Eight Year Old Girl Tells It Like It Is

You know you have a good show going when an eight year old girl takes on Bill O'Reilly. I think she does a great job of explaining why people like Bill do more harm than rap music and video games. Would like to put in a personal request that everyone who views her video (below) go to YouTube and vote on the video (links at the bottom). Eight Year Old Girl Tells It Like It Is If anyone knows Bill O'Reilly, beat his stupid ass for me. I really can't stand this *explicative deleted* idiot. Bill O'Reilly Responds If you know this girl's parents and family, tell them they did a great job raising her. They should not be shamed - they should be congratulated for raising a well informed child who has valid (and valued) opinions. YouTube - The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O'Reilly

The Best of Late Night

A new poll shows only 1 out of 4 people approve of the job President Bush is doing. That means when he’s having dinner with his wife and two daughters, he’s the only one at the table who thinks he’s doing a good job. -Jay Leno During the Sarah Plain interview with Katie Couric on CBS News, Sarah Palin could not remember the name of a newspaper or magazine that she reads. I was thinking, “Wow — possibly, a leader of the country who doesn’t read.” Then I thought, “Well hell, it’s worked pretty well for George Bush.” -David Letterman Economists are now claiming that our nation’s leaders didn’t properly explain the bailout plan to the public. After hearing this, President Bush said, "While you’re at it, someone should explain it to me.” -Conan O'Brien The vice presidential debate is tomorrow night. Joe Biden already gearing up: He went to the hair salon and told the guy to put a little more on top. -Jay Leno Last night during an interview on CBS, Sarah Palin said, "One of my best friends is a lesbian, and I love her dearly." After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, "Prove it.” -Conan O'Brien Congress voted against the bailout. They were told to vote their conscience. That totally confused them . . . they said, “What?!?” -Jay Leno New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, he’s been in office for two terms, wants to be mayor for three terms; and right now he’s trying to get around the term limits so he can run again. I bet he can — by God, he got around the height requirement. -David Letterman Yesterday, the Dow Jones dropped 777 points, which wiped out $1.2 trillion dollars in the stock market. Financial experts say the last time so much money disappeared in one day was when Oprah left her purse in a cab. -Conan O'Brien To give you an idea of how bad the economy is, over the weekend, I wrote a check and the bank bounced. -Jay Leno Yesterday at the White House, President Bush was visited by Jewish leaders, who wished him a happy Jewish New Year. The visit upset Bush, because now he thinks he missed Jewish Christmas. -Conan O'Brien The vice presidential debate is Thursday. Here’s what Sarah Palin should do: Let Joe Biden have the first question. He’ll take 90 minutes to answer . . . then say, “We’re out of time! Who could have seen that coming?” -Jay Leno Today, the House of Representatives voted against the Wall Street bailout plan, a plan which House Minority Leader John Boehner called "a crap sandwich." Congress hasn’t given up — they’re already working on a new plan they call "a crap sandwich with cheese.” -Conan O'Brien

A Lesson on Gaming With Kids From Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek TNG fame), has an interesting idea for playing games with kids. The original idea is great when you're just learning a new game:

Rule 17a is a house rule we invoke when we're learning a new game. It basically states that, at any time, a player can say, "You know, I just realized that I did this stupid thing that I wouldn't have done if I had a little more experience in the game. I'd like a do-over." If the majority of the players agree (and we always do) then we just back up a little bit, and play on. It reduces the risk of doing something bone-headed that you can't ever recover from, and it keeps the game fun.

His new idea, termed Rule 17b, is a great one for kids, but I think can (and maybe should) be used by everyone:

Depending on your kid, the game, and some X factor that I leave to you as a parent, you could give your child up to three "roll again" markers, like poker chips or glass beads or whatever, that she can use at any time to re-roll a particularly bad dice roll. They can use it whenever they want to, but once the marker it used, it's gone for the rest of the game, so your child will have to choose very carefully about when she's going to use it. This would be especially great with a couple of smaller kids, because the parent isn't put in the position of awarding do overs and giving the appearance of favoritism (raise your hand if you've ever had to untangle that Gordian Knot.)

I'm thinking that this could be a great idea for computer and console games. Maybe I'll consider adding it as a feature in one the games I'm working on.