I Hate to Burst Your Bubble, But...

All the people squeeing over Kucinich and wondering why the sneaky, sneaky media isn't talking about his impeachment motion: they're not talking about it because, as they say, that dog won't hunt. Besides the fact that half or more of the congress would be just as implicated if the proceedings went forward, he doesn't even have the support of his own party, much less the republicans who'd have to cross party lines to make anything actually happen.

In short, the guy is blowing a lot of hot air. And in Washington, that's not news, it's a way of life.

There's also a psychological — or possibly philosophical — angle that seems to be missed by all the people who are incensed that Clinton was impeached but Bush hasn't been. Clinton committed perjury to cover his own ass and no other reason. Bush's shenanigans, however good, bad, or indifferent they may be, were at least theoretically done in the national interest. And you're never going to get a president impeached for that. Surely Oliver North taught us that lesson.

Kucinich's gesture may make you feel good on a visceral level, but at the end of the day, a gesture is all it is — which is why the news media as a body doesn't much consider it worth talking about.

-The Gneech

PS: Comments disabled. Don't feel like getting flamed for pointing this out.

Birthday Time!

Happy birthday to hbar98! And happy belated birthday to ramalion! Have some Forgotten English! (© Jeffrey Kacirk)

connywest

Sheep's-eyed; sidelong; shy; used also when a person squints a little. Perhaps the word is cannywest, for canny hinny, in some parts, means a sly person.

—Rev. Alfred Easther's Glossary of Almondbury and Huddersfield, 1883

Birthday of Thomas Fuller (1608-1661),

English antiquarian and divine, who tried to patriotically explain the Bible's parable of the shepherd and his lost sheep, writing, "Foreigners much admire at our English sheep because they do not, as those beyond the seas, follow their shepherds like a pack of dogs, but wander wide abroad. And the popish priests tell their simple flocks that this disobedience of our sheep happeneth unto us because we have left the great shepherd, the pope; whereas they did so long before our separation from Rome because, freed from the fear of wolves, they feed safely in the fields, needing neither guide to direct nor guard to defend them." To this explanation, Fuller parenthetically added the curious Latin aside, Risum teneatis, amici? which meant "Can you help laughing, friends?"

Veni, vidi, bleati.

-The Gneech

Oh Hai

Saw the 4E Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual at Barnes & Noble at lunchtime. I got a vaguely disassociated feeling, sort of like encountering an old flame who you had a particularly nasty breakup with years later at a concert or something. No interest, no anger, just a matter-of-fact "Oh look, there's the book."

Since I'm pretty much the driving force of our group, I guess this means we won't be switching. 'sokay, we need to finish Red Hand of Doom anyway.

-The Gneech

On the Other Hand...

My Star Wars Saga Edition Gamemaster Screen came today — very nice! I don't think I've ever seen a GM screen made of this heavy cardstock before.

Got Threats of the Galaxy when it came out, too. It's good, but not quite as big a deal given how many "lists of character types" resources there are on the net for SWSE. Nevertheless, I'm very impressed with the SWSE line overall.

I wonder how it would fuse with Cthulhu d20...

-The Gneech