fundamental political principles (and fulfilling a rant request)

A few weeks ago sekhmets_song posted a poll asking "What do you see as the most fundamental political issue?", with options like "education", "religion", "gender identity", and others. profane_stencil posted the same poll. In both cases the most popular answer was "class".

I, on the other hand, feel that the most significant political issue, the foundation on which many others are built, is property -- not who has it (this isn't "class" in disguise) but rather what we believe about property rights. At least for domestic policy; this doesn't work as well for international issues. I've been meaning to write more about this since then, but I've been busy. But hey, I'll take a stab at it now.

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evil overlords (short takes)

Last night's episode of 24 really triggered the "if I were the evil overlord and my enemy had delivered himself into my hands I'd just shoot him" reflex. I'm just saying.

Last night's D&D game marked the temporary end of a major arc. We succeeded in killing the evil vampires, but the big nasty one did not in fact crumble to dust when exposed to sunlight, or running water, or both, and a stake through the heart seems distressingly temporary. Whee. So we still have to worry about him. The fight was exciting and we managed to get out alive (though injured in not-entirely-recoverable ways). I expect some good character journal entries from the last several game sessions; I hope to get them written soon.

Thursday night Dani and I head to Silver Spring where we will, with several friends, celebrate a victory over a different evil overlord by consuming vast quantities of food and drink. Someone once said that most Jewish holidays can be reduced to "they tried to kill us; we won; let's eat", and with Purim that's really true. :-)

HP sent me a rebate check for $50. The problem is that they owed me a rebate check for $150 according to CompUSA, and CompUSA itself still owes me $100. The CompUSA folks aren't overlords, but they might well be evil. Time will tell.