Your ideal conversation

If you were at a dinner table with 3 empty seats, and you could fill them with 3 people (living or dead), for an extended conversation about life, politics, wine, wealth, women, whatever... who would you invite?

Pirates need to watch American movies more often.

You want to know why I love America? Because we don't take crap from nobody. We love to fight, about absolutely anything and, strangely enough, that is what makes us great. The government was built on the principle of conflict and even if Congress takes it to the extreme sometimes, that principle has made us the most successful and prosperous populace the world's ever seen. Which brings me to the root of my current Americasm:

Have people been following the Somalian pirate hostage deal? Some genius called right at the outset and negotiated the movie rights, I'm sure, and he was a genius. So an American shipping vessel gets attacked by pirates. The Americans fight back, kill some of the pirates, injure some others, take some of THEM hostage and chase the others off. The remaining pirates take the captain of the boat hostage on a lifeboat and hold him there for days. In the meantime, US personnel are treating one of the pirates who was stabbed by an American crew member (haha!), and negotiating with him. The American captain, no doubt remembering the last Russel Crowe movie he saw, attempts a daring escape but jumping into the water, but is recaptured. He is held for another few days, until American snipers, aboard the massive battleship that we sent to the scene, take out the three pirates and rescue the captain. When he gets back to safety he is laughing and looks like he was just in an awesome action movie. And someday soon, this definitely will be a movie.

Man I love being American. I might loud, lazy, ignorant, annoying when I travel and totally full of myself, but If I ever get captured by pirates I am definitely going to stab one of them.

Also, President Obama since I am sure you are reading this, you are the man. This may be the first and only time I say it, but you are the man for being on top of that situation.

He's like a fictional character, but he's real...

This is Bob Dylan on Barack Obama:

He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage - cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.

I have a deep respect for our President. He is the man, and he is doing the hardest job in the entire world, and he is doing it selflessly I think.

I also have a deep, abiding love for Zombies. So when I found this picture, it was like a dream come true.

I believe in Brains

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHCG5DXRC8o

It has all the elements of a good YouTube Video-- Zombies, Beer, and making fun of Democrats.

In other news, this week the Senate will debate a bill that would change how College Football champions are determined. Really Congress? Really?

I'm going to the airport today to meet Noelle when she arrives. Woooohoo!

Movies so far this year

Theater and DVD releases this Winter have been a mixed bag. Here are some highlights, what to see and what to avoid:

See:
Let the Right One In
The Wrestler
Synecdoche, New York
Slumdog Millionaire
Once
Dear Zachary
Waltz with Bashir
Doubt
Frost/Nixon

Ok, but probably not worth your money:
Changeling
Watchmen
Defiance
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Abhorrent beyond belief:
Seven Pounds
Milk

"All my life I have longed to be alone in a place like this. Even when everything was going well, as it often did. I can say that much. That it often did. I have been lucky. But even then, For instance in the middle of an embrace and someone whispering words in my ear that I wanted to hear, I could suddenly get a longing to be in a place where there was only silence. Years might go by and I did not think about it, but that does not mean that I did not long to be there...Time is important to me now, I tell myself. Not that it should pass quickly or slowly, but be only time, be something I live inside and fill with physical things and activities that I can divide it up by, so that it grows distinct to me and does not vanish when I am not looking."

-Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses