Morgan’s Fun Ranting Corner

I just got a new blog. It’s just like this one, pretty much, but it has it’s own URL, rather than a subdomain off of an obsolete website I got years ago. Check it out:

MFRC

There are two things that interest me more than anything else - video games, and politics. I don’t see why I can’t devote a few posts on this blog to the former.

Battlefield 2 is possibly my favorite first-person shooter. It has no singleplayer, devoting all it’s bits and bytes to multiplayer gameplay. Although it uses an engine from 1999, it lacks any of the “arcade” style gameplay found in other games, such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Battlefield 2142 was released some time later, and it was called a “modification” of BF2 by many.

Then, Battlefield: Bad Company was released. It used a brand new engine, called Frostbite. In late 2007 (if I remember correctly), some information was leaked about a game called Battlefield 3. As time went on, the rumors subsided, as EA Games announced two games using the Frostbite Engine: Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 1943.

Today, the senior producer of DICE (since bought out by EA Games) announced on the devil Twitter that the rumored Battlefield 3 was in development. I was very happy when I read this.

My one major hope is that the game includes an SDK (software development kit) or atleast a map editor. I loved modding Battlefield 2 - making maps and such. I will say now that I might not even buy the game, if there are no mod tools included.

I also hope that I will not have to buy new hardware for my computer. I always end up screwing something up, when I try to install new hardware.

The Justice Department has dismissed a same-sex marriage case filed in federal court. According to the government, they were seeking a ruling on “whether by virtue of their marital status they are constitutionally entitled to acknowledgment of their union by states that do not recognize same-sex marriage, and whether they are similarly entitled to certain federal benefits.” To me, it sure seems that way.

The Defense of Marriage Act, which the federal lawsuit contests, was first introduced by Bob Barr when he was a Republican congressman. The law states that “No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) needs to treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state,” and that “The federal government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.”

Roughly, this means that a state cannot be required to recognize same-sex marriages in other states (Per Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution). Bob Barr authored the DOMA as a compromise, to take momentum out of attempts both to ban or legalize same-sex marriage on a federal level.

I think that the DOMA should not be repealed completely, but rather replaced by something else that has a similar ring of preserving federalism.

Look out everyone! Hide the kids! Safeway is turning gay! Atleast, that’s what the American Family Association would like us all to think. I received an email from them, whining about how Safeway stores are putting up these posters:

In Safeway branded stores across America, Safeway is placing large posters encouraging you to celebrate the gay lifestyle with them during the entire month of June.

How disgusting. These posters are clearly inviting customers to partake in a gay sex orgy. In a grocery store, even! Have they no morals?

Safeway is dedicating itself to promoting homosexuality.

So I guess a store that has a similar poster about black history month is promoting being black?

Like all their other emails, they talk about Safeway and others being “neutral” in the “culture war.” I ask: would they be telling a company to be neutral in the culture war, if they put signs in their stores that said, “Homosexuality is a choice”? Probably not.

Go ahead and send a nice email to Safeway, but don’t use the standard message they have. I’m sure though, that they have the emails moderated before being sent off to Safeway. I’m not sure though.

The European Union, the shining, pretty example of multi-party democracy, just had it’s parliamentary elections a few days ago. Six hundred forty-three of the seven hundred thirty-six seats were taken by “Europarties,” transnational groups of various parties. The rest were taken by non-inscrits (parties not aligned with one of the groups). Most of the non-inscrits were far-right parties such as the British National Party, but there were some such as the libertarian-esque Pirate Party.

Out of the seven, two groups won the most seats. These are the center-right European People’s Party–European Democrats, and the leftist Party of European Socialists, winning two hundred sixty-four and one hundred sixty-one seats, respectively. To the untrained, bipartisan-minded individual, this may seem like a sign, that the European electorate has taken a drastic turn towards the right. That is not the case.

You can see the results here. The liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe won eighty seats. The green-y European Greens–European Free Alliance won fifty-three seats, and the socialist (with a hint of communist) European United Left–Nordic Green Left won thirty-two seats. Combined, the leftists (not including the non-inscrits - I’ll count them later) made up three hundred twenty-six seats.

The right-wing Union for Europe of the Nations won thirty-five seats, and the Independence/Democracy Group* won eighteen. Thus, righties made up three hundred seventeen (again not including non-inscrits) seats. Now, for that lovely little asterisk:

*The Independence/Democracy Group’s only point is euroskepticism, which is an opposition to further European integration. It is mostly associated with the right, and it seems as though all the parties standing under their banner were right-wing. This doesn’t mean of course, that all eurokceptics are right-wing.

Heh, it appears Wikipedia is faster than whoever runs that election result site. Either that, or some twelve year old screwed with it. Non-inscrits make up one hundred ten of the seats. So, I guess it’s necessary that I count them to get a proper right to left ratio.

Well, damn. Right-wing (a few of them being far-right) non-inscrits won seventy-eight seats, while left-wing inscrits (including one libertarian-ish party) only won thirty-two. So thus, total, leftists have three hundred fifty-eight seats, while righties have three hundred ninety-five. One seat went to an MEP from a party who’s ideology is unknown to me - the Wikipedia article says nothing and their site is in Estonian.

What scares me is how many far-right and fascist parties won seats. The British National Party won two, the National Front of France won three, the Freedom Party of Austria (funny name) won two, and the Slovak National Party won one seat. There are others, too - I just don’t feel like listing them all.

Every nation has loons. I’ll bet that if we had the same multi-party system, there would be a significant amount of people voting for some sort of far-right party. The turnout was only forty-three percent, so it’s not an accurate depiction of how a majority of Europeans are, politically.

I hope that oneday, we can be a viable, multi-party democracy, somewhat like Europe.

I’d like to announce that as of Saturday, I am done with college for the semester. Officially, the semester is not over, so I won’t get my grades until then, but I assume I got an A in both Speech 101 and Mass Communications 101. I know for a fact that I got a B in Math 219, which is the first half of a sort of do-it-yourself intermediate algebra.

The Summer semester, which starts later this month, will be quite hectic. It is ten weeks, but it is divided into two - I guess you could say - sub-semesters of five weeks, allowing for two classes to be taken, one after the other. The amount of content is not reduced, so it will be sixteen weeks worth of content, compressed into five weeks.

I will be taking History 118, which is the history of the US from reconstruction to modern day, and Geography 101, which is pretty self-explainatory.

I just felt like personalizing my blog a little bit. In other news, I’m making plans to move my blog to another URL.

Today I logged on to delete my usual fifty spam messages a day, when I found this lovely comment posted on my blog about the One World Nazi Party:

Morgan you JEW

The name of the fellow who posted this is “Sampson” and his email address is “morganthejew@suckass.com.”

I am not Jewish by religion or ancestry - I am atheist, and both my parents are non-denominational Christian, although not very devout at all. My good friend here, Sampson, probably doesn’t think I’m Jewish, but in his own mind he thinks calling me a “Jew” is comparable to calling me a “dog” or an “asswipe.”

Since idiots neo-Nazis and white supremacists can call people things they don’t like, I should too!

Sampson, you BUSH!

In 2005 a law was passed here in California, banning the sale of violent video games to people under the age of eighteen. An injunction caused it to never go into effect. It has been highly contested since then, and now a case is being considered by the US Supreme Court.

Not surprisingly, it was sponsored by a Democratic California state senator, a fellow named Leland Yee. It is also being supported by Attorney General and former governor Jerry Brown, also a Democrat, and the yutz governator (Republican). As you can see here, support for nanny laws crosses party lines.

Glendale, California is the city I reside in, unfortunately, and recently the city has approved a smoking ban. You can no longer smoke in public or privately owned spaces that have public access, outdoor restaurant dining areas, common areas of apartments, city property, or within twenty feet of where smoking is prohibited. So, where does that leave, for people to smoke? Outside of Glendale.

I do not smoke, but I support the right to smoke. The Glendalian atmosphere does not appear as though there’s been a nearby forest fire, and I rarely see people smoking. If I’m sitting somewhere and people are smoking, and the smoke is getting in my face, I will simply move somewhere else. My mother smokes, and when her smoke gets in my face, I will simply move. Why can’t people simply do that?

Too many people have an idea that because they don’t like something, it should be illegal. Said people expect us all to bend over backwards to abide by their likes and dislikes. They have a hard time understanding what freedom is.

You can email the “Fresh Air Ambassador” of Glendale, at ArJimenez@ci.glendale.ca.us.

I’m renovating my “about me” page. My email is mbrykein [at] gmail.com. I broke it up because I don’t want automatic spam. Please, send me all your comments, hate mail, love letters, death threats, whatever you want to send me. I’m posting this here because I want to see what some of the neo-Nazis who might have found this site think of my last blog.