Cranky T-Rex's Blog

I’ve written previously about why involvement in gaming culture is important and worked through an example of how video games can help us explain political concepts to the youth of America . Now let’s talk about how the video game industry can teach us how to fight the culture war directly. The gaming world operates very much like our political system. Thanks to new technologies, the whole industry goes through cycles where consumers “re-elect” the existing brands/franchises or hop on board with the inevitable newcomers.  Instead of political parties and ballot boxes, rabid fans will line up along battle lines and try to drag moderates into their camps, and their vehemence makes hardcore Democrats and Republicans look like posers. After all, nothing quite compares with the stream of obscenities that can come from a 9 year-old that disagrees with your opinion of the latest Call of Duty game.  So if you want to learn about swaying entrenched supporters, there are fe...

Herman Cain's campaign has officially been suspended, following a month-long odyssey of twists and turns. Just before that odyssey began I had publicly endorsed Herman Cain on The Not Ed Morrissey Show. I argued he was the only candidate in the race far enough outside the political thought process to have a shot at actually attacking the problems in Washington in a substantive way. I still believe that much, at least, to be true. I don't know if the sexual harassment allegations against him are true. I don't know if he was prepared to be the President of the United States (or if it's even possible to be prepared for that job.) I don't know if he could beat Barack Obama. But he was my only hope in the GOP field, and it saddens me to see him go, especially this way. Now, to be clear, much of what happened to Herman Cain was of his own making. No rational assessment of his candidacy can claim otherwise. His inconsistency of message between himself and staffers (Mark Bl...