Still laboring over that 9th Circuit brief, but wanted to bring your attention to an example of college student douchebaggery.

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There are many places where Ron Paul's fifth-place finish in Iowa will be met with wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rent garments. Aside from fetid basements, LAN centers, and the occasional Buddhist-symbol-flag-draped meeting hall, one of these places apparently exists only in the realm of zeros, ones, and the minds of gamers.

Ron Paul has a huge World of Warcraft showing.

After the blimp thing, this should hardly be a surprise, should it? Although to remain thematically consistent, shouldn't they congregate not on the servers of the most popular establishment MMORPG, but on a distant and unpopular also-ran, like Star Wars: Galaxies? Anyway, Ron Paul is just the Tauren's tusks these days, apparently. He's got a legion of namesakes, many of them high level (meaning someone bunny-hopped about the landscape for weeks of gaming time with "Ronpaul" floating over their head.) Plus, there was a recent in-game rally with an elaborate plan requiring people to log in, create a new character, file across the landscape like a shot from an extremely geeky Bergman movie, and eventually congregate at the Orc capital city — including Alliance characters, who were quick fodder for Orc guards. Can something be too painfully obvious to be a metaphor?

No word on whether they got Blizzard to re-brand the in-game zepplins.

Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan

To answer my own question, the Ron Paul Blimp is apparently for real. Or perhaps "for real" is the better way to say it.

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Congrats to the folks at The FIRE for a significant First Amendment victory in federal court in San Francisco. As discussed here,, they assisted with a case brought by the San Francisco State University college Republicans, who had been brought up on various school charges for the sin of stomping on mock Hamas and Hezbollah flags (which they drew themselves) at an "anti-terrorism rally." Spectators protested that because these flags include the name of Allah, stomping on them was offensive. SFSU initiated disciplinary proceedings against the College Republicans, charging them with actions inconsistent with SFSU's "goals, principles, and policies" and with "incivility."

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Because the title "Oh, the Humanity!" was too obvious. The buy-a-blimp-for-Ron-Paul fundraiser — real or satire? It's delicious either way.

Imagine.. the mainstream media is mesmerized as the image of the Ron Paul blimp is shown to tens of millions of Americans throughout the day (and throughout the month). Wolf Blizter, stunned and as if in a trance, repeats the words "Amazing, Amazing".

As GPS co-ordinates stream to the website a map shows the Ron Paul blimp's location in real time. The local Television stations broadcast its every move. The curious flock together and make a trip to see history in the making. Emails with pictures are sent, then forwarded, then forwarded again. Youtube videos go viral and reach tens of millions of views. Ron Paul becomes the first presidential candidate in history to have his very own blimp. The PR stunt generates millions upon millions of dollars worth in free publicity, and captures the imagination of America.

Yes, finally Ron Paul would reach that promontory of respect and deference previously enjoyed only by Snoopy.

Number of people, as of 2:30 p.m. today, who have gotten here by searching for some variation on "Ron Paul": 23.

Number of people, as of 2:30 p.m. today, who have gotten here by searching for "penguins": 26.

Although the penguin-searchers have not, to date, left any messages disagreeing with my thoughts on Empoleon.

Bloggers fight over politicians all the time. They usually split up into predictable groups. That's banal.

But Ron Paul is changing that in interesting ways.

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