Couple of months ago here in PDX we got a little taste of state power and what it's like. For about a week, Blackhawks and D-500s were buzzing the city, often at around 100 feet. Complete with guys with guns clearly visible sitting in the D-500s with their feet on the skids. Literally black helicopters.

I came back from out of town to be told by my friends that omg, there was a black helicopter hovering over our house last night and there were guys with machine guns in it. My initial reaction was yeah, of COURSE there were...and then MY back yard had a hovering chopper over it the next night, exactly as described, guns and all. The rest of the week, they were raging over the city from dusk to dawn. Any other PDX Salon reader can verify this.

All part of a "routine training exercise" that I've never seen before in PDX or anywhere else. Not sure what I think about that, but it was a frightening demonstration. Part of me thinks Americans should be exposed to that more often to get the smallest real taste of what we're putting other people through...part thinks the opposite...part of me is angry...and frustrated.

Dunno what I think about this latest news. Not good though.

Watching yous guys squawk is kind of like being in a Bawstun bah when someone says something remotely pawsitive about Derek Jeetah.

Just couldn't resist fixing that for you, bud. You started off well enough with the first two words, but then you had a lapse of authenticity!

Please, please, let this come up tonight in the debates. Please let Obama have a copy of it IN HIS HAND at the lectern and display it as part of his opening statement.

This is just pure comedic gold.

I've got a couple of friends coming over and currently working on the rules for tonight's drinking game. I'm thinking that a drink on any mention of being a POW should be sufficient to get us wildly shitfaced. More rules than that may risk alcohol poisoning, but do you have any further to suggest?

The bingo concept is well known in PDX. The Cacophony Society does a yearly one for Stripper Bingo, and I'll just leave those cards to your imagination. I've seen Hipster Bingo and Hippie Bingo as well.

Didn't think of bingo at all. I'm digging the Wonkette drinking game rules so far, though! The last one is my fave (Beaker showing up next to McCain).

This week there seems to be societal madness everywhere I turn. I feel not the least bit guilty or irresponsible for tonight's medication.

OK, it's happening again--the story was up overnight, and in the morning, the faithful have received their talking points and are on a mission in the Salon letters threads.

Come on, guys. Not the Chairborne--you Salon readers who sure as hell ought to know better by now. Yeah, bernbart and the rest of the tireless posting addicts, I'm talking to you...and you are talking to NO ONE, get it? There's no one on the other end! They drove by!

Don't respond to these twits. Just click on their "other letters" link, and if the total number of letters equals 1, guess what you're responding to?

Surprised you didn't go for supporting info using Crysis, another EA title that's made some minor headlines in the last year for its DRM issues--and nothing like this invasive Spore madness, but rather the fact that despite the DRM, there were something like 80% of the people playing it not having a valid serial number, presumably pirated copies.

Whether this is factually true or not or how they arrived at that figure, dunno. But it too did not bode well for future PC game development, when Crysis did so-so at the market but supposedly would have done well if all those playing it had actually paid for it.

Great thought experiment and analogy. Can I use that one in the future? Red star for amspeck, please!