[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

My friend Jere pointed out, quite accurately, that the question isn't really "what did the kid in Kentucky write about?" The question is "when did we start arresting people for writing stories, no matter how disturbed?" Or, perhaps, "when did we stop trusting parents to raise kids and deal with problem situations?"

It's probably relevant that the biggest policy victory (pending) for the Democrats over the last few years has been Social Security, on which issue they're coming down on the side of the government protecting people. We really like being protected these days.

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

Iraq has a government. Or not.

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

The 2005 Origins Awards nominees have been announced. The nomination process was very different this year; in each category, a jury voted on the nominated products in order to select five nominees. Some of the results are fairly interesting. At first glance, I can't say I think the process was a success.

The Best Role-Playing Game category is fairly heavy on the retreads. In particular, Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game is not a new role-playing game by any definition. The Authority RPG is borderline. A new edition of GURPS seems reasonable -- oh, but of the five jury members for this category, two of them were Steve Jackson Games staffers last year. Well, OK, then.

And there's no wholly new product among the nominees. Surely at least one of the five top products from last year was fresh and new?

Best Role-Playing Game Supplement, which shares the same jury as Best Role-Playing Game, has two GURPS supplements on the list of nominees. Gotcha. I will say that I agree that all the nominees I've read on the list are very good. Um, but there are six nominees listed, and the rules say there should be five.

I can't really claim expertise on the other categories, so I won't comment on them. The full list of nominees is in the extended portion of this post, for the curious.

More...