I’m so glad we’ve laid violent rhetoric to rest

But shouldn’t someone have told Joe “Foot in Mouth” Biden about it, first?

Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists,” according to several sources in the room.

It’s one thing to call your opponents racists. But to call them terrorists?

If someone disagrees with you, you don’t slander them; you either try to convince them that they’re wrong, or you try to convince everyone else that they’re wrong. Calling political opponents terrorists waters down the meaning of the word, and does absolutely nothing for you.

And it would be one thing if the person calling their political opponents terrorists were just some opinion writer, but for the vice president to do so is beyond the pale.

The government should not lightly label people terrorists.

Being called a Terrorist by Govt. officials gives them permission to shoot the person ON SITE. Terrorist is NOT a word 2 b used carelessly

— CTconserv. Faith (@CTconserv) August 1, 2011

Crises of Fate

I finished up the first Ace Attorney Investigations game this weekend; instead of controlling Phoenix Wright and attempting to prove your client’s innocence, you control Miles Edgeworth (who is accompanied by various sidekicks, depending on which case you’re on) as he investigates crime scenes and deduces who the real criminal is.

As in the Phoenix Wright games, the five cases end up being related, even if at first glance they don’t appear to be. Lots of characters from the Phoenix games make appearances, including Dick Gumshoe and Franziska von Karma (I’d mention more, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise).

The logic puzzles are mostly solvable, though I did get stuck a few times; presenting the wrong evidence during testimony still reduces your health, and if you reduce it to zero, Miles fails to solve the case.

I’m not sure if the second Miles Edgeworth game is ever going to cross the Pacific; it came out in February of this year, and according to Capcom, there are currently no plans to release it outside Japan.

Fortunately, it’s a DS game and not a 3DS game; if I choose to, I can import it and play it on my US region DS.

Quote of the Indeterminate Time Interval – Richard Feynman

Said he:

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

Feynman died in 1988. The national debt in 1988 was $2.6 trillion.

It’s now $14.3 trillion. Five and a half times what it was at Feynman’s death.

No Diablo III gamer is an island

Blizzard’s sequel to their smash-hit Diablo series is going to require an always-on internet connection, even for single player.

That’s fine most of the time, but for people who are often in locations where they don’t have a persistent connection (like if you want to play on a plane), you’re going to have to play something else.

I am intrigued by the idea of cash-based auction houses. I guess their experience with Diablo II and WoW taught them that people are going to figure out how to spend real money on stuff, so Blizzard might as well sanction it and get a cut. The beta review makes it sound like they’ve done a good job, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

To paraphrase Ian Malcom, “The market finds a way.”