Friday, February 06, 2004

Murphy's Law My friend Nate predicts that WMD will be "found" before the election.  Meaning: Either they'll find them for real, or they'll just happen across something that they will portray as WMD, or they'll just scare up something like so many forged uranium documents that conveniently happen to turn up in Italy at a politically expedient time. Is Nate an insane crackpot conspiracy theorist?  If he is, so am I.  I fear this turn of events, and I blame the Dems for it.  They have put an awful lot of their eggs into the "No WMD/No Osama" basket.  Instead of rightfully taking Bush to task on the ways that Iraq was pursued and sold, or the way that Iraq has distracted from the overall War On Terror, they have attempted, understandably, to make political hay out of the fact that no WMD's or Osamas have been found. The problem is that those deficiencies became their only line of attack, when there are fundamental issues which are far more troubling for the Bush Administration to address, and for the future of this country.  They have made it very easy for the Bush Administration to simply produce the notion of WMD as we approach the election, and have positioned so many of their criticisms of the war such that the appearance of WMD would invalidate so many of their claims. I predict there will be a "major" revelation of WMD in the weeks prior to the election.  Perhaps even the days before.  It won't matter if the claim turns out to be right or wrong, and such a determination will take time to unravel, as we have seen.  It won't stop them from making the claim.  How many times do we have to see the same play before we know it's coming? Same with Osama.  I think it's somewhat fanciful to think that they have Osama hidden somewhere now and are waiting to spring him, as the liberal joke goes these days.  Here's what will really happen: We'll get a hot tip, about a month before the election.  We'll be hot on his tail, conducting operations in the mountainous border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  "It will only be a matter of time...", will be the rallying cry.  They'll tout Osama's eventual capture without it actually happening.  "The terrorists are on the run!" And if he doesn't turn up?  Who cares if Bush loses?  And if Bush wins?  Who cares?  They've got their second term locked up anyway, and they'll just spin it if they care to take the effort, which they may not, because the next GOP nominee probably won't be coming from the Bush camp anyway, because the GOP hates the guy, too. I used to think of the GOP as a monolithic entity.  But compare Bush Jr. to a guy like Bob Dole, who I have a lot of respect for, and who people on both sides of the aisle respected.  It's a pretty stark contrast.  What a shame that of the last four GOP Presidential nominees, Dole was the only one who didn't make it.  3:15:19 PM    Say what?[]

LeBron's In The House Linus and I are going to see the Wolves play the Cavaliers tonight.  I've been pretty juiced about seeing LeBron James' first visit to the Target Center, and I'm glad Linus will be there with me.  He's been to a Wolves game before, but he was too young to remember it.  It's hard to say what he'll take from the experience, but he's excited about going and asked not only to wear his Timberwolves T-shirt today, but also his Kevin Garnett jersey on top of his T-shirt when we go to the game.  1:25:51 PM    Say what?[]

Linus Draws A Dog Miro couldn't have done it better... 11:10:47 AM    Say what?[]

Reality TV Kicked My Ass Last Night During the Super Bowl party last weekend, Loyal Pipeline Reader Jeff H. said something that struck me immediately as absurd, and then I just as immediately realized that I agreed with his statement.  He said he would rather watch a mediocre reality TV show than a mediocre comedy or drama. Me, too. There are a lot of reality TV shows I have never seen and can't really comment on.  I suspect that the Bachelorette sucks, but it might not.  I don't intend to find out.  I will not, WILL NOT, watch American Idol.  Why do I give a damn who the next crappy pop star will be?  I'll just cut to the chase and hate them once they make it big.  Strangely, though, I did watch some of Star Search last weekend, just because I enjoy Ed McMahon's transformation into Arsenio. For me, the undisputed king of reality TV is Survivor.  I know a lot of people who turn their noses up at Survivor, but I would bet 80% of them would change their tune if they watched two consecutive shows.  I think it's brilliant TV, and I have from the start.  It's too early to get into much speculation about the current All-Star season, but after watching the second episode of the All-Star season last night, I can pretty much say I'm hooked again after taking two seasons off.  Bet the farm on Colby. After Survivor, I got hooked yet again into watching a part of My Fat Obnoxious Fiancee, or whatever it's called.  I never intend to watch this show, but three or four times now I've just happened to be downstairs while Jane flipped past it, and before I knew it we were sitting down and watching the damn thing. That's the thing: My presumption is always against any reality TV show.  I'll see the ads and I'll roll my eyes and mention how stupid it will be, and how stupid the networks must think we all are.  And then, somehow, I get hooked. That's the key--Every great reality show has a killer hook.  In the case of My Fat Obnoxious Fiancee, the hook is that the girl thinks that both she and the "groom" are contestants in a reality show, in which they have to convince their parents that they met on different reality show, and have decided to get married in the span of just a couple weeks, despite the fact that they apparently have nothing in common. Ah, but it turns out that the "groom" is really an actor, as is his entire dysfunctional family.  It's all a put on to make this girl and her prim and proper family suffer the company of this incredibly boorish (and hilarious) group of potential in-laws.  It's hard to explain, but it works.  We are treated to delicious moments, like when the girl first calls her family that she met a guy on a reality show, and she loves him.  The mother's very first words are, "Will I like him?"  Way to be happy for your daughter, mom!  Later, we get footage of the mom saying how important it is to her that her daughter's fiancee fit in with her family.  Again, way to be happy for your daughter, mom!  Take my word for it, this guy isn't going to fit in.  The goal of the show is to see if the daughter can make her whole family show up for the wedding.  If she can, she gets a million bucks.  It's going to be tough, though. But the highlight of the evening was, without a doubt, running opposite Fiancee, on the WB.  Yeah, I know, the WB.  It's the Surreal Life.  This is the show: Erik Estrada (Ponch from CHiPs), Tammi Faye Baker (you know her), some woman named Trishelle (no clue), Traci Bingham (bouyant former cast member of Baywatch), Ron Jeremy (famous porn star) and Vanilla Ice (asshole) all live in a house together, and are forced to do various things as a group. It's so much better than it sounds.  And frankly, I can't describe what I saw nearly as well as this guy can.  It's a somewhat lengthy recap, but hey, it's Friday.  You won't be disappointed. 10:53:07 AM    Say what?[]

No Smile Here's one fan's argument for why the Beach Boys' Smile should never be released. 10:00:54 AM    Say what?[]

© Copyright 2004 DH. Last update: 3/1/2004; 11:37:47 AM.