Animals, RPG Review #3, Political Involvement

[tcpip]

Thanks for all the suggestions for cat names. At the end we took greenglowgrrl's suggestion, Mac Lir. As can be suspected at this age he's a complete nutcase. He's made friends with the rabbits, but the rats still aren't too sure which isn't much of a surprise really. Whilst on rodent topics, I have recently picked up a copy of the Mouse Guard roleplaying game; great presentation, good writing and a simplified system based on Burning Wheel. Quite impressed so far and hope to play soon. It will feature in the next edition of RPG Review which should be out within the week. Apart from Mouse Guard, it will also feature GURPS Bunnies & Burrows (special Easter theme), an interview with Steve Long (Star Trek, LoTR, Champions), designer's notes for Summerland and Fire & Sword, a Champions-Spelljammer-Planescape mash-up, classic D&D modules for a Middle-Earth campaign, a review of Watchmen and much more!

I suspect I am not going to see much daylight this coming week; I have to finish the first draft of a book for Iron Crown Enterprises, finish off RPG Review, run two games (D&D Fantasy Australia and RQ Rhythm of the Heat), plus I'm putting together some material for Isocracy on involvement in politics (inspiried by airiefairie's post on talk_politics. Expect a fair dose of Hannah Arendt and Noam Chomsky in the mix.

Queensland had an election, which saw a fourth-term return for the Labor Party against a united opposition and the election of Australia's first female premier (we've had female premiers in the past; they've just lost when it was taken to the polls). Wikileaks strikes a blow by publishing the ACMA list of prohibited content, which included both distateful material but some utterly inoffensive material as well (a dentist?!). Guy Rundle claims that no other issue is more important, and I am certainly sympthethic to that view. The political question is how do we get rid of Conroy?

Comments

[synabetic.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, is it spring already?? Would you like some Lord Orcus in the next issue?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_zombiemonkey/]

The best method of getting rid of Conroy is to fire him into the sun (and put the footage on YouTube).

[taavi.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I have very little time for Chomsky. He really cherry picks and distorts his sources to make US actions look like "the evil conspiracy of evil" rather than the result of contested self-interest and politics. I find his work not much better than "confessions of an economic hit-man"; left-wing theory meets James Bond plot! And he flat-out lied about the Khmer Rouge and his record of supporting them.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Mac Lir being a reference to Manannán, or the Swan Children?

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20090324-First-Dog-on-the-Moon.html

[phasmaphobic.livejournal.com]

Didja get my submissions?

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Apart from The Secret Masters having his browser history, what motivates Conroy to continue flogging this particular undead horse? Who is telling him "ignore the oputrage, this is God's work" and why is he listening?

It is like Bligh and the Travesty Dam.

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Yay - the link worked this time ! I like Isocracy and have filed it in my favourites under "Anarchism etc." Your pussy cat is commendably nonspecist . My Carmen is sitting on my knee at the keyboard - I'm her pet human - and is eager to enroll him in her Feline Liberation Front - not that he needs emancipating ...