“Can Diamond Dallas Page Save Wrestling’s Walking Dead?” – the best way to introduce this story is through this statement from V.S. Pritchett that has been turning over and over again in my mind recently:
As Huck Finn and old Jim drift down the Mississippi from one horrifying little town to the next and hear the voices of men quietly swearing at each other across the waters; as they pass the time of day with scroungers, rogues, murderers, the lonely women, the frothing revivalists, the maundering boatmen and fantastic drunks of the river towns, we see the human wastage that is left in the wake of a great effort of the human will, the hopes frustrated, the idealism which has been whittled down to eccentricity and craft. These people are the price paid for building a new country.
- Kanye Quest 3030 (h/t Ricky McAlister) is a short, free RPG (download). Highly recommended – lots of jokes about rap and game mechanics are put together well (note what Tupac doesn’t have).
- Still reading this thing on “Groundswell” (h/t LGF; Weigel’s take I’m inclined to agree with). I’m put off by the sinister tones of the piece – okay, some conservatives are really into messaging and coordination. Fine. What bugs me is the larger question of what the future of conservatism is. It seems to me only a few voices are joining in unison to drown a number of others out. That the power of populist rage is being wildly overestimated as 1) good for America and 2) something that can win elections. (North Carolina is not a future any party should wish for. Wait until the backlash.)
- So you’re really angry that the gun you’ve been using to kill everyone in online video game play has been weakened because of balance issues. This means you send death threats to the developers, right? (h/t Ricky McAlister & Emory Rowland) More on gaming coming soon, very soon.