The Gamer's Quarter

[Mr. Mechanical]

Does anyone else watch this? All their best stuff is on in the wee hours of the morning, which is unfortunately the hours I find myself staying up too now the semester is almost out.

The other night they had four intellectuals at Berkely talking about their book about how the government is withholding information aboud 9-11 and there's a conspiracy afoot. I was kind of surprised to see that sort of thing given such a publc forum, but I guess just because I think it's mostly bullshit doesn't mean that others who feel differently shouldn't be able to talk about it. When someone challenged the notion that the Pentagon was hit with a missile and not an airliner someone stood up and asked if that were true then what happened to Flight 77 and all the people onboard if they didn't hit the Pentagon. One of them replied and stammered on that for a bit, basically saying that he didn't know but it could have been any number of things because, you know, the government is obviously good at making things like airliners full of people disappear without leaving behind any physical evidence.

You couldn't make this shit up if you tried!

At the end of the discussion the moderator made the prediction that the US would invade Iran next under the pretense of coming to the aid of Israel. Sounds plausible enough, I suppose. He also made mention that there is supposedly no official treaty between the US and Israel because Israel doesn't make treaties due to the fact that they would have to recognize political boundaries and if they did that it would sort of fuck up their whole thing against the Palestinians.

The one after that was an old guy talking about the book he wrote on how technology is going to erode America's defense systems from within and cause some sort of national security collapse.

This is great stuff! Richard Dawkins has made appearances as well, but not lately sadly. He's always good for a large discussion. I love how everything is treated with such seriousness too. Right now it's Max Boot talking about his new book "War Made New". Seems to be about terrorism and such.

edit-Okay, Max Boot's big thing is: Information and organization. He argues, rightly so, that what America needs is better organization for the information age. That's sort of pretty much his overarching theme that he kept harping on. Near the end he started scaring me though, speaking about how the terrorist organizations had better propaganda machines than the nation states they were fighting. When he started talking about how the battle in Fallujah in 2004 was ended after two days not because American troops were taking a beating but because the insurgencies were broadcasting pictures and video over satellite tv and the internet putting a spin on American activities as these horrible war crimes and atrocities that they were committing, I had this vision of the coming superstate, as dhex calls it, where the battle of perceptions is fought with propaganda and the like. Moreso than it is now.
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Mr. Mechanical

[crispus attucks jr]

I did not think people watched this!

My sister recently got a job with C-SPAN2 (like a week ago) so maybe I should inform her that someone does in fact watch her channel. I would but I tend to get very bored which is I think most people's problem.

[dhex]

when i had cable i used to watch booknotes all the time. that shit was great. now it's book tv and its still pretty great but i have no cable, but youtube fills in.

it gives people a chance to sink or float on their strengths and weaknesses in a longer format, rather than breaking things down into a ten minute chunk. some people float better than others, like dawkins, who actually comes across as far more reasonable than he does in soundbite mode. plus the policy wonks come out to shine (or mostly not) which is what makes cspan so lovely.
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[Nana Komatsu]

BookTV is what introduced me to Sarah Vowell who is now one of my favorite authors. I am forever grateful.

[Maz]

Living outside the US, but I try to catch as much C-SPAN 2 as I can on YouTube.

These are generally a fun watch, too.

[ryan]

I catch it whenever I can. I swooned when I saw kagan read excerpts from the peloponnesian war and answer questions. They also air classic episodes, which are always fun. There is always one common thread in each episode: a lot of scarves/shawls.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.