Legal eagle Sam Heldman, still on hiatus from Ignatz, writes in about a new Patriot Act boardgame:

"The Patriot Act Game", a Monopoly-like board game based on education about, and opposition to, the "Patriot Act" -- is available here. I just finished playing it at a friend's house, and it's kind of fun as well as informative. It seems to be pretty soundly researched, based on actual analysis of the Act and, more generally, some history of civil liberties issues.

Here's a sense of how it goes: the currency is "freedom fries," the "homeland security threat level" rises during the course of the game, the players whose game tokens are black or brown or yellow get screwed in comparison to those who have the red, white, or blue tokens -- stuff like that. Even if it doesn't make it into the board game hall of fame, it could be a good gift for the civil libertarians on your holiday gift list.

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