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- December 30th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Special Holiday Edition: Star Wars teaches us to hate Christmas, life
I hope everyone's Christmas season was pleasant. It's probably my favorite time of year. To celebrate, I've decided to make a brief foray beyond the world of video games into the larger world of hol…
- December 29th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Stay classy, America
This doesn't directly impinge on me, since my subnormal conversational skills, palpable insecurity, unsettling lack of eye contact, facial expression, or vocal intonation, and abhorrence of the accurs…
- December 23rd, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Super Mario, love machine
Kotaku featured an odd article from the Fresno Bee, in which the article's author talked about Super Mario Bros. Wii as a metaphor for his marriage. I will resist the temptation to make some sort of…
- December 21st, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
I suppose straddling the line between socialism and fascism counts as "bipartisan"
The debate over health care has had me thinking about the question of where to draw the boundary between a a private firm intertwined with or heavily regulated by the government and an arm of the stat…
- December 14th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Cry of Duty: Super NeoRobo Battle 2000
There's apparently some dissatisfaction among some Japanese gamers over the Japanese localization of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with complaints about the quality of the game's dubbing and the the…
- December 11th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Is actually learning some basic facts about a politician before you start worshipping him too much to ask?
So, President Obama has announced the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan. To their credit, more liberals have attacked this decision than I expected. In many such cases, however, my respect is…
- December 4th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Study published on human rights in video games, Solid Snake scheduled to testify at interminable length before UN General Assembly
Here's a rather odd story: two Swiss organizations, children's right's group Pro Juventute and an international criminal justice organization called TRIAL have released a study on portrayal of war cri…
- November 28th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Most people would have only played it on Easter and Christmas, anyway
Dante’s Inferno is just the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it? No other game has inspired me to write a post containing the words “time-traveling sentient horseshoe crabs” and provided an op…
- November 26th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
The "uninsured Americans" Trojan horse
One of the main issues that allegedly motivates calls for health care "reform"- be it instituting single-payer, a "public option," insurance mandates, requiring insurance companies to accept all patie…
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
The Golden Age
Kotaku has an interesting post about when the original Final Fantasy came to the United States. The roleplaying genre in the United States had been largely confined to computers when Final Fantasy cam…
- November 21st, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
This is the way the world ends
The 2010 Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) conference will have a Starcraft competition where contestants will pit their Starcraft-playing bots against each other i…
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
The Trotsky myth
Over at A Terrible Blogger is born, blogger rmangum has a post speculating about why Leon Trotsky's reputation has been so strong among so many Western intellectuals, given the ample evidence that the…
- November 16th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Wario sleeps with the fishes
Via Kotaku, a glimpse into the dark underworld of gaming: In New York City, men dressed as Mario and Luigi were caught on film beating and robbing a taxi driver at a Staten Island gas station. They w…
- November 10th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
The Berlin Wall and the fruits of liberty
20 years ago as of Monday, the citizens of East Berlin penetrated the Berlin Wall and gained access to the West. The wall's physical destruction would not be completed for weeks, but its power was bro…
- November 7th, 2009
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johnmarkley is celebrating his birthday today!
- October 31st, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
More about games and fear: Paranoia, helplessness, and Solid Snake\'s terrifying mullet
It's Halloween, the day when all the children of America, enjoying a privilege usually limited to mob enforcers, governments, and nomadic Iron Age horsemen, don threatening-looking garments and knock…
- October 27th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Like maggots to carrion
Ever find yourself in a position where you think most of the people who share your opinion on the proper course of action are utterly repulsive? Watching the response to the arrest of Roman Polanski,…
- October 26th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Luckily, German already has a fifteen-syllable word for "feelings of dismay and frustration felt after ill-conceived PR fiasco"
In Germany, an organization called Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden apparently had a disappointing turnout for a recent event encouraging people to bring in and throw away their violent video games,…
- October 23rd, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Dynasty Warriors and exploding heads, together at last!
If you've ever found yourself playing Dynasty Warriors and thought, "You know, this is fun, but it would be a lot better if my character had the power to make an enemy's pancreas dissolve,"…
- October 20th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Support for Male Survivor
WARNING: The first, third, and fourth links in the first paragraph of this post lead to written descriptions of rape.It's only come up as a post topic on this blog once, because I don't feel qualified…
- October 15th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- October 13th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Let a million death panels bloom
Here's an article from Great Britain about Christine Ball, a woman who had to fight to save the life of her mother, Hazel Fenton, after the government's doctors decided her mother (who is currently st…
- October 9th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Super Street Fighter IV announced, beloved Indian stereotype T. Hawk to make triumphant return
Capcom will be following up Street fighter IV with Super Street Fighter IV, which will offer game balance tweaks based on player feedback and eight additional characters. It will be sold as a stand-a…
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Reality outstupids parody once again
I was up very late last night, as is my habit (one of the nice things about a job done mostly from home is that if I want to sit at my computer playing Victoria: Revolutions at 3:30 AM, that's my prer…
- October 6th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
"Your eyes are full of hate, forty-one. That\'s good!"
Gene Callahan talks sense on a pet peeve of mine- overuse of the term "hater." It's an obnoxious term not only because it's usually absurdly hyperbolic, but because it frequently carries the implicati…
- October 2nd, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Dodging a bullet
I just read that Chicago is no longer in contention to host the 2016 Olympics, eliminated by the International Olympic Committee in the first round of voting. As a Chicagoland resident who lives a fe…
- September 25th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker characters revealed, Master Miller ready to claim Fly Fishing merit badge
Images of characters from the forthcoming PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker have come out in Famitsu magazine. Characters have been identified named Amanda, Huey, Chico, Strangelove, Coldman, Ce…
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
The soft bigotry of low expectations
Perusing Hit and Run, I encountered this post about some police caught on video who, having stormed a house during a drug raid, decided to settle in and spent several hours playing a bowling game on t…
- September 21st, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
"I prefer 'extortion.' The X makes it sound cool."
At last, an excuse to work a Futurama quote into this blog. I'm stunned that it actually took me three years.In a recent interview with George Stephanopoulos, (Hat tip to Psychopolitik) Barack Obama…
- September 19th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Manslaughter and other foibles
It's a bit late in the day to write about this, but its been fermenting in the back of my mind ever since the the news coverage of Ted Kennedy's death started. I actually expected Kennedy’s passing…
- September 18th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
- September 14th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
A time for gibbering panic
Back in June, the nation was rocked by the murder of abortionist George Tiller by a radical anti-abortionist and the murder of museum security guard Stephen Johns by an elderly Neo-Nazi. The result w…
- September 13th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- September 9th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- September 3rd, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- September 2nd, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Caring about the war is so 2008
The end of August marked the close of what is now the bloodiest month for the United States forces in Afghanistan since its presence began there in 2001, with 45 confirmed deaths. I haven’t seen an…
- August 26th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- August 20th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Superfluous Man at Networked Blogs
I wanted to let everyone know that if you're a Facebook user, you can now join this blog's network via Networked Blogs. I also have a feed on Twitter under the name "superfluousjohn."
- August 18th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- August 17th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Making violence easier
The taser has become almost omnipresent in stories of police misconduct and brutality. (Rad Geek and The Agitator are good sources on this and related issues.) Despite the fact that it was largely s…
- August 14th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- August 10th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- August 7th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- August 4th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Race and police misconduct
I’ve been following the case of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates with some interest. (Here's a quick bit of background, in case you've spent the last few weeks living in a sensory deprivation tank o…
- August 1st, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- July 28th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- July 24th, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: Pointless Side Quest
- July 23rd, 2009
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johnmarkley has posted a new entry on: The Superfluous Man
Roderick Long could use your help
Roderick Long of Austro-Athenian Empire and the Mises Institute has fallen into financial crisis as the result of some sort of credit card company billing screw-up (See here and here), and has request…
