Archive for February, 2010

This is outside my door in D.C. It’s impressive snow, even for a kid from the White Mountains of Arizona.

This is pretty funny – and all the more real because I am hunkered down in a what is being described as “snowmaggeden” “snowpocalypse” or “snOMG.”  As you can see, folks in the D.C. area don’t react well to a little snow.

National Journal’s Hotline reports that President Obama’s approval numbers are at an all-time low.  Not exactly what the White House had planned as the reaction to the State of the Union.

As a good friend of mine predicted before the speech, Obama “doubled down” on defending his policies and not moderating this actions. Even his so-called “spending freeze” was pushed off a year – to the literal laughter of Congress.

Obama has reacted by saying that he would rather be a great one-term President than a mediocre two-term President. The problem with his comment is that if a President is great, he gets reelected. Think about it. Other than JFK, name a “great” one term President.

(picture courtesy of Dr. Fred Vidal)

Today would have been Ronald Reagan’s 99^th birthday. If there was ever a time we needed another Reagan, it is now.

Reagan embodied a concept of America very different than our current President. In his final address to the nation from the Oval office he spoke of the success of America as an example of freedom.

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”

Happy birthday President Reagan. We miss you, we need you.

Lost is one of the most interesting television series in the history of the medium. I got into Lost after it had been on TV for more than two seasons and I have been riveted ever since.

It was the human interest elements of the story that got me hooked, more so than the science fiction aspect. However, the time travel focus now has me begging for more.

My anticipation for the season premiere was bigger than I have ever had for any other show (even Mad Men) in my life, and it didn’t disappoint. Seeing Richard Alpert take a punch was more satisfying than it should have been, and to see Benjamin Linus cowering like a little girl was great.

Other highlights: Hurley taking charge; seeing the Temple (finally); learning that the smoke monster is actually evil itself, not just a tool of evil; and seeing Charlie again.

However, I’m really trying to grasp the idea of two sets of characters; the version of those who stayed on the island and the version who landed in L.A. After Juliet died and then Saied died, I was thinking that the island version of the characters would die off one by one. But then Saied came back to life.

One thing that appears to be real is that Jacob is dead.

One of my favorite movies of all time.  And yes, I’m a little late in celebrating Groundhog Day.