It's not schizophrenia! I just hear a voice in my head.

If you haven't had a chance to watch the film "Stranger Than Fiction" then you're in luck; it just came out on DVD.

If you're one of those people that would rather pluck out your eyes that watch a Will Ferrell movie then I'd like to say you'd be making a mistake in this case. Ferrell plays his IRS Agent character at a very low key. There's no running around in his underwear, no yelling and very little to connect him to his established drunken frat boy screen persona.

Couple that with some very good direction, a smart script utilizing some very dry humor and some excellent performances by Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Queen Latifah and you get a pretty damn* good movie.

(*by virtue of this being a "liberal" blog I am obligated to swear regularly)

Yes, I love Italian. And so do you.

This past weekend Mrs. Wormer and I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in celebration of fifteen years of marriage, her birthday, Valentine's Day and the fact that I am pretty much a fabulous guy.

At breakfast we were talking to a wealthy mother and daughter from Mexico (okay Mrs. Wormer was talking, I was eating) and for some reason the subject of television came up (seriously - I was just eating) and Mrs. Wormer referred to me as a "Trekkie." In response to their blank stares she elaborated "he likes to watch Star Trek."

At which point I was surprised to find myself deep into an embarrassment of the High School variety.

What was surprising about this embarrassment was that I've reached the point in my life at almost forty, or thought I have, in which I simply don't give a damn what people think. But here I was turning beat red as my wife explained to this mother and child that I liked to watch klingons and tribbles duke it out.

Some of that could be attributed to context. Here we are in a discussion with a woman that's travelled the world and practically skied her way across Europe. In contrast a life spent in part watching William Shatner outsmart computers just doesn't seem all that glamorous.

Am I a nerd? A geek, sure. But nerd? I just don't know.

In other news director J.J. Abrams has officially signed on to Star Trek VI. Woohoo!

Live long and prosper, baby!

Oh I wasn't thinking of you, I was thinking of me.

The pattern is depressingly similar whether it's Oregon or national politics: Republicans are the true obstructionist party when it comes to carrying out the will of the voters.

Yesterday, Republicans in the state House killed an effort to create a rainy day fund with a one-time suspension of the corporate kicker.

In Tuesday's floor debate, Democrats said most of the state's business lobbying groups had backed their plan to protect schools and other services from cuts in future economic downturns.

Hunt said the next step will be to ask voters in a May election to approve a constitutional amendment to permanently divert corporate kicker money to a rainy day fund.

"Based on polling it's clear that the vast majority of Oregonians want a rainy day fund, they want to redirect the corporate kicker," he said.

Republicans were able to take advantage of a law requiring the approval of a 2/3 majority or 40 members of the 60 member House to pass a bill raising revenue. So even though a majority of the legislature supported the measure it didn't have the votes to pass.

If this sounds a bit like the machinations Republican Senators are using on the national level to kill debate on the war in Iraq that's because the two examples do bare striking similarities. In both cases the Democrats won the election based in part on promises to address issues previously ignored by Republicans. In both cases Democrats immediately moved to address those issues. In both cases Republicans decided that elections suddenly DON'T matter and that the will of the people is, at the very best, only a secondary concern to that of the special interests and wingnuts that increasingly make up the party core.

Republicans were shown the door because they couldn't or wouldn't lead. At this point it would behoove them to get out of the way when someone does.

Shhhhhh.

I have such a hard time wrapping my head around this.

The Democratic party won the last election on the basis of promising to put an end to the war in Iraq. Joe Lieberman and his fellow travellers in the Senate refuse to even ALLOW a debate on the issue of Iraq, much less put substantive legislation in place to bring the war to an end.

And the Democratic Senators roll?

Forget the party base- they're stiffing the VOTERS here.

Put aside the moral implications for a second. What in the name of heaven are the leading Democratic Senators that are running for the office of the presidency thinking? What if Hillary or Obama win the nomination and beat the Republican candidate in the general, assuming the office of the president of the United States in 2009?

Do they realize the political implications of being left "holding the bag" on George W. Bush's war?

I hate to couch it in those terms but those seem to be the only terms that really matter to those guys. The politics of not ending the Iraq war right now just plain suck.

The sky is pocked with stars. What eyes the wise men must have had to see a new one in so many.

I'm ashamed to admit I watched the Academy Awards and was marginally entertained. The biggest letdown of the night was Peter O'Toole's eigth jobbing at the hands of the academy even though I'm sure Forrest Whitaker gave a superior performance (haven't seen either film.)

I've got a soft spot for O'Toole as a fan and would've loved to see his speech. He looked downright shoked when the announcement came which was quite a bummer. Add to that the fact this will probably be his last chance, well, very depressing.

It seems that you know so little, and are so easily amused, that I can look forward to a very happy time.

Everybody seems to have their own little favorite bit of the hilarious Conservapedia.


My favorite:

Examples of Bias in Wikipedia

From Conservapedia

The growing list of examples of bias and errors on Wikipedia. Please add to this, and also contribute entries to Conservapedia.

...

2. The entry for the Renaissance in Wikipedia refuses to give enough credit to Christianity.

You get the Dark Ages all to yourself. Let's not be greedy.