I am a Conservative: Pay teachers less. I only want teachers who care enough to work for less. Stop the greed. #caring

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 5, 2012

“Holy Infant, so tender and mild” always sounds a bit too culinary.

— BillCorbett (@BillCorbett) December 5, 2012

Don’t bother me today. Just wanna sit back and enjoy the music of the legendary Dave Brubeck. *turns on what you can clearly hear is Ke$ha*

— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) December 5, 2012

Listening to Egypt Muslim Brotherhood spox explain to Wolf Blitzer that under Sharia law, women will have even more rights! Sounds exciting!

— davidfrum (@davidfrum) December 5, 2012

I’ve heard how great Grand Theft Auto IV is supposed to be — IGN has it as number 14 in the top 25 modern PC games — but I never had much of a desire to play it. I had played the previous three Grand Theft Autos — III, Vice City, and San Andreas — and spend many hours in each, and yet I just couldn’t get compelled to do more of that. For one thing, I think I am a bit more turned off now by how vulgar the games are now. And despite all the great reviews, I just wasn’t convinced it wasn’t just going to be more of the same with better graphics.

Well, a little while ago Amazon had a deal where you got the Steam keys for Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV together for just $25. If you wanted Max Payne by itself, it was $60. So I was like, “Well how bad must Grand Theft Auto IV be?”

Oh, as for Max Payne, I can testify that slowmo diving into groups of enemies with dual guns blazing never gets old.

Anyway, I finally got to trying Grand Theft Auto IV a couple weeks ago and have put six hours into. And I have put it down for Dark Souls in the meantime. It’s obviously a well made game and that gameplay did thrill me in the past, but now it’s just kind of eh. What made Grand Theft Auto so great was all the stuff you can do and areas to explore, but it just doesn’t catch me anymore. The different parts of the gameplay are all adequate but not great. Shooting involves hitting someone until his health meter goes down — which just seems so clunky and videogamey compared to things like Call of Duty (or Max Payne 3). Hand to hand fighting is more advanced than previous ones, but still nothing special. And there are a bunch of mini-games you can do — darts, bowling, and pool so far — all of which are boring. And between doing stuff, there is much lengthy driving around town. And I’m still stuck to just one of the three islands and I get frustrated when its making me drive from one end to the other again so who knows what it will be like when the whole map is opened up. And I don’t find the story compelling. Niko is a new immigrant who seems nice enough, but he’s soon doing hits for random guys for no reason.

Also, though this isn’t much of a factor since it’s all in the background, there’s these parodies of Republicans and FOX News. Now, Rockstar North which makes the Grand Theft Auto series is in the United Kingdom, and liberals in this country have enough trouble being ignorant and hateful of conservatives, but from another country… well, you’ll yearn for the understand we get from MSNBC.

Anyway, I haven’t gotten that far into it and will give it another try. Maybe I’ll wait until I get a new gamepad with analog triggers as that will make driving easier (I actually played all the others on keyboard which was great for shooting but sucked on driving). But I was just expect more from Grand Theft Auto IV and for it to be more different than previous.

They’re both shorthand ad hominem attacks to paint your opponent as less than fully human, and to imply that said opponent’s arguments, however logical or fact-based they may be, are unworthy of consideration because of who they’re coming from.

Perhaps, as decent, cultured folk on a PG-13 blog, we should censor this obscenity.

I’d suggest “rac!st”

Or, if you’re feeling particularly sensitive, “®@¢!$#”

Jim Geraghty has a great idea: If we’re going to have tax hikes, let’s structure them so they hit hardest the already high-taxed blue states. Elections have consequences, and thus supporters of Obama need to suffer immensely. They need to wail and gnash their teeth while we sit back and laugh and laugh and say, “You elected your Democrats; now choke on them.” Yes, give them what they voted for and thus make them watch everything they love burn. Yes, you fools, you voted for free stuff, and what you also get free is misery and despair. And soon the red states will have to build walls on their borders — not just to keep out the blue staters trying to flee but to also block out the sound of their constant, anguished cries. “Mercy!” they’ll scream, but we’ll tell them, “We offered you help in the 2012 election, and you spat at it. Mercy is dead. Only vengeance remains.” Yes, the streets will be extended gutters and the gutters will be full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and we’ll look down and whisper “No.”

So I support Geraghty’s idea.