Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Pop Americana

  • Where is Glen Beck in space?

    John Holbo on whether political conservatives should like the Star Trek franchise.  Hilarity ensues. Fave comment:

    I will admit one illiberal thing about the ST universe that has bugged me: The absence of media. Picard is saving the universe week after week, and no one bothers to do even so much as an interview with the guy? In one of the newer movies there are journalists following Kirk as he visits some new ship, but generally the absence of people reporting on this remarkable crew and its remarkable feats is pretty glaring.

  • Vice Presidential Predictions

    According to Intrade, a kind of prediction market , here are the current odds on Democratic party vice presidential pick:

    • Joe Biden 52% (10% jump from yesterday)
    • Evan Bayh  24%,
    • Tim Kaine, 16% (5% jump from yesterday)
    • Wesley Clarke 13.5 (3% jump from yesterday)

    (For the record, Romney and Pawlenty are neck and neck for Republican VP prediction, but who cares).

    Interestingly, Hilary appears in single digits, although she is wildly popular in tossup states. That’s who I’m leaning towards.

    Vice-presidents are not supposed to matter that much in elections, although they do affect the nature of governance. Gore had a seat on the table for important decisions (and was able to argue for deficit reduction early in the early 1990, make trial balloons, set the climate change agenda and chair a Better Government commission.

    Cheney and his staff had enormous input into the direction of foreign policy and specifically about the implementation of war (for better or worse).

    Ironically, Clinton may not be effective as a presidential substitute, but she would be effective promoting one or two key issues. But of course, you don’t need to be VP for that.

  • "Cut his nuts off" wins Jesse Jackson extra google juice, NYT and Jay Leno

    Jesse Jackson has remained a pretty marginal figure (even though he is an honorable and honest man).

    Wow, yesterday he learned an important lesson: to get coverage by the major media, all he has to do is to accidentally mutter an off color phrase in a semi-public forum.

    The American public loves a laughingstock they can taunt. Jay Leno, etc. When my ebook comes out next month to massive media fanfare, I’ll be sure  to make numerous faux pas around anyone with a microphone. 

    In other news, Glen Greenwald points out how MSM pundits frequently create a dichotomy between "left wing values" and the "American people."

  • TV Vomiting Hall of Shame

    July 10 Update: To accommodate the groundswell of public support, I have formed a Coalition to Prevent Gratuitous Vomiting on TV facebook group.

    Maybe when you read my recent complaint about too much vomiting on TV, you thought I was exaggerating.

    I wrote:

    I don’t watch much television except when eating. I have my basa fish or frozen pizza on my TV table next to me while I am watching TV. That is why I never want to see vomiting depicted in any TV show or movie I am watching. You’d be surprised how often vomiting appears on prime time TV. First, for comic effect (South Park, Bernie Mac Show, etc), cute clue to being pregnant (Sex and the City), gritty realism (any cop show), human transformation to alien species (Buffy, mostly bad sci fi movies), funny postscript to a night of drinking (How I met your mother, etc). You think I exaggerate. But if I can watch TV for a week vomit-free, that is a minor victory.

    But yesterday I sat down to each my fish dinner, and one minute after I turned the TV on (it was the Jay Leno show), I saw a wedding groom barf (for real) on a funny Youtube video. It was a good comic video, but it was offensive (especially because I was eating while watching it).

    Do you feel there is too much vomiting on TV? Let’s start a campaign to boycott any shows with vomiting! To start with, you can draft a letter to your local TV station,

    Dear NBC–Affiliate,

    Last night I was watching Jay Leno, and I witnessed vomiting on air. It was embarrassing and morally offensive. I believe that vomiting is an private act between an individual and his toilet. When you display vomiting on mass media, you glamorize the physical act of vomiting to our nation’s youth. You give the mistaken impression that vomiting is a way to be popular or gain cheap laughs. Also, you send the message that indiscriminate vomiting is an accepted lifestyle choice. In fact, from a strictly Christian perspective, nothing in the Bible sanctions these gross displays.

    I write with a certain first hand knowledge. When in high school, a classmate accidentally barfed on me while running to the restroom. That event has traumatized me to this day. Watching vomiting on TV only reopens those scars and insults the suffering of victims like myself.

    Instead of exploiting the act of vomiting, can you stick to traditional TV themes we know and love? Like sexial deviance (CSI), serial dating (Seinfeld), wish fulfillment of overweight men (Drew Carey Show), social bigotry (All in the Family), public humiliation of teenagers (American Idol) and conspicuous consumption (Dallas, Price is Right, etc). These themes reaffirm values that make America the great Christian nation it is today.

    Sincerely,

    Robert Nagle,

    President, National Anti-Vomiting Media Watchdog Group

    The Anti-Vomiting Media Watchdog recommends this label before a show: Warning: The following program contains graphic depictions of vomiting which may offend some gastronomically sensitive viewers. Parental discretion is advised.

    Here is an ongoing list of heinous depictions of vomiting. I encourage readers to submit their own reports.

    Also I have included a rating system (from 1 to 5)

    • Comic/Dramatic Value (CDV): Was the dramatic payoff enough to justify the vomiting? 1=totally unjustified, 5=Shakespearian vomiting
    • Explicitness (E): Was the vomiting too explicit or depicted with close up angles? 1=hinted at, 5=Totally grody close ups!
    • Warning (W): Was the viewer properly notified in advance that the vomiting would be coming (so they could turn on the mute button or change the station): 1=no warning, 5=properly warned

    TV Depictions

    American Experience (PBS). George H.W. Bush (May 6). Graphic video footage of George Bush Senior vomiting on Japanese P.M. Miyazawa. Interesting perhaps for historical reasons and tastefully portrayed, but wouldn’t a headline have sufficed? Instead we have partial video footage and several still images. (DCv: 1 , E: 1  W: 3).

    Angie Tribeca. Strangely, they have one minor character who vomits at every episode! (DCv: 5 (though it got kind of old!) E:  4  W: 2 (it got to the point where you had to brace yourself for the inevitable).

    American Funniest Home Videos,  Oct 19, baby spews on a crib. Gross (DCv: 0 , E: 5  W: 1).

    Archer. There are so many vomiting scenes in this raunchy animated comedy for adults that I don’t know where to begin. Let’s just say that binge drinking and food poisoning is a recurring theme in this series.

    Battlestar Galactica, Season 1 “Hand of God” episode. Poignant vomiting scene (DCv: 4 , E: 2  W: 2).

    Bill Moyers Show. August 21. during a health care segment. (DCv 5, E: 3, W: 1)

    Big Bang Theory, “The Jiminy Conjecture“, (DCv 1, E: 2, W: 3)

    Community TV Show. Now that this has become my favorite sitcom, I have started to count the instances of upchucking. “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts” is when Shirley has a baby in the middle of an anthropology final. Britta determined to channel her midwife vibe tries to be helpful, but only gets grossed out by everything (DCv: 3, E: 1 W: 3 )  (Season 2 episode 22)

    Entourage. Season 5, “The All Out Fall Out”.  Johnny Drama Chase vomits at a sweet 16 party.  I actually found this funny.  (DCv: 5 , E: 4  W: 1).

    Family Guy, 8 simple rules for buying my teenage daughter episode,  in Season 4 is the most famous where they have a vomiting contest. (DCv:  2 E: 3  W: 4). Interestingly, the backwards time travel episode Yug Ylimaf in Season 11 visits that same scene (DCv: 4 E: 4 W: 3) But it needs to be pointed out that vomiting occurs so frequently on this show that I have given up counting.

    Flash Forward. 4 times throughout. Woe is me. They have a pregnant woman, a cancer patient receiving chemo and a drunk cop.  A satanic trifecta of  upchucking  (DCv: 1 , E: 2  W: 2).

    Friends. The One in Vegas Part 2, Season 5. Ross and Rachel are drunk and come staggering out of a wedding chapel. They don’t barf, but barfing noises could be heard on the end. (Note: there are some disagreements whether they merely fall and say “Oomph” or whether this is bona fide vomiting).  The writers are savvy enough to keep the vomiting offstage, but this does not give them a blank check (DCv: 2, E: 1 W:3)

    Glee.  (Season 1, Ep 5 The Rhodes Not Taken). 2 vomiting scenes — and this was the first complete episode of Glee I actually watched! (DcV 1, E:  2 W: 2).

    House, Birthmarks episode.  (Season 5) Guy talking to daughter, barfs and dies (DcV: 4, E: 3, W: 1).

    How I met your mother. Probably several instances. Not A Father’s Day (Lily vomits in the trashcan)  (DcV: 2, E: 4, W: 3). There’s one more, but I can’t remember. The Mermaid Theory (CdV: 4 E: 3  W: 3). Challenge Accepted (Season 6) is pretty groundbreaking. Vomiting becomes a key plot device, plus added lots of suspense and drama. As much as I hated the gratuitous spewing all throughout this episode, I concede that it was very well played  and deserves a Vomitorium  award  for Best Portrayal of Vomiting in a Comedy(DcV: 5+, E: 5+, W: 5+).

    Jay Leno, Youtube video (April 22?), vomiting at wedding  Youtube video. (DCv: 3 , E: 5  W: 1).

    King of the Hill. Bills are made to be broken, Season 4, Bill D. vomits at the beginning of the show at the thought of someone breaking his football record (DvC: 0, E: 2, W:1)

    Lost. Gosh, it seems like every other episode has vomiting. Pregnancy, Sickness, Drug Addiction, Cancer. (DvC: 1, E: 4, W:2)

    Jay Leno, May 9, Youtube video. Comic animal video of a cat vomiting. Totally sick. (DCv: 2, E: 4  W: 1).

    My Name is Earl. Season 4, Episode 2 Monkeys Take a Bath.  Totally uncalled for. (DCv: 1 , E: 4  W: 1).

    New Adventures of Old Christine. Several episodes. Because Christine plays a lush, this is to be expected.

    Red Dwarf. Several episodes.  I’m generally more forgiving of vomiting in space.

    Seinfeld. “Gum” episode, Season 7. Farcical episode where Kramer has to eat an old hot dog from a movie theater as a display of support for his friend. Later, he throws up at the sidewalk. This was one of the weaker episodes, but it was significant to see the meme appear in a quality show like Seinfeld. (DCv: 2 , E: 4  W: 4)

    Sex and the City.  I don’t remember which episode, but I remember the night I watched it. I had mentioned to my sister and parents about too vomiting on TV — and all of them  insisted that  none of them could remember a single time on TV with a vomiting scene.  Later that night, we were watching random TV and then SAAC came on, and all of us were half-watching it. Then the Carrie Bradshaw character (after a long party where she drank too much because she was depressed because of Mr. Big) came stumbling outside the beachouse and vomited in the dark all alone. (VOMIT AS EXISTENTIAL STATEMENT OF ANGST?) My family never argued the point again. (DCv: 4 , E: 2  W: 4)

    Simpsons. Viva Ned Flanders, Season 10. I forget the context, either Homer or Ned are in Los Vegas and vomit. (DCv1, E: 1, W: 2)

    South Park. Really it’s pointless to mention the episodes with vomiting. It would probably be more useful to point out the ones which don’t have vomiting.   Special mention needs to be made of the episode “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls” where the kids write a literary work so bad it causes people to barf after reading.  I still remember the scene of a staged reading of the book in China where the whole audience vomits into individual bags. (DCv: 4 it  was pretty funny , E: 1  W: 1).

    Sopranos. Members Only Season 6.  I watched this show for the first time (in Albania!), saw a random woman vomit. Actually a lot was going on in this show. It was pathetic (DCv: 1 , E: 3  W: 1)

    Third Rock from the Sun, Season 5, Dial M for Dick. Jane Curtain can be heard in the background vomiting on two separate occasions. BTW, this is one of my all-time favorite episodes (vomiting and all)(DCv: 5, E:  1 W: 2)

    Today Show, October 16, 2009. Young 6 year old Falcon (aka Balloon Boy) vomits during live Today Show interview.  Spontaneous, funny but a little sad too. Poor boy! At least he didn’t vomit the day before during Wolf Blitzer’s interview.

    Two and a half men, “Sara Like Puny Alan” episode. Season 1. Two, Vomit Doubleheader! First, Charlie  vomits over the balcony of his beach house. 5 minutes later, his brother Alan does the same thing. (DCv: 4 it was pretty funny , E: 1  W: 1). Update: Vomiting seems to be a recurring motif in this show;  the bathroom is a prominent room on the set

    Film/Video Depictions

    (Obviously, there are lots of vomiting scenes in R-rated movies. I can mention the more grotesque examples. I want to call special attention however to movies where the vomiting seemed unnecessary or gratuituous):

    10 Things I hate about you. Teen romantic comedy. Prom vomiting scene. Ooh, what a surprise! (DCv: 1 , E: 4  W: 3).

    Apollo 13. Well, this is inherent to the subject matter and I can’t fault the director for including it. (Honestly, if you went to the movie and did  not see at least one vomiting scene, I’d demand my money back). Kudos to the movie for getting it out of the way and moving on.

    Army of Darkness. This Samuel Raime film is tarnished by a Gulliveresque scene where the character vomits over a miniature version of himself.  (DCv: 4 , E: 3  W: 2).

    Bring It On. During a montage of the cheerleader contest, a girl barfs atop her coach. I actually enjoyed this (DCV: 5, E: 5, W:1)

    Brewster McCloud. Shelley Duvall pukes.

    Car Wash. An irritating affluent woman brought her luxury car to the car wash because her 6 year old son was puking. The window was open and she kept telling him not to puke outside the car — but just to puke out the window — which he did at 10 second intervals. She asked the people to wash the puke out of the car, and then a few scenes later — she said to the two workers who had been working hard to clean it — that she noticed a speck of vomit on the exterior.

    “Lady,” he said, “that’s not vomit. That’s a blemish on the paint job.”

    “Are you telling me that I’m wrong?”

    “I look at cars everyday, and I’m pretty sure I know the difference between vomit and a paint blemish.”

    “Well, then,” the lady replied, “because you missed that, I’ve decided not to give you a tip.”

    (The car wash attendant throws up his hands in dismay and walks away from the car that drives away).

    “Come on (the boy’s name),” she said.  (Starting to drive). ” Darn it, we’re now 10 minutes late for the party.”

    (Scene of the 6 year puking again– this time in the direction of the steering wheel — and the camera!) Quick cut.

    (DCv 5, E: 3, W: 5 — probably my favorite example so far)

    Clueless (Movie). (DCv 5, E 3: W1). Really one of my favorite vomiting scenes.  Cher is happily waxing nostalgic about high school parties, and the camera pans over the entire area, ending on a scene of a boy puking into the bushes. Amy Heckerling might have thought she was going to surprise people, but as soon the camera started panning I braced  for the inevitable.

    Great Santini  —  A soldier pretending to be drunk at a dinner party pretends to vomit all over the dance area by secretly dumping Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup out from a can inside his  jacket. The dinner crowd is horrified and even more so when a group of 10 soldiers run it with spoons to scoop up and eat all the fake vomit. You have to admit, that this scene requires a lot of imagination. (DCv: 5, E: 3, W: 3)

    Juno: I could have sworn there was vomiting here, but unsure.

    Knocked Up. The female character vomits over a celebrity on a TV entertainment show. One or two other vomit scenes if I recall (DCv: 4, E: 3, W: 5)

    Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend. The gluttonous man spews.  This 1906 video shows that even in Edison’s time it was possible to create decadent entertainment.  (DCv: 1 , E: 3  W: 1).

    Monty Python Meaning of Life. This vomit scene literally tops all. A hilariously obese man visits a fancy restaurant and overeats, then when the waiter offers him an after-dinner mint, Mr. Creosote vomits continuously for 5 minutes. I hated the scene initially, but ended up giving them kudos for sticking with a bit that long.

    Say Anything. Pro forma vomit scene at graduation party. No big deal.

    Stupid Girl, Music video starring Pink. Gross explicit vomit scene at the end. (DCv: 2 , E: 5  W: 2).

    Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! Mildly amusing romantic comedy where an ordinary girl goes on a date with a famous movie star. Out of nervousness she vomits at the dinner table at a fancy restaurant dinner. (DCv: 4 , E: 3  W: 4).

    July 2011 Update. I have forgotten to update this listing. Rest assured that I am still  finding  vomit scenes everywhere. I think there are interesting social and cultural influences which are causing so much onscreen vomiting. I will write about that soon.

    Dec 2011 Update. It looks like TV Tropes has been catching up to the Vomiting Hall of Shame.  Now it has become three tropes: the Vomit Indiscretion Shot, the Vomit Chain Reaction,  and Waterfall Puke.

  • Anti-Smoking Goes Disney

    Magical Amount by Sunny Side of the Truth.

    I’ve blogged about this Public Service Announcement  video production group before. Here’s some older videos.

    The most interesting thing about these PSAs is that they never appear in time slots I watch–so essentially I never hear about them except  through youtube. I have no  doubt that they are strategically scheduled to maximize impact (Nickolodean, MTV, Disney, etc). But it’s another example of how even the most attentive cultural watchers miss so much outside of their intended demographic.

    To illustrate my point: if you don’t know what webkinz and Heely’s  are, chances are you don’t have a child under 10. If you know these terms, chances are you are absolutely sick of  hearing about them.

    Have you ever heard someone rave about a particular car and you just don’t care about these things? I have never cared about cars (although I enjoy listening to Car Talk once in a while). I am mildly interested in energy-efficient cars, but I am always hearing about cars through sisters, friends, parents, colleagues, etc. Perhaps it has to do with affluence, but whenever car commercials come on TV, I never even notice them. My only hope is that it has semi-decent background music (if I don’t have time to put it on mute). A striking difference between US and (East) European TV is that US television was all about car commercials and European TV was all about consumer products. I wonder: if any Europeans are reading this weblog, do the frequency of TV commercials in your region drive you as crazy as they do to us?  Commercials make it impossible to watch anything on the major networks these days.  Even for people who have satellite or cable, TV watching is still unwatchable.

    In case this is not clear: these anti-smoking campaigns serve a vital purpose. It is not mere entertainment. The consequences of experimenting with cigarettes are far-reaching.

  • Goth Musician Dies (and Bereaved Mother asks tough questions about health insurance)

    While reading a digg post about Nataline Sarkisyan (the girl who died after CIGNA refused to pay for a liver transplant) , I found a comment on the bottom (with 0 diggs) by Sharon Bach. The saddest thing is that she wrote it on Christmas. Gee, some Christmas.

    If the argument that someone would have died anyway is valid, we should just stop treating all patients with terminal illness and let them die. I just buried my beautiful daughter, Belinda Bach, who died as a result of the inadequacies of the health care system. Her condition only became serious when treatment became unavailable. There is no big insurance company to sue, so the lawyers won’t be interested. Belinda was not allowed to buy health insurance because of chronic health problems. She was denied care in the public sector as well. By the time she was “approved” for SSI (the only way she could “qualify” for Medi-Cal), she had already suffered liver failure due to acetaminophen poisoning, something that would not have happened had she been receiving proper care. She tried using the so-called “free” clinics, but not only was the care inadequate, but she was hounded by bill collectors for what “services” she did receive. So much for “free” clinics. Her followup care was abysmal or non-existent. The next serious episode of liver failure, the hospital dragged their heels and did not transfer her to an acute care facility in time and she developed hepatic encephalopathy. By the time she got to UCLA, it was too late. They tried desperately to save her, but she died. Why is it OK to sacrifice our most fragile citizens and at the same time provide free health care to people who have broken our immigration laws and are here illegally? If we can afford to be that magnanimous, then why can’t we extend the same humanitarianism to our own citizens? The ancient Spartans left their infirm outside the city to die. The Third Reich exterminated them in death camps along with the Jews and all the others they did not like. In this country, we just make it almost impossible for the physically frail to get adequate health care. Belinda was the daughter of Oz Bach, bass player for Spanky and Our Gang in the 60s, belindabach.com but I doubt the media will do a story on Belinda. Meanwhile the media circus over Nataline will continue. I do hope her family gets some sort of closure (if that is EVER possible with the death of a child!).

    Now perhaps the rhetoric about immigrants is a bit too strong, but her gripe is as legitimate as they come. When she asked a question in July on Youtube for the Youtube presidential debate, she asked this (2 months before her daughter died at 28):

    What would you do to assist medically disenfranchised to obtain access to maximum health care? By “medically disenfranchised”, I mean: those individuals who cannot obtain private insurance, who are unable to obtain coverage through an employer and do not currently qualify for any sort of assistance.

    Here’s a memorial site for Belinda Bach, her daughter. A strikingly pretty woman, she was also a talented musician and artist. (Alas, her tribute site only contains clips of her music; you can download complete mp3s from her Ockham’s Razor Band page on myspace). As a musician & DJ affected by various things (notably Goth styles and club life), her writings on her myspace DJ Luna C Memorial page are both turbulent and poetic and even fatalistic, struggling with a dark side.

    image It’s hard to tell if that nihilism predated her sickness; but of course, nihilism is itself a kind of pose, one of many which artists adopt over time. Her music of course is more upbeat. Here’s a live videotaped performance of a bluesy song Wayfaring Stranger . After surfing through it all, I was struck most by the “Time” song in her Photomontage Memorial video. (For what it’s worth, here’s a pretty kickass playlist she put on her DJ myspace page).

    image Art by Belinda Bach

    I am cautiously optimistic that the new election will bring small improvements to the health care system. But only one candidate seems to be raising the issue. That is John Edwards (see this relevant video clip) .

    My point is this: mass media and the blogosphere have a limited attention span and an uncanny ability to ignore important stories. Then suddenly, often quite by chance, something changes and suddenly an issue is brought to centerstage (as though the issue had never previously existed). With this information, so much is ignored, overlooked, forgotten. I see this in the arts for example. I am constantly uncovering great new fiction, great new forms of artistic expression and great new music (not to mention great new videos). Very few things receive the proper amount of recognition.

    In the meantime, the Ann Coulter appearances continue, and so do the Mitt Romney attack ads, as well as the latest mini-traumas involving Britney Spears/Paris Hilton/(insert minor celebrity’s name here).

  • RIP, Maryam Irene Haley (Haley Paige, Miriam Haley)

    This post is not going to be work-safe, because it is about the death (and possibly the murder) of  a woman who starred in porn movies.  The woman’s stage name was Haley Paige, but her real name was Miriam Haley (or Maryam Haley).

    Haley Page, with cat, porn actress who died in 2007

    (more…)

  • Late Night TV Observations

    Jay Leno interviewed a presidential candidate (Barack Obama) on the Tonight Show yesterday. I realize it’s not a hard-hitting news show, but in the 20 minute interview, Leno did not ask Obama a single policy question. Not one. As informed as I consider myself about American politics, I admit I really don’t know what Obama stands for. Here are some softball questions Leno could have asked:

    • Tell me a significant policy  you and Hilary Clinton have, and  explain why your position is better.
    • Tell me about a political position you have which might surprise people.
    • Make the case for your candidacy to a voter in the other party.
    • What issues are people on the campaign trail bringing up more often than the rest? What are your feelings about it?
    • Why do you think Americans are unhappy with the current administration? If you were elected president 8 years ago, how could you have prevented this from happening?
    • What do you think is the most important foreign policy issue for your administration? Budget Policy? etc…

    Memo to Charlie Rose: International media tycoons are not interesting guests for your show. They are dull. Political figures might be, but most of the time they are simply towing to the party line. Former political figures can be, but most of the time they are just hawking a book. Artists and intellectuals can be great guests, but the New York media cocoon you inhabit makes it impossible for find one. Reporters generally have been great guests too. But avoid the billionaires. We don’t care.

    Memo #2 to Charlie Rose: Put the guest’s name on the screen once in a while. Stop playing games with us!

    Memo #3 to Charlie Rose: Stop inviting military officials and CIA Agents. They may be good honest people, but unless you are willing to express skepticism towards them, you’re just giving them an opportunity to call for more military spending, which is the last thing our country needs right now. Remember the phrase “self-licking ice cream cone.” Don’t be afraid to use it.

    Observation: has it ever occurred to people that the main reason actors appear on talk shows is to hawk their movie? I can tolerate a bit of this, but there should be a limit of one star per movie on a given week of any talkshow. There are movie projects where they will have two or three actors from the same movie appearing on different nights. Leno, Letterman, they all do that. Again, I don’t mind some promotion, but the shows go overboard.

    Oh, to be a captive audience of the airwaves.

    One guilty pleasure of mine has been watching McGlaughlin Group on PBS every Friday night. The show’s format hasn’t changed much over the decades (although apparently they added a billionaire to the panel–boo!) I still won’t forgive John McLaughlin for dismissing Al Gore as a viable candidate in 2000. He was carping over the style of Gore’s campaign instead of focusing on the substance of it. But generally McLaughlin is good at presenting provocative questions and surveying the panel for reactions. I’ve even developed an immunity from Pat Buchanan’s gut populism and even enjoy it a little. Surprisingly, over the last few months, even the conservative panelists are sickened of Bush’s Iraq policy and Bush in general. I used to think this show was just a shoutfest, but after every show, I come away thinking, I was exposed to a lot of facts and opinions here.

    Speaking of alternative TV, I downloaded the azureus bit torrent client with Vuze, some video downloading manager which lets you download many free vids. Looks pretty nice, and I’m seriously thinking of queuing these vids to watch on my HDTV.