tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361363582011-12-28T11:39:32.654-06:00The Game of Angst is the rumination nexus for all things written by Gary A. Ballard, otherwise known as Haemish MacLennan. I will write about video games, movies, politics, comics and anything else that compels me to write.Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.comBlogger1421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-53092734753083772072010-02-19T11:35:00.000-06:002010-02-19T11:35:25.113-06:00

I don't often talk about DRM these days, other than in derisory tones. After all, the truth of DRM is that it is practically useless for stopping a determined "pirate" from getting their grubby hands on whatever data it is the DRM is meant to protect. While the theory of DRM, ensuring that a product is not copied and used without being legitimately purchased, is a good one, in practice it has

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-77285443879306241622009-12-22T11:31:00.001-06:002009-12-22T11:35:40.291-06:00

I have many times in the last year and a half written or tweeted about healthcare reform, an issue I am very close to for many personal reasons that have nothing to do with this article. I have harangued critics who want no real change to the healthcare landscape at all, for being badly-misinformed puppets of monied special interests and the puppets they employ in our government. Today, with the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-62611906399300919232009-11-23T20:46:00.000-06:002009-11-23T20:46:14.154-06:00

Heather over at the book blog Book Obsessed has posted a mini-review of Under the Amoral Bridge in front of the guest blog post I've written for her. Head on over to Book Obsessed and read The Genesis of Inspiration. I talk about some of the influences that first led me to write, ranging from my mother to cheesy B-movies and role-playing games. Heather is also giving away a copy of Under the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-70741790745608233072009-11-17T11:40:00.000-06:002009-11-17T11:40:05.765-06:00

Thanksgiving is coming up and that means it's time for all you responsible bastards to start doing your Christmas shopping early, unlike me who waits until the last minute to do anything. What better gift to give than my thrilling debut cyberpunk novel, Under the Amoral Bridge? From now until Dec. 1st, I'm offering two discount codes, both for 25% off this fantastic read. For the paperback

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-76390707090652691532009-10-23T21:55:00.001-05:002009-10-23T21:55:55.658-05:00

There are times when I marvel at the movie-making business. After watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, this is one of those days, only the marveling is a reaction of pure horror and unadulterated confusion. I must inform you right up front that I entered this movie expecting to hate it. Not only did I hate the first Transformers movie, I have been extremely critical of Michael Bay's

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-43401172502853294502009-09-17T22:39:00.001-05:002009-09-17T22:40:07.431-05:00

For the last couple of weeks, I've been hinting at some big news in the Bridge Chronicles universe, and now I can finally announce it. Under the Amoral Bridge, the first novel in the Bridge Chronicles series, is being published! Thanks to the great group over at CreateSpace.com, I am self-publishing a physical copy of that first novel. Available now at the Create Space Estore, it will be

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-15520206977086703672009-09-04T08:37:00.003-05:002009-09-04T09:36:03.332-05:00

The healthcare debate in the U.S. has been THE hot topic of the summer of 2009. My Twitter posts have been hammering on that particular drum like a shaggy Muppet. It's time to step back and logically examine the motivations of four of the current players in the upside-down craziness we call our for-profit healthcare system in this country, if for no other reason than to figure out why they act as

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-76625696849304219492009-08-10T16:02:00.004-05:002009-08-10T16:38:37.963-05:00

There will be much ink and many pixels spent dissecting the new Stephen Sommers' movie based on the G.I. Joe property. I'm entirely sure there will be many criticisms leveled at this movie because of the silly plot, over-the-top action or cheesiness. And the nerdrage will be strong from G.I. Joe purists who are offended by the changes to the characters that differ from the '80's cartoon. If you

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-75348727200659972002009-07-13T10:30:00.003-05:002009-07-13T11:09:56.279-05:00

After some interesting Twitter discussions about healthcare reform last week, I began to think about the conservative right position against universal/socialized/single-payer/public-option healthcare in America. Since the Republican party has so inextricably linked itself with the increasingly odious politically evangelical Christian movement in order to win elections, I'm rather insulted at the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-62767019227142624422009-05-05T09:09:00.003-05:002009-05-05T09:12:35.288-05:00

For those wondering about my decreased output over here, it's because of my serial cyberpunk blog novel, called The Know Circuit. It's a sequel to my first blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, and is being updated twice weekly, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today's update brings the story into Chapter 13. Keep watching this space for my more personal, non-fiction writing, and watch The Know

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-88458706999487271722009-04-20T09:39:00.006-05:002009-04-20T09:54:08.787-05:00

I find it hard to believe that some members of the Republican party are functional human beings. While I will be criticizing Republicans in this post, I must make the disclaimer that I do not believe this form of mental retardation is unique to conservatives, Republicans or right-wingers. But the particular display of idiocy I am criticizing in this case comes from unnamed Republicans.President

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-36674314642608439922009-03-25T10:34:00.003-05:002009-03-25T10:54:51.072-05:00

What do I see in the New York Times online edition? Some promising news about the upcoming battle to provide Americans with healthcare, of course. It seems that the major health insurers are now ready to drop their objections to covering people with pre-existing conditions. How big of them to show a readiness to work with Congress after decades of obstructing any progress on universal healthcare

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-22415199840033472082009-02-20T10:05:00.004-06:002009-02-20T10:52:23.037-06:00

Two bits of interesting news came my way in the last day, both of which reinforced a thought I've had for a while now. The video game industry has been doing it wrong, it being unit pricing. I am known as one cheap bastard, this I will confess. My initial reaction to the announcement of the XBox 360's release was that the console was too expensive, and I was practically apoplectic at the PS3's

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-89324918324141919982009-02-04T08:43:00.004-06:002009-02-04T08:59:15.202-06:00

So Raging Douchebag Week got cut short and it's been a quiet month on this blog. Bruce Sterling linked a story involving cloned goats on my Twitter this morning, and I felt the need to share. Not just goats being cloned, but an extinct species of goat being cloned from frozen skin cells. We can rebuild them. We have the technology. Of course, they die shortly after birth from defective lung cells

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-12673883231637503572008-12-30T14:26:00.003-06:002008-12-30T15:13:06.859-06:00

Today's Raging Douchebag award winner comes from the world of video games, specifically the running sore on my video game taint called Massively Multiplayer Online Games. I've written about MMOG's a good bit in the past, though the last few years has found me unable to manage much beyond incomprehensible rage at the whole medium. If ever there was a medium that had pissed away more potential and

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-19535943117219366582008-12-29T15:46:00.009-06:002008-12-29T21:26:28.869-06:00

As the year comes to a stuttering, maddening close, as the presents are all unwrapped, the post-holiday binge still felt somewhere in the deepest recesses of our bellies, we can look back upon the past year with a critical eye. We can look back over the vast array of public douchebaggery that has facefucked us into the enraged stupor that only a year-end countdown can engender, and we can say

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-7789597735645340912008-11-19T14:53:00.003-06:002008-11-19T15:32:42.125-06:00

There are some pairings so perfect, so obvious, so absolutely made for each other that thinking of one will automatically cause the other to come to mind without urging. Peanut butter and jelly, the Internet and porn, Kirk and Spock, these things just fit together so well one can hardly be blamed for preferring the combination over its individual parts. One of the first thoughts that came to my

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-59235826484833500782008-11-14T10:34:00.005-06:002008-11-14T11:42:47.384-06:00

Every forum with even a marginal interest in MMOG's has experienced the "I Quit" thread. These are usually started by a self-important jackass who feels the irresistible urge to not only inform everyone on the Internet that he has quit his latest MMOG to end all MMOG's, but also to wax eloquent on all the myriad reasons why said MMOG is a failure on how it could be improved by just following his

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-48307441881403037362008-11-03T15:35:00.002-06:002008-11-03T15:43:16.476-06:00

Tomorrow is the big day, the vote to end all votes, the election of our life times. We stand on the precipice of a gigantic metaphorical cliff. No matter what your political affiliation, I think we can all agree that this election is likely the most important we will ever see. America can turn its back on the racism of over 200 years of existence and elect the first black president, or we can

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-19373741114000635272008-10-15T09:30:00.005-05:002008-10-15T10:04:55.130-05:00

It's that time of the year again, that time when the air starts getting colder and football fans everywhere are inevitably disappointed by another year's rehashing of the familiar Madden NFL video game formula. And to celebrate the annual disappointment, it's time for me to review this year's version of that storied, beaten-to-a-pulp franchise for the Wii. Yes, most versions of the game could be

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-54210137475541998112008-10-10T11:23:00.002-05:002008-10-10T11:47:26.334-05:00

Readers of my blog will no doubt be completely unsurprised that I would highlight Republican hypocrisy. As a matter of fact, highlighting right-wing pretzel logic is somewhat of a hobby of mine. Gov. Sarah Palin's explosion onto the national scene has been quick and bloody, and her own hypocrisy has been adequately highlighted even by the zombiefied remains of our mainstream media. It's certainly

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-30135851791631119012008-10-03T10:41:00.004-05:002008-10-03T12:16:04.394-05:00

I watched the vice-presidential debates last night. I haven't written too much about the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. In part, that's because attacking her credentials is not only way too easy, it's also counterproductive. The choice of Palin had a number of alarming political benefits to the McCain campaign, not the least of which is that justified criticism of the governor

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-54164023231459456572008-09-23T09:24:00.003-05:002008-09-23T09:29:43.391-05:00

Yes, it was just last week that I reviewed Warhammer Online, giving it a mediocre rating. I gave the game a bit of stick for not really innovating on the MMOG formula, labelling it an inferior WoW-clone. I also said that I would not be buying the game. However, I am a weak, weak man, and throughout the rest of the week, I felt the urge to play the game again. Something about MMOG level grinds and

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-1234816413083159552008-09-15T09:51:00.003-05:002008-09-15T10:35:52.843-05:00

I have not been eagerly anticipating the impending release of the PC MMORPG Warhammer Online. As a matter of fact, I've been critical of Mythic Entertainment for the conduct of their beta. Not only did they not bother to invite me to the beta, giving me the free preview of the game I demand before I will spend money on an MMOG these days, but they held the non-disclosure agreement over the heads

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-40957694895108066892008-08-27T16:03:00.003-05:002008-08-27T16:16:36.439-05:00

Is anyone else as queasy, bothered and uneasy about the fact that CNN's woeful Democratic National Convention coverage is sponsored by the coal industry and AT&T? Now, I don't expect CNN to be able to parse the delicious irony of this sort of thing, at least not unless there is a strategist from either side of the election available to digest and regurgitate some talking points for them. But

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-91266230991682527232008-08-24T15:15:00.003-05:002008-08-24T15:49:00.758-05:00

Watching the coverage of Obama's vice-presidential selection this weekend has left me with an even lower opinion of the mainstream media establishment. As the peanut gallery of Washington pundits, strategists and talking heads like Wolf "the Beard" Blitzer pored over and over the choice of Joe Biden, I was constantly reminded of sports talk radio. While I enjoy sports talk radio almost as much as

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-46727768476530799152008-08-21T21:27:00.005-05:002008-08-21T21:32:32.532-05:00

Just writing to say that yes, I'm still alive and so is this blog. The work that pays the bills has been eating up entirely too much of my life lately, and the blog novel has eaten up the other bits. I will be returning to add some things to this blog soon, but in the meantime, go over and read the final chapter and prologue of my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge. I'm quite happy with the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-29775293448144634822008-07-09T20:59:00.002-05:002008-07-09T21:02:12.268-05:00

My blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, has been updated. I've just posted the penultimate chapter, Chapter 13 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge asks Gina Danton for a huge favor, and seeks out the god of hackers for assistance rescuing Angela. The final chapter will be added in the next two weeks, with the epilogue following shortly thereafter, so keep checking back.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-65407880396361106322008-06-27T15:21:00.002-05:002008-06-27T15:24:16.855-05:00

My blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, has been updated. I've added a new Chapter, Chapter 12 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge returns to Angela's apartment and discovers the reason Kira made the recording. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-49705693418632099752008-06-18T10:17:00.003-05:002008-06-18T10:48:12.431-05:00

This morning's news provided me fodder for a new political posting from two separate but related stories. The first is from CNN, a report from a group of physicians dedicated to human rights that confirms what we already knew, some of the detainees held at Gitmo have been tortured. The second report, from the Wall Street Journal of all places, confirms that as early as 2002 Pentagon lawyers were

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-64685964408560550772008-06-18T10:08:00.003-05:002008-06-18T10:17:41.312-05:00

My blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, is coming into the home stretch. I've just added a new Chapter, Chapter 11 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. I've also set the total size of the novel at 14 chapters and an epilogue. Bridge attempts to return the recordings to Mayor Sunderland, only to find that not everything is as it appears. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-59704764727370091362008-05-29T09:40:00.003-05:002008-05-29T09:48:34.576-05:00

This story is an amazing little morsel. Scientists have gotten monkeys to control a mechanical prosthetic arm with their minds. A tiny grid of electrodes placed on the monkey's motor cortex allows the monkey to use a prosthetic arm to feed himself when offered bits of food. The monkeys learned to use the arm so well, they were able to adapt to changing situations such as the food sticking to the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-77511044154957534722008-05-21T10:20:00.001-05:002008-05-21T10:22:23.813-05:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 9 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Danger closes in on Bridge as Stonewall reveals the fate of the bouncer, Paulie. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-68893039541908691772008-05-20T15:28:00.003-05:002008-05-20T15:57:55.786-05:00

Since the demise of the High Heat Baseball franchise and my adoption of the console as my platform of choice for yearly baseball video games fix, the MLB 2k series of games has been outstanding. Though not always the prettiest or most bug-free, the series has generally been the best action-oriented baseball simulation on the market. But after the abysmal failure that was The Bigs for the Nintendo

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-77351534929686569452008-04-27T19:20:00.004-05:002008-04-29T12:26:02.530-05:00

Last weekend was the Age of Conan PVP Beta weekend for those like myself lucky enough to get into the extra-special free preview of this upcoming MMOG. I would have reported my thoughts earlier, but I've been suffering from the chest cold from hell all last week. Said cold is still lingering in my concave chest, and though my head is fuzzy, my thoughts on AoC are clear. The game releases in May

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-32959701401861879032008-04-17T20:17:00.001-05:002008-04-17T20:19:02.150-05:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 7 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge has to fight off an assasination attempt in cyberspace. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-61979453861738806462008-03-26T14:51:00.003-05:002008-03-26T15:11:58.458-05:00

Politicians often say things that are unintentionally ironic. Sen. John McCain said something yesterday that was so infuriatingly ironic, my eyes practically exploded into a shower of viscera and gore. Sen. McCain is weak on the economy at the best of times, and rarely compassionate, but this statement would be laughable if the pain it represents wasn't so dire. McCain speaks of wanting to take a

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-71515630402663488462008-03-26T11:41:00.002-05:002008-03-26T11:44:16.456-05:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 5 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge is assualted during his meeting with the hacker, Kira. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-11487464247557211352008-03-19T10:44:00.003-05:002008-03-19T11:02:10.639-05:00

I thought I'd link to this enlightening article in the New York Times Business Section. It's a very good, mostly layman's explanation of the credit crisis that is leading our economy down the shitter. I'm no economist, and most of the times I can't make heads or tails of the stock market and investing. This article clarifies the problem a little bit more. As a bitterly cynical layman with bad

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-66677736723746969142008-03-19T10:41:00.002-05:002008-03-19T10:44:38.146-05:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new GlobalPedia article. This week's supplemental article is an explanation of the GlobalNet, 2028's successor to the Internet. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new GlobalPedia material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-49489018421734207342008-03-14T10:46:00.004-05:002008-03-14T11:10:09.016-05:00

I am not a fan of the Mario Bros. series of games. Yes, I'm old enough to have played the original Donkey Kong in arcades when it was brand spanking new. I've played Super Mario on the original NES and Super Mario World on the Super NES. But I never really liked platform jumping games, probably because I suck so horribly at platform jumping. I always preferred the Sonic or Crash Bandicoot games

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-56668741995862508422008-03-12T10:17:00.001-05:002008-03-12T10:19:25.258-05:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 4 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge, in which Bridge visits the Arsenal night club for some important business. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-11309670308369741162008-03-05T16:18:00.002-06:002008-03-05T16:20:44.589-06:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new GlobalPedia article. It's another spotlight on the 2028 Los Angeles Mayoral Race, including a new campaign video by the challenger Arturo Soto. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-36862362033174557332008-02-27T12:37:00.001-06:002008-02-27T12:40:13.821-06:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 3 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-41869719327403254492008-02-26T09:12:00.004-06:002008-02-26T09:31:17.210-06:00

I've never been a fan of Hillary Clinton's, despite the respect I have for the presidency of her husband. She is a thoroughly unlikeable woman, whose good ideas are balanced by an equal weight of bad ideas. Since her carpetbagging move from Arkansas to New York in order to run for a Senate seat, I have felt the same unfortunate vibe from her that I do from her husband, i.e. that both are rabid

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-5761993796804052732008-02-20T10:01:00.002-06:002008-02-20T10:07:14.074-06:00

I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new GlobalPedia article. It's a spotlight on the 2028 Los Angeles Mayoral Race, focusing on the campaign of interim mayor Oliver Sunderland. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-55942887892562238292008-02-19T09:30:00.003-06:002008-02-19T10:16:37.662-06:00

There are certain actors whose effect onscreen cannot be ignored, cannot be glossed over, and cannot be looked past. Hayden Christensen is one such actor. I've watched him play the teenage and adult Anakin/Darth Vader in the execrable Star Wars prequels and I've watched him play the young plagiarist in Shattered Glass. I've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, chalking his horrible

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-51841779610112003152008-02-15T09:56:00.004-06:002008-02-15T10:31:49.837-06:00

I am not a fan of the current incarnation of the NBA and am not a fan of basketball in general. My first exposure to the game in over a decade came during last year's NBA Finals, and only because my favorite player LeBron James had made it to the championship series. As a result, a "casual-focused" NBA action simulation game should be right up my alley. The Wii version of NBA Live 08 from EA

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-45260484374310251022008-02-13T14:49:00.004-06:002008-02-15T10:31:13.234-06:00

Just wanted to post to remind everyone that my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, has been updated with a new chapter, Chapter 2! Bridge gets a beatdown. And don't forget, last week I updated the GlobalPedia 2028 section with an article about the Local Governance License that gives Chronosoft Corporation civil administrative control over Los Angeles.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-7929788225463366882008-02-01T15:47:00.000-06:002008-02-01T16:36:47.873-06:00

Imagine the immature, socially-retarded cousins of Sid Vicious and Johnny Knoxville met, fell in love and had babies. Now imagine those babies were raised on Atari 2600 games, mixed with a liberal dose of Grand Theft Auto 3 and anime. Imagine that child grew up to be a game designer. Had that hypothetical scenario been a reality, that demon spawn would have produced No More Heroes for the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-89970233851914759812008-01-31T10:33:00.001-06:002008-01-31T10:44:00.612-06:00

The time has come to unveil something I've been working on for a few months. Those who have followed my writing over the years may know that I've written a novel and have been trying to get it published, without much success. As a means to promote myself as a fiction author as opposed to some loudmouth blogging asshole, I've decided to publish a novel on the web, using the blog format. That

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-18058076871771236532008-01-20T10:39:00.000-06:002008-01-20T11:11:48.503-06:00

Cloverfield is not a film. Sure, it's being shown in a theater, and you have to pay movie prices for it. It's filmed like a movie, and you can even get popcorn. But it's not a film. Cloverfield is an experience, a theme-park ride on the big-screen and I loved just about every minute of it. First off, let's dispense with the caveats. This is not something one should expect to watch for plot,

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-3526166435600670592008-01-18T08:51:00.000-06:002008-01-18T09:16:04.100-06:00

Having never played the Metroid Prime series on the GameCube, or any Metroid games at all, I came into Metroid Prime Corruption for the Nintendo Wii with a completely blank slate. The only preconceived notions I had going in were that the game was a pretty, neon-infested first-person shooter sequel which had garnered rave reviews in previous incarnations. Those notions were somewhat incorrect.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-39466546915725464642008-01-09T15:24:00.000-06:002008-01-09T16:07:10.836-06:00

We've been told for over a year now that the surge of troops would be a rousing success. That in a year's time, the extra bodes thrown at the problem of Iraq would cut down on the violence, giving the Iraqi government time to make political headway on the most pressing issues the country faces. Those issues include things like regular electricity, potable running water and really, any of the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-85633624255786977542007-12-19T10:00:00.001-06:002007-12-19T10:23:19.464-06:00

Here's a message to the Democrats in the Senate, especially those who campaigned so hard on ending the war in Iraq during the 2006 campaign season. Shut the fuck up, you sniveling twats. You have absolutely no call to ever speak badly about the Bush administration again, because today's news proves that other than a small block of 24 Senators, you have all decided that aiding and abetting this

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-2804044373922262992007-12-11T08:54:00.000-06:002007-12-11T09:18:48.026-06:00

The CIA has always operated as a shadowy organization, sometimes following questionable policies with enough moral ambiguity to provide a fertile ground for equally questionable tactics. Mining the harbors of Nicarauga, smuggling drugs and selling weapons to Iran to fund the Contras, secret drug research programs, brainwashing techniques, propping up the Ba'ath Party in Iraq, overthrowing the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-82423018528969243242007-12-06T15:56:00.000-06:002007-12-06T16:09:32.355-06:00

The poor people of New Orleans were treated with the utmost disrespect before and during the Katrina disaster. Years of governmental neglect from the local to state to federal level contributed to the shabby state of the city and its life-preserving levees, and bear a great deal of responsibility for the Katrina disaster. It is incumbent on the government to help those of its citizens who need

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-5208334947969765142007-12-03T10:19:00.000-06:002007-12-04T08:44:06.203-06:00

The video game news this morning is disappointing for video gamers. Yet another big video game merger has occurred, this time involving Vivendi and Activision. Not content with the cash cow that is World of Warcraft, Vivendi has merged its game division with Activision, publisher of such hits as Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk and Call of Duty. The new merged company will be called Activision Blizzard,

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-57863899317981362242007-11-20T10:47:00.000-06:002007-12-04T08:44:43.438-06:00

Comic books have been a part of my life since my first copy of some Batman comic my mom bought me back in the '70's for a dime. Yes, I am that old and comics used to cost about the same as a piece of bubble gum. You can still get bubble gum for that price, but now you can't get one page from a comic for 10 cents, and the beloved and treasured characters from my four-color days of yore are now

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-86674732402028504982007-11-07T09:26:00.000-06:002007-11-07T11:02:56.742-06:00

This story from the LA Times gave me a brief moment of hope, which was quickly dashed by political pussyfooting. Presidential candidate and noted leprechaun Dennis Kucinich filed three articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives against Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday, proving that this diminutive Ohio Democrat has more balls per square inch than the entire Senate put together.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-56110917601855398722007-11-05T09:35:00.001-06:002007-11-05T10:01:40.280-06:00

Political campaigns bring out my stabby side. From the carefully constructed, focus-grouped to death, faux personality masks worn by all the candidates the closer to victory they come, or the sheer deluge of lies spewed forth by proxy from the Mr. Ed-like mouths of mouthpiece candidates, election season is a time that breeds pure, violent cynicism so concentrated, it could be cooked on a spoon

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-71169222231994490032007-11-02T10:29:00.000-05:002007-11-02T15:21:43.533-05:00

One of the stories coming out of Washington this week has been the contentious debate over the confirmation process of Judge Mukasey as Attorney General. For weeks, it seemed as if Mukasey would be a shoe-in to replace Raging Douchebag Alberto Gonzales as AG. Democrats spoke of Mukasey as a consensus candidate, one without any huge ideological hangups. But then a strange thing happened. Someone

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-2220364913589782052007-10-30T20:15:00.000-05:002007-12-04T08:45:14.940-06:00

This review will likely take more time to write than it took me to play Driver: Parallel Lines for the Wii. The lack of time spent on both playing and writing isn't to say the game is short, because I've no idea how short the game is. What the game is can be shortened into an acronym: YASP, which stands for Yet Another Shitty Port. The review is short because I couldn't stand to play this game

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-46039162369693500032007-10-15T09:41:00.000-05:002007-11-26T10:55:16.470-06:00

Fifa Soccer 07 for the X-Box, while flawed, was the game I played the most over the last year. The game was not perfect, nor was it a completely realistic simulation of football, and yet its outstanding action play, its deep managerial simulation and plethora of club and international teams and leagues was overwhelming. Most sports video games wear out their welcome by the second or third month

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-31358258992934720562007-10-10T15:12:00.000-05:002007-10-10T16:11:37.645-05:00

In today's information-soaked media environment, a meme can gain such a ironclad hold on the imagination of the public with startlingly ease. The mainstream media is the Ebola monkey of viral memes, spreading such fantastic misconceptions as Iraqi WMD with the speed of a Level 4 outbreak. The latest meme to really gain hold in the American political media is what I've termed the 60-Vote Fallacy.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-51006300005548716832007-09-26T09:43:00.000-05:002007-09-26T10:32:25.440-05:00

I've been a vocal supporter of the Nintendo Wii and its motion-sensitive Wiimote. Since I saw the first video of the sword-fighting in Red Steel, I was hooked on the concept of using intuitive motions to execute video game actions as opposed to the established thumbstick and button-pushing interfaces of the past few generations. The waggle, as it's been somewhat derisively labeled, was a step

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-25173463254602909072007-09-20T16:05:00.000-05:002007-09-20T16:19:59.334-05:00

A cloture vote was taken in the Senate yesterday on the Habeus Corpus Restoration Act. For those unaware, Habeus corpus is one of the fundamental rights granted in the Constitution, the right for the accused to challenge his detention, be informed of the charges held against him and access to the evidence supporting those charges. It is the very backbone of our criminal justice system. Habeus

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-78202003017056020082007-09-19T14:51:00.000-05:002007-09-19T15:15:18.490-05:00

The mainstream media is quite literally retarded. I don't mean retarded in the Internet sense whereby anything even remotely stupid is labelled as the produce of mental defectives. I mean that as a collective whole, the mainstream media is suffering from some mass form of congenital brain defect, a defect which causes it to completely forget the lessons of its own past. Not only does it forget

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-75474574615297649802007-09-13T09:49:00.000-05:002007-09-13T10:33:01.949-05:00

Unless you've been under a rock for the last two decades, you should know exactly what you are going to get when you purchase the current year's iteration of the Madden NFL series. In year's past, this has meant the addition of one or two highly touted (and quickly forgotten) new features, a barely current roster update and perhaps a graphical tweak or two. The only real surprises in the series

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-43907550283624245132007-08-29T14:56:00.000-05:002007-08-29T15:31:22.735-05:00

2k Sports has been my favorite sports video game developers ever since the release of ESPN NFL 2k4. With its first-person perspective football, and it's adherence to a decent standard of action-y simulation of sports, the game was a pure gem. 2k Sports other offerings, from the MLB to the NHL franchises, were also solid, and I still rank ESPN NFL 2k5 as the greatest football game ever created.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-84587996310301044052007-08-13T09:09:00.000-05:002007-08-13T09:49:42.906-05:00

The last iteration of the Flash Gordon serial adventures was the Sam Jones/Max Von Sydow cheesefest in the late '70's, a movie so full of eye-gouging color and strained camp that watching it was akin to eating spicy barbecue with mouth ulcers. It hurt so bad but tastes so good. As a child, I watched that version in awe, amazed by the four-color violence and cheesy lines. It was everything an

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-13308416098342922612007-07-30T09:46:00.000-05:002007-07-30T10:42:35.317-05:00

It would be an understatement to say that I am not a fan of the Dragonball Z series of anime. In fact, saying that I believe such animation to be the witless etchings of an army of angry dwarf animators huffing Drano fumes would be putting it mildly. In short, I find Dragonball Z to be not only an insult to my intelligence, but a seizure-inducing parade of cliched drivel that makes me want to

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-44615943442090397332007-07-25T09:56:00.000-05:002007-07-25T10:41:48.712-05:00

The hardcore gamer has driven the market for video games since the beginning. They are the main target for most video games produced in the last generation, they are the ones expected to buy new hardware within the first week of release, they are the ones who preorder anything they want and they generally are the most vocal about the video game industry. And yet, I've said for years that these

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-1568276010910487642007-07-20T15:37:00.000-05:002007-07-20T15:57:26.916-05:00

Something at FEMA stinks. We've known this since 2005, of course, when the bodies of dead New Orleans residents started flowing down Canal Street as the survivors of Katrina were left to boil in the destruction of the Superdome. But since those early days, Americans seem to have assumed that FEMA would take care of the problems, would bring New Orleans back from the brink of destruction, despite

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-76227284333689521382007-07-19T09:23:00.000-05:002007-07-19T09:50:03.405-05:00

For those who have not yet heard, NFL Star Quarterback Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons has been indicted on charges of competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting an illegal dogfighting business across state lines. The charges are a disgusting menu of inhumane acts against dogs that should make every pet owner want to pick up a pitchfork and storm the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-51838238269876283952007-07-18T14:28:00.000-05:002007-07-18T15:00:44.587-05:00

Written by Lou Dubose and Bernstein, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency is a book that manages to both succeed and fail simultaneously. Seeking to pull back the curtain of secrecy on the "shadow government" being run by the vice president, it goes to great lengths to document the unethical and potentially illegal actions of the Office of the Vice President. From the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-48025336286087980052007-07-05T19:38:00.000-05:002007-07-05T20:14:45.778-05:00

The term launch title is generally used in a derogatory manner to indicate the type of game typical of the launch of a new console. Other than a few stellar titles, most console launches are filled with their share of rushed ports from other platforms and simplistic licensed games based on recent popular animated movies. The insult launch title was made for drek like Happy Feet. But based on the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-90740885645857129872007-06-12T09:03:00.000-05:002007-06-12T15:13:08.832-05:00

The Senate has disappointed me once again. We've now had months and months of hearings on the US Attorney firing scandal, including a clueless stooge testifying to his lack of recall about everything to do with his job, a turncoat Jesus-freak "lawyer" pleading the Fifth while showing almost complete ignorance of the law, and story after story painting the whole thing as a political purge by the

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-81700634875456395782007-06-07T09:45:00.000-05:002007-06-07T10:31:27.305-05:00

My title is apropos. Enough truly is enough in comics, in this case the Marvel Universe (MU) of comics. I've endured a lot of really bad storytelling over the last few years from the Mighty House of Ideas. I've sat through House of M and Civil War, quietly dying inside as writers and editors have dismantled the great characters of the Marvel Universe and turned them into unrecognizable cardboard

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-48006714630424583852007-05-30T10:09:00.000-05:002007-05-30T11:15:35.435-05:00

I was treated this morning to an interesting MMOG post-mortem courtesy of MMORPG.com. The subject of the post-mortem was the failed NCSoft/NetDevil car warsy game Auto Assualt, a game I wouldn't play for free, much less pay for because it was truly a stinker. The concept of the game was brilliant, a game of dueling, Road Warrior-esque vehicles in instanced arenas with destructible environments.

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-56510121079945640562007-05-25T09:34:00.000-05:002007-05-25T10:30:01.304-05:00

The last week has been a depressing one for anyone following Congressional activity, unless you are a fan of the current administration and its army of sycophantic fearmongers. First we had the news that a "compromise" had been reached in the immigration battle, a compromise which promised to give President Bush and his corporate backers the cheap slave labor it wanted. Then, we were treated to

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-2146504548369094642007-05-22T09:47:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:47:52.936-05:00

It's time again for another installment of "If You Ask Me," my semi-regular column in which I expound on a subject no one asked me about, but they really really should have. In today's edition, I talk about Major League Soccer, the US Soccer Federation's attempt at putting soccer (what the rest of the world knows as football) on the sports entertainment map in America. I've only been following

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-86545714537156937482007-05-04T16:16:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:46:23.820-05:00

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for this story. I've not followed the early Presidential primary debates, seeing as how it's entirely too early to start stumping the 2008 race in my opinion. But I have caught a little bit of the pertinent bits. I've discovered that three of the Republican candidates are apparently anti-science zombies, since Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee all think evolution is a

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-83734793581005848582007-05-03T09:45:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:46:40.120-05:00

It has become an indisputable fact that the Bush administration is one which rewards failure in all its forms. The examples are legion. We have the promotion of Condi Rice from the top National Security Post to Secretary of State despite her overseeing the greatest national security intelligence blunder in history. George Tenet receives a Medal of Freedom, ostensibly for overlooking evidence that

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-66223505804464718422007-05-02T09:07:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:48:06.407-05:00

Liverpool beat Chelsea at Anfield last night, 1-1 on aggregate, 4-1 on penalties. It was fucking fantastic, a real nail-biter of a game. When you walk through a storm,Hold your head up high,And don't be afraid of the dark.At the end of a storm,There's a golden sky,And the sweet silver song of a lark.Walk on through the wind,Walk on through the rain,Though your dreams be tossed and blown..Walk on,

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-16313357755278016452007-04-27T11:06:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:44:02.773-05:00

It's the final day of Raging Douchebag week, and today's super-duper winner is from the stratified air of corporate America. The 2k's have given us great examples of Corporate Raging Douchebaggery, from Enron to Worldcomm, from Haliburton to IAP. But today's Raging Douchebag is a real lowlife from the high reaches of Mount Corpratus. Presiding over a Fortune 500 company is hard, what with lavish

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-50957595715673557432007-04-26T16:01:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:44:21.638-05:00

Day 4's Raging Douchebag comes from the world of video games, specifically Massively-Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, or NAMBLA. You might think I'd honor such luminaries as Derek Smart, or any one of the mouth-breathing executives at Sony responsible for the PS3. You might even believe my favorite pigfucker John Smedley would be honored, as he's had a banner year. But no, today's Raging

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-52470570685811626242007-04-25T15:04:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:47:22.071-05:00

I realize it's Godwin's Law to invoke Hitler, fascism and the Nazis in any Internet discussion. Such hyperbole generally shuts down all rational discourse left. But this article by Naomi Wolf is a fantastic compiliation of all the reasons one has to ignore Godwin's Law when discussing the American government these days. This article really should not be a reasonable thing, not in the America I

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-33687786213974321212007-04-23T19:45:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:44:37.957-05:00

Day 3 of Raging Douchebag Week is here, and today's nomination is one near and dear to my heart. Today's nomination comes from the world of comic books, the funny papers. The 10-cent newsprint joys of my childhood which inspired me to be both a writer and an artist have long since become the computer-colored, overpriced epic crossover mass market merchandising brands of the present day. And yet,

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-37586238097193763212007-04-16T20:01:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:45:02.377-05:00

It's Day #2 of Raging Douchebag Week, and today's Raging Douchebag is my favorite bootlicking jackass. While it's true that the Bush Administration could most certainly provide a candidate for every day of this week, and another month besides, this sub-human toadie deserves to be spotlighted above all others for the last few months of actions. Of course, Darth Cheney is a Douchebag Emeritus for

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-52414614656668124342007-04-13T09:15:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:45:22.415-05:00

It's that time of year again, the time of year when the worst of the worst, the most useless wastes of genetic material on the planet are dishonored for their vomitous contributions to the decay of humanity. It's time for Raging Douchebag Week, the week that I strike back with extra special venom at the public figures, minor celebrities, game devs, sports icons, political hacks and other idiots

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-75870234091815819772007-04-10T09:35:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:47:39.114-05:00

The NHL playoffs begin tomorrow night, and my excitement pump is getting primed. My Minnesota Wild are in the playoffs as the #7 seed, getting ready to enter a series with the #2 seed Anaheim Ducks, a rematch of the last time the Wild made the playoffs. I remember 2003 well, as a scrappy Wild team ground out two series wins against Colorado and Vancouver, only to run into the brick wall that was

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-77630410064465570702007-04-06T23:37:00.000-05:002007-04-06T23:43:26.709-05:00

Is your life bereft of useless T-Shirts with catchphrases? Do you long for a coffee mug with Josef Stalin on it? Is there money burning a hole in your pocket? Then head on over to my CafePress shop, at http://www.cafepress.com/gameangst and fill your swag bag to the brim. I've started with one T-shirt (in various cuts) expressing the utter despair of sb.exe and a mug collectivized by Big Joe

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-3055299969239056902007-03-22T22:34:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:45:48.081-05:00

Josef Stalin was a brutal, oppressive dictator who usurped the socialist revolution in Russia to found a regime based on a cult of personality. His purges were legendary, estimated to have killed more people than Hitler's genocidal treatment of the Jews. He was also a country bumpkin, a Georgian brute with little in his past to indicate any significant leadership qualities. The Stalin Monologues

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-21921328646762951332007-03-21T15:28:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:48:41.792-05:00

It's been a long time since the Bush administration was actually acquainted with the reality of accountability for their actions. Since 2002, the Republican/neocon stranglehold on Congressional power has rendered the concept a quaint anachronism which the Bush/Cheney junta can scoff at over their afternoon tea out on the lawn with a hearty Ivy League 'HARRUMPH!' Today's news brings a welcome

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-34893275115606721012007-03-16T09:14:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:42:57.711-05:00

One of the oft-repeated political platforms I've heard in my life has been that the US government has become so inefficient that only privatizing certain government operations can allow those operations to provide their benefits effectively again. Over and over the neocon and conservative agenda has tried to hammer the point home, over and over again suggesting various governmental functions

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-74353308845480044792007-03-15T16:52:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:50:21.259-05:00

A week or so ago, I read an article from Seymour Hersh about a new form of the Iran-Contra shuffle going on in the White House, directed at Iran and run through the Vice-President's office. It was a frightening story, and not one I had the slightest difficulty believing. I filed it in the back of my mind, thinking it would be front page news for months to come. It was that big a story. And yet,

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-45729155076885382452007-03-14T10:00:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:50:39.981-05:00

There are news stories that make you think, news stories that make you sad and news stories that really have no impact on you whatsoever. Then there are some news stories that make you so intractably furious, so outraged and disgusted that language should fail even the most accomplished wordsmith. One can only be left in a puddle of quivering anger jelly, that bilious substance that fuels this

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-74295935361500866622007-03-12T09:30:00.000-05:002007-05-22T10:51:03.140-05:00

It's a telling indictment of the political world we live in today that not only did I read a Pat Buchanan book, but there were parts of it I actually agreed with. Buchanan is the kind of bigoted, right-wing douchebag that I not only disagree with vehemently, I actually have wished violence upon the man many times. Not the kind of death-wish violence reserved for evil people like Dick Cheney or

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36136358.post-43353587931165857532007-02-22T11:07:00.000-06:002007-05-22T10:51:27.054-05:00

Over the last month since the President revealed his "new strategy" for Iraq, proponents of this surge/escalation/last-ditch desperate attempt have hammered the media with endless soundbites repeating the same criticism of opponents. Like some deranged mantra of unintended earnest idiocy, this oft-repeated meme has been gobbled up by the increasingly propagandized media and regurgitated whole

Gary A. Ballardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13594944455702886493noreply@blogger.com0