key strategic planet in the future, a space them (Dune.) Probably I'd also have each faction have a special unique power they are good at. Possibly with Random Powers drawn each turn giving the players special abilities.

The problems of course are balancing and making it feel less generic but I think it could make for a fun basic game concept.

Edit: An additional idea I had that I figured I would toss down here because it amuses me, although the random factor in it is much larger then most games I like to design. A card game in which each player is attempting to gain the most VP they can in play, by collecting the most cards. Each player has an equal starting pool of resource chits, each worth 1 VP at the end of the game. Each turn an array of cards is flipped face up, equal to the number of players, in a specific order on a mat. The first player may then either take the first card in the array for free or pay one Resource Chit down onto each card, starting with the first, they wish to skip in picking until they get to the one they want. The next player then selects using the same rules and keeping any resource chits that are on cards on the way.  First player then rotates to the left and you do it again. Play until the deck is exhausted.

You could use the above mat concept with an economics/trading game, cards are resources where sets are worth more if they match (Civilization) and each turn a card goes into a slot on the mat, one per player. Each player has a store of cash that is Victory Points and each turn a player may either take the card in their slot for free or make an offer on any other card there in Victory Points from their stash. The player who has that card in their slot may either accept the offered Victory Points and give up their card or refuse.  A player may using this method buy multiple cards in a single turn, with each player accepting or refusing offers. Once a card is purchased it is replaced with a new card from the deck, a players turn ends when they take the card offered for free in the slot in front of them. To speed up play a player may only make one offer for a specific card in a turn in a slot, the player recieving the offer can say Yes or No. Once each player has had a turn in collecting cards sets are turned in. A hand limit so that players must turn in some cards but can also build for the future. Finally some of the cards are not goods but give bonuses to players in income and/or adding to the value of sets.

Finally once more I have been informed by some good friends that as I've been wanting to run something Conan themed for a long time, I should feel fine doing so in 3.5. Which actually will work just fine.

First Off - Some Political Thoughts
Currently I am reading Helen Graham's "The Spanish Civil War, A Very Short Introduction," which has put me in a politicals mindset today, in particular because this history emphasizes the political, cultural, and social aspects of the Spanish Civil War more then the actual military conflict aspects. Unfortunately the language is a bit dense due to its being a highly compressed history, but reading it inspired a bit of an odd insight or two these past few days.

First off I find the current work on global warming and the UN General Assembly discussions on terrorism and nuclear proliferation quite interesting because they are, in many ways, so tightly linked. What struck me was on the issue of war and conflict, it is a rather harsh thought but it seems to me that conflict and warefare are indicators not of desperation but of surplus resources in an economy. Granted conflict, at its core, is usually over issues of disputed resources or an attempt to expand a resource base for a particular subgroup of humans, but to wage war you basically need surpluses. Extra food to feed an army, extra raw materials to equip an army, sustained conflict by any sort of trained or semi-professional armed force is the domain of the population that is well off. Couple this with the natural human inclination towards greed and expanding the amount of resources controlled by one particular subgroup of humans over another and the more surplus a group gains the more likely they are to attempt to use that surplus to potentially expand their resource base or ensure that their larger resource base remains theirs.

So the question that came to my mind was just how useful is it to feed, clothe, house, and support the poor masses of the globe?

I know this sounds harsh and seems paradoxial but I was thinking about the regions of the world in which nation-states have collapsed, such as Somalia, which have turned into nexi of anarchy and continual conflict but that conflict is sustained by extra resources extracted from the population by force and by external imports of aid. What would happen if we, as a species, somehow managed to find a way so that each human being had a full belly, clothes on their back, shelter, and reasonable medical care. How long before these healthier, stronger human beings began to look with hungry eyes upon their neighbors resources in an attempt to expand their own base of resources so they could enjoy more luxury goods or scarce resources. Toss into that the added bonus of war over intangibles, such as whose magic post-death sky cake tastes better, a dislike for another human group because of physical characteristics, or an urge to simply destroy for the nilhistic joy of it and it makes me wonder. Is greater material weath for the human species the answer?

Even looking at science fiction shows with a utopian future of humanity achieving some sort of peaceful internal balance and enough wealth that we are in a post-scarcity economy (Star Trek comes to mind) we still wage conflicts with other species over intangibles.

The other fun thought that caught my eye was the current German elections, we in the US always seem amused at multi-party nations and fret about what would happen if our own bi-partisan system became a multi-party system. What amuses me is that if you look at the US political parties we are already in a multi-party coalition government system, we just have a stronger franchise/nation branding system for our parties. Consider the Democrats - compare the Democratic party in California to the one in Texas, both claim the donkey as their symbol but one believes in a larger central government, redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation, and reform while the other believes in fiscal conservancy, smaller government, and less progressive reforms. On the right would you consider Republicans from Colorado, who hold to the idea of small government, low taxes, and greater state rights to be identical to Christian Conservatives who also follow the elephant but hold that government should have the force and duty to enforce moral laws. We have two grand parties that are actually regional parties in coalition, the smaller sub-parties merely agree on certain key issues to remain in league with each other in opposition to the other vast mass.

I just find it interesting that our system went into that method using two parties while other nations have gone multi-party but there is more in common between the two then first meets the eye.

Afghanistan - DEPLOY THE HISTORY FIST!
In a shocking development the commander of US forces in Afghanistan has annouced that the US must deploy more forces into Afghanistan or risk the possibility of being unable to successfully complete our mission objectives. (In normal speak, lose our conflict there.)

I'm SHOCKED, utterly SHOCKED to hear that the US is facing serious problems attempting to undertake a mission of nation-building and containing a regional irregular force of political/religious extremists in incredibly rough terrain not really controlled by any particular nation-state. Afghanistan proving to be a major challenge for an incoming army attempting to mold it into something it is not currently is having trouble doing so successfully. I honestly wish I could talk to President Obama directly and explain to him the following, carefully:

"Mr. President, Afghanistan is not a country, it is a convienent shorthand method for describing a loose confederation of tribal entities that hate each other intensely and only slightly more intensely hate anyone, and I mean anyone, who happens to enter into territory they consider theirs." We are not even talking about a region in which the concept of "borders" has the same meaning as it does for the US, consider the wild borderland territory between Afghanistan and Pakistan which neither nation-state/central political entity even attempts to enforce control or rule of law. In fact that is a region which for centuries, if not millenium, no outside force has ever been able to impose long-standing order. Alexander the Great was not able to keep that region in check and he conquered most of the known world in his time.

The greatest land empire since the Mongol Empire - the USSR - spent a huge amount of time, troops, and resources in Afghanistan and, although we fueled that particular tempest, they were never able to really impose control over the countryside, they just ran the rebels round and round.

Let me put this another way - Afghanistan is where armies go to die. If you have one to spare, send it to Afghanistan, your surplus will be taken care of. But last I checked the US did not have a spare army lying around, we've gone lean enough we kind of need the one we have.

Mark my words an increase in US forces in Afghanistan is only asking for more lost blood, money, and mission drift and will end with us having done even less then we accomplished in Iraq. In fact honestly whatever weak central nation-state we prop up is bound to collapse due to tribal fighting quickly and bloodily in a matter of years after we stop propping it up and will never control the countryside or the frontier no matter how much we prop it up. This combines the irregular conflict hell of Vietnam with the added bonus of no central political structure to even build upon.

Either we get the hell out of Afghanistan or we get ready to crank our effort there beyond what the Soviets were willing to do, otherwise, get ready for a bunch of young US soldiers to be turned into ugly dog meat with nothing gained. Oh and in case you are wondering, read up on the Soviet invasion into Afghanistan sometime, we'd best set up some aid programs for the shattered shells of humans that we will recover if any of our soldiers are taken alive by the Afghans and regained.

A particular pleasent tradition by Afghans when the Soviets were the invaders - mass continual gang rapes of soldiers taken prisoner until the prisoner died, a process covering many days usually. This was considered 'gentle' treatment by the Afghans. Please let us for ONCE take a page from our own history and that of others and get the HELL OUT of that mess quickly.

A Friday post - snark on the news....
Ladies and Gentleman it is Friday at 4:40 PM and the Fuckit Train has left the station, *toot toot*

I found this handy article on Social Security this morning quite entertaining, in particular I was taken by the comment that a large part of the Social Security Reserve fund is Treasury notes that wil be cashed in to provide for the benefits of retiring future seniors. I still sincerely believe, in my heart of hearts, that part of the massive calls under our former President for greater privitization of the retirement system was partially a means of simply ending the program and voiding out some or all of that debt. Imagine if Social Secuirty was ended and the President got on the magical TV box and said "I've not only found a way to increase individual investment, but we've also got the Social Security taxes in HALF and I've reduced the national deficit by 30%!" That would be a fun annoucement to put before the American people and a good segment of the population would probably consider it excellent news.

In reading about things today at lunch I came across a website for the Mystery Spot, it is hokey but by gum I intend to see this bit of hokey before I leave Michigan. I believe a summer road trip up north is in order, plus they have eighteen hole mini golf!

Something a bit eerie that I've found in the article regarding the suggestion by the chief of NATO that Russia, NATO nations, and the US work together to create a unified missile interceptor system is that it mirrors a comment in a book I read nearly twelve years ago that argued that the future conflicts of the world would potentially pit the nations of the southern hemisphere and equator against the nations of the northern hemisphere. This sort of concern about nuclear proflieration in those regions just reminds me of that concern. Of course there is also the broder problem of what will happen as populations fall in Europe and North America and continue to rise in other parts of the world. As I've said before history shows that when that happens new populations often fill under-used territory.

But here is my key question of the day, one I've been pondering, Gabe last night asked me why economies have to continually grow and why economic stability (i.e. minimal or no growth and no contraction) is seen as stagnation or decline. Honestly...I don't know, and reading that Wikipedia article did not further help me understand. Honestly if a group of people achieve material comfort and society is able to stably continue to provide that (and ideal I admit but work with me) why would further growth be needed? It almost makes me think of Rome which built for centuries because they expected no better way to do things to come along.

Roleplaying Games - the Friday group and two campaign ideas...
So the Friday group is about to go through another series of convulsions, I'll update on it later but most likely I'm going to end up out of the GM rotation for a while and the group dymanic is probably going to change dramatically. Even if nothing else changes I've been relieved of having to run a 7th Seas and my duties as "main time GM because no one else can run as often as you." Which honestly is a relief because I feel I've probably been burned out with that group for a while. I've certainly put off writing campaigns as much as possible for them.

BUT...onwards to the ideas, I'd love it if anyone can vote on which of these three they find most compelling, they are all for a Conan sort of setting, very low magic/rare magic, fantasy, low number of monsters:

Number 1: A group of heroes who set out across the countryside stalking monsters and abnormal beings from beyond in a world of broken lands, ancient cities now abandoned, and old magics that allow strange impluses to enter the world and corrupt humanity. Very demon hunter in feel and play.

Number 2: The group is part of a band known as the Free Born, who live outside of settled major areas in the broken/wild lands and bow to no king or leader other then those they choose for themselves. Called into various adventures when they travel to settled areas or are hired for their mercenary skills.

Number 3: The group is part of a series of tribes known as the Cursed Ones whose forebears angered a god by their betrayal/general naughtiness and now bare upon them an indelible mark from the crown of their head, down one side of their body, to their foot. They are outcasts from society and are forced to live outside of settled areas and are often a target for the wrath of petty princes.

Let me know which, if any of these, sound interesting, I'd love feedback before setting down to right.

( Edit - Number Three, the larger story )

Life can be filled with a good kind of weird...
Which the past few days have been filled with, a good kind of weird, and I'm enjoying it on some levels.

For example this music video I bumped into today for Big & Rich's Save A Horse which combines techno with country with....bizzarely dressed dancing women on stage. I know it is about showing skin and such but really, saloon girls in stereo? Then again though if you actually had dancers dressed in proper period outfits that would be just interesting, the Victorians new how to dress in an appealing manner just as much as people today.

But a personal example is that this morning I called the Spanish Embassy to request information about gaining access to the official archive of the Spanish Foreign Legion, which the cultural liasion with the Spanish Embassy is looking into for me. I figure if I am going to do my doctoral work, in part, on Nationalist/Fascist volunteers I'll need to actually review the archives the Spanish military unit that took most of them in. I found one book on the subject, titled Franco's International Brigades, which worried me because it was written in 2007 but when I acquired it I found the scholarship, at best, shoddy. This other book I just saw listed worries me a bit more, Fighting for Franco, I'll grab it as well and read them both, again it was printed in 2007 and this one was written by a solid historian. The problem with doing a thesis on a topic recently covered is you'll need a more interesting "spin" to sell it, although neither book does the work I want to attempt which is to compare the two volunteerism of the International Brigades to the Nationalist volunteer brigades. (Although according to this reviewer the work in Fighting for Franco is also shoddy and does not cover the ground I'm interested in, in fact no books do that are written yet.)

I know, a little pre-mature to be thinking of other works in my possible dissertation topic when I'm not even in graduate school yet but darn it this issue bothers me. Someone needs to do a neutral accounting, as best one can, of both topics and those involved in the conflict. Doubly so because honestly properly understanding how people ended up voluntarily fighting for both causes is key to understanding the broader issues that lie in the heart of the Spanish Civil War. In some ways that war was not just a war over territory or national political control, it was a fight between ideologies and a question of which one could compell people more. Surprisingly I'd argue both Fascism and Communism in the late 1930s could stir great passion in people and raise volunteers to equal fervor.

The other odd thing was while downtown last night I got nabbed by a wandering individual looking for contributions to a veterans fund, which ended up with my being caught listening to a fifteen minute monologue about what was wrong with the world and how to fix it. Reminds me once more to never actually sit down on Main Street for any reason because it attracts crazy apparently. Although he wandered off before I attempted to flee so at the very least I got to hear his presentation in full. Although I confess to a weak response, I could have argued with the crazy but chose not too.