A blogging holiday (w/ shriekers)

It’s going to be a light blogging day. The big news is that the right wing shriekers (image from The Book of Ratings section on 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons monsters because I'm too lazy to dig up my old Monster Manual and scan the image) are still not backing down from their ridiculous accusations against the New York Times, despite the fact that Cheny and Rumsfeld personally gave permission to the reporters, despite the fact that all the information had previously been published in right wing outlets, and despite the fact that the secret service itself “scoffed at their claim that this article endangered anyone's security.” As every veteran D&D player knows, once a shrieker starts shrieking, there's no reasoning with it. Actually, you can't reason with it before hand either; the slightest bit of movement will set it off. Your only recourse is a silence, 15' radius spell. Or you can try to just ignore it. Shriekers would be harmless except for the fact that they attract all kinds of wandering malcontents who are perfectly willing to bash in your skull. So reluctantly, you do have to fight them. (Reluctantly because unlike wingnut shriekers, D&D shriekers usually don't have much treasure.)

It’s not surprising that there are people so unhinged from reality, but it is very surprising that they are taken very seriously as pundits by the very people whose heads they are calling for. I think they should just have giant screaming mushrooms on their talk shows instead.

Speaking of D&D monsters, Devilstower on Kos has an explanation as to why conservatives seem to hate others so easily: They think we’re orcs. Maybe Grishnash should change his screen name.

Happy 230th to the United States of America. It’s been a tough six years, but we’ll pull through. And think of how many experience points we'll have gained. I think I'm a level 3 blogger already.