Have you stopped beating your wife, yet?

I know I'm bad, but one of the local candidates for sheriff is sending out flyers pledging to "End Domestic Violence," and I immediately thought of this. Maybe he needs to work on his ad copy.

-- Mal

A somewhat belated response to a post about women composers...

Fallen London

I've just started checking out a free browser game called Fallen London (it's been around for 6 years, but I'm always behind the curve). A very interesting steampunky game that is a text-based RPG and has systems to interact with other players. Any Lounge denizens play it? Kind of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Call of Cthulu.

-- Mal

I see Madison Bumgarner made four pinch-hit appearences this season.

I love a pitcher who can hit. It's one reason to prefer the NL over the AL.

Hell, he had a better OPS than the starting shortstop.

-- Mal

Just got off the phone with a CSR for my Internet

Suggested she check out Bernie. In my informal surveys around the community here, I have found few people are yet aware of his message. This is obviously a media problem, so getting out the message by word-of-mouth is important.

-- Mal

Ah, autumn is upon us

Yesterday, it was so hot and humid we had the AC going. Today it's so cold I'm wearing a sweater. I love the seasons where every day is a new adventure.

-- Mal

Profiles in Ineptitude

ROTFL, the St Louis Rams have managed to set their stadium on fire with the pre-game pyrotechnics. May be the most entertaining thing to happen on a football field all year.

-- Mal

Best Fantasy computer game soundtrack ever?

The first 15 or so minutes of this are some terrific arrangements of sacred choral music made for the game Fantasy General almost 20 years ago. If you like that sort of thing, these are great cuts.

Haiku for the GOP debates

Inspired by H2O man, I propose a haiku festival in honor of the GOP debates last night. Frustrated poets (or frustrated human beings), feel free to share the riches of your spirit.

I'll begin:

Feckless children
Stand drowning in their own drool.
Election season.

-- Mal

USMC Officer training exercise

The USMC's Basic School had/has an exercise whereby the officer is expected to react to a more-or-less realistic moral crisis in leadership, to see not just how he reacts, but why he chooses the actions he does. This was (or is) also open to civilians for management training programs (and the differences between how the Marines act and how the civilians act might surprise one).

What follows is the description of one such "scenario," and I was interested in finding out how the Lounge denizens might react to the situation. It is perhaps a bit melodramatic, but withal not outside credibility. It has been actually used in the course.

Your mission is simple: you and your team are being sent as emissaries to a tribal chief to accept his alliance in upcoming operations against the Bad Guys. When you arrive, the chief is happy to see you, so happy, in fact, he has decided to grant you a great honor: to witness the marriage of his son to a lass from another tribe. Spot on being told of this honor, you see a battered and bruised young woman being dragged, kicking and screaming, into camp by a couple of the chief's henchmen. As soon as she sees you, she begs you to save her: she is going to be raped, she doesn't want to marry the kid, don't let them do this to her. She gets dragged off to a tent, and now you, young Marine, have some decisions to make.

Without prejudicing the test any, I'll just add that you may reasonably expect your team to do what you order, and calling higher HQ and asking for instructions isn't an option. You're the person in charge, and this is why we pay you the big bucks. What do you do?

**
I'll also add that this is not intended as a "gotcha" question, but to explore the officer's rationale for whatever action he takes. You may rest assured that, if this were an actual test, your instructing officer would rip strips off you whatever you did, and enjoy the opportunity to explain in loving detail why you are a subhuman swine not fit to wear the uniform of the United States Marines. So, with that out of the way, you can go ahead and honestly respond, if it is your pleasure.

-- Mal