Farewell, Sean "Vile Rat" Smith

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Wednesday September 12, 2012 · 10:26 AM PDT

2012/09/12 · 10:26

For whatever it's worth, this is my first diary.

In addition to being a knee-jerk lefty bleeding heart liberal, I am also a middle aged adult who happens to enjoy playing computer games, and especially massively multi-player online video games. My main game of choice these days is one called "EVE Online", which is all about spaceships.

One of the State Department employees who was killed yesterday in the attacks on the embassy compound in Benghazi, Libya, was also an EVE Online player. In EVE his character name was "Vile Rat".

I didn't know him personally, but I somehow feel a connection. Big, stupidly senseless world events never seem to have much direct impact on my left-coast life, but this one feels different. Things like this aren't supposed to happen to geeky gamer nerds like me.

The leader of the largest in-game EVE player alliance, of which Vile Rat was a member, had this to say in remembrance of his friend:

http://themittani.com/...

NASA Conference 12/2/2010: Astrobiology Announcement

staffordrau

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Wednesday December 01, 2010 · 9:12 AM PST

2010/12/01 · 09:12

I'll be tuning in for this tomorrow and forgetting, just for a while, all the grim earth-bound news.

NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.

Boehner telling bankers to stand up for themselves against punk staffers

staffordrau

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Friday March 19, 2010 · 9:03 AM PDT

2010/03/19 · 09:03

House Minority Leader John Boehner told a conference of hundreds of bankers on Wednesday to "Don't let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves" when lobbying against banking reform.

staffordrau

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Tuesday September 22, 2009 · 1:55 PM PDT

2009/09/22 · 13:55

In a health care debate thread at another site which I frequent, someone quoted this report over at the Heritage Foundation suggesting that administrative overhead is actually higher for Medicare than is for private insurers.

staffordrau

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Tuesday April 29, 2008 · 7:16 AM PDT

2008/04/29 · 07:16

To many of us, it is a foregone conclusion that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President. I have no experience running a political campaign, but I wonder, what would happen if Obama stopped campaigning against Hillary Clinton now, and focused entirely on John McCain?

Certainly, he should still focus his time and energy in the remaining primary states. But perhaps something like this could be in the new playbook:

Media Mouthpiece: "Senator Obama - Hillary Clinton says you are blah blah Reverend Wright blah blah..."

Barack Obama: "Mrs. Clinton has run a tough, hard-fought campaign, but my real opponent is John McCain, who says we should stay in Iraq for one hundred years. I don't agree with that, and neither do the American people."

MM: "But Senator, flag pins and terror and Wright and the Clintons!!!"

BO: "John McCain, the man who served cake to George Bush while New Orleans was drowning, thinks it's funny to sing about bombing another country. I don't think that's acceptable, and I don't think America can survive another George Bush."

What say you good people?

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Farewell, Sean "Vile Rat" Smith

NASA Conference 12/2/2010: Astrobiology Announcement

Boehner telling bankers to stand up for themselves against punk staffers

Medicare administrative costs versus private insurers

Time to forget Hillary?