another brick in the wall

Begin brain dump:

If you've been following the news at all, it will be no surprise that I'm very busy today blogging at CardSquad.

I'm also writing for a new ACME show, which I'll have details on in the future.

The story is not that Mark Foley is a disgusting pervert. The story is that Mark Foley is a disgusting pervert, the entire House GOP leadership knew about it, and covered it up because they are more concerned with protecting and expanding their power than anything else. The National Republican Campaign Committee also wants to take Foley's campaign money and spend it on other campaigns. Isn't that money pretty tainted? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to send it to an organization for victims of sexual predators? And where is the Christian Right on this? Their silence is deafening. Update: The American Taliban's own James Dobson blames an "oversexualized society" instead of Mark Foley for his behavior. So much for personal responsibility, huh?

I submit links to Netscape News. Here is my user page.

This week's Games of our Lives is one that I'm pretty happy with. Yie Ar Kung Fu:

Gameplay: Yie Ar Kung Fu recalls a simpler time, when enemies were named after their mode of attack, like Chain, Pole, Sword, and Feedle, and fighting styles were limited to the kick, the punch, and the jump. Beginning in Hot Fighting History, you take on relatively easy opponents on your way to Masterhand History, where things get really tough. There are a few basic combo moves, but just like in real-life kung fu, the best strategy is to be the first to the field, and the last to the couch. Also, punch a lot and jump.

Could be mistaken for: Five Deadly Venoms, 10 Magnificent Killers, 11 16-bit Fighters

Har. "Also punch a lot and jump" really made me laugh when I wrote it. I get almost no feedback on Games of Our Lives. What do you you guys think? Be honest. Next week's (which I just turned in) is another classic Intellivision game. Man, I love those Intellivision games, and I wish I hadn't been so intimidated by their crazy ass controller when I was a kid. It's great to play them on XBox, but I wish I could have played them "for real."

I'm listening to The Wall and The Final Cut today. It seems appropriate.

My stepson Ryan was accepted into Mensa! He had one of the highest scores in his group, too. This proves that intelligence comes from the mother, and geekiness, while not hereditary, is certainly transitive.

I'm madly in love with Threadless, and have a blog there, because what I need is another fucking blog. This is specialized, though, all about T-shirts and designs I love. Warning: if you love T-shirts like I do, stay as far away from Threadless as possible. You will get hooked, you will spend all your money there, you will run out of room in your house for new clothes. Of course, if you don't heed my advice, please spend all your money through this link, so I get kickbacks and free shirts.

I'm late to the party on this, but boy have I fallen for Sufjan Stevens. I got a crush on the music with the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack (by the way, that's one of my favorite movies of this year, so go see it, if you care about movies I've liked this year) and it turned into a full-blown schoolyard romance with Illinois and The Avalanche.

End brain dump.

Comments

[Insane_in_Huron]

I sometimes wonder whether the government of the United States is stuck in the 19th Century on some issues after weeks like this one.

About the "Games of Our Lives". I did enjoy it; but, my idea of the games of old are games such as the Close Combat Series and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. That is more telling of my age than the quality of your article though.

I could never beat Indiana Jones; I always got stuck at this part where you had to use your whip to cross a gorge. I wish I could figure out how to install Indiana Jones on Windows XP; than I would show that gorge...I would show it good...

[SassyTeffie]

Wil: The Christian Right is silent because they don't know how to respond. On one hand many of them feel that gambling is a sin and should be illegal...on the other hand they feel that the worse the world gets the sooner Christ will return (and that would be a good thing).

Mensa members: I have contemplated taking the test. What type of questions are on it? I know a lot, and I can read a 2,000+ page book in 6 hours and retain 99% of what I read, but I'm not as strong on logic-type questions. I'm asking because I live in the middle of nowhere and last time checked it would be a drive of several hours just to get to a testing facility and my car only gets 11mpg, plus the sitter for my three kids, plus the cost of the test.

Wil: This is my first post so I just wanted to say I think you're a great actor, and I love reading your blog! (Yes, I had a crush on you when I was a kid, but I know now that nobody can measure up to my husband! LOL! Besides you're about ten years older than me!) ;).

[vulgrin]

"perfect recreation of late-night Kung-Fu Theater on UHF channel 56."

I'm sorry Wil - kids today have no clue what "UHF" or "VHF" is.... Compare it to DragonBall Z instead. :)

[Chad]

"The Christian Right" Ugh. It's unfortunate that this phrase was ever created. I know your a smart enough guy to realize this, but these twisted mouths that speak for the "Christian Right" don't speak for Christians. They speak for the slimey, controling, backwards,ungodly-legalistic, war mongers.

Thanks for the Threadless link! Sure am glad you didn't post it on payday.

[katatak]

Another congrats to Ryan- I also am a Mensan, but, like here online, am mainly a lurker. Not an elitist, just an INTP. When I took the test they didn't tell you what your score was, just whether you made it or not.
For SassyTeffie: You can take the Mensa Home Test to see what it would be like. On the American Mensa homepage (http://www.us.mensa.org) there is a link for the home test. They send it to you in the mail & you send it back to be marked. As I recall, it is a lot of logic stuff (or maybe that's what I remember because that's what I'm good at). But $18 sounds better than the drive, sitter, and fuel costs to find out if it's something you think you could do well on.

[Becky..Absent Minded Housewife]

Cmon Foley, Dateline wants to interview YOU!

I sent my 7 year old to school today in a tshirt with a graphic of a duck shooting lighting bolts out of it's ass. It proclaims "Did someone step on a duck?" I'm a good mommy.

[blob]

Okay, after many long years of lurking, I finally had to register to make a comment. Not on one of the many delightful and insightful posts I've read. Not even to weigh in on the Yie Ar Kung Fu issue. (But I will anyway: Loved the game and the post).

No, I posted to hawk my T-shirt. I haven't sold any yet and I don't know why. Is it not awesome? It seems awesome to me, but of course I created it and many things I've created seem awesomer than they probably are. (Of course, the spreadshirt price doesn't help any, but they do make nice shirts.)

http://lurkerwear.spreadshirt.com/

Ignore the Team Scirocco design. That's for my volleyball team. Unless, of course, you want to look like you're on my volleyball team. But I should tell you: We haven't won many games since being promoted to the "A" division.

[Wil]

I hear ya, Chad. I am not a Christian, but I have many close friends who are. We all know that the ultra-right doesn't speak for the majority of Christians. In fact, according to my friend K., the way the ultra-right behaves is directly at odds with the teachings of Christ. He also says that his religion is between him and his God, and that his God has really bad publicity.

[Adam875]

Do you know about Glarkware?

[PA_ChanMan]

Little Miss Sunshine was great...glad you were able to see it! I didn't know what to expect going in, but I was very happy going out.

Thanks for posting the t-shirt link...it was neat.

[SandieK]

WOOT! Ubber super HUGE congrats to Ryan for getting into Mensa. And having the guts to try. Ive been debating on and off for awhile on taking it, but I only scored in the 94ish percentile on the home one. Maybe I should just suck it up and take it.

[Chad]

Hmm, Not a Christian eh? You know, for $10,o00 I can get you into a nice plan that has a low "involvment" commitment. It would be perfect for your busy lifestyle. The Plan 4 church of eternal pestulance! The only mandatory meeting is the Tax day contata and the year end "Flavor Aid" mixer.

[Jason Toomey]

I've actually been reading "Games of our Lives" since you started. It replaced "Films that Time Forgot" as my favorite section of the AV Club the first time I read it. For the first few weeks I was always wondering, "hey, could that be *the* Wil Wheaton?" I only found your blog here through "Games of our Lives."

It's funny, though, I never would have thought to post a comment here or write an email about it. I enjoy it and look forward to reading every Wednesday (as I do your blog everyday) but I guess I just had this feeling of "he wouldn't care that I'm reading this, who the heck am I?" I guess it serves me right, though, since I'm having the same trouble on my own blog--tons of hits, but no comments.

Oh well. Keep up the column, it's really great!

[Myshtuff]

I use threadless. I have some slogans on there but they do not seem to be doing so well. Whats cool is that my photo teacher knows the guy who created that website. Weirrrrrrrrrrrrrd.

[jbay]

\m/ sufjan!

I was just listening to "Chicago" on the train this morning. Plate of shrimp!

I have to turn it off before it gets to Casimir Pulaski Day, though...that one kills me. The Gacy song, too...beautiful but painful.

[terrymr]

Congrats to Ryan.

I toyed with doing the mensa test for a while but I'm too chicken. I did one of those online IQ tests and it told me I'm most like Bill Gates - so after I shor myself in the head.....

[ZB]

That GOOL article was awesome. You managed to cram in both a Futurama AND a Kentucky Fried Movie reference. Nice!

"Send him to...DETROIT!"
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

And my all time favorite:
"Jesus! Did a COW shit in here?"

Waiting patiently for the next installment...

[oedipuscomplextrekfannumbertenmillion]

The story is not that Mark Foley is a disgusting pervert. The story is that Mark Foley is a disgusting pervert, the entire House GOP leadership knew about it, and covered it up because they are more concerned with protecting and expanding their power than anything else.

Does this surpise you? Politics is all about power. King Arthur tried "Might for right" centuries ago and it didn't work. Hobbes, Spinoza, Nietzsche, all had things to say about the nature of politics and power (but how can I forget CLAUSEWITZ?? So, I add him here). The "greater good" is easily rationalized as a primary motivation. The GOP thinks the world is in better hands with it running things as opposed to the Dems. So they find (at least) one serious problem-member who is doing bad things. The rationalization is just this: better we lie about our defective agent and keep it down so that we can stay in power for the good of the world rather than let the opposition who we just KNOW will mess things up, get into power because of it. In the end, they end up shooting themselves in the foot. But it's all about easy rationalizations. Everyone does it. Eventually you get caught if you stick around long enough. The GOP got it this time. Who's next? We'll see. No one is pure.

I saw one of the TNG eps yesterday on DVD. Can't remember the title but it was the one where you (ie, Wesley) and Patrick Stewart (ie, Picard) are stuck on that desert planet (must have sucked filming the outdoor scenes for that ep) since the miner's shuttle you were on malfunctioned and you had to put down on a moon (...which just so happened to have a climate that looked a lot like the Mojave Desert...). Eventually you made it to a mountain cave that had a water fountain in it that had some kind of force-shield come up whenever someone tried to get too close to it, and if you tried too hard, some kind of gelatinous stuff covered you (this is what killed the shuttle pilot). Well eventually, the ingenous young Wesley Crusher figured out how to outsmart the device and save the captain's life, etc., etc.

Maybe to protect our Congressional pages we need to build something similar that follows them around everywhere. Every time a Congressman tries to molest them, a force field can go up around them.

We can do the same thing for the Amish too, while we're at it.

Lovely fucking world we live in here, Wil.

[ErkDude]

The simple fact that Mark Foley's crimes are being downplayed is just another example of the type of self-serving organized crime syndicate that's running our country right now.

Where is the Religious Right during this scandal? Probably at a NAMBLA luncheon..

[BonzoGal]

Wheaton you persuasive bastard! I've just spent my cats' kibble money on many cool t-shirts and now they (the cats, not the shirts) will have to gnaw the flesh off my toes while I'm asleep.

Damn you and your stylin' ways!

[ErkDude]

It is amusing that Foley's attorney is attempting to provide an intoxication as the reason behind the lurid messages to young boys.

It's equally ironic, how following Mel Gibson's pathetic attempts to blame alcohol for his anti-semetic ranting, it's become a likely excuse for other figures in the spotlight.

Alcohol is like a truth serum sometimes. The inhibition it lifts, equally aids in one's expression.

Whether it's hate, anger, lust, or pedophilia, whatever comes out, was always there before, only hidden.

Thanks to Mel and Mark's intoxication, we now know their true hidden desires.

If only g.w. bush took few swigs before a State of the Nation address...

[timmyweb]

Threadless! What a coinkydink, my studio space (I'm a photographer) is directly above their office here in Chicago. Specifically, it's directly above their rec room, so lunch time and after hours time brings all sorts of interesting noises from down there. The cool (or crappy, if you're my bank account) thing is, I can pop down there and buy shirts directly from the source.

Oh yeah, and Foley and Hastert are pigs, blah, blah. Really, does this surprise anyone? It would be an even better story if Foley was schtooping Abramoff.

Congrats, Ryan!

[stoolpigeon]

american taliban-- that's awesome. remember last week when they executed that girl for getting raped by her uncle? oh- yeah and last month when that guy and chick were executed for being out in public riding a bike together.

the real problem with this kind of nonsense is it doesn't help you make your point. it hurts it. to say that sexual indiscretions being covered up by leadership is a republican problem and not a government problem is ignoring history.

as for christians. well they are not a monolithic organization - as has been pointed out. who would you like to hear speak out. i know a lot of christians who are extremely ticked off and want anyone who enabled foley to also lose their position of authority. but as far as i know, none of them are on your radar.

and then to wrap up -- if this was a dem and nothing had ever actually happened. (and there was no dna evidence) you'd be climbing the walls and railing against a vast right wing conspiracy. free yourself. step up and out of the partisan bickering. realize they are all worthless crooks and just feel the chains fall away.

[UraiFenn]

I gotta (partially) agree with stoolpigeon here. I don't for a second believe that a group of people who gets squeamish watching Will & Grace are gonna lift a finger to protect a kiddie raper. There are much more effective ways for them to spin the Republicans away from this scandal....protecting an ignorant, child molesting pervert isn't one of them.

I *DO* however love and support the epithet "american taliban" as it applies to Christians. A Taliban-like theocracy, only based on Christianity instead of Islam, is exactly what they seek, it's exactly what they're striving for, and it's exactly what they're trying to couch in "what about the CHILDREN??" rhetoric and straw-manning gay people.

To call them the "american taliban" is to point this out. It's accurate, it's UNpartisan, and it speaks direct truth.

[Omaru]

Fybbue I've always wanted to play Yie Ar Kung Fu but never got around to it even in these emulation times. II did grow up with double dragon and Legend of Kage though and later these would lead me to some other awesome beat em ups, namely TMNT II and IV, the punisher, Spider-man: seperation anxiety (snes) and thhe streets of rage games (I and II anyway) but you've probably played them all to know wh\at I mean anyway.