Random Roundup II

1. Uh Oh, This Means--
I blather on a lot about overpopulation, unsustainable development, crop monoculture, and limited oil resources. A whole lot of end-of-the-world this and crapping-up-the-linens that really, blah friggin' blah blah blah.

This, on the other hand, is fucking serious!

2. In Geeky, Condescending Memoriam
98% of the internet is aware that we lost Gary Gygax, the father of Dungeons and Dragons last week. I'm sorry to see anyone go that made nerds so happy, and I remember a D&D "monster manual" sifting through the kids at Sunday School (of all places) when I was eleven or so, and thinking the pictures were pretty cool.

Still, I've got my credibility to maintain here:

Just sayin.

3. The view from the monkey tree
Should prostitution be illegal? Answers range from the patronizing to the defiantly liberal to the um, anti-patriarchy-patronizing (matronizing?). Much like my opinions on casino gambling, I don't regard the oldest profession highly, thinking, at the very least, that it can't be good for the character, but the black market (for prostitutes) and the state monopoly (for gambling) probably don't make things better. (And for what it's worth, I more or less agree with Roy Edroso and John Cole on Eliot Spitzer, as well as with others buried in places more difficult to link: even if he went after deserving targets as the AG, his means were unsettling. [Edit: I'm actually going to have to think about this some more, not that anyone's reading, or otherwise cares. But I still assert:] What an asshole.)

In any case, it's a difficult issue, and I'm going to be pondering it all day as I go about my regular employment. Because you know, they can pay me to put out, but as hard as I fake it, they can't make me really love them.