St. McCain the Angry

Mark Benjamin wrote a very interesting piece for Salon about the temperment of St. McCain, son of God, heir to the throne of the Lord and the other presidential candidates. Although you never hear about it from the mainstream media that adores him and grovels at his feet, holy John is known for having an extremely short fuse. The guy literally explodes in anger when pressed. Some of the accounts that Benjamin details in the article are truly fascinating. McCain completely loses it and screams obscenities at people. Benjamin then relates McCain's temper to his readiness to make split-second military decisions. A number of senior military officials (albeit retired ones) expressed serious reservations about McCain's fitness for leadership to Benjamin. The article also goes into the personalities of Clinton and Obama and leaves readers with the sense that Obama has the calmest temperment.

Light Blogging

Sorry for the lack of blogging today. Work beckons and I'm still trying to make sense of last night's results. Harold Meyerson's got a good but worrisome piece up at the American Prospect that's well worth a few minutes of your time. Also, check out this column and this one at ESPN.com about Favre's retirement. Both are very good!

We Love You Brett!

Brett Favre is retiring. Well, what can one really say? I've been a Packer fan my whole life, at times I have to admit, I was a fairweather fan, but I always loved Brett Favre. As a Wisconsin native I can honestly say that Favre is one of the most beloved figures in the state. It's hard to explain to non-Wisconsinites just what Favre and the Packers mean to us. Favre had an illustrious career and he enjoyed a sort of rennaisance in his final season. Although the Packers fell short of the Super Bowl, one can definately say that Favre retired at the top of his game.

I think Aaron Rogers is ready to take the reins. He was extremely impressive when he took over for an injured Favre in the Dallas game. That being said, Favre was an enormous presence on the field and in the locker room and he will be sorely missed.

Thanks for all the memories Brett.

Selling Wrigley

Gene Wojciechowski has an interesting column up at ESPN.com regarding Sam Zell's sale of naming rights for Wrigley Field. While I could take the classy route and say how this is an affront to baseball lovers everywhere, but in this case it's much more fun to be honest; and I have to say as long as it hurts the Cubs and Cubs' fans it sounds like a great business move to me.

Review: Be Kind Rewind

Now, there are movies that you walk away from thinking, "wow, that was good," and then, on rare occassions there are those movies that you leave feeling better about the world around you and life in general. Be Kind Rewind is such a movie. This movie had been receiving a lot of buzz before its release and it has lived up to that buzz, at least in my humble opinion. The movie revolves around a video store owned and operated by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover). When Mr. Flecther has to go away for a few days he leaves his clerk Mike (Mos Def) in charge of the store. After an attempted sabotage of the local power plant goes wrong, Mike's friend Jerry (Jack Black) becomes magnatized. When Jerry comes to visit Mike at the store, his magnatized body erases all the tapes. All this is happening while Mr. Fletcher is out of town and the store is in danger of closing. In order to save the business Mike and Jerry must remake all the movies, or at least the ones that customers wish to rent. Needless to say, hilarity ensues. Mike and Jerry, with the help of Alma (Melonie Diaz) attempt to do justice to such classics as Ghostbusters, Driving Miss Daisy, and Robocop among numerous others.

After seeing him in three different movies (The Italian Job, 16 Blocks, and now Be Kind Rewind) I am convinced that Mos Def is a very capable actor. He is clearly the brains of the Mike and Jerry Duo. Jack Black has never been funnier. The banter and bickering between in Mos Def and Jack Black is extremely funny. Melonie Diaz is an actress to watch. I was very impressed with her take on Alma, as she was, in my opinion, the most likeable character in the film. It was great to see Danny Glover (I miss the Angels in the Outfield days) and Mia Farrow back in action again.

Overall, Be Kind Rewind was a great film. I highly recommend you check it out!

Rating: ***1/2

*=Uwe Boll/Michael Bay bad **=Keeanu Reevesish ***=Great ****=Fantastic

Happy Leap Year!

As dumb as it sounds, I can't really think of anything to blog about today. Chief Justice John Roberts is apprehensive about ExxonMobil having to pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages and asks how a corporation is supposed to defend itself? That really doesn't even merit a response so I'll just say this: LAME!

May he rest in peace

If you don't already know, William F. Buckley, Jr. died yesturday. He was 82. Buckley is widely regarded as the father of the modern conservative movement. He was the founder of National Review a once great conservative magazine. I can't say I know much about Buckley, I've only read a few of his essays, and I've seen him on Hardball a few times. His writing was impressive, even if I almost always disagreed with it. I always thought that he had a really cool, almost untraceable, accent. For more on Buckley, check out this article by the great John B. Judis up at the New Republic.