It's that time of month again

That's right, time for another semi-political rant.  Well, not so much a rant as it is a requiem, really -- effective today, Jon Huntsman has officially left the race.  Even though this was to be expected (he was polling at about the margin of error), I will miss his reasonable views on global warming and climate change, his policy on working with our foreign neighbors bolstered by his experience as a diplomat, and his tendency to not say things that would otherwise antagonize or mock the general population; he simply has no pull among the Crazy demographic (incidentally, which candidate does the Tea Party support?  Or should I be asking, what's a Tea Party?).  The one thing that has left me raising my eyebrow slightly is his extending support for Romney on his exit.  I would have imagined he would have chosen not to support anyone given his relatively radical views.  Oh well.  Maybe Huntsman/Colbert 2016?

Still on the topic of politics, I was replaying some old games today when it struck me just how they are on the verge of being eerily prophetic, not directly as in their exact storyline, but in the environments they set.  Consider the opening cinema of Metal Gear Solid 4 which I feel is one of the greatest video game monologues I've seen; skipping the more fantastic elements such as nanomachinery, advanced cybernetics, and self-regeneration, paramilitary corporations (remember Blackwater aka Xe aka Academi?)  and proxy battles aren't entirely fabrications at this point.  The other example that caught me off guard was in right in the beginning of Deus Ex; the second UNATCO soldier you speak with has a speech option where he says he wonders why they don't just wipe out the NSF, wherein JC will reply with "When due process fails us, we really do live in a world of terror."; my first thoughts were immediately of NDAA.  A bit further, when you interrogate the NSF leader, he says something along the lines of big corporations paying less in taxes than the assembly line workers on the floor.  I was a bit startled -- and this was a from a game that was released about 12 years ago!  Nanoaugmentations may still be a fantasy, but we may not be too far off from heading into the reality they perceived back then.

Anyway.  In other news, and because I'm listening to them right now, if anyone is in need of good weekend reading material and is familiar with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (I'm curious as to who isn't), then I recommend reading Anthony Kiedis' autobiography Scar Tissue.  It's 400+ pages detailing the life of a rockstar, but it's a quick read (though you may find, as I had, yourself taking a break if only to refresh your mind and read something that doesn't deal with Kiedis doing drugs).  Best to read while he's not old and unsightly, like Axl Rose.

Finally, a reminder that lands untouched by suburban encroachment exist:

 

 

Alaska, '06.  You can see a boat and a house nearby.  Imagine life on a private island like that, but not the kind of Hawaiian paradise that's usually associated with living on an island.