Why do people smoke? Why do people take drugs? Why do people stay in abusive relationships? Why am I still following this?
Oh yeah, the Democratic response. Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia. Playing it safe by playing the values card early on, invoking 9/11. But he's pointing out the shortcomings of the Administration that the Republicans either forgot about or disregarded every time they hopped up and applauded.
But as Peter David pointed out "what's with his left eyebrow? He's like Spock on crack." Ah yes, the only unpardonable sin in politics: not looking good, the hell with what's being said. As Dennis Miller pointed out when everyone was laughing at Admiral Stockdale's hearing aid being turned off, he got that hearing aid as a result of the beatings the Vietcong gave him.
At least this speech has more connection with reality.

From Peter David's blog (his comments in bold, mine aren't):
9:01: Here come members of the Supreme Court. I think it'd be cooler if they all entered in one shoulder to shoulder line in slo-mo, like in "The Right Stuff." Or "Monsters Inc."
Or like the original opening to Justice League...oh, wait, Harvey Birdman did that already...

9:34: AND NOW WE'VE GOT A GAME. Half of them sit while the other half stands in supporting the patriot act. "We didn't know about their plans until it was too late." This is the point where Jon Stewart would cut to a clip of Condi Rice saying, "I believe the title was 'Bin laden intends to attack US"
Wait for it...

10:03: Interesting that of the four major political/historical figures he compared himself to, three of them were assassinated.
Two words that explain that: President Cheney. Alternately, refer to Dennis Leary's routine about how JFK and RFK were assisinated, but when they got to Teddy, they thought "screw it".

9:09: Caroline has offered her commentary in advance: The moment Bush was introduced, she farted and dropped a load in her diaper.
10:03: Fifty one minutes. Hunh. I have to think that Caroline's commentary at the beginning was the most succinct.
Good call. That's about an hour of my life I'll never get back.
The other night I got real drunk, tonight I watched the State of the Union address. Ironically, I felt more like throwing up tonight.

I'm watching the State of the Union address?!! I'm reminded of the late Don Thompson's review of Spawn #1, likening the experience to hitting oneself with a hammer. Why do you do that? Because it feels so good when it stops.
At least Peter David's live blogging about it.

Mike Norton writes about legislation that further erodes our ability to protest.
Mike writes "Eventually the pendulum will swing the other way, and yea, there shall be a mighty (and spiteful) retribution." Looking forward to it.

I just finished watching The Girl From Monday. a DVD I won from Landmark Theatres' weekly drawings they have on their mailing list (caveat: if you sign up, you have to pick up the prize at the theatre).
The film is categorized as science fiction, so if Max Headroom was 20 minutes into the future, The Girl From Monday is 15 minutes into the future. A being comes from outer space to an Earth where consumerism is all, where sex is merely to increase one's value as a commodity. Worth seeking out at the video store or add to your Netflix queue, especially if you dig what I talk about here, especially the political stuff.

Bubble is about 2 people in small town Ohio on the border with West Virginia who work in a doll factory. Martha, an older overweight lady is friends with Kyle, a younger skinnier man, and gives him rides to the factory and his other job. To meet a big order at the factory, more people are hired, including Rose, a young girl who upsets Martha and Kyle's dynamic.
As alluded to earlier, Steven Soderbergh filmed (or given that a High Definition video camera was used, recorded) this low budget film with non-professional actor. As a result, this seems more real, that we are watching the character's lives unfold. The actors they chose were well-utilized, as although they aren't experienced in acting, they act (for want of a better term, versus "perform") more real. The speech patterns and mannerisms seem more like the people you deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Although I wouldn't recommend it's purchase (as I said earlier, it was mainly for it's precedent and getting it before the "official" release) without seeing it first, it is worth seeking out, whether at the theatre or on video.

--I had a bellyful of Netflix saying that Cinderella Man has a "very long wait", even though it's been in my queue since before it was released on DVD, so I did some checking and found competitor Blockbuster offers a 2 week free trial for their movies-by-mail service. I did some further research and found that if you enter in the promotional code "usatoday5" or "usatoday9" at the sign up screen, you can get a free month of rentals. I did so, added Cinderella Man and some other titles Netflix was having problems providing, and we'll see how things go.

--One thing Blockbuster offers Netflix doesn't is 2 printable coupons for free rentals at their traditional brick and mortar stores. I went and got a film both services have a long wait for: My Big Fat Independent Movie, which was unfortunately a disappointment. It was satirical about movies that was less subtle manner than Mad magazine's movie satires (that are as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face) that basically required you to see certain independent movies to get the joke. Otherwise, it would fall flat, like a joke told in a language you knew none of the words to. But it had Paul Goebel, the TV Geek from the Comedy Central game show Beat The Geeks.

--While I was out and about yesterday, I saw the new film Bubble on DVD at Wal-Mart. What is unusual about that is that as part of a distribution experiment, it was released to theatres and on High Definition cable and Satellite yesterday as well. It's also supposed to come out on DVD, but not 'til Tuesday. The local Wally World jumped the gun. From the last link (on Roger Ebert's site):
"billed as "Another Steven Soderbergh Experience": a murder mystery set in a small town doll factory. Soderbergh, the director of sex, lies and videotape, Traffic, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven and many others, has made a deal to direct six low-budget films for release in this way."
Given the historic nature of this (I also have somewhere the first single released on cassette Bryan Adams' "In The Heat of the Night" no connection with the movie or previous songs of that title BTW), my curiosity, Ebert's review, and the thrill of getting a DVD ahead of time, I got the disc and looking forward to watching it.

--I've been following the Sundance Film Festival via the show Festival Dailies on the Sundance Channel, Roger Ebert's reports, and James Rocchi's dispatches. Some of the films that sound interesting (noted mainly because of the aforementioned Bubble's unconventional release strategy reasoning: most people don't have the ability to see certain independent art films because they aren't close to an "art movie house" or isn't currently showing at the ones they are able to patronize. If interested in a film they hear about in release, one might make a note to catch in on video, but forget about it by the time of it's release on DVD)

*The Darwin Awards that I mentioned previously in my Chris Penn tribute piece, based on the Internet/"News of the Weird" postings of deaths that seem to weed out the less intelligent, the inferior if you will, the ones that prove Darwin's theories have some truth to them.

*The Night Listener, apparently autobiographically based by Armistead Mauphin (of Tales of the City fame), about a writer who tells a story about a child in foster care that was sexually abused. Rocchi describes it as "a finely-tuned meditation on how we tell – and how we hear – stories, and the effect that both activities can have on us." Stars Robin Williams and an actress with an interesting name I'd like to meet one day.

*Right At Your Door: a young couple move into a new home, the wife goes out to run errands, the husband stays home to wait on the cable hookup. Then explosions with thick smoke fill the sky, news he can only get by radio comes out that it's a toxic smoke, people are advised to seal up their homes with tape, to keep the exposed and unexposed separate, then his wife knocks frantically on the door... On Festival Dailies interviewing the director Chris Gorak and star Rory Cochrane, they said most people say if they were in that situation, they would let their spouse in, but what happens when it actually happens?

*Somebodies, and other films link is to Roger Ebert's report. Somebodies is first time director/star Hadjii's film about African-Americans that "is not uplifting or angry or about drugs or crime or sports or music or sex. It is about ordinary young people who are very, very funny because they don’t seem to know they’re in a movie, and aren’t performing for any imagined audience, black or white. Their purpose is to celebrate themselves."

*This Film Is Not Yet Rated: already gaining controversy for the producers charging the MPAA with piracy and for it getting an NC-17 rating, the film exposes the MPAA's shadowy operations, such as who is on the ratings (previously described only as parents, revealed in this film that most members have now-grown children or none at all) and how their prejudices (such as sex) affects their ratings. Ebert also writes about it here.

*Come Early Morning/ Son of Man: Come Early Morning stars Ashley Judd (stop rolling your eyes, this is different) about a woman who is more complicated than at first glance. Directed by Joey Lauren Adams (star of Chasing Amy and Big Daddy. Hey, I'm the first to scream "chick flick!" at the first sign of one, but this one sounds interesting. Son of Man: to quote from the Ebert link "story of Jesus, told in episodes from the New Testament, but set in present-day Africa...is not “updated” except in some of his terms of reference, and yet sends an unmistakable message: If Jesus were alive today, he would be singled out as a dangerous political leader, just as he was the first time around."

*TV Junkie: about Rick Kirkman, who in his youth was a dancer on American Bandstand and received a video camera for his 14th birthday. He grew up to be a reporter on Inside Edition engaging in wacky stunts. He used the camera to chronicle his life warts and all, keeping the camera on when most everyone would shut it off, even through a 48 hour crack binge.

*Wordplay: about New York Times Crossword Editor Will Shortz. Guest stars Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton, among others.

*God Gave Up On Us that I don't have a link to right off, but have seen on Festival Dailies. About Sudanese refugees that come to live in America. Seeing clips, and them snow tubing for the first time, makes me care about them and want to learn more.

*An Inconvenient Truth: about the environmental education going on, featuring Al Gore, who also produced. The clip on Festival Dailies shows Mr. Gore showing the decrease of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska since around 1980, and a film of what most people see when they go to these glaciers daily, the edges collapsing into the sea due to global warming.

*Art School Confidential: director Terry Zwigoff and artist Daniel Clowes team up again to adapt a comic book story for the screen. Featuring Ilena Douglas, John Malkovich and Ethan Suplee of Mallrats and My Name is Earl fame.

Do yourself a favor, click on the Festival Dailies, Roger Ebert , James Rocchi, or do some Googling to see what's out there or if anything else out there catches your eye that didn't mine. You might find something you're interested in.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do some watching of some of the stuff I've been talking about, among other things.

Well, yesterday was fun. Since my unemployment might be coming to an end soon, I decided to take my 3 cats in for their annual (and long-delayed) immunizations and check up. It was delayed partly because of laziness, partly due to the difficulty of rounding them up and getting them there. Also, the possibility that they may have found something that had to be taken care with paying for something (hey, how many people out there put off their medical exams for the same reasons?) Ironically, one of the cats is anti-social here at home, but at the vets it's another one who is, so much so that they have to tranquilize him to do anything. Given the aforementioned difficulties, I didn't set up an appointment since Banfield (who I have coverage with for the cats) allows walk-ins since the cats are catch-as-can. Fortunately, I did catch them and brought them in. Unfortunately, they were busy, and I had to drop off and pick up later.
Another problem that caught my attention was the wife needed new shoes. I didn't hear about it directly, but overheard it while she was talking to her mother. Bless her heart, she didn't want me to worry about it or about buying new shoes given our current situation. She has feet that are difficult to fit (wide, high arch) that she has orthopedic supports that we got a couple of years ago with some special shoes for $600. While going to pick the cats, we went to Rack Room Shoes, where we got shoes for her in the past. We selected some that seemed okay, but when we got home and set them up, they didn't fit. So we had to go back (did I mention the shoe store and Banfield were 20 miles away?)
When we got there, the gentleman working there (the only man, unfortunately we didn't get his name) offered his assistance, and was very helpful. He said that he had been working in shoes for 11 years. At first, he said that we may need to go to another store and pay more to get shoes ordered due to the nature of my wife's feet. However, he did offer to help. Fortunately for us, he was able to find suitable shoes right off the bat. He suggested due to her wide feet that a men's shoe would be more suitable (these for work and everyday use, fortunately) and the first pair offered did the trick. He said to a co-worker while he was ringing us up that he thought he'd have to spend a least an hour and a half helping us and was so amazed that he found something right away. I was amazed that he was willing to devote a lot of time to help us, with no change in his very pleasant demeanor (which happens in the service sector...well, I can't think of any other time) My wife is happy she has shoes that were very comfortable and raved about the great service all last night and today. I've just sent a note of compliments to the company and promised to note it here as well. So if any of you are in the market for shoes, click on the link, see if they have any stores in your area. Also, their site lets you look at their stock and see if they have any in the style, brand, color, or size your want. And they have a $5 coupon you can print out if you give them your e-mail addess. If you don't want to give your main e-mail, and haven't done so, set up an address at Yahoo, Hotmail, or Iwon for just that purpose.
Oh yeah, and the cats came through with a clean bill of health, they're just acting pissy because of going to the vet.

Tammy has written a nice reminiscence about the Challenger explosion on the 20th anniversary.

John Kerry has announced that he will filibuster the Alito nomination. Although the Republicans seem confident and chances of blocking this are dim, please show your support by contacting your Senator, and go here to contact other Democratic Senators to support this.

CNN.com and Career Builder have come out with this article on how to improve your resume, courtesy of Tammy. Worth a look, even if you think you've read all the useful tips there are out there. Even implemented a couple myself.