i m N s h o

Or a depressingly obvious comment on the state of contemporary politics… take your pick. Never vote for the best candidate, vote for the one who will do the least harm. — Frank Dane (culled, once again, from Wordsmith.org .)

Schwarzenegger Calls Budget Opponents 'Girlie Men' I don't know what's more annoying here… the fact that Governor Arnie is resorting to childish name-calling (and continuing his annoying 'quote the Arnold reference' game) or the fact that the morons in Sacramento are getting all up in arms over this one! The sound bites on the news are all about Democrats up in arms, calling Schwarzenegger homophobic and demanding apologies. The quote at the end of the article above is more what I'm looking for from these guys, as Fabian Nuñez, the Democratic speaker of the Assembly says "I don't have any insecurities about myself. I don't take that stuff personally." Let Schwarzenegger rant and rave and quote movies & SNL all he wants… the Senate & Assembly needs to embrace Mr Nuñez' reaction and tell the Governator to grow up and get back to business. (Dani's upset because she finds it demeaning to women, an implication that wo

Last week it was Whoopi Goldberg fired by Slim-Fast for her comments about Bush at a recent political rally. This week Linda Rondstadt gets fired from the Aladdin for calling Michael Moore a patriot and stirring up the locals. I'd like to thank Bush and the the boys in Washington, Fox News and Bill O'Reilly (who apparently believes the only loyal American is a silent one) for promoting a mindset that accepts and embraces this kind of behavior.

So Dani slapped me around yesterday for my last post , telling me I was being an elitist snob (an accusation I really couldn't argue with, unfortunately). And that very day I get this word from the A.Word.A.Day email… philodox Someone who loves his or her own opinion; a dogmatic person. Now, while I might dispute the dogmatic part, I do have to acknowledge that I could be accused of loving my own opinion. This, of course, could stem from the fact that I so often know that my opinion is the correct one, but hey, what can I do about that? (insert annoying smiley emoticon here to signify irony.) Security And, while I'm on the topic of AWAD, a quote from one of last week's emails , just 'cause I like to share the ones that resonate with me. If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom. —Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

And by that, I do mean anyone. I just discovered that there's a setting that let's me allow comments by anyone, not just registered Blogger users… so, being the brave soul I am, I went ahead and enabled that option. Of course, this opens me up to comments from every moron out there with an internet connection and too much time on their hands, but who knows, it could be fun. Or at least mildly amusing until I get bored with the stupidity. We'll see.

Thumbing through this week's Entertainment Weekly, I came across an article about the wave of movie musicals coming, thanks to the success of Chicago a couple of years ago. Should be interesting to see how many of these actually succeed (and how many of those conform to my own personal theory on why contemporary movie musicals do and, more often, don't succeed). No big surprise to hear that The Producers is being made into a movie (a movie, based on a musical, based on a movie—does it get more incestuous than that?). And I'd already heard about Phantom of the Opera coming out later this year. But the "big" news, the one that leaves me falling on the floor laughing is Rent , apparently due out sometime this year, directed by the inimitable Chris Columbus . That's right, the uber-hack, master of such subtle emotional fare as Bicentennial Man & Stepmom is going to tackle Rent—a modern day retelling of La Boheme with AIDS subbing in for tuberculo

I love "word a day" lists… they're filled with such fun stuff sometimes. Like yesterday's A.Word.A.Day email with the very fun concept of Socratic Irony: A profession of ignorance in a discussion in order to elicit clarity on a topic and expose misconception held by another. (So now, the next time I pull this bit on Dani, I can even tell her what it's called! Not that it'll stop her from smacking me when she gets annoyed by it. But hey, that's part of the fun!) AND, in the same email, I get this cool quote, too! It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. —Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)