Plain Sight Review Up

Check out BadOrc.com’s Plain Sight Review to read my oh-so fascinating opinion on Beatnik’s multiplayer third person robot game of awesomeness.

-Irish

Oh, FCC, you’re such a lovely beast!

I don’t think that most people would call me a friendly proponent of government control over our choices. At times my opinions are extreme, such as being perfectly fine with the legalization of illegal drugs. My morals are bound more by personal choice and the responsibility of accepting the consequences than by what could happen. This usually makes me a very unpopular person with both liberals and conservatives. Believe it or not, both desperately want to control you and your choices.

Personally, I don’t care what you do with your life. If you want to smoke crack in your hoopty with your ho, then go right ahead. And when you drive off and shoot your car into a family driving to church I want your head on a damn platter. Some might point to the fact that if the drugs were illegalized and if there were more stringent regulations and laws, that family might not have been hit by the hoopty driving crackhead. It is the exact same argument behind gun control. The idea is that if you limit what a person can buy, in regards to firearms, you lower the chance of innocent people being murdered by that person. To which I am forced to ask the obvious:

If they’re willing to murder somebody, are they then not willing to steal the gun?

Why would anybody who is planning to commit a crime use a gun that they bought? Instead, they would steal one from an innocent person, since they obviously don’t have the morals to compel them not to. In the age where science is an art and ballistics are a lawyers best friend, why take that chance?

Now, with all of that said and plenty of my friends from San Francisco angry with me (yet again), I think it is appropriate that I take a stance on Net Neutrality. I cannot name all of the people who, in the last week alone, have talked my ear off about how dumb Glenn Beck is and how the conservatives hate Net Neutrality because they’re evil and hate poor people or various sorts of minorities.  Yet, they are missing the obvious point to all of this: the conservatives, who are slowly becoming more libertarian (but not really), are some of the strongest proponents of the FCC.

The conservatives seems to go insane with joy whenever they get a chance to tell somebody that they can’t or shouldn’t do something. Bill O’Reilly has recently spoken out against the courts siding with the Westboro Bapist Church because they are saying hateful things. While I disagree intently with Fred Phelps (for obvious reasons) and everything he has ever said, I will be the first one to admit that he and his lunatic cultists have every right to say whatever it is that they want. Nevertheless, the conservatives want to control his ability to speak, just like the liberals want to control the conservatives right to speak. In the end, both sides are nothing more than mirrors reflecting each other, but placed on different sides of the aisle.

Net Neutrality, from what I understand, would essentially mean that the government, or rather the FCC, would have regulation control over the internet. Essentially, they would control it. With Obama in office this might sound like a good idea to liberals, and certainly the President supports the idea. Unfortunately, what we as a whole, no matter our political opinions, often forget is that we are not always in power. While Obama and the liberals are in control right now, it does not mean they will be in three years. Certainly Democrats should be able to recognize a growing number of conservatives in America, even if it pains them to do that.

So, do you want a conservative FCC (think back to Bush) controlling your internet? The obvious retort, of course, is that right now the corporations are in control of our internet. Instead of having a logical argument, whenever you bring up the big corporations you invite emotions to the dialogue. The ridiculous idea behind the spite towards big business is that they take advantage of people. That argument, however, is flawed when you consider that most of us have options when it comes to our internet providers. Hell, I’ve been having trouble with Comcast lately.  There are a lot of people who would have you believe that I am stuck because Comcast is the great octopus swallowing the fleet of innocent folk. So what am I going to do? I’m switching to SureWest on the twentieth. That is how the Free Market works. Sadly, there are a lot of people who don’t want to believe that the Free Market works at all.

Instead, I simply want you to ask yourself if you want the government, whose control is fluid and never given to one group permanently, to regulate your internet? If you do then certainly we are forced to agree to disagree. The FCC already controls what we can view on TV and what we can listen to on the radio, with exception to satellite radio, why are we so quick to give them control over what we can see, read, watch, and listen to on the internet?

Do you really want Sarah Palin to control your internet?

-Irish

The 3 Best & Worst Things about Bad Company 2

I never played the original Battlefield: Bad Company game. Everything I heard about it spoke against my adoration for Call of Duty. To elaborate, it wasn’t… Infinity Wardish enough. Nevertheless, Bad Company 2 quickly caught my eye when I saw how amazing the graphics are. Praying I could even run them, I immediately bought the game, downloaded it from Steam, and fell quick into the world of multiplayer competition. And, after a good week of fervent play, I have come up with the three best and worst things about Bad Company 2.

The Three Worst Things About Bad Company 2:

I. The Oblivious Death

They can see you, but no matter how hard you look and no matter how hard you pepper the tree line, you never, ever, EVAR find those hidden bastards who take little more than one or two bullets to rip your fat, Mountain Dew soaked head off. Are they hacking? No, but you think that they are once they’ve killed you for the tenth time. And do you know what makes it all that much worse? The jerk who runs up and lobs a grenade, which for some reason you forgot entirely about, into their little rat nest and kills all of them. THANK YOU for making me feel inept at my job!

After playing a good seven days worth of Bad Company 2, which from henceforth shall be known strictly as BD2, I’ve come to the conclusion that no one who plays the game will admit to doing that. Our inability to be humble knows no bounds, like the dorky seventeen year old who FINALLY got a handjob but refuses to admit that it is noting more than glorified masturbation.

II. That one dude who uses [insert class ability] too often!…

What an ass, yeah? I mean, you would never toss down your ammo cases and spam the fuck out of your explosives like he does, right? And you would totally never be caught being a sniper and hiding behind the rocks in the water where no one really expects you, right? Of course not, you’re the innocent sort who uses the weakest weapon but still pwns face. You rush at enemy tanks and blow them the hell up with your knife and your trusty dog Max.

It’s fine, you can admit it. There is nothing better than being a TubeNoob or running around using your M60 and reviving all your buddies who just got their head blown off. When the other guys do it, however, there is nothing worse and with vicious fury you let lose your angry… and then you die horribly because the sniper used his mortar. This topic also covers the all too hilarious, especially when happening to you, Base Raping. When you complain the other side will inevitably claim that you’re just being a wimp. It’s like a bully kicking you in the balls and asking why you’re complaining. And yes, yes, we know… it only happens to us because we’re weak and not very skilled at our job. Sure, you have a tank constantly unloading all of its rounds on our one spawn point left, but it’s our fault.

III. Medics

The greatest gift to any squad and certainly the easiest class to level up, the Medic is perhaps the reincarnation of Jesus himself. One difference: Jesus did not carry an M60. I suppose if he had then he wouldn’t have been tacked up on that stick, but the point remains the same. The Medic is more of a saint whose gone apeshit and decided to go on  a killing spree. And you know what? He’s got miracles in the form of two paddles that he just rubs together and ZAP! Whole unit is back to fighting. Not enough? Don’t worry, if you want you can also choose to use a shotgun. The M60 is better, but maybe sometimes you just need to test your inability to be mortal.

And while there is nothing worse than charging into a building, killing everyone only to then be stabbed in the back and lay there dead, watching as that backstabbing medic revives everyone, it is certainly worth the annoyance when you realize that you can do the same damn thing. One problem: TubeNoobs… fuckin’ A.

The Three Best Things about Bad Company 2

I. Medics

You’re Jesus, blah, blah, blah. ZAP!

II. Helicopters

While this is certainly more of a pain when you’re on the opposing side of the helicopter, nothing is quite as rewarding as jumping into one of these mechanical Goliath’s and ripping away every little jerk who comes across your screen. A tank can do that though, right? One difference: those pesky snipers can’t run over and strap some C4 to your ass. Granted, they can snipe your pilot, but that’s why the Easter Bunny packed you a parachute.

III. Killing Russians

There is nothing better than grabbing one of those M60s, getting some buddies who do nothing but spam their grenades, and that special friend who fondles his rocket more than he does his imaginary girlfriend, and blowing the fuck out of some commie pinkos. You can stab them, you can snipe them, you can run your ATV into their stupid red beret wearing heads, you can spawn camp them, base rape them, you can blow up their bases, eat their sandwiches, and show them the true meaning of Red, White, and Blue.

Then you lose the match cause that asshole Tim ran out to buy some guacamole because the stuff his mom made was a little too green.  You try to explain to him that she’s Canadian by birth and probably doesn’t even know where guacamole comes from, but he insists that he has to go buy some, you know… cause chips just don’t taste the same without it. Don’t worry, though. By the time Tim gets his ass back there you guys have lost the Squad Rush map and are now the Russians. You could sit there and commit suicide for the next twenty minutes, but patriotism is so last match.

-Irish