9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

Right outside my office window. I have the bird’s eye view on the whole thing.

Opie Gone Bad playing right now… Rockies set to come up at noon (in about 20 mins).

**UPDATE**

John Hickenlooper (Denver Mayor) introduced the starting line-up and the GM… All the lineup players and Clint gave quick speeches thanking everyone. MVP chants went up when Holliday gave his thanks, and Clint Hurdle definitely got the loudest applause.

Pretty neat to be right above it all.

I am not one to say that I have played every game on every console of every genre. Because that would be lying. The kind of lying, one would say, of political greatness. That elevated holy level of lying where it is so preposterous, it has to be true.

And I haven’t. In fact, I only have one console. And it hasn’t been turned on since May.

My gaming bliss is all delivered through my PC. Yes, my PC. I know, that makes me seem so old, since evidently, PC gaming is dead. That is the word on the street. Homes.

But the Game of the Year is not Halo 3. Nor is it any other shitacular “AAA” title.

It is Portal. Without a single doubt.

Not the whole Orange Box that it comes as a part of, mind you, but the middle child of the Orange Box (which is also totally awesome in its own right). Portal is one of those games that you can play more than once (and I have), and it is one of those games the literally kicks the shit out of any game out there. Team Fortress is also uber-awesome and pretty much the only game I play right now, but Portal keeps invading my mind. Like an escaped test participant.

I walked by one of the conference rooms at work today and saw some food sitting out on a table for the meeting participants. The dessert was cake.

And I could only think one thing. Only one thing.

The cake is a lie.

Name any other game this year that has invaded your thoughts after playing it like that. You play Portal, you are changed. You look for places to put entry and exit portals. You think about your weighted companion cube and how well it burns.

And the ending song is first time I have EVER sat through game credits. It is sublime in its perfection. Masterful in its wit. And completely borderline batshit awesome in its coolness.

From here:

Elected officials are sent to Washington to govern but not to rule. This may sound like a question of semantics or at best a fine distinction. But rulership isn’t a legitimate part of democracy. When a governing class develops in a democratic society, it loses contact with the people who elect it. In many ways America is burdened with such a class, which has amassed power over the past fifty years, until it arrived at a place where its right to rule goes almost unchallenged.

Who belongs to the ruling class? One might start with the wealthy lawyers who form an inordinate percentage of senators and congressmen, then move on to the corporations whose lobbyists write the very laws that are supposed to regulate corporations. Working hand in hand, these two blocs form a privileged class that feels free to ignore what the American people actually want.

An unexpected benefit of the Bush years is that the ruling class may have gone too far. A culture of corruption binds Congress and lobbyists to an unheard of degree. Bill after bill, earmark after earmark, has blatantly served special interests. Both parties are guilty of kowtowing to money and the corporations that dispense it with shameless abandon — the buying and selling of political favors has never been so outrageous. Influence peddling, once a crime, has become the norm.

The ruling class also includes those who wield power without checks and balances. The disaster of the Iraq war can be traced in large part to a small cabal of neoconservatives surrounding the White House who decided to railroad Congress and the American people without consultation from anyone who failed to buy into their ideology. Under the cloak of national security, the advent of warrantless wiretapping, torture of captured enemies, secret prisons abroad, and a host of other infringements of the Constitution came about without discussion or advisement. A handful of self-styled rulers did what they wanted to because they could get away with it.

Finally, the present ruling class imposes a narrow religious ideology that grossly oversteps its rights. Right-wing Christians, the so-called values voters, constitute roughly 25% of the electorate. As such, their minority rights are protected in a constitutional democracy. But that’s a far cry from pretending to be a majority and forcing their values on to everyone else. Unknown to the average citizen, the religious right has infiltrated every department of the executive branch by the use of civil-service appointments. On a broader basis, conservatism has become a litmus test for federally appointed lawyers and judges as well. A good example is provided by the new laws that demand voters to show government ID before they can enter the polling booth.

Previously, such IDs were not required (one only had to be listed on the voting rolls) and border on being unconstitutional. Yet a number of states have adopted such requirements, which seem on the surface to be a blatant form of intimidation, since blacks, Latinos, the poor and the uneducated would be the least likely to have IDs or to trust the government for demanding to see one. In every single case where such laws have been tested in federal court, Republican judges have supported these laws and Democratic judges opposed them. This rigid partisanship grew directly from the litmus-test standards imposed by conservatives and is shocking to long-time judicial observers. The days when a judge could change his philosophy over time or choose to align himself with liberals one day and conservatives the next, depending on the merits of the case at hand, seem to be forgotten.

The betrayal of democracy hasn’t escaped notice, and the Democrats have promised, once they gain the White House, to sweep away the distorted policies of the right wing. Yet we can only watch and wait. The end of neoconservatives won’t end the war. Nor will it depose sitting judges or weaken lobbyists or bring in a new class of congressmen who aren’t beholden to moneyed interests. The entire government has become entangled in the problem, and it will take an awakened electorate to undo the harm that has been done already. The key to an optimistic, progressive America — the America that threatens to turn into a dream of the past — lies in a renewed belief in an open society and trust in the principles of democracy. Do you want to be governed or ruled?

The previous season of Heroes moved along at a decent clip I thought. The plot threads were layered well, the characters were fresh (since they were all new, duh), and things seemed to be moving along.

Not so much this season.

A bit of this, a bit of that, but no real meat yet. Sadly, the only storyline that is enjoyable so far is the twins mad dash through Central America with their nice friend, Sylar.

Other than that… blah. Evidence? Four shows in, and…

1. Peter is stuck in Ireland, powers now second nature or subconscious, with zilch recall of past events.
2. Nathan is stuck in a rut, broken, burned, but somehow appears normal to everyone else.
3. Claire is stuck in California, lying to her dad again, and still trying to share her “secrets” with boys.
4. Micah is stuck with his dad’s relatives in Orleans with a cousin that can mimic movement, while his mom is off in the ether, doing something.
5. Matt is stuck in an investigation with no real clues or leads, just his long lost father that eats little girl’s minds.
6. Suresh is stuck in a game of very slow cat and mouse with the company, with Claire’s dad and the Haitian in cahoots.
7. And Hiro is off chasing some tail in Japan during the late 1600′s.

Feeling a bit of a trend?

Just stuck all around.