The Force IS With Us!

I had the opportunity to play in the most recent beta-test of Bioware's latest entry in the online game race, Star Wars: The Old Republic (AKA SW:TOR). I consider myself a casual gamer and have had experience with both Everquest and World of Warcraft. I have been eagerly anticipating this game and this past weekend did nothing to diminish that. I can honestly say that I haven't been this jazzed about a game since I first played Civilization (yes, Civ 1) many years ago.

From the first loading screen, this game pulls no punches. It is all about the struggle of Good vs. Evil. Most games have good guys and bad guys, but the bad guys are only bad to their opposition. Other than cosmetics, the Alliance and the Horde in Warcraft are pretty much the same. In SW:TOR, everything you do has the potential to move your character closer to light or darkness. Whether your budding Jedi is forgiving enemies or trying to find peaceful solutions or your up and coming Sith is executing prisoners or activating the shock collar on their slave (you read that right), you are frequently given options to embrace either the Light or Dark sides of the Force. There is FINALLY a game that actually encourages players to make the choice to be either a saint or a demon.

This is also a beautiful game. The Jedi starting world of Tython is green and peaceful except where the dreaded Flesh Raiders have become a blot on the landscape. The Sith starting world is the bleak and desolate Korriban. While Tython looks like the kind of place where you might want to hold a picnic, Korriban looks like you just know that you are going to get sand in that one spot in your armor where it will cause a nasty rash. The Senate Tower on Coruscant really looks as big and imposing as the movie version. It just looks shiny!

The game-play I experienced was just as impressive. Was it kind of linear? Yes, but every quest was made me feel like what I was doing mattered. Trying to get to a cache of Dark knowledge before it gets out, striving to become the favored acolyte and earn the right to become the apprentice to a Darth or trying to recover a stolen city-killer bomb made every quest feel like I was directly involved in the story. This game is intensely story-driven and all the parts I experienced felt like I really was a character in the saga. While there we some "get quantity X of item Y" quests, they were all worked in to the story and all made sense.

The voice acting is superb. That's especially important in this game because all of your quests and important NPC encounters are fully voiced and your responses are also voiced. I had my doubts about how this would work, but this past weekend put those to rest. I found myself looking forward to the next decision point or quest turn-in. This is a vast difference from any other online games I've played and it worked seamlessly for me.

Now for the disclaimers: I only got about 20 hours of play in over the weekend (Drat that pesky need to earn a living!) so I didn't get as deep into the game as I would have liked. I played three different classes (Sith warrior, Jedi consular and Republic trooper) to a maximum level of 12. I never made it to my own spaceship and I only played in one group mission (called "flashpoints"). That being said, I think that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be taking up a great deal of my free time for some time to come.

The Amused Geek rating: 5 out of 5 lightsabers, all red!

My Take on Newt's NEW Contract...

One of my Facebook friends posted a link to a video with a pretty huge claim “This is THE man that knows how to put America back on a path to growth and prosperity.”, he said. He also said that he would really like to know if anyone disagreed, and why. It turns out that the video was Newt Gingrich presenting his “21st Century Contract with America”. It's a long list, but here it is. I will quote Mr. Gingrich's proposals directly from his website.

1. Repeal Obamacare and pass a replacement that saves lives and money by empowering patients and doctors, not bureaucrats and politicians.

This appears to nothing more than leaving the heath insurance companies in charge of medical care in America and make it easier for them to do so. It also does nothing to help the millions of working poor that cannot afford any kind of health insurance even if deducted from their income tax. I think that the meager health care reform that made it through Congress didn't go nearly far enough. I support single-payer health care, the so-called “Medicare Part E (as in Everyone)” Health insurance companies spend 12.5-30% of premiums on administration costs and profits. Medicare? A paltry 3-5.5%. There's where you eliminate waste.

2. Return to robust job creation with a bold set of tax cuts and regulatory reforms that will free American entrepreneurs to invest and hire, as well as by reforming the Federal Reserve and creating a training requirement for extended federal unemployment benefits to encourage work and improve the quality of our workforce.

In this clause, Gingrich wants to replace the National Labor Relations Board, repeal Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley (passed by Congress to combat corporate corruption) and lower corporate taxes even further as well as abolishing the Estate Tax. He also wants to mandate job training programs for extended unemployment qualification, but thinks that “This program should be delegated to the 50 states so each can experiment with the best way to use unemployment compensation as a job training program.” Can you say, “unfunded mandate”? He also wants to reform the Federal Reserve, blaming them for the mortgage crisis when it was in fact greedy and unregulated mortgage lenders packaging and selling junk mortgages that sent the market spiraling out of control. This is nothing more than a naked attempt to give the mega-corporations even more freedom to profit at the expense of American workers.

3. Unleash America’s full energy production potential in oil, natural gas, coal, biofuels, wind, nuclear oil shale and more, creating jobs, stimulating a sustainable manufacturing boom, lowering gasoline and other energy prices, increasing government revenues, strengthening the dollar, and bolstering national security.

This is nothing more than “Drill baby, drill!” without giving a damn about the land, water or air that the oil, natural gas or coal lies beneath. The American bio fuels industry is hopelessly married to corn even after scientists have proven that you can get FIVE times more energy from switchgrass. Gotta keep those corn farmers happy. Nuclear energy is only going to work if folks want a potential Fukushima reactor in their area. Oil shale is still a non-renewable resource. When it's gone, it's gone for good. This clause of the contract also calls for the replacement of the EPA with something less “anti-job”. The EPA isn't there to protect jobs, it's there to protect the environment from those who would destroy it for profit. One could add that I am unaware of anything called “nuclear oil shale”, but that would be petty.

4. Save Medicare and Social Security by giving Americans more choices and tools to live longer, healthier lives with greater financial independence.

Privatize Medicare and Social Security? Again? Place American retirement funds in the hands of “the free market”? Do the names Enron and Tyco ring a bell? How about the current market volatility that has caused massive swings in not just American, but world markets? Do you really want to trust the same fine people that gave you the mortgage crisis? Count me out.

5. Balance the federal budget by freeing job-creators to grow the economy, reforming entitlements, and implementing productivity improvement systems, such as Lean Six Sigma, to eliminate waste and fraud. Pass a balanced budget amendment to keep it balanced.

I actually agree that we need to balance the federal budget. Instead of doing it on the backs of the lower 99%, lets let the top 1% do the patriotic thing and pay their fair share of taxes. Let's implement productivity improvement systems, but start with the biggest discretionary spenders in the budget first. That would be Defense for those keeping score. Then we can go to Medicare and Social Security. The problem that I have with most of the “balanced budget” proposals that I have heard is that they demand that the government never spend more than it has, even for disaster relief. Everyone from families to businesses to the government has to sometimes spend money not on hand. If you do so unwisely, like starting two wars at the same time you cut taxes, you are going to run into debt issues. Remember, we had a budget surplus when President Clinton left office.

6. Control the border by January 1, 2014 and establish English as the official language of government; reform the legal visa system, and make it much easier to deport criminals and gang members while making it easier for law abiding visitors to come to the US.

As I recall, the United States has TWO borders and and three seacoasts. I have to assume that Gingrich is talking about the US/Mexico border. America's immigration system is broken. I don't know how to fix it. Newt talks about what needs to happen, but says not one concrete word about how to do it. Since 2005, the Republican solution for control of the Mexican border is a series of walls and fences blocking nearly 2,000 miles of border. Wasn't it President Reagan that said, "Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”? Why are Republicans so hot to build their own walls? As far as English-only laws go, what happens to the vast number of legal immigrants and citizens that speak the language poorly or not at all? English-only would effectively disenfranchise the citizens and deprive the legal immigrants of government services. Please remember that we are now and always have been a nation of immigrants.

7. Revitalize our national security system to meet 21st century threats by restructuring and adequately funding our security agencies to function within a grand strategy for victory over those who seek to kill us or to limit American freedom.

Let's cut everything else but spend more on Defense? Wrong again, Newt! Let's run the Defense Department through the “productivity improvement systems” you mention in clause 5, find a way to pay our brave men and women in uniform a decent wage, fully fund the VA care that they deserve and re-tool our military to adapt to the current world situation. The days of standing armies slugging it out toe-to-toe are over. Modern war is guerrilla tactics, armed militias (Libya, anyone?) and small-unit actions. Less General Patton and more Seal Team 6.

8. Maximize the speed and impact of medical breakthroughs by removing unnecessary obstacles that block new treatments from reaching patients and emphasizing research spending toward urgent national priorities, like brain science with its impact on Alzheimer’s, autism, Parkinson’s, mental health and other conditions that knowledge of the brain will help solve.

This from the same party that blocked the single most promising avenue of research into multitudes of medical conditions? I speak of stem-cell research, of course. Do I support new avenues of research? Hell, yes! Would I support a virtual gutting of the FDA to do so? Hell, no! I am a diabetic. I used to take a particular drug to help control my diabetes. It turns out that the drug's manufacturer wasn't quite forthcoming on ALL the studies to the FDA, and some of those studies found that the drug increased risks of heart failure, stroke and death. The reports were so strong that my doctor pulled me off the drug immediately. I am talking about Avandia. Without the FDA, these studies might never have been discovered and I might still be taking a dangerous drug. I'll keep the FDA and its' regulations, thanks.

9. Restore the proper role of the judicial branch by using the clearly delineated powers available to the president and Congress to correct, limit, or replace judges who violate the Constitution.

There is a reason why Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life. It's because if a Justice can be removed as a result of an unpopular ruling, said Justice would be tempted to frame their decisions in the light of whatever ideology happened to be in power at the time. The Supreme Court is supposed to disagree with the Legislative and Executive branches when they are wrong. That's what they are there for. Tampering with that would unravel the entire “checks and balances” required by the Constitution.

10. Enforce the Tenth Amendment by starting an orderly transfer of power and responsibility from the federal government back “to the states, respectively, or to the people,” as the Constitution requires. Over the next year, state and local officials and citizens will be asked to identify the areas which can be transferred back home.

Let the states decide? We've tried that before as well. Remember the Civil War? That started as a debate over whether the states or the federal government should decide which human beings were people and which were property. We had the same problem with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some states just didn't want to apply the law fairly, if at all. If a nationwide program is going to be administered fairly to all Americans, it cannot be left up to the states to decide how to administer it. This makes as little sense as letting the various state National Guards handle national defense. If you want all Americans to be treated equally, federal authority is necessary.

Anyone that wants to know why I disagree with this political platform should now understand. If left in the hands of a corporate America that has steadfastly refused to police itself and is interested in nothing more than naked greed, average Americans will be driven farther into economic serfdom than they already are. Mr. Gingrich's first contract didn't work. I fail to see how his second one is any better.

Eric Cantor - Heartless Bastard

Just when I thought that Congressional bullshit couldn't get any stupider, House Majority Leader Cantor (R-VA) has lowered the bar yet again. Not content with his part in attempts to gut the American safety net for the poor and disadvantaged, striving to make the country a better place for the wealthy and corporate interests, this sorry excuse for an imitation human being has shocked even The Amused Geek.

Even the most vehement small government proponents can agree that one of the things that government should do is to provide disaster relief. Whether hurricane, earthquake, flood or man-made cataclysm the federal government is expected to step in to save lives, continue essential services and offer help to rebuild.  This is something that civilized governments do.

This is too much government for Cantor. Joplin, MO was struck by what the nerds call an  EF5 multiple-vortex tornado last May. In Amused Geek-speak, Joplin was bent over by nature, used violently and left in the road. Over 150 people lost their lives, over $2 billion in property was destroyed and it made the top 10 list of deadliest tornadoes in US history. Any human that gives half a rat's ass for their fellow humans would start looking for what they can do to help. Cantor showed up on "Face the Nation" and proclaimed that any money spent on disaster relief would have to be offset by budget cuts! Mr. Cantor, your programmers need to flush your memory cache.

Last week, with Hurricane Irene taking aim at the east coast, an earthquake struck where earthquakes don't normally strike, in the state of Virginia. The 5.8 quake, mild by California standards, caused some minor damage and rattled nerves from DC to Chicago.  Heartless Eric took the opportunity to remind everyone that he wouldn't approve disaster funds without budget cuts. This came AFTER the epicenter of the quake was announced to be in Mineral, VA. The fine folks of the Mineral area could rest easy, knowing that FEMA would come to the rescue if needed save one small point. Mineral, VA resides in the 7th Congressional district and is represented by (wait for it...) Eric Cantor. He was publicly turning his back on his OWN DAMNED DISTRICT!!!

I would normally ask if Eric was dropped on his head as a child but I know folks that suffered childhood head trauma that have grown up to be kind, caring and all-around wonderful people.  Perhaps Eric Cantor is the world's only surviving heart donor. Mr. Cantor, have you been kowtowing to your Corporate Masters for so long that you've forgotten who votes for you?  Are you just another Republican that believes that the wealthiest 2% of Americans are somehow more deserving than the rest of us?

I have said it before and I will say it again. If you make less than $250K a year and you vote Republican or even Tea Party, you are supporting a candidate that is NOT working for you. The masks of humanity are slipping. Cantor has spoken of "class warfare". Folks, the war has been on since I can remember and the rich are WINNING!!! Eric Cantor is just the latest and most blatant example of that. If there is any justice left in the world, someone will run against Cantor in 2012. They should play the footage of Cantor demanding his quid pro quo before he stoops to help those that elected him at EVERY opportunity. Then we can get this heartless bastard out of Washington and out of our hair.

Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

George Santayana's quote was just barely selected as the title for today. The other candidate was,"Did we learn NOTHING from Hebert Hoover?" Average Americans are out-of-work, losing their homes, unable to afford health care and falling deeper into that hole on a daily basis.  America's corporate overlords, on the other hand, are posting massive profits and setting records for earnings. Apple, America's second most valuable corporate overlord, recently had more cash on hand than the U.S. Government!

Against this backdrop, our government once again broke out its' fiddle and chose to use the economy as kindling for a partisan pyre.  Seventy-eight times since 1960, Congress raised the debt limit without trying to run America into a bridge abutment. This time, thanks to the Republican's stated goal of making Obama a one-term President, the rules changed.  This wouldn't have been a problem if the Democrats had grown a set of balls and not caved in, as usual.

The problem is simple, even if the solutions aren't.  The Republicans are unwilling to consider any legislation that causes the rich to pay even a single dollar more in taxes, even though they pay less in taxes now that at any time in recent history.  At the same time, they want to cut government spending at a time when the economy for real Americans needs stimulation the most.  The Democrats want to make the economic landscape more friendly to the middle and lower classes, but lack the spine to stand up to their Republican opposition. President Obama tries to "be the adult in the room", but doesn't show the strength or inclination to call the GOP bluff. That leaves us with a government that makes Charlie Sheen look like the epitome of wisdom and coherent thought.

The future bodes no better. The recent Republican debate gave us the number of candidates that would support a measure that coupled spending cuts with tax increases at a 10-to-1 ratio. None. Michelle Bachmann comes off as ill-informed at best and bat-shit crazy at worst.  Mitt Romney can't shake his past liberalism in Massachusetts and Rick Perry is trying to run for the presidency of a nation he wants to secede from. In normal times, Democrats should be looking forward to another term in the White House, but our President is looking more and more like a spineless weakling on a daily basis.

That brings us back to my alternate title. I hear lots of talk about "double-dip recession", but I think we may be on the brink of a depression. The last time we were here, the capital-D Depression that all economic crises are measured against, Herbert Hoover decided to keep taxes on the rich low and drastically cut government spending. This resulted in the biggest economic collapse in history, marked by so-called "Hoovervilles" where the poor huddled for survival, which lasted until the election of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR opened the federal purse strings and put people back to work. While most people believe that WWII ended the Great Depression, most of the groundwork had already been done.

Does the government spend a lot of money on stupid shit? Yes. Hell, we just spent (and continue to spend) trillions of dollars and too many American lives on wars that were never necessary. The economy will not improve until the majority of struggling Americans have money to spend. America's corporate overlords have had ample opportunity to step up to the plate and have not.  If the private sector can not or will not end this soon-to-be second Great Depression then the public sector must.