Amateur Megalomania

A few observations from the weekend.

I heard some talking heads on Sunday speculating about the renewed tempo on the abduction of foreigners in Iraq. We aren’t seeing any more Americans being kidnapped, and the thinking is that the insurgents are now going after soft targets. They are tired of having their butts handed to them by Marines, so they are going to get the unguarded personel of the weaker nations. This is a good thing, and further evidence that the bad guys are having problems. Also, I don’t believe the bad guys have executed a muslim hostage yet. I’d rather not see them execute anyone, but it is interesting that the muslims have been spared. That would actually be in accordance with the Koran….

The History Channel has a new series called Decisive Battles. The notable thing about this series is the technology being used to illustrate the battles – a computer game. Some years back I discovered what is called the Total War series of computer games, starting with Shogun: Total War. Later, they came out with Mideivel: Total War, and coming soon is Rome: Total War. In the TW series of games, you command a large force of ground troops, appropriate for your era. The game is known for an amazing level of detail, and you can actually watch individual soldiers as they battle in large formations. Hands down, this is my favorite game. Anyway, Rome:Total War is the newest in the series, not yet released, and features a new 3D engine for rendering the battle. The History Channel is using the game engine to illustrate the battles, and what I saw was quite stunning. Screenshots of the game can be found here. I will actually upgrade my graphics card just to play this game.

The Democratic National Convention starts today. Yawn. The only thing I’m curious about is the possibility of terrorism. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen, but I sort of wish we actually catch something in process. Perhaps a foiled attack would wake up the Left to the very real war we are fighting. I doubt it though….it would be part of a Bush plot to Steal The Election.

My dad was in town this weekend, and since he is a Democrat, I couldn’t wait to discuss Sandy Berger’s pants. Unfortunately, he flat out refused to discuss it. I think he’s losing interest in politics, since he’s pretty much disgusted with his own party. He’s turning into a Zell Miller Democrat. I guess that’s a good thing, but I do miss the heated discussions.

Alas….

Filed under: Iraq