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Back in 1974 Dave Arneson co-created Dungeons and Dragons with Gary Gygax. Unfortunately, Dave Arneson died on tuesday after suffering from cancer for several months. Arneson was to some degree the unsung and unrecognized creative mind behind the role playing game. He helped to popularize the fantasy genre and created a huge hobby that continues to thrive today both on table top and in computer games.


Dave Arneson 1947-2009

Does anybody know good online sources for the military history of non-European nations? I've been trying to get specific information about tactics, weapons, armor, etc. of various nations through out history but it seems like details of non-Western is a little slim. Its easy to find out about Macedonian pikemen or Welsh longbowmen, but its a lot harder getting detailed information about how the ancient Chinese or Indians fought for aside from a few of the more notable things like using elephants or early gunpowder flame throwers.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends and readers!

Lehman Brothers Holdings has gone bankrupt. Here is a firm that was founded in 1850. It survived the Civil War and the Great Depression. It did not survive the current breakdown. Anyone who thinks this crisis is some minor affair is not paying attention.

- Dr. Gary North

Andrew Sullivan says, "This economic crisis does not prove the policies of Noam Chomsky, it proves the policies of Ron Paul."

Ron Paul says, "GODDAMN RIGHT!  I TOLD YOU MOTHERFUCKERS THIS SHIT WOULD HAPPEN."  I'm paraphrasing.

China, the enabler of our national deficit, halts lending to the U.S.  "The decree appears to be Beijing's first attempt to erect defences against the deepening U.S. financial meltdown after the mainland's major lenders reported billions of U.S. dollars in exposure to the credit crisis."

Step Two in the Financial Breakdown: The Mother of All Bank Runs  “The next step of this panic could be the mother of all bank runs, i.e. a run on the trillion dollar-plus of the cross-border short-term interbank liabilities of the US banking and financial system, as foreign banks start to worry about the safety of their liquid exposures to US financial institutions. A silent cross-border bank run has already started, as foreign banks are worried about the solvency of US banks and are starting to reduce their exposure. And if this run accelerates – as it may now – a total meltdown of the US financial system could occur.”

Global markets battered, Dow below 10,000  "There is all-out panic," said ING senior strategist Adrian van Tiggelen.  "Everyone had hoped that after the acceptance of the package in the US and the bailouts in Europe, things would calm down but in effect, there are still strong fears of the domino effect."

Bailout bill does nothing for the real economy "We are probably a year away from the bottom in real estate. What this means is that the bailout bill will do absolutely nothing to help the real economy, and this is why the stock market fell anyway after the bill was passed."

Bailout bill's loopholes, IRS snooping  "[Since the bailout passed] it's now possible for a bank to buy $100 billion of bad debt--perhaps in the form of subprime mortgages that are becoming quickly worthless-- declare bankruptcy, and sell it to the Treasury Department for $120 billion, or $200 billion."

European markets fall into the abyss  "We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars."

On saturday night, Saturday Night Live did one of the most insightful and substantive political skits I think I've seen them do. They took some serious shots at the Democratic party for their role in the financial fiasco and the corrupt nature of the bailout. They also targeted billionaire George Soros and his ties to the Democrat party along with billionaire bankers Herb and Marion Sandler.



Unfortunately, the skit must have angered some people in high places because its been censored by NBC and nobody in the media seems to be mentioning it. Too much truth?

Watch it here, while you can



In the likely event that the skit gets pulled from youtube in the near future, here is a transcript :
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/07/the-forbidden-skit-full-transcript-and-screenshots-of-snls-sorossandler-bailout-satire/

Some links discussing the skit :

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/06/the-missing-snl-bailout-skit-and-the-soros-connection/

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/06/whered-the-snl-bailout-skit-go/

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/10/07/nbc-scrubs-snl-anti-democrat-bailout-skit-website


Edit : SNL says they plan to "edit" the skit because it "did not meet their standards"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/10/the-mortgage-me.html

Edit : very scary, its been censored. It must have pissed off some of the high ups who own NBC.

Your result for The Presidential Capacity Test...

Chief Justice

Take The Presidential Capacity Test at HelloQuizzy

RICHARD WRIGHT: 1943-2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7617583.stm

So I benched 330 lb the other day, which is more than I've ever done before. Just a few weeks ago it was 320 lb. I'm trying to work my way up to 400 lb, at this rate I should be able to get there before too long.

I've been getting this strong feeling lately that McCain is going to win the presidential race. It seemed unlikely a while ago, but I think that as time goes on McCain's chances are looking better and better.

Really, there are plenty of reasons McCain should be behind now - he effectively represents an unpopular incumbent, he is unpopular with his own party, he's not very charismatic. Obama, on the other hand, has every reason to on top of the world now - his "change" image, the deification he's been getting from the press, his charisma, the bump from beating out Hillary, the general unpopularity with the establishment and his anti-establishment hype. But, it seems like McCain and Obama are pretty close right now, close when Obama should be ahead by double digits. I think that probably anybody who would have voted for Obama would be a supporter by now, I think in the time between now and the election, undecideds are more likely to go to McCain. Unless something important happens that influences public opinion between now and then.

Of course, I'm not sure, but if I had to bet now, I'd bet on McCain.

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Jesse Helms died today at the age of 86 - on the 4th of July just like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He was obviously a very controversial figure, a long time strident fighter for conservative causes. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Jesse Helms when he came to Boone in the 90's. He was extremely nice to me, which says a lot considering he was an important senator and I was just some kid who wasn't even old enough to vote. So I feel sad, though I only met him briefly, I was a long time supporter particularly when I was more of a mainstream Republican. When I was young and first getting interested in politics, Jesse Helms kinda represented the quintessential Republican to me, and thus was the guy I looked up to as a young conservative. I certainly disagreed with him on some things, particularly when I got older and started to part with the Republican party's brand of conservatism, but I still respect his dedication to what he believed in.


Jesse Helms 1921-2008

To those of you who don't know, I have just completed my master's degree in math :D